When most people think of thermostats, light-duty indoor applications such as heating homes or regulating appliance temperatures come to mind. But to Ritchie, a manufacturer of livestock watering fountains, the real value of accurate and reliable temperature control becomes of critical importance during the cold winter months.
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Cattle, horses, sheep, and other livestock — often grazing over wide ranges of farmland — require constant access to fresh water for their health and safety, no matter what the outside temperature. Anyone who has ever had to haul buckets of warm water to melt frozen water troughs knows the winter months bring difficult challenges even on a small scale. To be frank, hauling buckets isn¹t practical when you are charged with the care of hundreds or even thousands of animals spread over large acreage. Year-round access to fresh drinking water is a principal concern for livestock owners. Maintaining an above-freezing temperature in a livestock watering fountain requires a thermostat capable of very narrow, incremental temperature detection and adjustment combined with consistent performance even under the most adverse conditions. "The key to making our products efficient is determined when the producer sets the thermostat," says Mike Gerbo, vice president of Ritchie. "If set lower than incoming water temperature, the thermostat will activate every time water is pumped in. However, a thermostat that can be set slightly higher than the incoming water temperature provides a dramatic energy savings."
Unfortunately, most fountains are equipped with inexpensive snap disc type thermostats with a large activation range. "Disc thermostats may activate at 45 degrees and shut down at 65 — it¹s too broad a range," says Gerbo. He also says that adjustable temperature controllers dramatically lower power usage and are so much more efficient than disc-style thermostats that in some states, such as Iowa and Wisconsin, power companies have enacted a rebate program that specified their use.
Gerbo knows that his customers expect fountains that will work consistently and efficiently throughout the year, and will be easy to clean and extremely durable. It¹s a tall order to find a temperature controller that is sensitive enough to be effective, but tough enough to function in severe conditions. "The environments our fountains face are tough — there is a wide variance in water quality," he says. Livestock thermostats are regularly subjected to highly corrosive and acidic water due to the high iron and calcium content in some regions¹ water. There is also the introduction of animal feeds and refuse to the water supply as well. With this in mind, Ritchie changed its systems to stainless steel and required a thermostat that would work well under all conditions.
Despite trying every available thermostat on the market, Gerbo continues to express a strong preference for the Thermoswitch, made by Fenwal Controls. Thermoswitch, was invented in the 1920s and refined further for waterers by C. D. Wilson, who was the Ritchie owner and president from the 40s through 1979. "He worked closely with Fenwal in the 50s to optimize its Thermoswitch specifically for Ritchie¹s application," explains Gerbo.
Originally made of brass, and later stainless steel, Thermoswitch works by detecting incremental temperature changes and energizing the heaters accordingly when the water temperature drops below the set point. The product requires no external power source, responds quickly to changes in temperature even in extreme conditions, and has the capacity to switch high amperage loads such as heaters.
The temperature controllers are available for applications from -100° to +600°F and are used in diverse markets such as commercial cooking, construction, packaging, HVAC, and fire protection. Deep fat fryers, for example, require close temperature control for an optimal food product. Pipe fusion, laminating, and exhaust duct sensing are other services requiring narrow temperature sensing.
The Thermoswitch is available in both probe and surface-mount configurations. Probe-type controllers provide instant on/off control with ±1°F precision in most applications. They are extremely sensitive, with slow make and break contacts and 0.1°F resolution. Explosion-proof enclosures are available for hazardous-location protection, and vibration resistance provides control advantages under difficult physical conditions. Surface mount controllers are installed in direct contact with the heated surface, so any temperature change is sensed instantly. They offer a narrow temperature differential, minimum contact rating of 100,000 cycles, and a 10 A resistive load rating at 120 VAC/240 VAC.
According to Gerbo, Ritchie is currently developing new hybrid plastic/stainless steel fountains that will incorporate the Thermoswitch controllers.
More information is available by contacting Fenwal Controls,. 400 Main St., Ashland, MA 01721, by calling 508-881-200, or at
www.fenwalcontrols.com.
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