Crown Majestic Diamond Series V3 Dog Automatic Pet Feeder

**************UPDATE: I just have to say, I bought 2 of these in late 2014, which is what the review is based on, and I am happy to report that in October 2019, one of them is still working at 100% and still being used and loved by my fur babes (the other one got overtaken by ants and had to be thrown out last year...dang ants!)If this is not testimony to how amazing these are, I don't know what is!! I am looking to replace my other one, and will most likely be buying another one of these babies! :-) *****************I bought 2 of these after massive amounts of research on different automatic pet feeders. Even the top selling ones here on amazon have a lot of complaints for things like not functioning properly (spewing out food when its not scheduled, not spewing out food at all etc). I happened to stumble upon the Crown Majestic brand in a google search of pet feeders, went to their website and was sold. They are a family company (I believe), and really do want their customers to be happy- and listen to feedback and concerns regarding issues with the product. For example, there is a little note inside the box when you are setting up the feeder stating that if you have a pet who lays by the feeder all day and has figured out how to get more food out of the chute, you can email them, and they will send you a little adapter piece- at no charge- to make it more difficult for the animal to stick their chubby paws up there. I do have to say, I never understood why they didn't just add that part to the machine to begin with, but at least they do make it available to people (for free) if that becomes an issue. Luckily for me (knock on wood), my 2 little food-obsessed kitties haven't messed around with sticking their paws up there (one is still a little afraid of the noise it makes when the food comes down the chute, and wont eat until its quiet again- but they both dart into the kitchen as soon as they hear that first little sound haha).I chose this feeder over the others for a few reasons.1) It is very well made, and easy to set up2) it has the automatic water refiller attached , so if you leave the pets for a day or two, they have plenty of water available.3) It can be battery operated, OR you can use the included plug-in cord. This for me was a big one. There was only 1 other feeder I saw that had this option, and it was terribly designed. I have 1 running on battery power, and one plugged in. I have had these for at least 2 1/2 months, and so far have not had a problem with either shutting off on me, which is amazing, because you want something dependable that will feed your pet EVERY time. I feel so much less stressed about getting home from work late (I work 12hr shifts as an ICU nurse), or staying out overnight, knowing that my cats will be fed. Prior to buying these, I would have to leave big bowls of food out, which my chubby one would eat very quickly, and then they wouldn't have much food to get them through the rest of the day/night, and I always felt really awful. This feeder takes all of that away. To me, that is worth more than gold!4) You can program it to feed as little as a 1/4cup at a time, and can program it for once a day, or several times a day. It is very workable. You can also adjust it to some extent for the kibble size.I started out using only one, to make sure I like it and it worked well before I opened the other. After a few days, I was so impressed and in love, I opened the other, and they have been working fabulously ever since! I love the extra bit of freedom it gives me not having to 'feed' them all the time, and I love the fact that if I have an issue with one ( or both), I will be able to get in touch with the company easily and that they will actually respond and try to help. Mostly though, I LOVE LOVE LOVE that I'm not getting many 4am wake-up calls anymore (or more so 2 cats literally walking all over me, licking/biting my nose...you all know how it goes haha)!! That alone makes these feeders sooooooo #worthit!!If you have cats or dogs and are looking for an automatic feeder, this is the one! I never write reviews, but these have been so great that I want more people to know how great they are... you will not be disappointed! :-)

I purchased this for my Puggle and it works pretty well. While we didn't use the extender piece, i think it makes it look like a gumball machine. Though for a large dog it would be needed and the transparency allows you to see how much food is left inside.The configuration is very easy to set up. For the feeding size, a setting of 1 is equal to 1/4 cup, so for our Puggle we have it set to 4 for one whole cup. Make sure that you test the size when it's dispensed so you don't accidentally under-feed your pet! There is an adjustable door on the inside to fine tune the feeding size. The feeding time setting is kind of strange though. Setting the time is easy, however, if you want multiple feedings per day then you aren't able to set different times. It will use the one feeding time and dispense every 12 hours for twice daily. If you want to do a third feeding it is a bit of a problem as the machine will dispense 4 hours after the second feeding which is late at night. Be careful with this when feeding your Mogwai or he may turn into a Gremlin if he eats after midnight. ;)For the voice recording feature, we noticed that the sound quality is very distorted and garbled. I'm not sure if it's the microphone or speaker. Could be just defective in my unit though. You don't really need to use this though since the dispensing operation is noisy enough to make my dog come running from the other room. Also, the voice recording doesn't play until after the food is dispensed anyway. And if your dog is like mine, the food is already gone as soon as it hits the bowl!The water bowl attachment is a nice feature. The water bottle is easy to fill and set back in and it's large enough for my Puggle for a few days. But i could see it being a problem for a couple of hot summer days or someone who has a large dog. The special cap that dispenses the water looks like it should fit any water bottle but i'm not sure about the slot that bottle itself slides down into. There is probably a tall spring water bottle out there that will work though.All in all, i'm very happy with this product. The very minor annoyances are easy to overlook.

I'm torn on this one. This worked just fine for about a month. One day I realzed that it didn't hear it feed as scheduled. Additionally, my cat seemed more eager as I walked by her bowl, as if hungry. A couple days go by, I hear the recording that plays at feeding time (we don't have anything recorded but it makes a little beep noise), but there is no sound of the feeder dispensing food - checked it and confirmed no food came out. It is plugged in to the wall and there are batteries in for back up. Unsure if jammed up or what. Since it is inconsistent, it is difficult to troubleshoot.I have to give it a very low rating because if you are gone for extended periods, inconsistent or nonexisting feed times is not acceptable. It is a 5 star product if working, so I will give it an extra star.EDIT:I found this on their blog. Could be the problem."(Q)Could the batteries be used in conjunction with the adapter?(A)Currently, the batteries are the main source of power and should not be used in conjunction with the adapter, since using both at the same time increases the voltage to the electric circuitry – which not only causes abnormal and erratic functioning of the feeder – but may damage the circuit board as well. The use of the adapter is optional, to be used if or when needed. However, we are hoping to implement a rechargeable battery system that will work simultaneously with both power sources."