automatic door for chickens,advise needed - Page 6

If and when your supplied battery dies, I wonder if you could just replace it with the last car battery you took out when it could no longer start the car in the winter. Way more CCAs in a 'dead' car battery and 12V is 12V so I suspect if you start with it charged, the trickle charger could keep it there.
 

We installed our PulletShut door tonight!!  So far so good!! 

I have had my pullet-shut door for several months and think it's the best investment I made (it cost as much with the solar and light sensor as the rest of my 8 X 10 coop did).  A few comments:

1.  Won't the chickens fly up and roost on the door?  YES, it was one of the first things my girls did, they actually fought over who got to go up there  (REALLY??? it's only about 1/4" wide).  But I had already decided I wanted a roof built over the motor, which is mounted outside, so I just made an inverted 'V' roof, down low so that it covered both the motor, most of the door and because of the shape, discouraged the girls from perching on the roof itself.

2.  Is there a danger of the wind blowing the door?  This was my major concern also, as Colorado Springs gets some very high wind gusts.  The people at pullet shut assured me they didn't think it was a problem (and once I got it installed, I didn't either), but suggested that if I was concerned, the easy solution would be to place a simple 'doorstop' at the point at which the door comes open too (did that make sense) so that the wind would not force the door beyond its fully opened position.  Actually, they said the bigger problem would be if you had no run, or an open run maybe a dog or other large animal would run into it and bend it.

I did have to reposition my light sensor somewhat as I had a small problem once with the door opening after I had manually closed it.  The pullet shut people seemed to think that there may have been a problem with some moisture getting into the sensor, so I just moved the sensor up higher, closer to the eaves of the roof and haven't had a problem since.  I emailed the pullet shut people about the problem about 6:00 pm their time, hoping I would get a response sometime early the next day (and knowing the odds of that kind of rapid response was probably slim to none).  Much to my surprise, I received a phone call from them about an hour after I emailed.  They were friendly, helpful, spent some time explaining the design and how the light sensor functioned.  All in all a great experience working with them.

One comment about what I learned about the sensor and its sensitivity.  They explained that (for instance) it takes about 5 minutes of light change for the door to react.  This would then negate the effect of something like a flashlight moving around the area tripping the opening function, or of something like a piece of paper or debris temporarily blowing over it tripping the closing function.  Made sense to me, but then what do I know.  

Do any of these doors have a safety, so if a chicken is in the way it stops instead of the motor forcing it shut? Like the way garage doors and elevator doors have a safety feature so they won't crush someone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gargoyle 

Do any of these doors have a safety, so if a chicken is in the way it stops instead of the motor forcing it shut? Like the way garage doors and elevator doors have a safety feature so they won't crush someone.

They close very slowly. It's hard to imagine a chix getting caught in it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by akovia 

They close very slowly. It's hard to imagine a chix getting caught in it.

Sounds good.

another question. on the website for the pullet-shut door, it says that once you set it, it will open and shut at the same time every day. Since it uses a solar sensor, does it actually open and shut when the sun is at the same point each day, or at the exact same clock time each day? In other words, if the sun ruses at 6 and you set it for 6:30, the next day the sun rises at 6:03, next day 6:05, etc, will it still open at 6:30 each and every day, or will it open at 6:33, 6:35, etc.