Why did we buy another automatic feeder?
If you have read my previous post reviewing the PetSafe 5 Meal Self-Feeder, you would know that our family began exploring automatic feeders as a must-have purchase to prepare for an extended road trip. We initially purchased a PetSafe 5 Meal automatic feeder as an alternative to simple gravity-type self-feeders which had proven unreliable in the past. The PetSafe 5 Meal feeder worked flawlessly; but was limited to 5 meals. We purchased the QPets 6-meal automatic pet feeder as a cheaper additional feeder to provide us with one additional meal over the 5 meal limit of the PetSafe unit. The QPets feeder has proven to be a less expensive add-on feeder to supplement the PetSafe feeder; but cheaper construction has resulted in reliability concerns that make us hesitate to replace the PetSafe with the QPets feeder.
What features did we need in an automatic feeder?
Since we would be gone for up to a week, our automatic feeders would have to reliably provide meals to our cats for a number of days. The automatic feeder would need to be able to protect the pre-loaded meals from greedy kitties and then be relied upon to deliver the meals each day. More specifically, in the case of the QPets feeder we were particularly interested in providing an additional day or two of meals beyond the 5 meal limit of the PetSafe feeder.
Why not just use a gravity feeder?
Gravity feeders are basically a container of dry cat food that opens downwards into an attached bowl. As the dry food in the bowl is eaten and removed, new food flows down out of the upside down container to refill the bowl. The setup is cheap and simple. Unfortunately, experience has proven to us that this neat setup does not always work well in practice; because greedy cats can take advantage of the continuous refill to eat outrageous amounts of food, and resourceful felines can easily knock over the top-heavy food container.
How does the QPets automatic feeder work?
The QPets feeder is basically a round bowl split up into 6 partitions. A lid covers 5 of the 6 partitions, exposing just one partition of food at a time. At whatever time you program into it, the unit will rotate 1/6 of a turn and move the next partition of food into view. We programmed the unit to rotate once each day so the feeder would provide 6 days worth of meals. Additionally, the QPets feeder includes a simple lid covering the single normally open partition initially. When the feeder rotates the food bowl for the first scheduled feeding, the lid is pushed out of the way. This feature, if used in conjunction with the “Start tomorrow” function allows the feeder to protect the first meal from being eaten until the second day, effectively allowing the feeder to provide one meal a day for the second through the seventh day of a trip.
How do you set up the QPets feeder?
Like the PetSafe Eatwell feeder, the QPets feeder is nearly ready to go right out of the box. QPets separates each component into different locations on the feeder. The battery compartment is on the underside, the controls and display are on the front, and the meal tray is on the top. The QPets takes 4 C cell batteries, and the battery compartment is also right underneath the lid. Once the batteries are in, the unit powers up and you are ready to program the schedule. The programming interface is the one really weak point on the unit; it is about as user friendly as an old vcr or digital alarm clock. But that kind of primitive user interface is about par for the course on the current batch of automatic feeders.
The first step is to set the clock. You press and hold down the “Clock” button until the Hours on the display strarts to blink. You can then use the increase or decrease buttons to set the proper hour. Next you press the “Set” button until the “Minutes” flash. You then press the “Increase” or “Decrease” button until you have the correct minutes.. When it is correct, you press the “Clock” button once more to finish. The next step is to set up the feeding schedule. The feeder holds 5 separate meals, so naturally you set the feeding time for each of the 5 meals. To do this, you press the “Clock” button and then press the “Increase” button until the meal indicator displays a “1” for meal number 1. You then press the “Set” button until the hours flash. You then press the Increase or Decrease button until you have the desired feeding hour, taking care to make sure you have the correct “am” or “pm” set also. You then click on the “Set” button to get the “Minutes” display to flash. Once again use the Increase or Decrease button to set the proper feeding minute. Press the “Clock” button to finish setting the feeding time for meal number 1. If you want the feeder to present one meal each day for 5 days, you are done. The meal tray will rotate each day at the time you set for meal 1. If you want more than one meal per day (for fewer consecutive days), then you can repeat the meal time setting process for additional meals (meal 2, meal 3, etc). Once you are finished, fill the food trays with dry food and press the “Meal Advance” button to activate the schedule. Close the lid, snap it securely into place, and you are all set.
How do your cats accept the automatic feeder?
Our cats took to the feeder immediately. When a food portion is made available, it appears like any other food dish. Most of our cats seem to quickly recognize the subtle sound of the feeder rotating and know that a new portion is ready.
How easily is the feeder defeated by your cats?
The QPets feeder is lighter than the PetSafe Eatwell, using 4 C cell batteries versus the 4 D cells in the PetSafe. But despite a low profile, it has managed to get flipped over once or twice by hangry housecats. The lid which is secured by two tough snaps has also not yet been pried open by any of our cats to date.
How reliable is the feeder?
We actually purchased a total of three of the QPets feeders. Now 13 months later, two of the three are still running. One feeder suffered a partial failure of the lcd display followed by total failure of the food tray rotation mechanism due to the loss of an internal plastic tab due to fatigue. Battery life has been quite good, with the C cells lasting 2-3 months. The failure of one of the three feeders leads me to not recommend the QPets as your only automatic feeder.
What are the shortcomings of this feeder?
As with the PetSafe Eatwell feeder, the QPets feeder delivers a set number (6 maximum) of meals. If you have a longer trip than 5 days, you are going to have to look at a different type of feeder having greater capacity (see the review for the Westlink 6l automatic pet feeder below). The convenience of having the lcd display mounted in plain sight on the outside rim of the feeder is offset by the apparent vulnerability of the display which was demonstrated by the partial failure of the display on one of our QPets feeders. Also, the location of the battery compartments on the underside of the QPets feeder leads to pretty severe corrosion of the battery compartments if any liquid happens to run under the feeder (hello, convenient nearby water bowl!). Also, the failure of a critical component of the food tray rotation mechanism due to apparent plastic fatigue is a possible red flag for lower quality material.
What kind of routine maintenance is required for the feeder?
The feeder requires very little maintenance beyond occasionally cleaning the meal tray just as you would with any other meal dish. The round meal tray is easily removed for this task when needed. The C cell batteries need periodic replacement when they run down; but we have only needed to do this once in quite a few months of use. Greater routine supervision is required for the QPets feeder to help ensure that any liquid spills are noticed and cleaned up should they run under the QPets feeder and threaten the underside battery compartments.
CONCLUSION:
The QPets 6 meal automatic pet feeder is an economical adjunct feeder that can complement another, more reliable primary feeder. Less reliable than the PetSafe Eatwell feeder, it probably should not be relied upon as a primary pet feeder during a trip.
CHECK OUT MY REVIEWS OF OTHER AUTOMATIC CAT CARE APPLIANCES
PetSafe Simply Clean self-cleaning litter box
PetSafe Eatwell 5 Meal Automatic Pet Feeder
Westlink 6l automatic pet feeder
PetSafe Drinkwell pet fountain