TWIN Automatic Feeder, Battery Operation, Random

Over the years I have purchased four Eheim twin automatic feeders. As you would expect from German engineering, the unit is built with integrity and reliability. The instruction booklet is 61 pages (see picture) and illustrated with black and white photos and in several languages. Pretend you're back in college and taking notes from that professor who entered school at five years of age and never left. This is not an easy-to-use feeder despite the considerable effort by Eheim to break down the information in a logical fashion (I felt like I was reading a manual to operate my Mercedez Benz!). The unit provides multiple capabilities for various food types, times, cycles, including "random" feeding times. Closely follow the instructions step-by-step and try to memorize the system behind the programming. Assembling the unit requires multiple steps and a sensitivity to how parts fit together. Do not rush this process. I found the list of multiple languages somewhat tedious as you need to progress to the next step by keeping your place in the programming outline. Once programmed, you can expect flawless operation if this sensitive unit is safely secured to whatever platform you have. The tiny velcro tabs for the tiny rubber feet are more a gentle joke than a security system. CAUTION: If you change food types, or alter the number of fish, or modify your tank environment in any way that would necessarily require modification in how you feed your fish, you will need to test again if the proper number of feeding cycles is adequate. This will require adjustments to the feeding unit. For me, I have to consult the instruction pamphlet once again to ensure I understand the multiple step process. This requires flipping through the 61-page pamphlet all over again. ALSO: If this unit comes into contact with any moisture (definite possibility given this unit is for aquariums), WATCH OUT! Twice my housekeeper -that's right, TWICE - knocked the pricey unit into the tank. Once the Eheim unit went to the bottom of my 55-gallon tank like a rock. The tank was thick with food flakes! Another time the unit barely touched the surface before my housekeeper, amid screams of "Not again!" scooped the expensive unit from the tank. In both times the unit was completely ruined and malfunctioned like a bizarre creature from a Sci-Fi film, spitting out clumps of food in a continuous grind, opening and shutting its lid, and finally clunking to an irreversible death. I had to purchase a new one. Yesterday my fourth Eheim unit was sprinkled with a few drops of water as I moved an algae scrapper across the tank. The unit started whirring and whining and continuously pushed fish food from both cylinders at an alarming rate showering food into my tank like rain. EHEIM SUPPORT: I emailed support and wondered if there is any way they could prepare this fine unit to exist around water with more confidence that it would not react like a touchy robot (remember, the Witch in the Wizard of Oz melted with one drop of water!). Eheim Support was cordial and professional and sent me a replacement, although that is not what I requested. Thank you, Eheim! Yes, I will buy this unit again. Several times I've traveled out of the country for several weeks at a time. This Eheim feeder worked like it's supposed to work. The fish were fat and happy.

I've used the Eheim Twin for a month so far on a wood plank over a small outdoor Koi pond. It has worked flawlessly so far. The fish seem to like its consistent feeding time. I'm only use one food type (Kaytee Koi's Choice pellets), so using both bins for extra capacity. What I like: -- Twin screw feeders (instead of rotate and dump). The screw feeders seem pretty consistent in how much food they dispense. I haven't had any problems so far with over feeding, under feeding, sticky food, etc. -- Can program it to dispense a wide range of food (for each feeder, 1-3 daily feedings with 1-9 screw turns each time) -- Easy to fill. -- Made in Germany at a reasonable price. Other notes: -- I know it's NOT rated for outdoors. When the winter comes, I'll either bring it indoors or build a better case for it (right now, just have a plastic box on top in case of unexpected rain). -- The included mounting squares are cheezy; I ignored them and used some 2" Velcro. -- For my pond size, the food lasts well over a week. -- For basic settings, user interface isn't bad. Yes, you do have to go through all the settings, but I don't have to dig out the manual, I don't change it often, and it doesn't take more than a minute when I do. Now, if I wanted to set something fancy like random feeding time, I might need to dig out the manual (I think I remember how to do it, but would need to verify).

Over the years I have tried numerous feeders but remained mostly dissatisfied due to irregular portion size as the rotating drum gets low on food. Although this Eheim Twin-feeder does not like big flakes and clogs relatively easy, I discovered Tetra Crisps work perfectly because they are smaller and more consistent in size. Unfortunately, We like to winter in Florida and this feeder only holds enough food for 4 or 5 days (at best) with 3 feedings a day for my large hungry fish. I designed a supplemental tank that sits on top of the feeder and adds about 2 months of additional food to the normally limited food supply. It works great! After 4 weeks of testing, I decided I can easily change this 13 oz tank to a larger supplemental tank for even longer vacation times. For those interested ...I took an empty plastic 13 0z bottle of ketchup (water bottles would probably work fine too) and a small 1.5" x 4" thin piece of balsa that was laying around the house. Obviously, any thin, firm material like plastic, metal or wood should work fine. I wrapped the balsa wood with duct tape to keep any moisture from deteriorating the wood. I then cut out two small notches on one side of the wood to accommodate for the Eheim door-hinges which will then allow this new door-top to fit snug when laid over one side of the Eheim Feeder when a feeder-lid is open. Then, I hot-glued the ketchup cap (thread side up) to the new balsa lid. I did trim away a bit on the side of the cap (before gluing) so when I cut a hole through the cap it was centered over one of the feed tanks. I then drilled a hole about the size of a dime through the center of the cap and the balsa lid. That hole proved to be too small and the Tetra-Crisps still bound up. I enlarged the hole with my Dremmel sander to about the size of a nickel and it works fine. I also put a small 1/16th" hole in the bottom of the ketchup bottle to ensure a vacuum would not prevent the food from dropping. Fortunately, the new vent hole prevents a vacuum and is small enough not to let food fall through when I unscrew the bottle for refilling. I added a couple of rubber bands to hold the whole thing in place above the feeder. It works so well, I think it will even work with flakes although I did not test for that. I intend to switch to a larger bottle- tank to ensure our fish are fed over a 3-month vacation. Even better ...the cap is the same size so I don't have to build a new top. An additional plus is that I did not have to alter or damage the Eheim TwinFeeder in any way and I still have the use of both tanks. The negative side is you must have enough room on top of your fish-tank to accommodate the height of the feeder plus the height of the supplemental ketchup-tank. Hopefully, the attached picture illustrates the end product. Good luck with your "Home-made, Extended Vacation, Fish Feeder Mod"!

Review of the “Eheim TWIN Automatic Feeder, Battery Operation” The auto feeder in use on the large aquarium had stopped working some time ago and it needed replaced before we went on vacation. The denizens are bottom feeders and some Cichlids so I was thinking about purchasing two feeders - one for bottom food and another for Cichlid food. While searching I happened upon this twin feeder which was getting good reviews so I ordered one. It arrived in a timely fashion and was packaged well by the sender. The unit packaging was well done and kudos to Eheim for not overdoing it with a lot of foam or plastic. It even came with a set of Duracell dry cells. The feeder is a large unit with a large LCD panel and four buttons on the back side and a sort of ramp with a cover at the top of the front side. The battery compartment is a removable unit that snaps onto the bottom of feeder. The feeder hoppers are large with large openings for easy filling with hinged covers. The hoppers are a smoke-grey plastic and you can easily see how much food is left. The business end is a pair of augers with a hinged lid that swings up as either auger runs then snaps down keeping out moisture and preserving the food. The covers, augers, and battery compartment are all removable to facilitate cleaning. This thing is big, and it’s tall; the food output is some inches above the base. That’s good because it’s away from moisture and splashing, but because it is high it requires a pretty large hole in the aquarium cover. Initially I set the feeder on the right side cover and slid the other cover to the left a couple of inches. This was a temporary measure until I could come up with a permanent set up. I took a page out of another reviewer’s book and cut away the top and bottom of a large flavored water container and used that as a funnel that’s passed through a large oblong hole cut into the plexiglass cover behind the light. (Two overlapping 2-inch holes were cut side by side and the points filed away.) This does seem to work pretty well - food goes in, aggressive fish splashing while feeding do not cause problems and fish can’t jump out. Programming is easy, though not completely intuitive. The instructions are delivered in over a dozen languages, I was using the British English version and found them (mostly) clear. Each auger can be programmed to run up to three times in a day and can turn from 1 to 9 times. You can set a time or select random for each run. Each auger can also be set to pause on the seventh day. You start by programming the current time, and then program the left auger - riffling through the three runs in turn - first setting the time to run and then the number of turns for that run. If you select a zero number of turns on a program it skips to the end for that auger and asks (by flashing the pause symbol) if you want your fish to fast on the seventh day. When the left auger is programmed you repeat the process for the right one. Once programmed, you can select any one of your programs and hit the enter button to manually run that program immediately. It seems to handle a pretty wide variety of food; I’ve dispensed both small and large round pellets, crisps, and flakes. Flakes do not lend themselves to auto feeders, they tend to be staticky and therefore stick to the plastic parts, and the lack of uniformity causes them to clog. This feeder handles flakes pretty well - better than the previous feeder, but I still prefer to use Tetra Crisps at this point because they flow through and meter more consistently than flakes. I’ve been using this feeder for about six months now and find that though it’s big and a little noisy when it runs, it delivers food to the bottom and middle feeders with no issues. The fish “hear” it running and know that food is coming. They also seem to be cognizant of the schedule and come out of hiding just before it delivers. The battery indicator still shows the cells are full - I’m only spinning the augers about five times total per day, though. It was a bit of a challenge to adapt to the aquarium but well worth the effort; it’s quite versatile and once going is easy to keep filled. I had no reservations about leaving it in charge for two weeks while we were away. It is far more reliable and in my opinion better at delivery than the spinning hopper feeders I’ve used in the past. I'm tempted to allow four stars because of the size and the difficulty that causes in getting set up, but in all honesty it does what is promised and is well worth the effort and so five then.

Over priced for the quality and condition of product. Works with fairly accurate portions. It's difficult to set up. The reason it lost two stars is price based on quality and functions and a second star for the food reservoir sizes are small and unable to hold more then a weak or so for a large tank. I would need 2 of these to cover my 180gallon for a week to be safe.

This feeder feels cheap and way overpriced for the $60-$70 price point. It leaks food if you tilt it accidentally and o call just felt messy to load. Also this is not a feeder for a few fish. Even on the absolute lowest setting, it dumps food that I would say feed 7 fish at least. That isn't clear in the description or the instructions and you'll only see the point when you go to use it. Definitely a waste of money overall.

Although I had to get creative with my setup, this feeder works great! It was purchased primarily for when we went on vacation. I made sure to get it early enough to have at least a full week of testing before we went off an left the little guys all alone. (I highly recommend that as well) The portion amount is adjustable, as well as the frequency of feedings. The only issue we had wasn't with the unit itself, only the placement of the unit due to it's size. We unfortunately didn't have a lot of space to set the unit on top of the aquarium ensuring that it was above an opening.... .....so we had to get "creative" by adding a funnel ensuring the food went into the tank when it dispensed. lol. One compartment had the flakes, and the other had pebbles for the bottom feeders. It worked great after messing around with the settings for a while. I'm not going to let the "amount of time for setup" influence my rating. This unit ended up working great and was exactly what we needed! Very satisfied with this purchase!

For the initial few months, the fish feeder worked flawlessly. It consistently dispensed feed pellets at the scheduled times, attracting fish to the feeding area. The adjustable feed rate allowed me to customize the portion size based on the fish population (depending on the number of rotations). However, after about six months of use, the feeder suddenly stopped working. The timer display remained blank, and no feed was dispensed. I checked the battery, connections, and rotation wheel, but everything seemed fine. Unfortunately, troubleshooting didn’t yield any results. Sadly, I continue to watch my fish swimming close to the drop location without realizing that the feeder has been turned to a paper weight.

仕事場に設置した120ｃｍ水槽用です。毎日朝仕事前に一回は自分で餌やりしますが、残り2-3回などやりたくても時間がとれないこともあります。この機種は作りがしっかりしており、まだ使用期間1ヶ月ですが安定して動作しています。餌箱が2つあり、2種類の餌を入れておき各々3回まで、そして各餌やりの0回から2回まで設定できるため、量の加減また回数の設定も最低1回から6回まで設定できるのも良い点です。最初6回餌やりにして見ていましたが、今は4回です。また一回2回転とするとやはり多いようで1回に変更。斜め上向きの鏡筒の形で中を回転するスクリューで上に餌を持ち上げてから蓋が開いて餌を落す構造です。餌が乾燥するような仕組みもあり、安心して使用できるようです。ただ、欠点として、固定の設置器具が別売りで。またオールガラス水槽などの厚みには対応しますが、水槽上の縁の枠があるタイプには一部つかないかもしれません。またその厚さ設定がやや使いにくいと感じました。水平なガラス蓋を使っている方は、同梱の物で接着する物ですが安心して使えます。今はこちらに変えました。

Works well...very good quality. Can use all type of dry fish food.

Un muy buen producto como nos tiene acostumbrados la marca, en mi caso he tenido que devolverlo porque echa mucha cantidad de producto en cada vuelta del tornillo sin fin y no hay manera de regularlo, si tienes un acuario muy grande con gran variedad de peces es el producto ideal.

Item was keenly priced and promptly delivered. The product itself works very much better than the more basic Eheim feeder known as "every day" which I have used for years. This model delivers almost exactly the same quantities of food every time and will dispense any form of dry food without the blocking certain foods caused in the cheaper version

Très pratique, correspond parfaitement à la description