I have 7 plastic Ritchie's and they work awesome up here in Saskatchewan. Only time they freeze is if a heater quits. Our pipe is all buried 10' deep with a 12" riser culvert under the bowl to let as much ground heat come up as possible and I use heat tape on the top 6' of the water supply line. I tape the heat tape to a piece of pipe that will slip over the supply line so that if the heat tape quits you can change it. I have 6' x 8' cement pads under all our water bowls.