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13 of 13 found the following review helpful:
 Poorly designed, but it did feed my cat Nov 03, 2007
By Whiskers McFur
I bought this originally to feed my young cat (9 months) while I was away for a long weekend. I went with the medium size for more capacity, and I had heard people recommend it no matter how big your animal is. The product itself works great; I've never had any issues and my cat is always fed at the same time.
The primary issue with this feeder is the opening. Almost everyone had said the cover was insufficient and the animal would either chew it off or constant try to get more food out of the hole. Knowing this, I planned on using the common remedy of a plastic bottle top, duct taped to the front, with the bottom cut out to allow food to fall. This was about as useful as the original cap. I rescued a cat from a shelter, who originally came from a household with too many pets, where I imagined there was competition for food. Even at the shelter, food is only given in doses at certain times. So when it comes to food, Maurice is ravenous. He has climbed walls, raided entire cupboards, constantly rips through the garbage, and will attack my plate when I eat, or jump onto food left out within seconds.
This posed a problem, as he could see the food and smell it, and he would always push for more food. Several times he ripped through multiple layers of duct tape within minutes of having my back turned, including the plastic that covered the hole. After this, he would attack the feeder until it gave him more food, rendering it useless if it ended up on its side. Don't get the wrong impression, Maurice is incredibly friendly, loves to be pet, and bugs everyone he meets to pet him. But food is his only limited resource, and he devotes his life to it.
4 months later, I am still struggling to find a foolproof system to stop his attempts and success. I have entirely replaced the front of the feeder with an angled piece of PVC pipe, cut and fused to the plastic housing. The end is capped, with only a piece missing to allow food out. This has effectively stopped him from accessing the stored food. The feeder is duct taped to the leg of a table, which he continually chews at in an attempt to free the feeder in order to knock it around and occasionally get a few pieces of food out. He will also run into the feeder or the table to shake it, also to possibly get a piece of food out.
In the end, the feeder is mechanically sound and reliable thus far, and the screw top is secure. The front will likely need a replacement unless your pet is lazy or used to free feeding. What you need to consider most is how your pet will react to being fed by a machine, and how they will handle food being ever-present, even if it is not accessible. I have a feeling the cat/man battle of wits will continue in my home for some time until I reach a permanent solution, so ask yourself: will simplicity lead to only more problems in a frustrating attempt to feed your pet? Buy this feeder, but only if it is right for your pet, and if you get it from another site, because amazon overcharges.
Edit: Not two years after the purchase date, my motor has died. The product worked without issue the entire time. I never did reach an agreement with my cat.
As a expert on electrical motors, I did some research. The motor is designed for long life (7500 hours) and continuous use. At 22 months, running for 4 15-second periods every day, this motor lasted 11 hours. Why did this motor last 0.14% of its rated life? It is designed for continuous use, not multiple starts/stops. This is an absolutely terrible choice in equipment and truly shows how poorly this product is designed, and how little this company cares.
So to summarize my findings on this product: It is expensive, the plastic housing is of low quality, it is not durable, and they use a motor not suited to the application, which will lead you to early catastrophic failure. This product was intended to feed an animal, but it was not designed to start/stop several times a day or to keep curious/hungry animals out.
I am going with a Super-Feed this time. Their products are more reasonably priced, are designed for durability, have many customizable options, and that good old made-in-the-USA quality and customer service.
29 of 34 found the following review helpful:
 Very poorly designed Oct 07, 2005
By M. Rohde
The biggest problem with this item is unreliability: it does NOT dispense food in a predictable manner; in fact the last time we used it, the entire contents of the jar was dispensed. Naturally, the dog ate the whole ten pounds of food. This is not acceptable performance from a product that is supposed to prevent overeating and bloat.
Prior to using unattended, we filled and programmed it as described, and measured the amount of food dispensed each day. What should have been one cup of dry food ranged between five kernels and two cups.
As it comes from the factory, there are many sharp edges in the area where your dog would lick, to get at the food -- these had to be filed and sanded smooth to prevent injury. The bowl is advertised as being easy to remove: too easy. We had to secure it with heavy tape to keep our dog from knocking it loose while eating.
Worst of all, there is no recourse for the unhappy customer; the seller has a policy of refusing to accept returns on an item that has been used, despite the above design flaws.
We certainly will not use it again and run the risk of another emergency trip to the veterinarian for a dog that has eaten too much food.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Great for busy people Aug 26, 2006
By R. Robinson
"pet lover"
Pros:
I origianlly bought the larger food dispenser for my 2 cats when I went away last year on vacation. It made it easier for the pet sitter and I knew they were being fed the right amount. Working full time and going to school full time makes it difficult to always feed my pets on time. Now with this feeder, all my little guys are fed 4 small meals daily. It was really easy to set up & I will be getting another small one for my new puppy.
Cons:
Trial and error with food amounts (it dispenses based on time, not amount of food, which varies depending on kibble size.) My cats became wise to where the food comes out and broke off the cap that covers where the food dispenses from by pawing at it to get the food out (this was only held in place by small plastic pins on a hinge). I just taped it back on and it works well now, but the cap will not keep a cat from getting its paw under where the food comes out from. They only get a few kibbles, so it woulnd not be a big deal unless your cat has diet restrictions. The convenience of the product, to me, out weighs the small flaws in design.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Not Cat Proof Dec 01, 2006
By CanManDo
I recently purchased a medium ERGO auto pet feeder. After some difficulty in understanding how to get the timer working, the directions are poor and the the buttons on the timer are not correctly marked, I got it working.
All went well until on the second day of operation. I went downstairs to check on the feeder and the cat. Low and behold the cat had inserted his paw into the feeder spout and was shaking out cat food pellets. He would eat them and then repeat the operation. I then put my finger into the feeder spout and was able to shake the feeding device and get out cat food pellets.
Needless to say this was not what I was lead to believe in the product advertising. Failure to make the feeder cat proof is a major design flaw. My cat is no Albert Einstein, so this will be a problem for others.
6 of 7 found the following review helpful:
 Wonderful! Once the timing is set right Jun 20, 2006
By K. Caro
"Klynn"
I bought this for my diabetic cat, and after setting it up I found the product to be a wonderful help to her feedings. Only once did it feed too much, but I found that it was MY mistake in the settings, not the product. 20 seconds dispensed 1/8 cup of food (this depends on kernell size) and she had feedings set for every 4 hours round the clock. This helped to stabalize her blood sugar, knowing when and how much she ate. I highly recommend this product, but also recommend patience and double checking the settings prior to just leaving the animal unattended with the dish. I would buy one again, as it is well worth the money spent. Mine has worked great for over 2 years with little adjustments other than cleaning.
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