PetSafe Smart Feed Automatic Dog and Cat Feeder, Smartphone, 24-Cups (5 678 ml) Wi-Fi Enabled App for iPhone and Android

This has been such a game changer for us a family. We have two cats and were forever having to ask neighbours to pop in over weekends when we were away to see family. This pet feeder has changed all that and means we can nip away for weekends safe in the knowledge that the cats will be fed at their normal meal times and we won't continue to take our neighbours helpfulness for granted.The feeder itself is about the size of two large cereal boxes put together and bowl is large enough for two cats to feed from at the same time. We use James Wellbeloved dry food in our feed and a full hopper lasted for about 2 weeks. You'll also need to purchase 4 D Cell batteries which the manufacturer states will last approximately 1 year of constant use.Setting up the feeder was rather simple, the instructions were clear and simple to follow. The only onerous task was to work out how much food to dispense at each meal time as different cat food weighs differently. I got round this my weighing a number of portions dispensed and then worked out from that how many portions required to feed our two cats at their meal times. (for us it was 4 portions per meal time). The slow feed option is really great, especially for our two cats as it means that the meal time is spread over 15mins so it gives ample time for both cats to eat the correct amount.Cleaning of the parts is easy enough and the lid has a decent lid so curious cats or dogs shouldn't be able to lift it off, also the machine is heavy enough not to be knocked over.This is a fantastic feeder that will pay for itself over and over again as we will not have to pay for expensive boarding for our cats when we are on holiday.On a side note look out for this on amazon warehouse deals, we managed to get ours, not in an original box mind, for 70GBP. A steal if you ask me.

I researched pretty thoroughly before making this purchase and although I haven't actually used any of the others, my guess is that this product is probably best in class.It isn't perfect, anything with this many variables is not going to be 100% reliable.Bottom line, would I trust this thing to feed my cat (who I'm very, very fond of) while I go away for a long weekend? Yes I would.ConstructionThe product is of sturdy and deliberate construction. I've only had it a month but I expect it will last a good amount of time. The actual moving parts, an "agitator" that stirs the cast biscuits and pushes then onto the conveyor belt and the conveyor itself have been kept as simple as possible but ultimately these are the weak points of the design, especially the agitator, which can jam if not cared for properly. This happened to me, after the first bag of food I'd put into the machine ran out, somehow the agitator got jammed as a few biscuits fell down either side of it and no food was dispensed until I realised what had happened. How it happened I'm still not sure but care must be taken I guess, either when refilling, or when the supply gets low. I haven't had any other problems related to the construction.ProgrammabilityI'd give the product 5 stars here. There are preprogrammed settings that will dispense food of a certain amount at a certain time, or one can programme it to dispense food of any amount and at as many intervals as one chooses. This is a really good feature and allows one to fine tune the machine as much as desired.Cat proofnessMy cat has yet to launch an assualt on the machine but I'm guessing it will be robust enough to deter some attackers but not all. It's a pretty good design, hard to knock over and hard to get into (from a feline point of view) but some cats are probably more than a match for it.Portion sizeIt's worth saying a few words about portion size. The machine works by pushing biscuits onto a segmented conveyor belt system, each segment is presumed to have a certain biscuit capacity in millilitres and the user programmes it to dispense a certain number of millilitres per serving. So in theory, all one has to do is work out how many millilitres of biscuits one's cat requires each day (weigh food and then put it in a measuring jug) and then divide this by the number of servings one plans to dispense. This works in theory and sometimes in practice but not always. Quite often, the machine will dispense less food than programmed, simply because less food falls from the hopper onto the conveyor belt than is required to occupy each segment. The best way around this is to to programme the machine to dispense slightly more food than is required, although then the risk is that cat becomes obese, at least if it is anything like mine.The other issue is that if you buy biscuits of a different size you'll need to reprogramme the machine because millilitres does not necessarily correspond with weight.Ease of useThis is an old school machine. If you have a logical mind you'll be just fine as the instructions are thorough and coherent but do not expect it to be 'intuitive'.ValueIt's a bit pricey isn't it? I certainly would have preferred it if the 'optional' power supply had been supplied free of charge but it has so far worked fine with batteries (also not supplied) and these apparently will last a year.OverallFour stars. We'll have to wait for the machine learning Revolution before we have a cat feeder that can check to ensure it has actually dispensed the right number of biscuits, raise the alarm when it has a problem etc. For now I suspect this is the best there is.

We have two cats, one who is currently still growing, and another who was gaining weight. We researched automated feeding options that would help us track the amount of food they were getting, and decided to purchase this model.It has been over a month and we are happy with the decision. It holds a lot of food, isn’t easy to break into or knock over, and isn’t hard to program. You can schedule up to 12 meals, and these are not difficult to reschedule if you need to adjust the amount or time (which we have done a few times already).The cats find it easier to share and eat when the food falls to a flat surface, so we didn’t connect the bowl and instead used it as a water dish.Our cats were previously free-fed and have taken to the schedule well. Our older cat is no longer gaining weight, and it’s amusing to see the kitten run to the food before the rest of us even hear the motor.Overall, this is exactly the solution we were looking for. While it isn’t the nicest looking machine, it works well and has been dependable.