>What do you like about the door?
I like the fact that the door is well made, solid aluminum door and easy to install.
>What do you not like about the door?
I don't really have any gripes about the door. It comes with a low battery indicator, and that's helpful, but in my coop it is fairly dark due to the tree canopy providing lots of shade. It's not a normal check for me to check the LED to see the battery status. Perhaps a single beep every x seconds or something would be more useful. If I'm in the coop and doing the poop board duties, I'd hear the audible beep and know that it would need attending. That being said, now that i have power out there, I run on AC and just use the batteries as backup. But if I was only running on batteries, I'd like if it had a beep feature.
>What power source does the door use?
It uses AC with 4 AA batteries as backup. The batteries will last a good 6 months or more if they are the only power source.
>What features were important in the decision to purchase the door?
The biggest selling point to me was the automatic adjustment of the open/close times. You program in your longitude/latitude and how much of a delta you want in time between open (sunrise) and close (sunset) - two separate deltas. For example, if you want it to open 15 minutes after sunrise, your delta would be "15" for sunrise. If you want it for 10 minutes after sunset, your close delta would be "10" for sunset. After that, it automatically adjusts the time that it opens and closes. This has to be the single best feature, and for my daily schedule, I was like "TAKE MY MONEY!". It's been a great feature that "just works".
>What brand and model is the door?
Advanced Coop Auto Door (
www.PetAutoDoors.com). It can be bought at Flemming and Premier 1 Supplies for a bit lower price than the website.
>Would you recommend the door to other chicken ranchers?
If you have a busy schedule where a set routine is not easily achieved, then I think this is a great purchase. It has solar add-on if you want to go that route. It also has a 2nd chance feature to let any dawdling birds get another chance. It's not a cheap door, but it's never failed me, and it has the options that I really need with my schedule. I also have a fully secured run, so this is really just a second level of safety for the birds. A predator would have to first get through the secured run, and then they'd have to deal with the door. It's not a gear driven door, so it isn't as secure as those with locking gears. However, I think it would be non-trivial to figure out how to lift and slide it up given that the door rides in a channel up and down, and closes all the way at the bottom. I certainly don't lose sleep at night worrying if something could penetrate given that I have two levels of protection.
