A practical and economical comparison of water drinkers on a commercial hog facility was conducted. Over the course of a one-year trial, from August 2004 to July 2005, the ball-bite drinker sections of the barn used 35 per cent less water than the standard drinker sections, as measured by the farm’s water monitoring system. These water savings had no detrimental effects on the animals or facility management. Instead, the significant decrease in water usage led to many secondary benefits. Electrical savings occurred from not having to pump the extra 35 per cent of water (in this case 133,149 litres). Less water means less manure. Manure can be spread on the land less often – saving money, time and odour issues with the neighbours (because of fewer applications). Solids build-up causes great problems when removing manure from a facility to apply to the land. However, having less water did not complicate the process of removing manure from the barns assuaging concerns of solid build-up. Reducing the manure volume and total water used in a commercial hog rearing facility results in reductions in greenhouse gas emissions mainly due to less petroleum and electrical energy consumed in handling the manure liquid. Decreasing the amount of energy required delivering water to the barn and distributing it throughout the facility will ultimately decrease the total water system energy load. During manure pump-out and field application, a decrease in fossil fuel use to operate machinery will also be realized. This may prove to decrease the costs of applying the liquid, as less total volume of manure will be handled. Efficient water use allows producers to achieve efficiency gains with minimal capital cost. Reducing the quantity of water used in commercial pig facilities will prolong the life of useful ground water resources, thus prolonging the useful life of groundwater wells on the property. Producers using dugouts for water storage will decrease the requirements for sourcing water to fill these dugouts throughout the year. This project suggested that replacing the standard drinkers with ball-bite drinkers resulted in a payback period of approximately 3.5 months and an increase in annual net income of $1,584 on a $463 investment. The analysis was based on an operation with 500 pigs per cycle and one nipple drinker for every 15 pigs. Overall, the strength of this technology lies in the fact that it is simple, environmentally friendly and profitable.