Ladies First Chicken Door Issues/Support

[Aozalazar]

Where did you find that?

On the contract tab of his web page. He responded immediately to my questions when I emailed him. I love my door. [email protected]

 

[JengGG]

That is the wrong email address which would explain why you haven't heard back from the company. Matt is extremely helpful and responsive if you use the proper email [email protected]

Yes! Matt not only responded with a helpful answer within the hour, he even sent me extra fuses. I'm very impressed! I highly recommend Ladies First doors.

 

[aart]

On the contract tab of his web page. He responded immediately to my questions when I emailed him. I love my door. [email protected]

Yes, @Aozalazar I was asking someone else(2 years ago) and they answered.

Try this address:

[email protected]

Where did you find that?

 

[ChrisJams]

Our chicken door stopped working 2 days ago, but only discovered yesterday. Went in the coop to check on the flock and they were very anxious. I gave them food and they went crazy like they hadn't eaten in a week (it was just 1 day, but glad we figured it out in time).

I too am disappointed by the lack of documentation, maintenance info, and troubleshooting guidance online. I'm an electronics guy, so going to try some debugging on my own before reaching out to the vendor. Figured this forum is a good place for us to share experience and create a real FAQ.

Firstly, I had to get the chickens out. The "clamp" that attaches the screw to the motor has some set screws. These can be loosened with an Allen wrench, which separates the clamp from the motor. Care must be taken here, if the door was already open then it will drop like a guillotine. I rotated the screw manually to put the door in the "open" position, then reattached the clamp to the motor to keep the door "open".

It took some force to turn the screw, wondering if it needs lubrication for preventive maintenance? I applied a Lithium grease, will see if that helps.

I noticed the fuse is burned, so going to try swapping that out. Best theory I have right now is the resistance of the screw caused an overcurrent in the motor and popped the fuse.

The original fuse is a Bel 5MT 1.25A fuse, which I can't seem to find anywhere. Unfortunately according to its datasheet was end of life in 2020.
https://www.belfuse.com/resources/datasheets/circuitprotection/ds-cp-5mt-5mtp-series.pdf

I am going to try this Littelfuse 02321.25MXP as the replacement.
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Littelfuse/0232125MXP?qs=OJFHm2hVE4EVuBnnxlSHLw==

Between the grease and the fuse replacement, hope I can get my door back to working. I'll post again about my success or failure in a few days.

Another observation is the circuit board is constantly flashing a green LED in this condition. I temporarily moved the 4 batteries to a NiMH wall charger, and they charged and tested ok. So at this point I am assuming all is well with power supply and circuit board. The flashing green LED must be some kind of error status, but without documentation it's hard to know.

 

[ChickenRoper1]

My door also quite working on 1/2/21 Sunday... I emailed [email protected] and got a reply in a couple of hours. It was the fuse that had blown and when I asked what might have caused it to blow. He responded with it could have gotten in a bind or lack of grease on the thread. Sunday was our first freeze so i am. assuming the door got in a jam. The Vendor is mailing me fuses at no cost, but I did have a 2 amp fuse that I put in while waiting on the new ones to arrive.

I like my door and this is the first issue I have had with it since install over 6 months ago, and I am pleased with the customer service I received on a Sunday.

 

[Shelby T-81]

Just got immediate response from [email protected] on door opening problem, and happy to say that the problem was immediately identified. I had already checked batteries and fuse. They checked good. By the time I rechecked the fuse (and found it to be bad), I had an email response suggesting I wrap the fuse with foil, reinsert it, and try again. Voila!!! It worked. Only problem now is finding new "little bitty" fuses - and hoping a new fuse does not blow....
Shelby T. Huntsville, TX

 

[RockinFlock]

We are happy with our door. We have a camera in the run and in the coop and if I can't go out to meet the ladies, I just check the camera to make sure the door is open. We had to replace the batteries but that is because we kept the door open for a very long time because the weather was nice (and we didn't attach the solar panel, lol). If we end up putting an automatic door on the run, I would buy another one.... or one that I can control through wifi! Haha!

 

[Al Gerhart]

A couple of thoughts on this thread.

Chicken feeder doors with electronics are tough to make durable and long lasting installed in a chicken coop environment. Moisture, ammonia, temperature swings, dust and dirt, none mix well with electronics. I looked at it, made a dozen or so prototypes that worked well and were economical to build, but what made me stop the production was the realization that the average person that raises chickens would have no idea how to trouble shoot such a product so the returns and complaints would be high. Kudos to Matt for making this work as well as he has.

March 2020, orders exploded, quadrupling a normal month, while normal supply pipelines for raw materials and components for just about everything was crashing. As I had switched production to the Philippines back in 2013, with the first container arriving in 2015, I was well insulated and had a huge stock of feeders of all sizes. Enough I thought for three years of sales so I had halted production of feeders in June of 2019 and we were focusing on local cabinet jobs. Stocks started dwindling so fast that I restarted U.S. production of the medium size feeder because I was sure we would be out of stock long before travel opened up and the massive increases in container shipping costs went down. Of course the materials needed here in the U.S. had doubled, then tripled, labor went up ten times the overseas cost. Unlike Matt I was using basic thicknesses of sheet metal, bar stock, and nuts/bolts type of hardware, not solar panels and electronics all of which are sure to be from China. Matt had a tough road and if he kept his prices steady with massive costs increases in material and shipping he was doing well.

A lot of companies were out of stock for months due to their Chinese suppliers or manufactures. Even the Grandpa feeder couldn't ship their Chinese made feeder, not sure if it was sourcing problems or the massive, massive, cost increases of container shipping or even being able to get a container at any cost. I would say Matt did great if he was only six weeks behind on orders.

This is an instant gratification society these days and there is constant pressure on U.S. manufacturers due to Amazon and Ebay flooding the market with cheap knockoffs made with slave labor in places where environmental and labor safety costs are called bribes to the local officials. If you want your products fast ,cheap, and have the ability to return them on a whim, then everything will need to be made overseas and sold at ten times the manufacturing cost. If you want to use American manufactures who keep our steel mills and basic manufacturing alive then expect to pay more, wait longer in surges like Matt faced, and have some common sense when dealing with late shipping due to issues beyond the small manufacturers control. Or buy off Amazon, let Amazon take a third of the retail price, add another twenty percent in returns, and continue to feed China where they practice genocide and tyranny. The downside to that is the first two years of the next world war where the U.S. has lost the ability to make tens of thousands of products, much less provide the basic raw material like nuts and bolts, paint, steel, or electronics.

Think past your pocket book. Give the small manufactures like Matt some consideration for not outsourcing his product like Grandpa feeders did or nearly every other thing in your coop, garage, or house.

 

[Bill Haynie]

My neighbor had one of those door openers, and had nothing but trouble. She gave me an e-mail address ... Idk if it'll help...
[email protected]
Good luck
She ended up sending hers back and getting a different brand.

I don’t know what happened with you ma’am but maybe there was sickness in the family, the internet was down or something else. I had a total shut with my door and I couldn’t have asked for better customer service. A person never knows what maybe going on on the other end.

 

[Ladies first door user]

My chicken door had a rapidly flashing green light and would not open one morning after a wet snow and freeze. No better with new charged batteries, but problem solved with wrapping foil around the fuse. I have ordered new fuses. I got a response from Matt after about 5 hours on a Saturday by texting him at 336-298-2987. Other than this issue which is now solved, the door has worked consistently and well for about 6 months. I may put an awning over the door, and now have extra batteries and will have spare fuses on hand in case of recurrence,