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  1. #1

    Auto feeder advice

    Hi, I’m looking for an auto feeder for when the finally temperature picks up.
    I want to spend max 150-200.
    There seems a lot of mixed views about numerous products. What would you guys recommend?
    Thanks,
    Jade



  2. #2
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Gosai kelv0102's Avatar
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    I’ve used an x-clear one since last year (off over winter) can be set to feed once every hour or as you want along with different feed rates power off and you only need to reset the time however if it comes back on it will continue from the time it went off at.


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  4. #3
    Senior Member Rank = Sansai SILVER1200's Avatar
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    Hi, ive been using the Profi feeder since last September using sinking pellets. the programmer is very flexible regarding timings/quantity/no of feeds per day also has a battery backup for your settings in the event of a power cut. I can really recommend this feeder,I bought mine from Queni Koi.

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by kelv0102 View Post
    I’ve used an x-clear one since last year (off over winter) can be set to feed once every hour or as you want along with different feed rates power off and you only need to reset the time however if it comes back on it will continue from the time it went off at.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    I am also using X-clear profi feeder - works very well



    - the shortage of missing internal time memory - I have fixed by using digital outdoor timer - which has internal memory when power goes off - so feeds exactly as programmed - just X-clear control unit needs to be programmed into continuous operation when power switched on (details in manual) - the outdoor timer is like on the picture here:


    This outdoor timer allows more flexible scheduling - up to 8 feedings / day, minimum running time of 1 min - with the volume limiting ring inserted 1 min gives about 5g of wheatgerm pellets - w/o the volume limiting ring inserted 1 min gives 75g of wheatgerm pellets. The beauty of this timer is the possibility to program different schedules for each day of the week - or simply run the same schedule every day / every other day / every third day etc. - quite flexible.

    I have tried Aquaforte Fish Feeder - as I liked it having both internal AA batteries as well as DC power - so thought it will not loose programmed parameters during power outage - and will not loose power due to flat batteries - but it is rubbish - had two of them running in parallel with two different koi foods - but both failed out - one lost completely display sight after about 6 months of use - the second the control buttons stopped working - both started to enter error mode - first once per week or so, at the end every second day - each time complete reset needed - so still within the first year of warranty I returned them to my dealer and got the X-clear profi feeder instead.

    On the other hand I have excellent experience with this inexpensive Chinese pond fish feeder - running it for three consecutive years w/o missing a beat:

    This one has only one disadvantage - it is only battery operated - four AA cells needed - but lasts most of summer. The funny part is, that I got it for 19 Euro in after season sale-off at Hornbach - and I use it for feeding special seasonal treats - and as floating feeder for winter feeding - I put it on a piece of Styrofoam and used most of the winter when my heated pond was over 10 dC till mid December.
    20171126_124125.jpg


    Hope it helps you ....

    Milaz
    You get what you pay for - or better - what you make yourself.

  6. #5
    Cheapo that worked for around three years till the plastic became brittle.
    https://www.googleadservices.com/pag...Qwg8IKw&adurl=

    Othe than that the XClear has been running for a couple of years now, currently available on Amazon for £130.

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Doitsusanke View Post
    Cheapo that worked for around three years till the plastic became brittle.
    https://www.googleadservices.com/pag...Qwg8IKw&adurl=

    Othe than that the XClear has been running for a couple of years now, currently available on Amazon for £130.
    I am using large plastic pot to cover the cheap feeder - it is seen on the picture with floating feeder to the left of it - to protect it and most importantly the koi food inside from sun light and rain - so it should not become brittle.

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    You get what you pay for - or better - what you make yourself.

  8. #7
    20160901_080540 fish feeder covered.jpg

    The above is the cheap fish feeder covered with upside down turned plastic pot - heavier stone on top prevents wind blowing it off as well as stabilizing it in case if cat might try to get to it - this way it is well protected from rain - but also food inside the feeder is not degraded by sun light (UV rays) as well as the feeder plastics does not go brittle any time soon.
    You get what you pay for - or better - what you make yourself.

  9. #8
    Moderator Rank = Supreme Champion Feline's Avatar
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    Ive got an X clear and a Profi.
    Have tried numerous other cheaper feeders over the years which were all crap- stopped working, trapped mouldy damp food, leaked etc. etc.
    I would avoid anything with a clockwork mechanism like the plague.

    The X-clear is a slightly cheaper copy of the Profi feeder. They are extremely similar and both have a large watertight canister that does not leak, block up or trap any older food whatsoever. The timers of the 2 products work slightly differently and there are pros and cons to both.

    Profi timer divides the amount of feed you want to give over 24 hrs by the number of feeds. It has the capability to increase the feed by a certain percentage each day (useful if you're growing on). Is totally unaffected by power cuts. and resumes where it left off without you needing to reset anything.

    The X-Clear version (someone has linked to above) takes a little longer to program as you must set the clock then tell it on which hours to feed, and how much each time. This can be nice since you can set it to feed at times when you know to go and watch. However making adjustments to feeding amounts takes a few mins to go through and change each individual feed. But you can have more food dropped at some times of the days than others which the Profi does not allow. The disadvantage is though that when theres a power cut it comes back on but cannot remember the time so your schedule is at the wrong times of day until you reset the clock.

    Both have similar brackets that need solidly mounting on an immovable object- not a fence or anything that can sway slightly in the wind or food will fall out. The Profi bracket is stainless steel which I think looks nicer than the black X-clear bracket.

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  11. #9
    Thanks all for the suggestions, think I’m gonna go for xclear. I’ve got amazon prime so I should get it tomorrow.

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Feline View Post
    Ive got an X clear and a Profi.
    Have tried numerous other cheaper feeders over the years which were all crap- stopped working, trapped mouldy damp food, leaked etc. etc.
    I would avoid anything with a clockwork mechanism like the plague.

    The X-clear is a slightly cheaper copy of the Profi feeder. They are extremely similar and both have a large watertight canister that does not leak, block up or trap any older food whatsoever. The timers of the 2 products work slightly differently and there are pros and cons to both.

    Profi timer divides the amount of feed you want to give over 24 hrs by the number of feeds. It has the capability to increase the feed by a certain percentage each day (useful if you're growing on). Is totally unaffected by power cuts. and resumes where it left off without you needing to reset anything.

    The X-Clear version (someone has linked to above) takes a little longer to program as you must set the clock then tell it on which hours to feed, and how much each time. This can be nice since you can set it to feed at times when you know to go and watch. However making adjustments to feeding amounts takes a few mins to go through and change each individual feed. But you can have more food dropped at some times of the days than others which the Profi does not allow. The disadvantage is though that when theres a power cut it comes back on but cannot remember the time so your schedule is at the wrong times of day until you reset the clock.

    Both have similar brackets that need solidly mounting on an immovable object- not a fence or anything that can sway slightly in the wind or food will fall out. The Profi bracket is stainless steel which I think looks nicer than the black X-clear bracket.
    Thank you Feline for detailed comparison - just curious - does Profi feeder also allow to set it into continuous mode - e.g. when powered up - it runs until disconnected? X-Clear has it - very easy to select during the initial programming - hence it works perfectly with more elaborated and easier to program outdoor timer with greater programming flexibility and power off memory / timer back up.
    You get what you pay for - or better - what you make yourself.

  13. #11
    Can any kind soul tell me how to clear my previous settings on my xclear ??.


    Many thanks,
    Last edited by carrier; 18-06-2018 at 10:50 AM. Reason: additions

  14. #12
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Jussai RJW2012's Avatar
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    Auto feeder advice

    You just hold the centre button down for 3 seconds to show the 1st program ‘dp01.’

    Then just move through the time adjusting to ‘00:00’ and then press the set button. You then change the feeding time in seconds, again just drop it down to ‘00.’ The next programme time ‘dp02’ will show automatically - the centre button changes between programs, time and feed amount in seconds (you adjust using the up/down buttons of course!)

    When you have finished, press the centre button again for three seconds and the time will show once more.

    There is no way to just reset the 24 feeds back to ‘00:00/00’ automatically.

    The X-Clear is now an AquaForte product - you can download the manual from this page:

    Fish Feeder automatizes feeding your (koi) fish | Xclear

    Rob.


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    Last edited by RJW2012; 18-06-2018 at 11:11 AM.

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  16. #13
    Many thanks Rob for your info

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  18. #14
    Senior Member Rank = Grand Champion RoyLittle0's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Feline View Post
    The disadvantage is though that when theres a power cut it comes back on but cannot remember the time so your schedule is at the wrong times of day until you reset the clock.
    I've just bought the X-clear feeder and I had the same concerns with the power cut and timer, I've tried it a couple of times by turning the power off and it remembered the time, so I am wondering if they have fixed this issue, i'll do a bit more testing today as I've only just set it up
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    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Jussai RJW2012's Avatar
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    If the power is off for say two hours, then the time is wrong so your programmed feeds are out of sync (re-adjust the time and all is good).

    The feeder will come back on fine after a power cut, it’s the time that will be wrong and therefore any pre-programmed feeds could have been missed or won’t happen going forward at the correct time.

    To be honest as long as it comes back on, I’m not too fussed about the feeds happening later, if I’m not around, etc.

    Rob.


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  20. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by RoyLittle0 View Post
    I've just bought the X-clear feeder and I had the same concerns with the power cut and timer, I've tried it a couple of times by turning the power off and it remembered the time, so I am wondering if they have fixed this issue, i'll do a bit more testing today as I've only just set it up
    To my knowledge the only way to protect yourself from power outage messing up your feeding times is to use external timer - which has internal memory - and to set the X-clear feeder into continuous feeding regime (see the manual) - and than your external timer drives the feeding times - in my case 8x per day 1 minute - this gives about 75g of koi food each time. The only down side of the external timer I have is, that it measures in increments of one minute - so far two minutes is a bit too much food at one feeding - so I have it every 2hrs on for just 1 min. - this keeps our koi always on a search for food - and does not over feed them any given feeding time.

    Just my five cents on how you may solve the power outage risk - if there is any at your end....
    You get what you pay for - or better - what you make yourself.

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  22. #17
    Senior Member Rank = Grand Champion RoyLittle0's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by milaz View Post
    To my knowledge the only way to protect yourself from power outage messing up your feeding times is to use external timer - which has internal memory - and to set the X-clear feeder into continuous feeding regime (see the manual) - and than your external timer drives the feeding times - in my case 8x per day 1 minute - this gives about 75g of koi food each time. The only down side of the external timer I have is, that it measures in increments of one minute - so far two minutes is a bit too much food at one feeding - so I have it every 2hrs on for just 1 min. - this keeps our koi always on a search for food - and does not over feed them any given feeding time.

    Just my five cents on how you may solve the power outage risk - if there is any at your end....
    I've had some time to test it, it comes back on at the time it went off so yes it is out of sync, I was under the impression from previous posts that it "cannot remember the time" it does in fact remember the time but doesn't keep updating the time, i'll probably fit a small ups to keep things running
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  23. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by RoyLittle0 View Post
    I've had some time to test it, it comes back on at the time it went off so yes it is out of sync, I was under the impression from previous posts that it "cannot remember the time" it does in fact remember the time but doesn't keep updating the time, i'll probably fit a small ups to keep things running
    Small UPS will solve it for you as well - I have one in my filter shed - to back up power to Seneye - so it will send a signal if there would be power outage or tripped switch.
    You get what you pay for - or better - what you make yourself.

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