Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsWorks, but needs some improvement
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2022
We've had it for about a week now, and I can say a few things about it. First, the setup display is garbage. A simple menu would have been a big improvement. As is, making changes to the meal schedule or anything else is a frustrating experience. The manual says one thing, but some of the things don't seem to work that way, or maybe you have to be at the right place or something. We put it in 24hr mode when we did the initial setup, and there's supposed to be a way to change it back without unplugging it and starting over, but for the life of me I can't get it to work. Also, in 24hr mode for some reason it measures in ml instead of cups. The conversion between ml and cups is easy enough to get off the internet. Unfortunately, it doesn't spit out the correct volume of food. We started out with it set to 177ml which should be roughly 3/4 cup per meal. But after seeing what it actually dropped, I suspected it was more than that. So I measured it. It was 1 cup, not 3/4. My unit doesn't dispense food in 1/8cup increments like it's supposed to, it does 1/6c. The display adjusts by 1/8c amounts, but it's definitely not what it actually drops. My cats were already getting a bit portly, so knocking them down to 2/3c from 3/4 is probably a good thing, but it is a bit of a disappointment that the measurement is off.
There are some other oddities about it as well. I get the feeling that the manual is from a different version of the unit. It talks about having to push a button on the back to get the hopper to come off. While there is a button on the back, the hopper just lifts off if you've taken the lid off. And there the thing with buttons not working as the manual says.
The bowl is also fairly cheap feeling. Mine is very thin and light. It's also responsible for most of the noise this machine makes. I know some people complain about the noise the machine makes, but mine is actually fairly quiet. The kibble hitting the metal bowl is the loudest part of it running.
Bottom line is this. So far it has worked well enough. Be sure to measure what it's dispensing to be sure how much you're feeding your pets. And while the setup system is crap, once you get it set, you shouldn't have to mess with it for a long time if you're running batteries only, or...ever again if you have the AC adapter (which is not included - though it really should be) and battery backup.
