Customer Reviews

API 645 Bird Bath Bowl with Tilt-to-Clean Deck Rail Mounting Bracket

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I bought this birdbath after having trouble finding a free-standing one that had a large enough capacity to not quickly evaporate dry in the Mid-Atlantic coast's summer while being tall enough to be seen from my back windows. This fit the bill with its deep bowl and was very easy to install (screwdriver required, no other tools). It's just as easy to empty as advertised, also.

On the negative side, since it mounts on a deck railing, it might be higher than your local birds are used to looking for water. It took several weeks for our birds to discover and start using it.

Highly recommended if you don't have a convenient spot to put a typical pedestal-mounted birdbath or need the convenience of being able to easily dump out a birdbath.

UPDATE Sep 2011: Still going strong after 5 years continuous use. No leaks and nothing broken, I'd happily buy again.

This is a great birdbath...signed, the birds. I bought 2 of these and am very pleased with them. Easily mounted [without drilling or screws], the heavy duty bowl is easy to empty, clean, and refill, all at a comfortable height. Highly recommended by a new bird enthusiast.

It's a little on the flimsy side, although for $40 (at the time of my purchase) I hardly expected something made of cast iron. The basin is plastic and very lightweight, which is good. The clamp holding it to the railing of your deck is metal but not nearly sturdy enough. When attached it to our deck (which has 2x4 railings) and the clamp did hold it tight enough.

Here's the problem: the clamp would work better on a 2x6 railing. It (the clamp) is basically about 7" long, has one leg that fits squarely on one side of your railing while the other hangs off and has short screws that insert into that other end which you tighten/screw down to hold it onto the 2x6 (probably quite nicely). However, to fasten it in place for a 2x4, you have to use much longer (provided) screws which don't really hold it tight enough. Instead they tended to bend the entire clamp convexly (is that a word?) and make it lose its grip entirely. In the end, I cut a chunk of 2x4 from a spare piece of wood I had lying around and used it as a "shim" so I could make use of the smaller screws. It's on fairly securely, but it probably won't hold the weight of some backyard woodland creature that might try to get in for a drink.

So yeah, it works, finally and after about 30 minutes of finagling, but I think for $40 I would have liked a sturdier mounting bracket.

I have had this deck mounted birdbath for 3 years and it has held up very well to the elements. The birds use it year-round. In the winter I use a 50 watt K&H Ice Eliminator (heater) $20.82 from Amazon, which also works great. The supplied birdbath mount is not the sturdiest (mounted on 2x6 deck rail); I have a small, flat rock on each side of the bracket to make the birdbath mounting solid, otherwise it won't stay level. Using the rocks to steady the mount is no big deal to me--the bracket itself is simply not adequate for the job. To correct this problem, I see the company now has a "deep dish" design where the entire base sits on the deck for stability. The problem with this is this birdbath already creates the illusion of being much deeper than it is. Some small birds already have a problem getting up the courage to wade into the current design due to fear of the water depth. I think the deep dish design would really scare these birds.

If mounting on a 2x4 deck rail the "rock trick" would still steady the mounting--between the mounting and the two rocks, the birdbath would be "rock-solid."

It took the birds a month or so to come to the birdbath--I almost returned it thinking it was a poor design. Since then the birds love it. I sometimes have a lineup of two or three birds "on deck" waiting for their turn--I'm not making this up. It's not unusual for me to have a Robin (they love water), bluejay, goldfinch, and then catbird (also love water) bathe, one after the other. You only need two flat rocks, approx. 1 inch high for each side of the bracket to make this set-up work great. Your birds will love you for it.

I purchased this bird bath over a month ago and still do not have it up. The bracket is made for a 4x4 post and my railing isn't that big... I've had to make numerous trips to the hardware store to figure out a solution to get it to fit. There are two size bolts and neither one was long enough for a smaller railing and the bracket isn't long enough either so when you screw the bolts in they slip below the bracket and will not hold it in place. Maybe once I figure out how to attach it securely, then I might be happy with it.
It arrive quickly and eventually I think the birds will like it, but that remains to be seen.

This is a pretty cheap unit and it doesn't mount well to a 4 x 4 post. The mounting looks to be made for a 8 in post. They supply short bolts for mounting to the 8 in post and longer bolts for mounting to a 4 in post but it is really wobbly when mounted. It does not sit level and I have had to modify it to keep it to stay straight, especially when it is full of water. There is only one screw holding the plastic bowl to the mounting bracket and I can tell this is not going to hold up.
I wish someone had previously reviewed this item so I would have known to avoid it and purchased something better from my local garden supply store.

I had all sorts of issues mounting this birdbath. I followed the instructions and mounted it to the railing but as i tightened down the bolts, the other side with out the bolts would rise up the more i tightened, till it came off the railing completely. After some toying around i was able to get it in place but then it would not lock in place. So i took everything off and it appeared to me that the bracket had warped when i was tightening the bolts. At this point i gave up and returned the item. looks like no water for the birds in my yard.

This product arrived without the required mounting brackets and had to be returned because, we were informed, it is no longer available.

The bowl and mounting system are very flimsy. I installed it on a flat railing...but when I put water in it the bowl swayed and bent and spilled water out.

This is the worst product I've ever purchased from Amazon. The design is terrible. The mounting screws do not line up with the mounting plate, which distorts the shape of the mounting bracket so the tilt latch does not hold. Very cheap and frustrating design.