Anyone have experience with chickendoors.com

[yarrowhouse]

https://chickendoors.com/product/turkey-door-2/

We are looking at this French door style automatic door for our duck coop. Haven't seen any posts about this company (but lots about ADOR2). If you have this door, would appreciate knowing which model, did you do solar, how secure is it against predators?

 

[Debbie292d]

https://chickendoors.com/product/turkey-door-2/

We are looking at this French door style automatic door for our duck coop. Haven't seen any posts about this company (but lots about ADOR2). If you have this door, would appreciate knowing which model, did you do solar, how secure is it against predators?

Check out this from our BYC Administrator

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/pullet-shut-automatic-chicken-door.1603403/post-27291277

Chickendoors.com is a BYC sponsor.

 

[yarrowhouse]

HA, I see it now. Thank you!

 

[Pullet-Shut Chicken Doors]

Hi! That's us, we make the doors. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. We've been around since 2010.

 

[yarrowhouse]

Hi Pullet-Shut! We do have a few questions. This is about the turkey door (for our ducks) https://chickendoors.com/product/turkey-door-2/.

How is the french door secured so predators can't pull it open?

If we purchase the solar panel, will it still operate on battery? (if there is no sun)

What are the magnets for?

Ideally we can program the door to open automatically with sunrise, but be manual operation at night, because our ducks aren't consistent at putting themselves to bed. We will shoo them in. Is this possible?

Thankyou!

 

[Pullet-Shut Chicken Doors]

Hi Pullet-Shut! We do have a few questions. This is about the turkey door (for our ducks) https://chickendoors.com/product/turkey-door-2/.

How is the french door secured so predators can't pull it open?

If we purchase the solar panel, will it still operate on battery? (if there is no sun)

What are the magnets for?

Ideally we can program the door to open automatically with sunrise, but be manual operation at night, because our ducks aren't consistent at putting themselves to bed. We will shoo them in. Is this possible?

Thankyou!

Hello!
First, the doors are held shut directly with the 5 stage planetary gear motor. Our motor alone weighs more than most of our competitor's entire door assembly (and probably costs more).

The battery will operate the door for a least a month or two with no sun. If you go that long, call U-haul and head south! And our solar panel puts out enough power to charge the battery at least 10% per day, so plenty of overkill in our design.

We do not put switches on our door as a predator (or hen!) could press it, and switches will fail in that dusty/dirty environment. Instead, we have a magnetic sensor inside. You hold the magnet near the sensor to activate the door if programming. If you have a raccoon smart enough to do that, you've got bigger problems.

Finally, I've had ducks, I'm well aware of how they stay out late & party like teenagers. With our photo sensor, you can delay the opening or closing times separately by 30,60, or 90 minutes. My ducks needed the 60 minute delay to get into their coop at night. So you can keep the normal 'dawn' setting, and use the delay mode for closing.

Hopefully that answers your questions.
Thank you!

 

[yarrowhouse]

Hello, that is really helpful. Could you explain how the gearing holds it shut? I don't know about gears. It's hard to tell from the photos but our worry is a predator would pull at the middle where the doors meet.

Could you share photos of the turkey door with the doors fully opened?

Many thanks
Matt

 

[Pullet-Shut Chicken Doors]

Hello, that is really helpful. Could you explain how the gearing holds it shut? I don't know about gears. It's hard to tell from the photos but our worry is a predator would pull at the middle where the doors meet.

Could you share photos of the turkey door with the doors fully opened?

Many thanks
Matt

Matt, let me reply as two separate answers. First, here is the turkey door fully open, sitting on the bench in our workshop.

 

[Pullet-Shut Chicken Doors]

Hello, that is really helpful. Could you explain how the gearing holds it shut? I don't know about gears. It's hard to tell from the photos but our worry is a predator would pull at the middle where the doors meet.

Could you share photos of the turkey door with the doors fully opened?

Many thanks
Matt

Ok, the motor question requires more details. Most doors are made with a spur gear motor design. In simple terms, a spur gear has one set of teeth in contact going from one gear to the next. Your motor is going to run at 1000 rpm give or take, and you need to reduce that down to 10 rpm (rotations per minute). To get there, they take a small gear going against a big gear. For every 10 rotations of the small gear, the big gear makes one rotation. That big gear is attached physically to another small gear (so 1:1 ratio turning). That small gear has it's teeth mated to another large gear. Again 10:1 ratio, so the second big gear is going 1/100th the speed of the original small gear.

A planetary gear is more complicated. You basically have 3 sets of gears in contact for every position. Rather than a very long technical paragraph, here is a youtube video describing the two designs:

Note that our gear motors have 5 stages stacked up to get down to the 3 rpm speed. We want slow movement, and when it stops we don't want it to be able to be backdriven (by pulling on the door). And note that our motors are all metal gears, no weak nylon gears. Pricing wise, a planetary gear motor is about 10 times the cost of a comparable spur gear motor due to the complexity and power requirements. Below is a picture of the motor we use with a sharpie for size comparison.

Let me know if you have more questions.
Thank you.

 

[yarrowhouse]

Thank you for explaining all this and sharing photos. We just ordered!