ADOR1 Automatic Coop Door?

[aart]

Any update? I've got to replace my current homemade door and I was considering this model. Reliability is pretty important to me, especially given the high cost of automatic doors.

I don't have an ADOR1, but I have been following this thread from the beginning,
the customer service appears to be excellent. If I needed an auto door, this is the one I would choose to have.

 

[Richard Pryor]

As anticipated, no issues this morning.

Customer service is indeed excellent.

 

[Richard Pryor]

No issues this evening either. Just a bad board that was replaced free of charge. Back to normal now.

 

[trudyg]

I've read most of this thread, as I'm thinking of getting this door. My only concern is that I have one hen who stays out very late. Last night all the others were on the roost by 8:15 but it was almost 9 and Rosie was still out chasing bugs. We do not have outside lights and it was pretty dark ( I used a flashlight to find her). I have to herd her to get her to go in. How will she not be shut out? If I get it, will I still need to get the nightlight and use a timer? I don't have power to the coop.

 

[Richard Pryor]

If you used a flashlight to find her, then the door would most probably had been closed. It closed at 9:15pm here last night, and sunset is at 8:43.

Sounds like you have a hen that no matter what you get, you'll have issues. Last call feature on this door might help? It opens the door for a few minutes after the first closing, then second time it closes for good.

You don't need power to run the door, and there are battery operated timers I'm pretty sure.

 

[melodystar]

I'm really sorry if someone has answered this already, but this thread is SO LONG and I've been looking through for half an hour.

Does anyone have experience with this product in colder climes? I'm in Ontario, Canada and we get some pretty cold winter days. Has this operated well for people in really cold weather?

Thanks so much!

 

[trudyg]

Mine's been up and working for several weeks now. I love it! Even my late-to-bed girl is in well before it closes, which was my main concern.

 

[AdorStore]

Well still no luck or update. I have emailed and left a phone message. Hopefully it will just show up soon. I can understand back logs and being very busy but you do need to communicate with your customers. The website didnt mention anything about 2-3 week delay.

I just wanted to say to the audience of people who newly started reading through this thread.... note this message was posted 5 years ago. There was a shipping strike at the point of origin of our motors, and I thought we were prepared because I had doubled-up and another source was supposed have already arrived. But a similar problem with that source. So we got backlogged a bit and we never have been backlogged since. Our customers were all very nice and patient about it -- I was impressed with how nice chicken owners are. Since that time we've always kept a large stock replenished of critical components... so not likely to happen again.

 

[AdorStore]

There's nobody out there with three years on the battery -- three years ago the ADOR was still a twinkle in my eye. However you might checkout www.Adorstore.com where there's more info on that. Here in my lab, on one $2.88 6V battery I've run it for >4000 cycles which implies > 10years however that only took a little more than 2 days, running a special test of continuous up/down cycles. So the missing factor is that the electronics draws about 60 millionths of an amp and that adds up over long periods of time. OK...too much information, right? Bottom line is the electronics takes as much energy out of the battery in one day as the motor does for a complete cycle. Therefore, divide 10 years by two and that's 5 years. But I'm not going to claim 5 years because a carbon zinc battery sitting collecting dust on the shelf probably loses more than half its capacity. I feel good saying 3 years. But I tell people to replace the battery every year and put the used one in your flashlight -- you'll see it is still nearly new! ...and you'll have a fresh battery in your ADOR.

A few other points: 1) the ADOR beeps when it detects low battery, even when there's lots of life left; 2) the external alarm option will signal to you if the battery is low; 3) if you use accessories that are powered off the ADOR then you need to factor in the extra draw from the battery for accessories.
ROD

Since I wrote this 5 years ago, and said there are no customers out there who have reported getting three years from their battery, now we are here 5 years later. And truly some people have reported getting 3 years out of the cheap $3 6 volt lantern battery. Most people have probably replaced quicker as we recommend replacing it after 12 months. Many more have reported two years. Once I took a battery that had been in use for one year. I put it in the freezer and left it there for months (below 0 deg F), took it out and put it in a demonstration unit that was constantly going up and down, at a Mother Earth News show last year. It ran 8 hours a day like that for two days. Of course, even though that was like 3 years worth of up/down cycles, it does not take into consideration the 24/7 drain on the battery by the electronics. I know that the electronics draws, in one day, the same amount of energy by the motor for one up/down cycle. So that time in the demonstration unit was equivalent to about 1.5 years of use in real time. That plus the original 1 year is 2.5 years total. I still use that battery around here for testing purposes. So three years is believable. Also, I don't think cold weather (even below zero temperatures) makes a dry cell not deliver as much current, in this application. Freezing it proved it, at least for that one battery.

 

[AdorStore]

The opening should be 10.5" wide and 13" high.

Ok I ordered mine today after talking with Rod and reading this entire forum! Thanks everyone for the advice, photos, and reviews. It makes buying a non-returnable item a lot easier. I will post photos after its installed. This will be an install the likes no one has seen before. It wont be going on the coop itself, rather on the run. Hope it works!!

I happened to be reading through these posts from 5 years ago and I just noticed the comment "It makes buying a non-returnable item a lot easier."

Actually, it IS a returnable item. It rarely happens, but I've been real lenient about it. For instance a military person who got deployed right after they got set up for chickens ... had to give up the chickens and no problem...they returned the door for a full refund even though it had been installed and used for a while...or the lady whose husband wasn't happy about her buying it because he thought minding the door was her job (felt so bad for her), and when the hurricane hit Texas in 2017, we didn't have UPS service pick up for 5 days, so I ran the shipments to a town 1/2 hour away... still a lady was not happy her door shipped two days late and she received it so she turned it around and sent it back. The terms are in our boiler plate somewhere on the website. But it is not NON-returnable.