Draining water hose

[notjustair]

Any of you use hoses all winter and have to drain daily?

Cattle are on the wheat stubble and not near the hydrant. I have about 200 feet of hose running to the tank. I hate draining that thing every day but the girls would be a little mad if their water hose was frozen up. Of course the only rolling part of that field is on the other side of the section. If I had a little hill over here I wouldn't have any issues.

What do you all do (other than putting in a new hydrant?). I will run a water line out there in the spring.
 

[Royse]

[JayinNY]

Yep it stinks, rolling up the hose! Horse farm I worked on had a 40 stall barn, not sure how long the barn was, but they had a hose reel in the heated office in the center of the barn. Lucky I dident get the task of watering the stalls, you'd pull the hose out to one end, work back to the other end of the barn than reel the hose back in! Now I use a 20 stall barn, we only have 3 horses left, and less than 50 ft of hose! Lol
 

[old]

I have a hose running to the horses that runs 24/7 365 just enough to keep the tanks full and also enough to stop them from freezing up and me and have been doing so now for well over 2 decades
 

[farmerjohn]

When I was still at home we had cows in a barn with no running water about 200 feet from the house. Kept the hose in the house cellar, pulled to the barn to fill the old bathtub, then pulled back into the cellar. Did not roll it up, just looped it on the floor about 10 foot across. Yes it was a pain but you did what you have to do. In the coldest weather had to turn the water on before pulling it out or would freeze before you got to the barn.
 

[Tom in TN]

I buried my water lines a couple of years ago, so now I only have short hoses running from the hydrants to the tanks. I remove the ends of the hoses from the hydrants and drain the hoses on nights when it is going to freeze.

For ten years prior to that, I had two 100 ft. hoses. Every day (when it was going to freeze), after filling the tanks, I'd leave the hoses stretched out and drain them by doing over-head, hand-to-hand lifts down the length of the hoses. It really didn't take too long but my shoulders got a really good workout doing it.

Tom in TN
 

[IaGary]

That may work in your climate. But you get up here farther north that doesn"t work on below zero days. If you opened a 200" hose far enough to keep from freezing here in Iowa, you would have to have 500 head drinking to not have a ice skating rink around the tank.

Gary
 

[fixerupper]

Does the bottom of the tank freeze? Lay the hose in the water in the bottom of the tank if the cows don't drink it dry and if it stays thawed. You'll have a wet hose to handle in freezing weather but at least you can use it. Tie a rope to it so you can pull it back out without fishing for it. Jim
 

[old]

Well funny that is how I did if back when I lived in NE Leigh NEB. back in the day and never had a problem but back then there was snow on the ground on Oct 31st till some time in March not that way now. Snow and a hose equals running water due to the fact snow is an insulator.
 

[BCnT]

you got a portable air tank...use a blow gun to empty hose and leave it there.
 

[gene bender]

That wont work as there will always be a low spot some place and the water will drain back there and freeze.
 

[rusted nuts]

Yep Tom in TN, That way will work, Have a 100 footer here and do it that way, I also make sure I walk slow while I do it.
 

[sammydwm]

always had to pull the hose out of the hole in the side of the shed, then walk it down from the barn to the shed over my head to get all the water out.
Then coil it up and drag it into the barn and hang it on the wall and try to dodge that big roll of hose with the silage cart for another day....
 

[JRSutton]

If you want to get fancy - use a Y connector (the kind with individual shut off valves)

Run the hose on one side of the Y, and run a hose from the other side to an air compressor.

After you run the water- shut the water and open both sides of thy Y to blast it out.

... Just be REAL sure you shut the water off first!
 

[tjiniowa]

I always thought about putting a pulling in the barn and a light rope and pull the hose straight up in the air in the center and let it drain itself. Would work on the side of a silo or tall shed depending on how long of hose it is.