Customer Reviews

Automatic Pet Feeder SMALL - (Dogs and Cats under 15 lbs.)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased the Medium Pet Feeder and the Ergo Pet Waterer in 2003 from the Ergo website.

First off, the timer that comes with the food is horrible. It has great functions and is easily programmable, but over the course of 5 years I had 3 and they would just stop working. I didn't realize I could use any appliance timer so I kept buying replacements from Ergo at $25 a pop. When I finally found out any appliance timer would work, I went with Woods 59377 Digital 7-Day Lamp/Appliance Timer with 2 Outlets, Up to 8 On/Off Settings per day and Battery Back Up, it has all the same functions and is a sleeker design. Not to mention it was over $10 cheaper.

Other than the timer issue, I couldn't be happier with the feeder 8 years later. I use either Science Diet or Purina Beneful. The Beneful is dispensed with no problem, but any food that is "Large Bites" will not. If you change the size of the kernels, you may need to adjust the time duration it feeds. Larger kernels I find need to be set longer, but if I use smaller kernels and don't decrease the fall time, it overfeeds them.

I received the waterer at the same time an was initially satisfied. Everything assembled well, but if you've used smaller auto wateres in the past, you know the warning sound it makes when it's low, this one doesn't and we burned out several pumps. We eventually just got rid of all the filters and electronics and just use it a a gravity waterer. This works well for us because we add teeth cleaners and Good Dog! to the water and our dogs finish the water pretty quickly so it doesn't have time to get slimy or stale.

If you stay on top of the water level so you don't burn out the pump, it is a great machine. However if you burn out the pump you have to buy a replacement from Ergo because they are a special size and you can't connect one externally due to the products design, it has a hole on the side that prevents use of another pump.

If I've been helpful to you while thinking about buying this product, please let me know by clicking "Yes", this review was helpful

We received this and it worked great for about one week. Then the thing quit working. My husband figured out that the auger would not turn enough to get the food out - bad gear or something. He called the company. They were to send a return authorization. After several phone calls and e-mails, nothing yet. Very unhappy as this was not a cheap product and now I am out a lot of money. Had to go buy a different one so not a happy person. I will update this if we end up getting to return it for a refund, however, not counting on that happening.