PETLIBRO Automatic Cat Feeder, Cat Food Dispenser Battery-Operated with 180-Day Battery Life, AIR Timed Pet Feeder for Cats & Dogs, 2L Auto Cats Feeder, Black

I formerly had a gravity kibble feeder, which allowed my cats unlimited access to dry Purina Cat Chow. One of my two cats is obese, so I bought this feeder to control the amount of food consumed.General impressions of the product:(a) Works great with Purina Cat Chow, and probably would with nearly all kibble foods.(b) Incredible value. This product has lots of material (molded plastic), electronics, and electromechanical elements. It is amazing to be able to purchase this at retail for around $40.(c) Seems to be well thought out in every respect. Not hard to program. Essentially, the product has a minimum portion (1/24 of a cup), and you just set times and the number of 1/24-cup portions to be dispensed at each time.I have nothing negative to say about the product. But there some thoughts:(a) I'm skeptical that the batteries would last 180 days as claimed. The device has a single LED that is always illuminated, and active electronics. I have not measured the electrical current consumption, but even at 10mA (assuming the engineers have done a REALLY good job), I calculate 150 days max. I would guess that either plan on changing the batteries 3-4 times a year, or use the batteries as a power fail backup (you can have batteries and wall power connected at the same time).(b) With my 2 cats (on a diet), the food reservoir lasts nearly two weeks. I think in a typical 1- or 2-cat household, refilling it once per week would be adequate.(c) As one other reviewer pointed out, when reassembling the portion of the product containing the moving partition that dispenses food, the locking tabs will engage in 3 positions, but only 1 position is correct (the 3 tabs are not 120 degrees apart). This is a minor gotcha. It has a reassembly (after cleaning) complexity similar to a kitchen blender.(d) The company claims to have a 2-year hassle-free warranty. Assuming that the company honors the warranty, this product is an incredible value.On a humorous note, there is a delay of a fraction of a second between when the product's motor starts (nearly silent) and when the food clanks into the stainless steel feeding bowl. I've found, after a month of exposure to the product, that one of my cats begins moving towards the feeder before I hear anything (she clearly hears the motor start). So, it has doubled as a cat hearing test. I'm convinced that one of my cats has outstanding hearing.

We had two larger feeders, one of which was a two-bowl feeder that we used with a brother & sister bonded pair while they were young. As they got older, they grew to dislike eating right next to each other (the sister is a bit of an aggressive eater), so we needed to get a new feeder for her. We tried one of these out, and loved it so much we bought two more.They're very compact in size, but fairly stable. They're also much better at stopping our aggressive eater from trying to sneak food, as with the old ones she could paw up the shoot and get some kibble to drop out. These feeders do not keep food in every chamber (every other, 3 out of 6 chambers) so she can't get food to drop down in between feedings.They were very easy to clean and set up. We are trying them with batteries to test the longevity (the description claims up to 180 days), because it's nice that we can move them if needed during company or set them up in locations without needing an outlet.The price is awesome, and these feeders are a perfect solution for us. I highly recommend giving these a try. If longevity on battery life ends up being a problem, they still come with a proper USB Cable & Block for operation plugged in without batteries. One thing the instructions don't clearly state is if batteries are installed while it's plugged in via the USB if the batteries are only used as backup...I wish that was outlined in the directions as it just describes each individual method of powering the unit. Overall, though, you can't beat the product at this price range. Our other feeders were $80 and $120 each and these are much better quality and easier to use.Update: After 1 month of use, the only con I have with these feeders is their time software is extremely off. Three times I have reset the Clocks on all three units, right next to each other on the counter, and they initially go off exactly at the the same time. After a week or so, they're all off by almost a minute, going off 30-60 seconds out of sync. I wouldn't reduce my initial rating, and the issue doesn't even matter if you only have one unit.

Great feeder! I found the set-up very easy to manage. My cat is a lot less anxious about feeding now that meals happen on a regular schedule and he doesn’t have to contend with my variable work hours. I live with roommates so the feeder lives in my bedroom. At first the noise of the machine activating in the morning woke me up, especially as the kibble ricocheted into the bowl! I tried removing the stainless steel “liner” and it helped somewhat but I ended up getting a soft silicone food dish to use instead. Definitely helps with the noise issue.While I am very happy with this feeder, I took away a star because I found the portion sizing to be inaccurate. The instructions describe each portion to be 1/24 of a cup (so my cat’s regular half a cup of food would be 12 portions throughout the day). I noticed that his meals looked enormous so I got out my kitchen scale and did some math. The kibble my cat eats weighs about 48g at half a cup, so one portion from this feeder ought to weigh approximately 4g. However, when I weighed a single portion dispensed by the feeder, it weighed 6g! (Did this several times to make sure it was accurate.) This means that if I programmed the feeder to give out 12 portions in a day, my cat would end up eating 72 grams of food instead of 48, a full quarter of a cup more than he needs! I don’t need this boy to get any tubbier than he already is!Ultimately the solution was to simply adjust the number of portions dispensed—he gets 8 instead of twelve and it’s exactly the right amount of food. I don’t consider this a deal breaker personally, but make sure to do your due diligence and figure out how many portions are needed with your specific food.