Lubing Drinker Cup – Replacement

The right replacement, first time

This is the genuine Lubing drinker cup used in every Dine-A-Chook chicken drinker — supplied on its own for routine maintenance and repairs. If a cup has been dropped, chewed, split at the collar or simply worn out after years of service, this is the part: it screws straight into the same 1/8” BSPF thread, and you never need to replace the drinker.

Each cup ships with the original Lubing float fitted and a Dine-A-Chook upgraded yellow float in the box. Both refill the cup automatically — the upgraded float simply lets the cup fill a little higher before the valve closes. Swapping takes a minute with pliers.

Which float should I use?

Most backyard keepers change over to the Dine-A-Chook upgraded float for the higher visible water level — but the original works perfectly well, and neither choice affects reliability. The two look almost identical: the upgrade’s square pad, where the float presses the stainless valve open, is slightly thicker, and that is the whole difference. The upgraded float also comes in blue and pink versions of this cup — all three colours perform identically.

Mount it at the bird’s eye height

Cups that foul quickly are nearly always mounted too low, where they catch everything the flock scratches up. Chickens find water by smell — they don’t need to look into the cup — so mount it as high as the smallest bird’s eye line and it will stay clean far longer between rinses.

Fitting the replacement

Seat an O-ring on the thread at the top of the cup, then screw it firmly into the drinker or outlet frame — snug, not forced. If the old cup’s O-ring is flattened or cracked, replace it at the same time; a ten-pack costs a few dollars and a tired O-ring is one of the most common causes of a weep at the thread.

While you have it apart

A replacement is a good moment for a service. Rinse cups weekly, and every fortnight to a month strip the cup down — float, pin and two-part valve — and wash everything in warm soapy water. Never boiling water, never the dishwasher. The Lubing Cup Guide shows the full strip-down with photos.

Making your own drinker? Read this first.

We love a clever DIY watering system, and after 17 years we’ve genuinely seen it all — IBC totes, rainwater tanks, runs of poly pipe, and a few setups so good we’ve pinched ideas from them. So here’s some straight talk, from experience.

Genuine German-made Lubing cups have been the standard in commercial poultry for decades, and across the tens of thousands we’ve supplied since 2009, true cup failures are rare. But no drinker cup is set-and-forget. A cup that leaks, overflows or drains your reservoir is almost always telling you one of four things:

• Head pressure is too high. Lubing cups are made for low-pressure systems. If the water surface sits more than 35 cm above the cup, it will leak — that’s not a fault, it’s physics. Measure it.
• Airlock. A sealed reservoir stops water flowing. Loosen the lid and listen for the hiss.
• Dirt in the valve. Rain and tank water carry sediment and debris. One speck on the valve seat and the cup drips until it’s cleaned.
• It’s due for a service. Like your car, your mower or anything else with moving parts, a cup needs a few minutes of maintenance. We strip and clean ours every fortnight — monthly at the very least.

A full strip-down takes about ten minutes: cup, float, pin and the two-part valve.

Building your own system?

Everything we know is yours, free: head pressure, header tanks, airlocks and the full cleaning routine are in our DIY Drinker Guide and Lubing Cup Guide, and our DIY Chicken Waterer components range is purpose-designed for reliable low-pressure systems. What we ask you to understand is that we can’t fault-find or troubleshoot a system we didn’t design or supply — in almost every case, the cup is the messenger, not the cause.

Bought a complete Dine-A-Chook system?

Then you have our full support — that’s part of what you paid for. All we ask is that you work through the quick checks in our troubleshooting guide first. Most problems resolve on the spot, and if yours doesn’t, tell us what you found and we’ll sort it out.

Cups, floats and spares

Every serviceable part of a Dine-A-Chook drinker is available on its own — you never need to replace the whole unit:

• Replacement floats — yellow Dine-A-Chook upgraded float
• Replacement O-rings, 10 pack — the seal where the cup screws in
• Lubing Drinker Cups – 5 Pack — for multi-cup drinkers and spares on hand
• Lubing Drinker Cup – blue float
• Lubing Drinker Cup – pink float
• Installation kit — the correct 9mm drill bit and thread tap for DIY mounting
• Complete Dine-A-Chook drinkers — engineered for correct water height, fully supported