VOLUAS Automatic Cat Feeders - Timed Pet Feeder for Cats and Dogs with Dry Food Dispenser, Desiccant Bag, Programmable Portion Control, 4 Daily Meals, 10s Voice Recorder

Love this thing, it's an extremely reasonable price for a simple, easy to set up design for a timed feeder. My schedule is inconsistent, so a timed feeder is a necessity, also because my dog is a piggy and doesn't do free feeding. The doofus will just eat it all at once and make herself sick.I haven't used the voice recorder, because my dog recognized the sound the feeder dispensing food within the day. My dog is a shy lil chiweenie and doesn't go after the meal until she's certain the dispenser isn't going to make any more noise but she uses it just fine after about 30 seconds of investigation. The noise of the dispenser is a bit noticeable if it's quiet, but it's not loud or annoying, it's just whirring of the machine and honestly, the sound of the kibble getting poured into the bowl is louder.The provided bowl is good, easy to clean, the same stainless steel kind I also use for my cat. I haven't tried, but I feel like you should be able to use a different but similarly sized bowl. Overall I feel like I'm going to get a lot of use out of this. Gotta do a little bit of math to figure out the portion sizes, but it's not complicated to program.Will update if anything changes.

Works as it should, easy to setup and my kitten loves it. Can setup a few meal times, haven't used the voice recording cause when its dispensing the sound of food hitting the bowl alerts the cat on another floor and it runs to the meal.

EDIT: Still no complaints, and it's been over a year. These feeders are super dependable and have still not been broken into by my hungry hippo of a cat. For people who need to feed different amounts, here's what I do. My siamese needs 7 portions while my tabby only needs 5. My siamese is also a voracious tank who cannot be stopped once food hits the bowl, so I just make sure his feeder goes off first by having the timing on each be a little off (eg: his feeder says 4pm a minute before my tabby's). As long as his goes off first, everyone gets their proper portions and there are no problems. Cheers, folks.ORIGINAL: I've never had an automatic feeder before. But, a trip out of town necessitated it for my two cats, so I finally bit the bullet and bought this one. Here's what I needed most:-The right portion sizes-Feedings twice a day-No-fail operation (battery backup, no jamming)-A bowl that stayed putI carefully combed through the reviews before deciding on this brand. I will admit, programming was a pain in the butt. With two cats, the feeders need to go off at the same time or else my fat siamese will absolutely eat half of his, then when my other cat's feeder finally goes, he'll go eat hers, leaving her with half a meal while he got one and a half. I had to very carefully set the time on this. Be warned - it uses military time - there's no am/pm switch. Don't overlook that fact like I did!Second, the portion sizes are trial and error. I have a specific amount I feed these fatties, so I had to really measure out what "1 potion" was. Currently they're set to "5 portions" twice a day. According to Mochi, my perpetually hungry flamepoint siamese, this isn't nearly enough food. This brings me to a pleasant surprise about this product: The locking lid feature.When I first saw that, I thought, "oh well whooptee-doo, seems like overkill." Wrong. The second picture is of his bite marks all around the lid because he figured out where the food is stored in there and he desperately wants it. Both feeders are covered in his bite marks. So locking lid: absolutely essential.Also, the bowls lock in place, which is a must for desperate cats who will lick bowls across the floor (or in my case, laundry room counter). And, these feeders have battery backup in case the power goes out. Super handy for my part of California! Overall, we love these. They're set to feed at 7am and 4pm. When the food hits the metal bowl, the entire house knows it. Mochi peels out, running into walls and leaping face-first into the cascade of food coming out of the chute. It never gets old. :) My female cat is a bit more dignified; she prefers to wait for the food to stop pelting the bowl before she starts eating.We've had these for about a month now (maybe 2?) and have no complaints. Once I got the interface sorted out (save the instruction manual, lol), they've worked flawlessly since. As a first time automatic feeder owner, I'm very happy with my purchase. Will update if there's a problem, but I don't foresee that happening. Cheers, folks.

I bought this a few months ago, because we were going away for a weekend, and our dog was going to have to be alone during a meal. He has access to the outdoors and such, but the dog sitter wasn’t available until after mealtime. Well, I wasn’t having that. I didn’t want him to go hungry, so I invested in this.Overall, it’s a great device. Easy to set up, and the food fits in there nicely. When it works, it’s works great. The sound of the food hitting the bowl has now triggered our dog to know when it’s mealtime, and he eagerly goes out.Two gripes about it:1. You must watch to see how much food is released with each unit of feed when setting it up. I have to set ours to 25 for it to be a sufficient serving size for the dog (I nearly laughed when I first set it up for 5, then saw how little came out). This isn’t a big gripe as it does give you quite a bit of control over portion size.2. I noticed that the dog was begging more than usual for treats a few weeks ago. I was curious about that, so I decided to go out at one of the scheduled mealtimes. Imagine my surprise when some kibble dust came out but hardly anything else. The rotation of the motor inside will crush some of the kibble and basically cause the motor to get stuck. It still makes the noise like it’s rotating, but doesn’t actually rotate. Fixing the jam is easy since the food container comes off very easily, but it makes me nervous about using this for extended periods of time away if we ever need it for that. I may have to invest in different food that’s smaller kibble should that happen again.

Best thing ever invented! I bought batteries just to be on the safe side in case the power went out. I also plugged it into the wall and programmed it. I was gone on vacation for 3 days and this feeder worked like a charm. I was skeptical at first but I am so happy I bought it. Easy to clean, easy to use and set up, and the cat already knows it’s feeding time when he hears the food hit the stainless steel bowl. Now I don’t worry about making sure to feed the cat when I am running late for work. One less thing to worry about.