Hi all, I found this company in Joburg that sell automatic feeders for R599 including postage. Does anyone have any experience with this unit? According to the sales lady, she has sold many of these for feeding koi.

Heres the website link - http://www.planettrade.net/Index.asp?Action=Product_Search&Action=Automatic%20Pet%20Feeders



Suitable for small to medium sized pets
Holds up to 5kg of dry pellet style food
Pellets can be up to 1.5cm (15mm) in diameter
For use with dry pellets only
Feeding volume can be adjusted dispensing precise amounts of food
Built-in clock with easy to read LCD display making for simple operation
Built-in microphone and speaker for personalized voice recordings calling your pet at meal time, recording plays 3 times with 30 second intervals in between
User programmable feeding times up to 12 feeds per day
Takes 4 x Size “D” Batteries with a battery low indicator or alternatively power with a 6V DC Adapter (Batteries and adapter NOT included)
Moisture-proof tight sealing lid to keep food fresh for longer and insect free
Keeps food fresh for up to 99 days
Food dispensed in a screwdriver manner to prevent jamming, with a magnetic seal
Easy to clean
Various colours available (Yellow, Orange, Blue and Silver – as per picture)
Test key to check settings
Key lock feature making unit child-proof!
Dimensions of feeder: 28 x 29 x 37 cm
1 month guarantee and a 12 month warranty

At that price it looks like a bargain compared to other fish feeders and I will consider it for my farm operation. I am going to order one as an experiment and will let you know. Thanks for the link.

At my ponds however, I prefer to do the feeding myself. Feeding time is the time to observe and look for any health problems and to stay in touch with my koi to keep them tame.

Hi Wayne,

That looks very interresting and the price is really reasonable

Did the sales lady say how, this thing feeds, I read the bit about the screwdriver type setup, but does it just drop onto the little lip & roll off?

The voice recordings are novel ... lol now I can train my fish to get used to my voice even when I am away at the office

The voice recording can scare the Herons off...

BEWARE............WE ARE SHARKS!! WE EAT HERONS !!

Paul, let me know once youve got it. I want to see it in action before taking a chance. I can get another feeder that gets locally made specifically for koi for R 2500.

The lady that i have been chatting to is Colleen Bosman. I have been talking to her via skype. Her skypename is colleeenbosman .

These are her comments from my skype:

Quote:

The price is R599-00 (inclusive of postade), I will send via the post office ordinary mail.

Quote:

HI Wayne, with regards to your enquiry for the pet feeder, I forgot to mention that all my products come with a 30 day money back guarantee and a 1 year warrantee. So if you are not happy with the feeder, just send it back within a month and you'll receive a full refund.

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Hi Wayne

Sorry coming back only now.

I am staying in a townhouse complex and the body corporate never allowed
me to build the pond thus I have never used my automatic pet feeder and
can't really give you feedback

But from the looks of it, it should be working for the fish pond

You just have to note that it is not waterproof and thus you should
perhaps put it underneath an artificial rock (this was my idea
initially) or a small roof or something.

I would think it may also be beneficial not to install the unit too
close too the water. You will understand my reasoning when you see how
it works. I have played with the unit just to see if it works. And it
seems to work (myself would design the unit a bit differently - the main
principle how it works is based on drill point with "groewe" in (sorry I
don't know the English word for "groewe" (it is the cut-in of the drill
point). During the feeding times the drill point rotates and the food
are pushed along side the drill point in these "groewe" until it is push
through the outlet. (I know you will be very confused with this
description but I can't think of a better way to describe it right now)
the food portions will not be always exactly the same but you will see
what I mean when you see how the unit works). During the "non-feeding"
times the outlet where the food comes out is not sealed off due to the
food and thus it may become moist of the water damps if it is too close
to the water but if it is installed higher than 10 centimeters or so I
would think it should be fine.

Kind regards
Willem Grobbelaar

From Willem's post I think I understand exactly how the mechanics of this thing works. Basically it is augur driven. His mentioning of the portions and the exposed but undelivered food is expected from a contraption like this.

I would then think that one should install this unit in a plastic container with a good lid and mount the machine inside the container in such a way that the food is dropped into a steep shute that exits the container above water level. This will then mean that the exposed food in the machine is still protected by the container.

A shute could be made by cutting a polypipe in half ... and the actual format of the machine will dictate the dimension of the pipe to use.

Hello Wayne,

I just rushed in & out of Somerset Mall on my way home last night & Saw that there was an exibition of outamatic pet feeders just outside Dischem. Unfortunately I did not have time to stop and enquire.

These type of centre isle exhibitions usually lasts a couple of days, but I don't know when it started, from the quick look I got passing it it looks very similar to this product.

It might be worth a drive out that way to see for yourself?

Received the unit and it is working very well for koi feeding.



The food is pushed out with a screw and I am planning to install it away from the pond to keep it safe from the elements. The food will then travel through a 50mm pvc pipe to the pond.

Inside:



In the meantime I have covered it with a plastic bag to protect it from rain.

Does this company still exist? I want to order one of these units now but the website no longer exists.

Follow up.

Colleen contcted me, they still exist - just having difficulties with their webserver.