Has anyone purchased a door from cooptender.com?

[momofgr8kidz]

We purchased the door and several accessories from Coop Tender at the beginning of August but they have not shipped 6 weeks later. I'm wondering if anyone has used this product and what you think about it before I contact the company to cancel my order. I have searched the internet for reviews and came up empty. The wifi feature is what sold us in the first place.

 

[momofgr8kidz]

Thankfully, we received the door last week.

 

[MaraC]

Going give the company a call tomorrow. Such an expensive item so I want to be sure of what I am ordering. It seems to be fairly new so I couldn't find many reviews.

 

[Newby Farmer]

We ordered the external solar as our door is on the north side and we need the solar panel on the south/west side. The external solar panel isn't mounted on the control panel so that gives us the flexibility in where we mount the solar. You can call and talk to the company and ask questions. They were very helpful in answering our questions.

 

[MaraC]

So excited! My CoopTender door was delivered today! I hope we can install it tomorrow. I got the electric with the backup battery, wifi and the accessory and heat control module.

 

[aart]

This person wasn't very happy with theirs...or the company.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1064265/my-experience-with-coop-tender-automatic-chicken-door

 

[lynnehd]

Lynne's, I looked at so many reviews for different doors and didn't feel fabulous about any one but the features on the coop tender got me. I knew it was too new to have that many reviews but decided to take a chance. I think all the doors that have been around a while do have their share of negative reviews. In any case so far they have been very helpful over the phone and have emailed me and left detailed messages in order to answer some of my questions prior to my purchase and after as well. If it all works I will be thrilled.

I have to agree with you. It seems to be a mixed bag.

There do seem to be others who are thrilled with this door, and IF the wifi works, it is a wonderful option.

 

[aart]

Aart, thanks for the link. Wish I had read that before I purchased everything. I might have changed my mind. We have installed the door, wifi module and accessory and heat module. The door and wifi are working though it's only been a few days and I haven't hooked up the water heater or lights yet. Time will tell how it will all work though I am feeling a bit uncomfortable about it after reading that review.

Quote: True that there are defective units with most any product......and you never know all of both sides of the stories/reviews/communications when bad things happen.
I saw the terrible review thread and did a search out of curiosity, only found this one thread, so thought I'd link them.

 

[MaraC]

Well, it has been about a month now and the door opens and closes dawn and dusk, everyone is in with plenty of spare time and that is adjustable if needed. I did have a bit of trouble a few days around the Christmas full moon so the light value and timing needed to be changed once the was adjusted it is fine again. I will need to check that come the next super moon. Love the way you can see the light values at any given time in order to figure that out and make adjustments from the app. So now that the colder weather is here I hooked up a heater if we have severe weather it will be ready to go.
Hooked up a light in order to extend light time but I am not sure if this will work for me. The accessory module can control the light manually or according to light value which would mean it would automatically go on at night and stay on for the length of time I would choose. I would prefer for it to go on in the morning so I may have to use a timer for that.
While I am testing all of these items out I will probably order coop cameras and ventilation fans so I will be set for the summer. I wanted to wait but considering that this is such a new item I probably should be testing all the features.
One thing for sure, I LOVE the wifi and its features. If considering the wifi you should havea good internet connection, I have gone offline but the door continues to work as it should.

 

[KentE2]

I too seem to be on about the same schedule as others. I was looking to add the final piece to my new coop this fall and the chicken door was the one thing that I was struggling with. I found 5 or so doors on the market and when we sat down and did the evaluation we decided on the CoopTender. I like the Ben Franklin way of decisions... list the positives then the negatives, count them up and the decision is easy. Anyway, we ordered it and got the note that the build process would start right away, that was a little bit of an eye opener. Then I did a little closer examination and see that they are a fairly small company, and I can't blame them for not wanting to hold inventory. So no big deal... We waited and it showed up, I really don't know if it was a little long or not but what ever. Oh, I do have to say that knowing that I wanted the WiFi module, I made sure that I could stand in the Coop and have good WiFi signal on my cell phone just to be sure it would work. It installed very quickly 20 minutes total to read the manual, program the WiFi, Cut the opening and screw in the door and before I knew it we had a working coop door. The girls seem to get used to the little ladder and the door pretty quickly. It has been installed for over a month and we are in Minnesota so we have had some very cold temps lately, sub 0 F. I have not had any issues really, in fact the closest thing I had to a problem was, in attempting to configure my new WiFi cameras via my iPhone and the interface was not working properly. I called in a ticket and received a call from the tech. He was very pleasant and said "Oh I see what the issue is, I will get that submitted right away and we can have that fixed yet today. I will send you an email confirming it is fixed so you can test it". Sure enough, I got the email that night and the issue was fixed. I should have tried on the PC and it would have worked but, I really do most everything from the phone now a days, I am kind of a tech head and understand the electronics, mechanical components and even the construction so it all makes sense to me.

I like what I see so far and as with anything else, I will have to wait and see how well it continues to work. As of now I could not be happier. I am even getting used to when out with friends or family for some kind of gathering and I get a text from the coop to tell me that the girls are all safe and going to sleep.... They look at me pretty funny and then I explain the whole thing... It ends up just another chapter in my chicken saga.

Some one asked for recommendations on what was added, I went with their recommendations for cameras when we bought. I see that they also list heaters, lights an more that they say work with the system. I think I am going to get one of the accessory modules for lights but most likely not a heater. They are doing great so far, minor frost bite on the larger combs is all we have seen.