I should add that in July I ordered a second feeder of the same model, and that one arrived with a bad timer. I had already noticed that the feeder didn't throw the food well, as in I have to set it to a twenty-second cycle to throw the same amount of food the other feeders I use throw in six seconds, so I just asked Native if I could return the whole unit and get a different brand. I got the Moultrie 6-gallon feeder, which I have not enjoyed due to its less-than-great design that requires one to remove a cover at the bottom of the unit whenever one wishes to test it or reset feeding times, and the cover does not fit well over the wires leading to the solar panel so each refilling - which is a weekly event for me in the summer since it holds less than twenty-five pounds of food - is a brand new adventure...I haven't been able to use the test function for months because the unit drops a lot of food right at its base such that it has to be positioned directly over the water, and the last time I tried taking the cover off without moving the feeder back away from the water's edge the wing nut that keeps the control-box cover on fell into the pond and sank into six feet of water, so the only way I can make sure the feeder is still working properly is to re-set a feeding time for a couple minutes after when I'm refilling it, but then there's the adventure of whether or not I'll be able to get the poorly-fitting cover back over the wires without knocking the clips off the posts and get the feeder back into place over the water before the feeder goes off and throws food all over the raft and bank...Truly a horrible design in my opinion. I have two of the 30-gallon Moultries running on a large lake I'm managing; the owner bought them on my recommendation in July; and the timer has already gone out on one.

So I will never, ever again buy a cheapo feeder. I've got three of the Aquapro ADF75's, their more expensive feeder, running on three different BOW's and they won't even throw Aquamax 600. I'm trying the Moultrie "commercial-grade" model at the moment on another pond, just because it's still less than half as expensive as a TH or Sweeney, but if Sweeney or TH ever came out with a feeder under $400, I'd never buy another Aquapro or Moultrie.

Last edited by Walt Foreman; 12/04/09 02:13 PM.