Current USA Aquachef Auto Fish Feeder
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Current USA Aquachef Auto Fish Feeder
Customer Review: Either feeds too much or too little + other problems
Summary: 2 Stars
I had high hopes when I bought this feeder but have been disappointed.
The biggest problem is that I can't get it to feed my fish a proper amount. It has a little dial to adjust how much food gets dumped in, and the dial ranges from 0-5. At setting 3, the fish hardly get fed and the most aggressive ones gobble it up in 10 seconds (I have a heavily stocked 55 gallon freshwater community tank). At setting 4, a huge load of food goes in and instantly becomes a sinking cloud.
I tried keeping the setting at 3 and programming it to feed more often, but the greedy aggressive fish just eat everything while the slower/dumber ones get nothing at all.
I tried hand grinding the flake food into smaller pieces (guessing that larger flakes are clogging it), but this also did not help. The pieces after grinding were about 2-3mm, and the results are same: setting 3 too little, setting 4 way too much.
Another complaint (as mentioned by other people) is the clamp isn't big enough. My tank has a plastic rim that is 7/8" thick and the clamp will fit (at maximum) a 3/4" thickness. I was able to shave down my rim with a razor blade, but other people may not have this option. This is really too bad because I couldn't find another auto feeder than seemed to have such a sturdy way to mount it!
Yet another problem: the drum has a trap door that drops open when it rotates. My water level was so high that the trap would drop in the water, then come back up and dribble a little water into the drum! Obviously this is -not good- with dry flake food. I had to drop my water level by 1/2" to fix this.
Lastly, it is hard to program. The buttons (Mode, Adjust, and Set) are very unintuitive and don't work as you would expect. And I'm a very tech savvy person.
I bought this feeder because I'm going on a long trip (7 weeks) and was hoping to not have to pay someone to feed the fish. I've been trying it out for over a week now and am giving up on it.
Your mileage may vary. Maybe if you have a smaller tank with less fish, you can get it to feed to right amount (maybe).
Customer Review: I like it, I like it a lot *
Summary: 4 Stars
My wife and I are big fish lovers and also like to travel, weather permitting. We have three aquariums in our home. A 30 gal, a 20 gal, and a 10 gal fry tank. I work 5 days a week and come weekends we are out of here. Purchased a $40.00 auto feeder from a local Pet supply store and it worked for 20 minutes and quit. They replaced it and the same thing happened so we got our money back and purchased the AquaChef to feed the 30 gallon tank. Set it up and let it feed the fish in the 30 gallon tank for several days to see how it worked. Its hell to program if you don't read the instructions. If you go thru them once step by step and it rather simple. My 12 year old granddaughter programmed it in about 5 minutes the first time but did not understand military time so had it feeding at the wrong time but working very well. I helped her with the time setting and it began feeding flawlessly. With the exception of the fry tank, they all will have one of these on it. Don't let the instructions scare you, my granddaughter didn't. Going to purchase several more by my aquariums and my daughters. I love it !!!
UPDATE:
Mounting the device with the clamping device is rather simple. The C clamp will attach to the front of all aquariums. Do this: place the device close to a lightbulb for 10 minutes to get the plastic more pliable. Not close enough to melt it however. Now remove the rubber suction cup from the inside of the clamp. This should be put away for future use. Use the non-hook side of the velcroe which is just a soft buffer for the glass. Place it where you want the feeder. Now slide the clamp down till it hits the inside of the plastic and gently open the clamp a small amount. It will spring back, no problem. Do not overdue the spreading of the clamp and do it slowely. Now the inside protion will go directly against the glass and the screw can be turned in against the velcroe. Tight and secure. Works extremely well.
Customer Review: Excellent Product
Summary: 3 Stars
Works but not that well. Set it up to feed a 33 gallon long marine aquarium for a week while I was on vacation. I do like the way the drum rotates completely all the way around at once to dump food, some feeders use a slow turning of a drum to time the addition of food. Setup of the timer is just more complex than it should be. I used the included Velcro to mount the feeder to the top of a wood canopy where the flakes were to fall into a section I cut out for the hang-on-tank protein skimmer to fit in. Upon pulling the drum off to add flakes the plastic backing of the drum pulled out and bent(not good)although I was able to get it almost back into position when I put the drum back on. Also, when I returned the feeder had leaned over off the Velcro so that it was out of optimal position and the flakes weren't falling as they should. My fish lived but I wouldn't trust it again.
EDIT: I gave this product another try when going on vacation for two weeks this October 2007. When set up properly and filled properly this feeder works with out fail. I secured the feeder to a strip of scrap wood screwed into the tank hood so that it had to stay in place. I also filled the drum through the discharge hole instead of pulling the drum off. My fish were still fat and happy on my return. Can't be beat for the price. 5 Stars. If you lose the instructions for setting feeding times you can go to the link below for a complete on line copy.
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Customer Review: Please Read an Honest Review
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought the Aquachef before going away on a vacation, as most people do. Some things I first noticed; programming is a bit ambiguous, but I figured it out; the device feels like it's going to break when you pull the drum off to fill it (there's no release, you just pull it), and the supply door is just a bent plastic fold, not really a door (mine is already starting to break), and the "clamp" was too narrow to get over either of my tank rims (they are regular plastic frames), I had to cut off the screw clamp and rely on the velcro to hold it on, it leans at an angle with the velcro barely holding it in place.
I have had it for about nine months now, it periodically loses all power, you have to bang it go get the display to come back on, all programming gets lost. If you disturb the machine (for instance when trying to pull the drum off) it loses power. Today, I noticed that the feeding latch was in the wrong position, after hitting manual feed a few times, I saw that the drum only goes around 180 degrees, not 360, so the feeding latch only lets food out every other cycle. I changed the batteries, re-programmed it, and it still only goes half way around.
Basically, it's junk. When I first noticed it losing power, I bought another brand as a back-up and I have both running. That feeder isn't much higher quality. I would love to find a high quality, reliable feeder.
Customer Review: Why pay $45 for an Ehiem?
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a very well designed and reliable feeder that has only a few design flaws. With a bit of wear, the battery cover pops off easily resulting in the batteries falling out and the feeder programming getting lost. To prevent this I simply added a bit of tape :) The mounting bracket is also pretty useless unless you have a rimless tank with less than 1/2" glass, but velcro or double sided tape works just as well for mounting. The feeding is also pretty dependent on how full the hopper is if you use flake food. To get more consistent feeding amounts, I would recommend using pellet food. The battery powered operation is also kind of a problem IMO, but you can fix that easily by simply replacing the batteries with NiCad rechargeables and wiring in a 3V solar cell in parallel (edit - MAKE SURE YOU USE A DIODE!)(I don't see why feeders aren't solar powered yet - they're low power machines in high light enviornments and it would only be like a 20 cent increase in manufacturing cost... maybe this will be common in a few years?). The only other problem I can think of is that it's kind of bulky, but that problem probably seems amplified to me considering I'm running it on a 2.5 gallon nano. With these few modifications, you'll get a feeder that's more reliable than an Ehiem with a larger food capacity for half the price. Enjoy!