If I'm rating the feeder along I'd rate it at 4 stars, but when you consider the customer service these guys have shown its a solid five. We actually bought two machines (one for each dog) and have had them for over a year. Here are my observations.
- It does what it is supposed to do - dogs food comes out like clockwork.
- There is a blue button you can push to dispense food. If you have toddlers you need to disable this button (easily done through the app). Our 2 year old was pushing the button to get snacks, and our beagle learned to paw the button to feed himself.
- Shortly after buying the feeders we came home and found one feeder knocked over, lid popped off, and the dog gorging themselves. We ended up making a wood cover for the lid and getting some nylon strap and buckles to make a spill/chew proof cover (see picture). From what I understand the new model has a "pet proof lid". Haven't seen the improvements, but this was not a deal-breaker for me as the home made fix seemed to do the trick.
- We originally planned on leaving the feeders unsupervised in the basement with the dogs, but they would compete for food. We ended up leaving the feeders in our kitchen and just let the dogs in for meal time. This is more of a pet psychology issue than a feeder issue, but we bought with the idea that we could go out of town for a weekend and the dogs would be taken care of on their own - that isn't the case (again, not the fault of the feeder but just a lesson we learned). The feeder is still helpful because food dispenses and we just have a neighbor come over and let the dogs into the kitchen, they eat, then the neighbor heads home. No portioning and its quick and easy and the neighbors don't resent us (at least we hope not).
- Food bowl is a bit shallow, so if you don't have spherical food it can tend to back up a bit. This needs a design solution of a deeper bowl. As it backs up it puts pressure on the wheel inside the machine that dispenses the food and the flaps on the wheel tend to tear and break over time. That said, customer support has replaced the parts when the wheel wore out. Additionally I received an email today that their latest version has a feeder wheel made of stronger material. Happy to say I have one on the way.
[Edit - learned they have an wedge type platform available. After a quick call to support they sent it out to me (no charge for the platform, shipping or anything. Again, awesome customer service!) The has completely resolved the issue I was seeing with food backing up.]
- One drawback yet to be addressed is the inability to have multiple units controlled from one phone. With two dogs and two feeders, I have one dog's machine on my phone and my wife has the other dog's on hers. Waiting for an upgrade to the app that lets each of us see what's happening. Currently unresolved, but not a big issue. [edit: after a call with customer support I learned this is being worked on with a target of fall 2017 for release]
- Petnet has servers that run as the intermediary between you and the device. You can't connect directly to the device and must have an internet connection. In the early days there were some problems where their servers went down but they quickly resolved this and were very transparent in the issue and the resolution. Have not had any server problem since then.
- It can only connect to 2.4GHz network, it will not connect to 5GHz. Not a big deal, most home routers that have 5GHz also have the 2.4, but its good to know.
- On the few occasions I have had issues their customer support has been phenomenal. Whatever the issue they go above and beyond to make sure things are working and I'm happy.
Again, the device I originally bought I would give four stars, but when considering their customer support its a solid five. I learned today there is a new model out which I am anxiously waiting to get which according to their email has: Stronger material for the feeder wheel, better bowl connection, pet proof lid, and they relocated the charging port.
I would've definitely give this a 5 star rating, because i love it! It's been a couple of months and it works fine.
As a new owner, unfamiliar with this device, it took me a few tries to get the setup right. You can tell the setup is designed to be super easy. The base send out a strobing light signal that your phone has to pick up by you placing the phone's screen facing the base.
It's a relatively easy setup, but i failed many times. I later did some research on the Petnet website and read that you cannot have any sort of screen protector on your phone for this to work. I would've had to remove the screen protector and buy a new one. Luckily i have a phone for my job, without a screen protector, so i was able to complete the setup with it.
The App is pretty amazing. When you make a profile for your pet, you can enter your pet's age, weight, and activity level based on the options in the app, and the app will suggest how much food you should feed your pet and how many times a day. You no longer have to worry about portions. Needless to say the ability of programming this is great. My cat no longer wakes me up to eat. She hears the sound of the feeder dispensing food and runs to it at 7:00am.
You can feed your pet an additional time from anywhere as long as you have Wifi or Cell Data to access your app.
The feeder does jam sometimes depending on the food. I feed my cat Blue Wilderness Blue Buffalo dry food, and every once in a while i get a message: "Luna was only fed a partial feeding because there is a jam in your feeder, please clear the jam". All you have to is stick a finger or utensil where the food comes from and it'll clear. If you buy food from a brand that makes smaller bits you'll be fine, i just think the Blue Buffalo stuff is the best in terms of ingredients.
If the servers are down, don't worry, your pet won't starve. If you've scheduled feeding times, they will go on as normal, but you won't have access to the app if you wanted to provide an additional feeding portion.
I hope this helps!
Fantastic product all around! For the tl;dr approach, skip right to the conclusion at the end.
1. The Unboxing:
This company has its stuff together in a big way. It's rare that you find a product so neatly and efficiently packed but not to a point where you have to spend hours putting it together. I approached the box with hestitation thinking to myself "Ok, I need to set aside some time to do this". Not the case at all! You can literally have this out of the box and put together in 2 minutes if you wanted.
2. Phone/Device Set up:
You actually do this before final assembly because you need to work with the bowl. First you have to download the app to your phone -- easy. Then using the app you scan the code on the bottom of the plastic bowl base -- also easy. Using the app, once you enter your pet's info you can enter your wifi details into the app and then the real magic happens. You're thinking to yourself "oh god, don't tell me I have to do some weird wifi access point or bluetooth thing"... nope! You actually hold your phone against a sensor in the bowl base and it blinky flashes all your wifi info to the petnet device. Mind. Blown. It worked right away. Why can't all home devices have a blinky setup?!
3. Food set up:
I wasn't expecting this at all but in hindsight it makes perfect sense. You actually input your pet food into the app. They actually have a surprisingly large database of foods but if you're like me you use one of the very mainstream kibbles. If you buy super specialty kibble then based on the size of the list in the app I wouldn't be surprised if they have you covered as well -- I have not tested this theory though. I'm not sure exactly how the kibble type plays into things but I'm pretty sure it's one of two things (or both): A. It knows the actual kibble size so it can accurately measure your feeding, and/or B. It factors in nutritional content to properly feed your pet base on it's weight, activity level, etc.
3. Assembly:
There was so little assembly required! You literally take the bowl base, insert the stainless steel bowl into the base, and plug it into the base of the hopper. At first I didn't actually realize that the stainless steel bowl went into the plastic base -- I thought the plastic base WAS the bowl. Ooops! This mistake cost me 30 seconds. Otherwise a very simple setup.
4. Manual feed mode:
I like this mode since I like to be around my dog when it's feeding time. More importantly, I bought the petnet for this very feature. It's really important for me to regulate my dog's food since he is a working dog and I need to pay very close attention to his eating habits. I set the manual feed mode size to feed him half his daily intake (1.5 cups each feeding). Now I just press the manual button in the morning after his walk and then again in the evening. I'm the obsessive type so I measured the dispensed food to make sure it was accurate and I can assure you that the device is incredibly accurate. The petnet app makes it very easy to turn manual mode on and off. In my case I didn't really care but I'm sure there are situations where you want to lock this feature out in case you have trigger happy kids around or a really smart pet.
5. Auto feeding mode:
I can't say I've used this feature yet. I'm sure it's very helpful and a huge selling feature for many users but I'm not quite there yet. Manual mode is more than enough to keep me happy!
Conclusion:
I'm super impressed with this device. It's very well built and not one bit gross looking like some of the feeders and waterers out there. Why on earth would a company make a pet food hopper out of clear plastic?? Petnet had the foresight to make it black so that it never looks dirty. A+ on that one!
Best of all, I no longer have to get out the measuring cup or, god forbid, a kitchen scale to measure out my dog's food. One button push is all I need. This may not apply to everyone but I also save myself a trip to the food closet each day since the food is stored right where he's eating in the petnet hopper.
I love this feeder. It works well and was super easy to set up. We have two bengal cats and they both eat out of the same bowl with no problems. My only complaint is that the food wouldn't make it all the way down to the bowl without being elevated. The cats would eat the food in the bowl but what didn't make it in would get stuck in the chute. They know its there and try to stick their paws in the chute to pull the food out. I ended up putting a 1.5" binder underneath the entire unit which solved the problem. The binder keeps it balanced but provides the extra force the food needs to continue to move down as whats in the bowl is eaten.
The people who had problems with set up must be technologically challenged because I had it set up in about 5 minutes, it was insanely easy and has worked since say one. The app is great, it even tells you about the quality of the food you buy.
If they could fix the issue with the chute I would easily give it 5 stars.
I’ve had this feeder for 4 months now, and I’m very happy with it. I have it set to 1/16 cups 4 times a day for my cat, and she’s a healthy weight again. I might have had a very mild glitch a few times in the beginning, but it seems that after a month or so it worked it’s own kinks out.
The packaging was very sleek, and the set up was a bit challenging as I had to YouTube to see how to place the phone over the sensors, but once it was connected to the WiFi I haven’t had to do that again, and it wasn’t enough trouble to put me off on the product.
The app is very user-friendly, notifies you when your pet has been fed, or hasn’t. It lets me know when the food is low— I love that. I did try it with a food it doesn’t recognize in the app once, and it wasn’t able to tell me the levels, but still fed her just fine.
My favorite feature is my cat no longer sees me as food source, thereby no longer begs me for food all day. Instead she just goes to look at the feeder and then loses interest. Perhaps it’s the frequency of feedings that stopped the begging? Or perhaps it’s knowing she can’t influence the machine? Either way we are both happy!
Feature Product
- 2017 new and improved SmartFeeder features include a stronger feeding wheel, better bowl connection
- All purchases include an offer for a free SmartFeeder ramp, designed for kibbles that need help sliding into the bowl. (shipped from Petnet after product registration)
- Using the Petnet app you can personalize food portions and automate your pet's meal schedule
- Get notifications for meals served, low food, delivery updates and more
- Sign-up for SmartDelivery and have your pet's food delivered - SmartDelivery is still in beta and not all food recipes are available yet
Description
We believe the best nutrition for your pet is personalized. Petnet will help you make intelligent decisions when it comes to your pet's food -- bringing you joy while keeping your pets healthy and happy. The SmartFeeder will help you manage feeding times, portion sizes, proper ingredients, and have your pet's food delivered right to your doorstep.
Update 22-FEB-2016:
I've had this feeder for 4 months and wanted to provide an update.
My home network has been having trouble lately. It's often out. Some of my WiFi connected devices have to be completely reloaded. Not the case with this feeder. I get a notification on my phone that the Petnet feeder is offline. Then, when it finally comes back, it reconnects. I've not had to do anything to update it.
One product suggestion is to have a clear stripe on the hopper so I can see how much is left when I look. I get notification it's low but if there were a "coffee pot" type indicator I could tell at a glance what's left.
We love the feeder - no reservations. Would buy it again in a heartbeat.
Original Post:
I travel a LOT for my job and my neighbors were getting a little tired of being on the hook to feed my cat twice a day.
I heard about this feeder from a friend and decided to buy one.
It comes in bullet proof packaging. I think the proverbial gorilla delivery person could chuck it over the fence onto a cement slab and no harm would come to it. Very impressive.
It's relatively easy to set up with the instructions provided.
I like the Petnet app that goes on my iPhone. It gives me real time updates and allows me to change the feeding schedule and quantity of food dispensed. I was a little worried about connectivity since my ISP periodically drops service so my wifi goes down. The Petnet app tells me when the service goes down but recovers automatically when the wifi is active again.
I installed the feeder a week or two before the daylight savings time switch over. It took an extra day but automatically switched over.
I still have a neighbor look in on the cat because the water bowl needs to be changed every couple of days and the SmartFeeder does not pet and scratch my cat in just the right places (at least not yet, maybe version 2?). She had to look in the hopper a couple of times, which the Petnet app alerted me to and I was able to tell her I would be notified if the hopper was low.
I have a remote pan and tilt camera that allows me to see food in the tray after it's dispensed and I can see if it's getting eaten.
I believe Petnet now offers a camera that will record when the pet is eating! (haven't tried this).
My only complaint is the food doesn't freely slide down the chute, it gets backed up. It doesn't get jammed, it just doesn't all slide into the tray. Everything else being equal it only matters on the first feeding (which will be short) after that, the food that lands in the tray is approximately what was dispensed, but there is a column of food that is not pushed out all the way out.
My neighbor who looks in on my cat is so impressed with this that now she wants one. But she has several cats so she may want several. I'm officially giving Petnet notice that I want a commission for all that I sell !!!
I'm thinking of getting a couple of these as Christmas presents for my daughters, both of whom have pets (who hopefully won't read this review...). The fact that I would gladly buy two more for my girls is the real testament of how much I like it!
Modern looking, easily programmable, cat cannot break into it( a door opens inside and the food drops down and then door closes). My cat breaks into everything and she cannot get into this one. App will warn you when the food hopper is getting low. There is a manual feed button on the front of the unit(which you can disable in the app if your pet learns how to use it). You can deliver a minimum of 1/16 of a cup. The app will send you a notification if the food runs out, there is a jam, or if the unit becomes disconnected "offline". You can also use the app to feed on demand(unscheduled). Stainless steel food bowl is easily removable to clean. Food storage hopper is also dishwasher safe. You must use the app to program and manage the feeder and you must have wifi for the unit to remain connected to. Eight hour battery life if you lose power. Plugs in with supplied micro usb cord and plug. I have used the Ergo Auto pet feeder for the past 6 years, and replaced it 3 times, and this Petnet SmartFeeder is the only quality auto feeder on the market and it comes with a 2 year limited warranty.
I have had this unit for about 4 months, put it through it paces. It is in need of improvements, but overall did what I needed it to do. Waited until now to write this, as I wanted to test it under several conditions.
The Good
1) it delivers a close to accurate amount of food for my cat.
2) feeds at times I want it to, helps curve his eating habits - lessens the over eating
3) large hopper, hold enough food for a long time. For me, about 10-13 days worth at a time.
4) you send in for the upgraded mounting base, with out it - the food does not dispense properly - but it is free
5) the over ride option is nice, let you give a little bit more - programmable amount - on command
6) Easy to take apart and clean
7) updates are sent to your phone, so you know when your feeding times are - and they did deliver
NOW the bad
1) requires power from the included adapter - no battery backup
2) if no power when feeding time occurs, it is missed, but you get a warning from the app on your phone
3) on a loss of internet, the same as if it is unplugged -
4) requires the wifi, as it gets its commands on line - no program in unit, this is company goes belly up, so does the feeder
5) Original set up is confusing - took me several times trial/error before I got it right.
6) as mentioned in the good - it did not come with the angle base - you have to go online and order it, even though it came quickly, it should of been in the box as with out it - food will not dispense properly.
7) The app tracks the amount of food you use, this is for their benefit, not yours. They try to sell you their food plans, this can be good, but rather use my own sources.
8) when the food hopper is empty, no warning of it. You would think they could track this better. There is a section in the app to set the level when you fill it. Found this worthless, but still set it.
Overall - this is a good unit, I like it as it controls the feeding amount to my fat cat. If they could actually program the unit, making it stand alone, it would be so much better. Instead - they control it remotely, no way of going around it. I still would suggest this over other units I looked at, just make sure the limitations listed about will not be a problem. 3.5 stars would be a closer rating, 1.5 stars knocked off for them having control of it.
They seemed to have fixed the issues with the slope of the bowl. The unit I received sits a bit higher and has a very aggressive drop for the kibble. I've had the feeder running autonomously for a few weeks now without issue.
Overall I'm pretty impressed. It feels solidly constructed, made of quality materials. Assembly was simple enough I didn't need to look at the instructions. Their app is polished and over all a good user experience. Once it was connected to wifi, I was able to set up feed times and amounts. I also get phone notifications when it feeds my cat (or fails to). Which is reassuring when I'm away for the weekend.
This seems minor, but the biggest selling point of this particular device is my cat can't reach up inside and claw out food. I've tried other automatic feeders and my cats end up treating it like a food pinata. Pawing out 3-4 kibble at a time for hours. Which is both annoying and defeats the purpose. This product guards fairly well against this type of attack.
My only complaint is I can't see a historical list of successful (or unsuccessful) feeds. In the app you can only view yesterday, today and tomorrow.
This product functions as described, and hasn't allowed my cat extra servings between feedings. My cat managed to outsmart the other programmable brand I purchased 3 years ago by using his paw to acquire extra food. The functionality is great, however the amount of the feedings seem to be too generous. I had to reprogram from the recommended amount down to 1/16 cup (the lowest amt) to actually get what I need to feed him. I programmed his Science Diet Sensitive Stomach brand, as a lazy cat, and his weight so I did follow the instructions. I like the battery backup feature which is built into the design so no batteries are needed to buy or potentially leak in the future. The last point I will mention is my unit was described as the new improved model, but I had to order the free ramp separately instead of being in the box, as I thought. Minor inconvenience though. Overall seems to work great.
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