Just to establish that I know a thing or two about poultry founts, I've been raising chickens for over 25 years in addition to the fowl menagerie we had growing up on a farm. I've used just about every fount imaginable. Galvanized lose their ability to hold vacuum with any kind of dent or when they inevitably become rusty. The worst are the large plastic founts that work by vacuum alone, especially the ones that require the lid to be twisted on super tight in order to create vacuum. They won't unscrew without the jaws of life. The second worst are the ones that require you to fill the upside down bucket, put on the base, and turn it over. You lose much of the water and you get wet no matter what way you try to do to avoid it. All founts that rely on vacuum are disgusting. Chickens defecate in their water which gets sucked up into the clean water on vacuum waterers, requiring daily dumping and refilling, almost making the idea of an automatic waterer pointless. I have been using the Harris Farms (owned by Manna Pro - for those that know the name from livestock feed) waterer for 4 years and just ordered a second one. There are a number of things that make this the best waterer ever, however, it is finicky. I am shocked at the number of negative reviews, so I'll address the problems one might have first. Honestly, if you have trouble figuring out that the nipple on the float needs to fit into the corresponding recess in the bucket, this might not be the waterer for you. The tub needs to be secured tightly to the base, otherwise it will all leak out. It matters which direction the plastic screw and nut go (the assembly instructions shows you). You only have to do this when assembling it, which you'll rarely need to do because, outside of a float problem, you never need to disassemble it. Getting one hand into the bottom of the deep bucket while keeping the other hand at the bottom of the base can be tricky, but again, a tight connection is paramount. That red cap that sits on the nipple in the bucket needs to be taken off so that the waterer works. You don't really need that red cap. I just leave it sitting (floating) in the bucket. Every once in a while (like maybe once/yr), enough water would seep into the float to not allow it to rise and shut off the water supply. When this happens, the water will all flood out. You can check if there's water in the float by shaking it. Unsnap the two sections of the float, drain the water, and snap back together. Fixes the problem until the next time, or do what I eventually did, which is fill the float body with a $5 can of expanding foam and snap the lid back on. If you don't have a good feel for how much the foam will expand, it would be a good idea to drill some holes in the top of the float to allow excess foam room to escape. Once the foam is dry in a few hours, the excess is easily cut off with a serrated knife or fine toothed saw. The foam might distort the float as it expands if you put too much in without having the holes. The foam is 100% waterproof when dry, so the now foam-filled drilled holes will not effect float performance. Water infiltration into the float is the only real weak point to this fount, and yes, the manufacturer should put styrofoam in to begin with, however, it is still, hands down, the best fount ever! Now, on to why this deserves 5 stars! No more crappy water! The float mechanism does not allow dirty water to be mixed back in with the clean water. The tray is much larger than most trays and, because the inside is rounded vs. angular, there are no crevices to clean out. Cleaning this thing is a breeze. The lid comes off and on easily. At 6 gallons, this holds a lot of water, and because the fresh water remains fresh, I feel okay about filling it and forgetting it. I have had no problems with the waterer on a galvanized heated base (upstate NY temperatures). The water at the top of the bucket will freeze, but the area at the bottom remains liquified. Lastly, I rarely ever keep this thing perfectly level and it does not overflow. I'd say that if it's overflowing, it may have nothing to do with being level (within reason) and is more likely is related to one of the aforementioned possible oversights or float problems.
