RentACoop 2 Gallon Chicken Waterer with 4 Auto-Fill Water Cups and 4 Horizontal nipples

Love these!

Works great. Easy to clean. Chickens love it!

My girls love their waterer! Easy set-up and easy to clean!

I really like this waterer, it’s quick to refill during busy week days. I appreciate the anti-perching cover, it’s effective at keeping the chickens from making a mess all over it.

Everybody loves this waterer. My chicks are teenagers now, but my little Wyandotte still needs the lower cup. So it fits in among the horizontal nipples for the bigger kids. The protective pyramid on top keeps bombers off the roof, buts you need a flat tool to pry it off for water changes. Overall it’s been great in our teenage brooder tent.

The watered is made of decent materials however the cups are not extremely sensitive and if not in the exact position they do not fill properly or at all. They are also prone to leaking. Was disappointed in the functionality for the price.

Don’t even buy another. Don’t waste your money! They make the best waterer on the market!!!

This product works awesome for my chickens. Very well made, easy to use, easy to fill, and holds a good amount of water. Would buy again

Previous design developed leaks. New design uses an improved nipple which seems to work better.

The quality of the water nipples are there I am just worried about the quality of the container. I will see. It has been in use since Nov 2023.

Helped with the chicks. They did roost on top so I was surprised at that. Otherwise it was good training for the big waterer. They figured it out pretty quick

This waterer with the 4 nipples works great…until it doesn’t. I placed it on a cinder block so the nipples are at head height and the chicks took to it very easily!! They love it! However, the tiny black gaskets that seal the metal nipple on the inside of the bucket have started failing after only two months use. I will say, Rent-a-Coop customer service was amazing and, no questions asked, I’ve already been issued a new product. However, I can’t imagine that will be their solution every two months when the product fails. If you buy this, I recommend also buying a bulk pack of replacement nipples from some other seller. We’ve been using those when the originals fail, and so far, it’s been working good. I still like the product, it’s still the best solution I’ve found to keeping debris from contaminating their water and I love the cone on top to keep them from roosting. But I try to give honest reviews so buys know what they’re getting with the purchase. It’s great! If you’re willing to spend $15 more dollars on extra parts a couple times a year and maintenance the parts every few months.

Loved this for the first month we had it, in the garage before putting our 8 week chicks out in their coop. But I couldn’t figure out for days why the water level wasn’t going down/they weren’t drinking. I later realized water wasn’t coming out of the taps/nipples at all. Somehow it had created a “vacuum” with our warmer weather and the plug placed tightly into the red lid. Once I solved that, a few days later half of the bedding in my coop was drenched. Come to find out there were several hairline cracks around a couple of the nipple holes where you screw the taps into the bucket. Now I’m planning to caulk it all up—when I have time (never, I have 16month twins). I’m not sure if the cracks occurred due to me screwing the taps in too tightly, and/or the vacuum effect?! Thank goodness we have a different waters I can use I the mean time. But was hoping to use this in my garage again soon with the next set up chicks that are just 5 weeks younger. And now questioning buying the 5 gal I’d hoped for.

Bought this for my adult hens. Unfortunately, they didn’t quite understand the nipple concept so I bought the watering cups from the same manufacturer to swap out the nipples for the cups. The fittings were the same size and I was very gentle with the plastic in swapping them out, but one of my cups leaks now so I have to refill every 2 days with only 2 adult hens currently using it. So, there’s that. Also, in general, raising the entry points for the cups/nipples by 3/4” would be a much better design. I eventually found a log I could stand on end to set the bucket on so that the cups would float free around the log because otherwise, the cups rest on the riser bricks I had to keep the bucket higher off the ground which causes leakage as well. Yes, it can be hung, but I would have to drill into the bottom of my roost house and that’s not a good option with the other modifications I have planned for the run. For the amount I paid for this bucket and the spare cups, I wish I would have just gotten the DIY kits. I’ve had good success with the Rent-A-Coop gravity feeders, and the 2 cup waterer for my baby chicks (the 2 cups easily hang off the edge of a brick), but would not purchase this item again

I purchased two of the 2 gallon waterers with the little peck nipples. Both of my units ended up leaking. I contacted customer service and they responded fast and offered replacements and even offered to let me try another type if I wanted. Awesome customer service!

I will say that these two gallon buckets can't take much movement. I have 20 chickens and was I move them around my property with portable fences. My wife wanted to try smaller buckets because the 5 gallon ones can get a bit heavy. We transport our food and waterers in a yard cart and these small 2 gallon buckets couldn't stand up to being moved so often. They developed little cracks around the holes for the nipples.

Rent a coop asked if I would like to try the 5 gallon and it works great. The plastic is a bit thicker and seems like it will hold up to how we use these.

I tried the little auto fill water bowl style as well and they way they come drilled won't let you set them down, the bowl is below the bottom of the bucket, but if you are hanging them and filling them in place, they should work great.

I will be looking to Rent a coop first for all of my chicken needs!

Tldr: Great customer service, buy the 2 gallon if you will keep them stationary, but the 5 gallon if you plan on moving them around.

The bucket needs to be made out of thicker plastic. It has cracked around where two of the drinking nipples are screwed into the bucket and leak. They do not appear over-tightened which was my first thought, it just looks like the water pressure bulges out the bucket when it is full and the flexing of the plastic where the holes were drilled for the nipples is brittle enough to crack under the strain of the water pushing outward. The nipples work really well so I'll just remove them and install them on a 5 gallon bucket from lowes made from thicker plastic. A thicker bucket from the factory would likely prevent this issue. I really wanted this to work, the design is clever and the chickens figured it out almost immediately how to get water from it.

I put water in the drinker and my 6 weeks old hens. They figured how to get a drink of water right away. I have 7 hens, so I only need to fill it up once every two weeks. After 2 weeks of use I dump out the remaining water and wash it with bleach in to kill any bacteria that may be in the holding tank and nipples. After two weeks of use the inside of the tank is still amazingly still clean. With all the other systems I had to clean and replace the water once or twice a day because the chickens pooped on the drinking try. I've been using it for a few weeks now, and I couldn't be happier with this worry free chicken watering system.

My flock is a mix of chickens and ducks. Ducks make a terrible mess of most watering stations. I was concerned that my birds wouldn’t figure out the nipple waterer after having the traditional gravity and trough style bucket for drinking. They fought me on it for a few days, telling me I was being cruel, but they did eventually figure it out and it has been working quite well. I have six birds total, and in summer I have to fill it up about every five or six days. I chose to set my water on a milk crate instead of hanging it as I did not have a sturdy enough crossbar to support this. I do have to clean it up with bleach and a scrub brush about once a month due to some algae growth. But that is to be expected. My favorite part is that the birds can’t make a mess of the water because they can’t dip their bill into any open trough. My girls get plenty of water, and they keep laying great eggs. So it is a win-win.

I bought a similar watering bucket from this company 5 years ago. This year the lid broke so I decided to buy a replacement. My old one was a round bucket and the water nipples were placed too low making it hard to clean under them. The plastic was hard making it difficult to remove without breaking my nails. Still I had planned on replacing the same style because it worked great for my chickens. Well to my wonderful surprise, during the five years I was using the old style the company was busy fixing and improving the old style with a new one!! The bucket is now square instead of round, the nipples are higher so you can get your fingers around them to clean. The plastic is more flexible making it very easy to take the lid off and on. And a bonus is the pyramid top so the girls can’t sit on the lid!! Great Product, Great Price I highly recommend!!

I LOVE this thing. I hated cleaning their waterer out, it was filled with poop and pine shavings. NO MORE, YAY! :)
Our 20 hens figured this out right away, even our Jersey Giant hen, Vulture, who has wry neck. I just tapped the metal parts a few times in front of a few of the chickens and they took right to it. I left the empty waterer they previously had in the coop, so when I saw a couple chickens trying to peck at the old waterer, I brought them to the new one and lightly held their head and tapped their beaks on the metal nib. When I let go of them, they started drinking right away. Very good product for my smart little hens.
I love not having to scrub out a poop covered waterer. This thing will be a quick wiping once a week (inside and out), and is easy to refill everyday at the outside spigot or with the garden hose.

I had been feeding my chickens daily so I wouldn't get a rodent problem. As a single homeowner with chickens I worried something might happen to me that could keep me from the house for a few days and I wanted to be sure the chickens had food and water. Now I only need to check on this feeder once a week to top it off.

Putting the grommets in was a royal pain until I called the company for some coaching. The trick is to separate the two parts of the grommet and first put the smaller piece through the FRONT until you hear a click and then push the cap into it until it is set. I used the back of a screw driver to push it in. Also start at the top, then the bottom, doing opposite ends until done. The lids were loose fitting so I also put bungees on the handles over the lid to make sure it stays on in heavy winds. The girls took just a few minutes to figure them out - while they were watching I simply put my finger in and scooped out some grains. They found the grains on the ground and then easily found the port for the feed.

The waterer I bought is a square pail with water nipples on the sides. I cut the back open to put in a float so I could keep a hose in it and let it refill as needed. This, too, gets washed out weekly. Now the girls are safe.

I have no complaints about the quality of this waterer. It does exactly what it's supposed to do and works well. However, after using this for a few weeks, I noticed my chickens were barely drinking from it. The water would sit there for days and hardly go down. I had to clean it often because it would develop little brown things in the water from being closed in. My chickens would drink out of the duck's water or out of mud puddles instead. So I switched back to my old waterer with an open bottom tray for them to drink out of and immediately we started going through a lot more water. I put the waterer on an upside down plastic bin so the ducks can't reach it and muddy up the water. That solution has worked for me and it's what I'm sticking with. If you can get your chickens to like drinking out of this then that's great! Maybe if you introduced them to it from a young age they would take to it more.

UPDATE: 03/28/2016
Well this has been a bit of a journey for me. I purchased this water pail with four nipples when my chicks were about a week or so old. Long story short, at first it was just a total flop as you will read below. I took it away and returned it every week or so to see if they would adapt it with age as they grew bigger and stronger. Now the chicks are 6 and 7 weeks old and miraculously, they just all of a sudden took to it and began pushing the nipple in to access the water. It is a very good device as I had anticipated it would be. But since it did not work for my 1 through 5 week chicks, I had to rate it poorly. I have now upgraded my rating to 5 stars. There are a couple of changes I might suggest, but since the chicks are drinking from it liberally and there is no mess or leaks I rated it a 5. Also, the seller was very responsive and concerned that it was not working for me and sent me personal emails encouraging me very nicely without "selling me" on the product. So I might have rated it as a 4 star for the early problems with my baby chicks but the sellers customer service was so good, I gave it the 5th star.

As for suggested improvements, they are minor but could make it even better. First and most importantly, The lid is a pain in the butt to remove. The inside should be cleaned periodically just to remove sediment and buildup from what is in the water that accumulates on the interior and some will use water heaters for winter and need access. This is common to most pail waterers and I get it. I would like to see a lid that just screws in or has a lip to sit on the rim without the snap attachments. These are real finger nail breakers. I will probably just use a grinder or a dremel tool to remove those. Not sure if this is a real problem but the lid attaches very tightly and may not allow air in the pail as they water is released. I punched a few small holes in the red cap that sits over the lid hole to allow air in so a vacuum doesn't prevent water from come out the nipples. Lastly, I think it may work a bit better when placed on bricks so the pail doesn't swing around from the pushing and pecking of the birds pushing in the springs on the nipples. The problem is that when it is stationary on bricks, the birds like to perch on it and poop either on the birds drinking below or onto the top. A dome or something that can not easily be perched on would solve this. I put a plastic vinegar bottle (refilled with water for weight) on mine (looks weird, but works), but a small dog (clown) collar could be a solution (as an example). I can now recommend this device whole heartedly, and it is a very good replacement for the usual messy watering containers with the round well around them that need to be cleaned several times a day.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:
Well it arrived and with great anticipation I went to my chicken brooder and placed it in following all the instructions to the letter. I left it in the brooder box for about 4 hours with not other water sources. The included instructions and the Q&A under the item description say it is good for chicks as young as a week old. I have 20 Wyandotte Chicks, 5 two week old and 15 one week old. I tapped to start the flow and show them the water in the little lip under the nipple and used a laser which really got them interested in pecking at the nipples, but try as they could, they could not release the water. The buttons offered greater resistance than they were capable of. They pecked and pecked and pecked and even went into a frenzy to try and get water out, but no water could or would come out. I again started the water flow with my finger and they went crazy trying to drink what came out but could not follow through by getting the water to release with their pecking at the nipple. I let some of the water out of the bucket to be thorough so it was just above the nipples to see if the water pressure might be the problem although I did not believe the to be the case and I was right. I could push the nipples in with my finger but there was significant resistance and I can understand why the chicks could not master this. It was just too darn hard to push. I believe the springs are wound too tight for small young birds. This may work for older birds although I can not test it, but if you have young chicks, forget about it. I will keep it and re-try again in a week and continue every week there after until they are grown. if they do start to use it, I would be willing to change my review score, but for now it's a total no go and will sit in my basement unused collecting dust for the time being. Not sure if mine were defective but they looked okay and I could release it with my finger although it did require some relatively hard pressure.

Follow up: 02/29/16. My chicks are now 2.5 and 3.5 weeks old.Well unfortunately at 2.5 and 3.5 weeks it is still a no go. I removed other water sources and placed the bucket on square bricks that brought the nipples to ...