Why did we buy an automatic feeder?
Necessity prompted our family to buy an automatic pet feeder when we needed to take a road trip which would last many days. We had tried gravity-type self-feeders in the past with less than stellar results, so we decided to try out some of the new breed of automatic feeders. Our first purchase was the PetSafe Eatwell 5-meal automatic feeder, which has proven to be a rock solid performer from the very first day.
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.
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 Eatwell automatic feeder work?
The PetSafe Eatwell feeder is basically a round bowl split up into 5 partitions. A lid covers 4 of the 5 partitions, exposing just one partition of food at a time. At whatever time you program into it, the unit will rotate 1/5 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 5 days worth of meals.
How do you set up the Eatwell feeder?
The PetSafe Eatwell feeder is nearly ready to go right out of the box. PetSafe places everything underneath the protective lid which swings upward off the top of the unit. The Eatwell takes 4 D 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 Eatwell is reasonably heavy with its four D cell batteries and it is low profile, so it has proven resistant to being flipped over so far. The snap down lid has also not yet been pried open by any of our cats to date.
How reliable is the feeder?
We have not had any problems whatsoever with the Eatwell unit. If you program it correctly, it will rotate its meal tray without fail at the time you selected for 5 consecutive meals. The unit warns against overfilling the tray, which it says can cause the meal rotation to malfunction; but this has so far not been an issue for us. The four D cells are very long lived in our unit, with the unit operating for several months on a set of batteries.
What are the shortcomings of this feeder?
The Eatwell feeder precisely delivers a very specific product: exactly 5 meals at a specific time (or times). Once the fifth meal is delivered, it is done. Since you cannot specify a delayed start date for the first meal, you are by design limited to a maximum of 5 days of meals max. If you have a longer trip than 5 days, you are going to have to look at a different feeder (see the reviews for the QPets 6-meal automatic pet feeder and the Westlink 6l automatic pet feeder below).
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 D 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.
CONCLUSION:
The PetSafe Eatwell automatic feeder has been a solid performer that we have come to rely upon whenever we are away for short trips. The 5 meal tray places a distinct limit on the number of meals provided; but it does so very reliably once set up.
CHECK OUT MY REVIEWS OF OTHER AUTOMATIC CAT CARE APPLIANCES
PetSafe Simply Clean self-cleaning litter box
QPets 6-meal automatic pet feeder
Westlink 6l automatic pet feeder
PetSafe Drinkwell pet fountain