Customer Reviews

Current USA Aquachef Auto Fish Feeder

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Works but not that well. Set it up to feed a 33 gallon long marine aquarium for a week while I was on vacation. I do like the way the drum rotates completely all the way around at once to dump food, some feeders use a slow turning of a drum to time the addition of food. Setup of the timer is just more complex than it should be. I used the included Velcro to mount the feeder to the top of a wood canopy where the flakes were to fall into a section I cut out for the hang-on-tank protein skimmer to fit in. Upon pulling the drum off to add flakes the plastic backing of the drum pulled out and bent(not good)although I was able to get it almost back into position when I put the drum back on. Also, when I returned the feeder had leaned over off the Velcro so that it was out of optimal position and the flakes weren't falling as they should. My fish lived but I wouldn't trust it again.

EDIT: I gave this product another try when going on vacation for two weeks this October 2007. When set up properly and filled properly this feeder works with out fail. I secured the feeder to a strip of scrap wood screwed into the tank hood so that it had to stay in place. I also filled the drum through the discharge hole instead of pulling the drum off. My fish were still fat and happy on my return. Can't be beat for the price. 5 Stars. If you lose the instructions for setting feeding times you can go to the link below for a complete on line copy.

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I have a 20 gallon fish tank with six fishes(kois and goldfish) and I wanted a fish feeder for when I go on vacation which is normally about ten days. I used this item and it worked perfectly. You just have to program it for the time of day you want the fish to be fed and it can feed up to two feedings at a time . What happens is the drum just makes two rotations and drops the food. Setting up the feeder is like programming your digital watch so just follow the instructions and all will be fine but dont lose the paper. I t also works with batteries so you dont have to worry about power outages......just what I wanted

My wife and I are big fish lovers and also like to travel, weather permitting. We have three aquariums in our home. A 30 gal, a 20 gal, and a 10 gal fry tank. I work 5 days a week and come weekends we are out of here. Purchased a $40.00 auto feeder from a local Pet supply store and it worked for 20 minutes and quit. They replaced it and the same thing happened so we got our money back and purchased the AquaChef to feed the 30 gallon tank. Set it up and let it feed the fish in the 30 gallon tank for several days to see how it worked. Its hell to program if you don't read the instructions. If you go thru them once step by step and it rather simple. My 12 year old granddaughter programmed it in about 5 minutes the first time but did not understand military time so had it feeding at the wrong time but working very well. I helped her with the time setting and it began feeding flawlessly. With the exception of the fry tank, they all will have one of these on it. Don't let the instructions scare you, my granddaughter didn't. Going to purchase several more by my aquariums and my daughters. I love it !!!
UPDATE:
Mounting the device with the clamping device is rather simple. The C clamp will attach to the front of all aquariums. Do this: place the device close to a lightbulb for 10 minutes to get the plastic more pliable. Not close enough to melt it however. Now remove the rubber suction cup from the inside of the clamp. This should be put away for future use. Use the non-hook side of the velcroe which is just a soft buffer for the glass. Place it where you want the feeder. Now slide the clamp down till it hits the inside of the plastic and gently open the clamp a small amount. It will spring back, no problem. Do not overdue the spreading of the clamp and do it slowely. Now the inside protion will go directly against the glass and the screw can be turned in against the velcroe. Tight and secure. Works extremely well.

Ok, this is a nice feeder. I like it better then our last that sounded like it was grinding gravel. However, holy cow, what ever you do DON'T LOOSE THE INSTRUCTIONS. Programming the thing requires the most counter-intuitive convoluted set of steps that make no sense at all and are completely illogical. You will NEVER figure it out for yourself. It is so retarded, even if you figure it out one time, forget it, you will never remember and be able to do it again. Who programs this stuff???

I like many of the features especially that the feeding is performed by a rotation performed at feeding time rather than a rotation that is continuous until the food finally falls out. It appears to be fairly well made.

I have two complaints that prevent me from scoring it as perfect:
- The programming has one "extra" step of indicating the number of feeding per cycle. If you do not enter anything it defaults to zero and your fish do not get fed. It is very easy to forget this last step if you are not going through step-by-step with the instructions. I think the default should be one feeding per cycle as I suspect this is what most people will desire and would prevent the fish from getting no food.
- Filling the feeder and cleaning the feeder is not easy as it is via a little rubber flap that looks a little fragile but regardless does not provide great access. I have a few Daily Double automatic fish feeders and they are much easier to fill and clean (but not as nice a feeder - The Daily Double is better in ease of programming (no programming involved) and ease of filling/cleaning but has different short-comings).

Of the two type of automatic feeders that I own, this is the better one.

I bought the Aquachef before going away on a vacation, as most people do. Some things I first noticed; programming is a bit ambiguous, but I figured it out; the device feels like it's going to break when you pull the drum off to fill it (there's no release, you just pull it), and the supply door is just a bent plastic fold, not really a door (mine is already starting to break), and the "clamp" was too narrow to get over either of my tank rims (they are regular plastic frames), I had to cut off the screw clamp and rely on the velcro to hold it on, it leans at an angle with the velcro barely holding it in place.

I have had it for about nine months now, it periodically loses all power, you have to bang it go get the display to come back on, all programming gets lost. If you disturb the machine (for instance when trying to pull the drum off) it loses power. Today, I noticed that the feeding latch was in the wrong position, after hitting manual feed a few times, I saw that the drum only goes around 180 degrees, not 360, so the feeding latch only lets food out every other cycle. I changed the batteries, re-programmed it, and it still only goes half way around.

Basically, it's junk. When I first noticed it losing power, I bought another brand as a back-up and I have both running. That feeder isn't much higher quality. I would love to find a high quality, reliable feeder.

This feeder works great as long as you follow the directions and complete ALL the steps for setting it up. After programming the current time, you set the times you want them to eat, THEN go back to those times and select 1 rotation or 2, depending on how much you want them to have. The default is 0, so that's why it didn't work for me at first. Now that I have it programmed correctly it works great, right on schedule. The mounting bracket did not fit on the edge of my tank and it comes with double sided tape just in case that happens. But, I wanted to be able to easily take it down to refill/reprogram/change the batteries, so I used Velcro instead of the tape. The Velcro works great but the unit does lean a little to the side. I put a quarter under that side and it's level again. Be sure to save the directions for when you want to reprogram, because it can be a little confusing without them.

I have two of these and I use them every time I have to leave town and they are very convenient. I have two 60 gallon tanks, one community and one cichlids and they handle the different amount of foods well.

I purchased this feeder so my fish would not go hungry while I was on vacation. The time and the feedings are set using a 24h clock, so it's pretty hard to mess up. I did a trial run and everything seemed to be working fine. When I got back from vacation, my fish were not looking so hot. I fed them and they ate voraciously which got me wondering if the feeder was actually working. So I set my iphone alarm for 10:00 am and watched the feeder to see if it was dispensing food. Nothing. Then I set it for 11:00 am, and watched. Still nothing. So somewhere during the time I was gone, this feeder just quit working. Batteries are fine, clock is set right and so is the feeding time.

Maybe it will work for you, but it didn't work for me.

This feeder is Awesome! I figured out how to time it..that took a bit of time being that I am kind of slow. *hint* when youre up to the part where you're pressing "mode" button to go to the different time values such as minutes or hours, you'll see lastly the tiny number above it blinking. That number indicated the number of feedings so far (i.e. 1st feeding, 2nd feeding of the day, 3rd feeding, etc.) Anyway, that little number blinks. DON'T IGNORE THE LITTLE BLINKING NUMBER, this is IMPORTANT, it's the one factor that actually decides if the feeder will function at all, without entering a value here, it won't function. Press adjust once then you see 1 bar next to the tiny number blinking. This indicated the feeder will revolve once. Hit adjust again and that it will make it revolve twice when you feeds. That's the only thing that confused me at first. But I LOVE this thing. It fed my fish flawlessly for my 2 week vacation and continued to do so 2 weeks after i got home and I shut it off. My salt water wish looked happy and well nourished when I arried home, and I was so nervous for them when I left as I never used this kind of feeder or left my fish for that long alone. But the feeder worked %100, no need to fear. AWESOME!