The Golden Numbers of Water Dosing

How to make the right choice of doser

While it is possible to just buy a dosing machine and hope it works, there are a 3 “Golden Numbers” you should work out in advance to make sure you get the right doser for your needs. These figures are crucial in working out if any dosing pump will work on your farm (not just the machines we sell). So even if you are looking at a Dosatron, Chemilizer, or some other option, make sure to work out the following before going ahead with a purchase. The Golden Numbers are:

1. WATER CONSUMPTION (Litres/day)
2. FLOW RATE (Litres/hour)
3. WATER PRESSURE (BAR, PSI or KPa)

If you haven’t needed these numbers in the past, don’t fret! Our next three posts will cover each of these Golden Numbers in detail, including some helpful tricks for calculating them, but here is a brief explanation of each.

Water Consumption

This is the total amount that your herd, flock, or group of livestock drinks in a day. This number can be useful for a number of reasons, but is important for water dosing systems because it allows you to work out what the flow rate is likely to be.

Flow Rate

This is the amount of water that will flow through your water lines per hour. When used for drinking water dosing applications, it also means the amount of water that your livestock will drink per hour. It is usually the maximum likely flow rate that you will want to use when deciding on a doser.

Water Pressure

Water Pressure is the force of the water flowing through your pipes. A lot of people confuse pressure and flow. Water flow is measured in BAR, PSI (pounds per square inch) or KPA (kilopascals). Some types of dosing pumps require a certain amount of water pressure in order to operate, while others can’t work if the water pressure is too high. So it really is important to know how much pressure you have before you choose a pump for your needs.