RBI drinking valve

[HerpIsAhobby]

I'm going to be building a new rack in a few days because my little rats are breeding so well but I wanted to get opinions on the RBI drinking valve. In my other racks I used the Edstrom valves and never had an issue but the RBI are cheaper and if work well could save a few bucks. I wouldn't usually go the cheaper route but I have had good experiences with RBI products. I just couldn't find much about them on here.

[Adam Chandler]

I'm fairly sure RBI sells Edstrom valves. I'd recommend contacting Rich (sales@reptilebasics.com) to be sure. Also I'm sure he will be more than happy to answer any other questions you may have about the water valves he sells.

I got all my parts for my rat rack water system for RBI and for the last 3 months I've had no problems.

[HerpIsAhobby]

RBI started making an in house RBI drinking valve. Its kinda tough to ask someone who makes a product for a review of it. I can imagine it would be a bit biased

[Adam Chandler]

Oh wow, I see what you mean. That must be a pretty recent addition to his store. If he had that available when I was building my system I would have gotten those valves.

I can't give you a hands on review, but I can tell you whenever Rich makes a in house product he doesn't make it available until it has had extensive testing. Also Rich has always stood by his products.

[CapeFearConstrictors]

I bought a bunch of the RBI valves about a month or so ago. I've had 7 in testing since then. I had one simply stop working entirely, but no floods. I read on another forum that some people were getting a lot of flooding, but it's possible that they received some of the earlier valves that seemed to have some production issues.

If you aren't okay with carefully checking the valves for flooding and other issues (which you should really be doing on a daily basis anyway), you should stick with tried and true. On the other hand, the valves seem to work fine for the most part. The flow is a bit stronger with these than the Edstrom valves though. Another possible issue is you have to use the clips with these valves. With the large Edstrom valves, I can simply push them through the 1/2" holes in the hardware cloth and they stop before the tubing would be exposed to the rats. The RBI valves are much smaller than the 1/2" spacing and would go all the way through.

[HerpIsAhobby]

Thanks Josh I never even thought about the fit through the hardware cloth. I took for granted that the Edstrom fit through without a clip. Taking into account the need for a clip it cuts the savings in half. I ordered a few and i'll test them out when they come in.

[youbeyouibei]

I have both on two different racks (Edstrom and RBI). I can't tell any difference nor can the rats, lol! I've not had issues with either one. The Estrom have a small angle cut on them that keeps the tip that is depressed to released the water from being activated as easily. On the RBI version, the tip that is depressed to release the water is completely exposed out the bottom of the valve. It isn't a big issue that I've found, but it is worth noting as a difference between the two. The only "issue" I had with the RBI version was getting them; there was a production back-log/shortage when I ordered mine and it took about three times as long to get them as projected. That was pre-holidays so I don't know if that's been ironed out or not. Otherwise, you can't beat them for the price point and as far as quality, mine have held up fine for the past 2 months, so for whatever that's worth...

[jasbus]

I bought a handful of the early RBI's, as well as about 20 a couple of months ago...
I haven't had any problems with any of them... I have them in both rat and mouse tubs.
I don't have any complaints. On my mouse racks, I use a 1/3" wire instead of the 1/2", so the valves go on the bottom of the screen, with the tubing on top being the only thing that holds it in place. No problems with that on mine. Even with an occasional bump from a tub being pulled out, they are fine. On my mouse grow out rack, the tubs are only 3" deep, but even with that, I don't have any problems with the valve sticking all the way out on the underside.
ON the rat racks, with 1/2" screen, I did have a couple of times that they would pull it down and chew through the line, but I just took a cable holder, and screwed the line to the frame so they couldn't pull it down if it happened to get loose....problem solved.

[SlitherinSisters]

I'm using the new reptile basics valves and they work just fine. The only thing with them though is that the rats don't understand how to drink out of them so you have to show them. I didn't flow the water well enough in two of the tubs and almost lost 10 rats because of it. Just make sure they know that is where the water comes from and they work great.

Sent from my ADR6325 using Tapatalk

[jasbus]

The only thing with them though is that the rats don't understand how to drink out of them so you have to show them. I didn't flow the water well enough in two of the tubs and almost lost 10 rats because of it. Just make sure they know that is where the water comes from and they work great.

Rats that can't figure out how to drink... well, maybe you're better off with out them.
Sounds like you made your gene pool a little better in my opinion!