PetmatePortion Right Programmable Dog and Cat Feeder 2 Sizes Brushed Nickel

This was a replacement to our old Petmate. An older generation of about 10yrs old. This new one has some much needed improvements and I’m happy they designed it to work better. First and foremost, the hopper is redesigned such that the food falls down a substantially deep slide. The old model had minimal slide which caused the food to jam up. The simple run aspect works great. No food or pet detection. Just easy reliable dispense on battery. Not all this connected to a smart phone app. I see how some folks may like this but we just need a good reliable feeder. Nice to have a no frills reliable feeder. If like the older generation, the batteries last quite sometime. All in all, quite pleased with this new feeder.

Originally we got this feeder so we could be out of the house for a day or two without worrying about our dog getting fed since we are frequently gone attending athletic competitions. This feeder has all the features we need; programmable feeding times/amounts/large capacity bin but the engineering is so poor we can't rely on it to feed our dog. This is second (and last) Petmate feeder we've been through; the first one we had worked a bit better, was black and I believe was manufactured by a different company.What's right:1. The (10 lb) feeder has a good sized hopper for holding food. Our dog is 65 lbs. and a full bin feeds her for 10 days or more.2. The device is fully programmable as advertised, you can select 3 feedings per day and different portions on each.What's wrong:1. Let's start with the display. It's set on the side of the feeder, low with poor contrast LCD making it impossible to read without strong lighting or a flashlight. There is no back or down-light and contrast settings go from poor to invisible.2. The buttons: There are 3 of them. Which is which? They all look exactly the same save for the little white arrows which thankfully you can see with your flashlight. The rightmost button also serves as the "Manual Feed" override (which you will need) but it's not marked unless you do it yourself as I did.3. Low Battery indicator is a flashing red light next to the panel. It's actually a "Replace Batteries" indicator since it doesn't go off until the batteries are almost dead and the unit ceases to function. Unless your feeder is set up so you can see it from the side, you will likely miss it, which brings us to...4. Battery Only. Unit uses 3 D cells, no AC adapter. Since you have no idea when the unit is getting low, you have to change the batteries BEFORE you go out of town. A simple AC adapter option with battery backup would be much better, more reliable and less expensive.5. Twist-lock lid: Is almost impossible to get on. The lid for the hopper is designed without any beveled guide surfaces that would allow the lid to auto-center so you have to fiddle around with it to get it to seat properly. Once you finally get it on.. it locks to the LEFT.. not the RIGHT which is contrary to what you would probably expect.6. Portion Delivery System: Well it is adjustable if not accurate. The delivery system is gravity fed using a rotating tumbler with flexible plastic splines. Depending on the size of your kibble, the splines will deliver more or less food than you've programmed. You'll have to set it and then measure how much drops into the feeding bowl.. if it drops at all....7. The delivery mechanism is under-powered and jams frequently. Jamming will occur more frequently with large and/or disk shaped kibble. Jams less frequently with small kibble. There is no anti-jamming mechanism so once it's stuck your pet will go hungry from that point on. NOT SAFE. When we are gone, we have to have friends or relatives come by every other day to make sure the dog is getting fed, which was the point of the feeder in the first place.8. The plastic splines/fins wear out rapidly, bend over or break off and do not block the delivery path completely. Any nudge to the feeder will allow more food to drop into the food bowl, so forget portion control if your dog or cat is smarter than a stump.9. The features say the food bowl is removable. It is. Every time our dog eats, it gets removed or dislodged from the base, causing the next feeding to dump on the floor, trapping the food in the hopper chute and causing a potential food-jam. We have to re-seat the food bowl after each feeding and usually clean up any kibble that is stuck back there. As an added bonus, the two guide slots that are supposed to stabilize the bowl are just holes in the casing, so in a short time, you will have kibble down inside the base of the feeder which is impossible to get out. If you have an ant or roach problem, this becomes a 24 hour deli.Summary: This feeder could have been a top performer based on the concept, but the poor engineering, shoddy design and lack of reliability make it an ineffective or possibly a dangerous food delivery mechanism for your pet. Keep looking, pay more if you must.

I have a very demanding cat that associated me with feeding time, so I was constantly whined at and woken up by attention-getting behaviors in the wee morning hours. Even when he had food in his bowl already, he wanted me to stand there and watch him eat, bafflingly. I tried locking him out of the bedroom, but he destroyed the carpet in front of the door as well as part of the frame. I was at my wits' end until I found this product.This feeder solved all of my problems, and that is no exaggeration. After a little while, the cats learned to expect food from the feeder, not me. I love the flexibility of the programming and the large hopper capacity. I read other reviews about cats who managed to dissemble the feeder, but my cats only manage to get the bowl part off once (when I had accidentally let the feeder run empty for a half a day, they were ticked!). I just added some packing tape to hold it on, and they eventually forgot about trying to get it off. Not a big deal at all considering the headaches this product has relieved.

Feeder works really well on batteries alone. Hard to find nowadays. Motor went out and not able to locate. No support from Petmate. Called 800# and sent email, no response back. Don't recommend Petmate.

Bought this for two reasons, 1. automate the task of feeding the cats when we're too lazy to do it ourselves or when we're traveling, 2. One cat is overwieght and needed a strict feeding regiment. You can set the # of feedings, the timing and the portion for each. We've been using it for a few months now and it meets both requirements nicely. I wish there was a human sized one, fat cat has lost 3 lbs. since we started using it. Two negatives 1. the need for big batteries, wish it used AA, AAA instead or had an AC adapter; 2. it's a great size, never had to worry about capacity or placement, but the big cat is beating it up to sneak food out and I wish it were too heavy for him to push around. We've wedged it under the dining table chairs for now and it is taking punishment like a champ. Main suggestion is that if you are going to buy this, buy it on Amazon instead of at a big box retailer and use Amazon prime; you'll probably save at least $12!

These things are great! This is the 2nd one I have ordered. I bought 1 brand for my larger dog and this brand for my smaller dog. Needless to say I didn't like the other brand and came back and ordered the larger feeder for my bigger dog and now I don't have any worries and they both know when that feeder goes off and they are right there to eat. I did have to tape the bowls to the bottom of the feeder to keep my pups from knocking them out from underneath the feeder.

Echa la comida a la hora y cantidad que le pongas. Automático y con cierre de seguridad en la parte donde está la comida. Por ahora calidad - precio + tranquilidad para las horas laborales.

I purchased two of these units. Very expensive paperweights. The motor and feeding meganism is very weak. It blocks constantly. You can not trust these feeders to feed your dog without failure.