Brinsea Products Chick Safe Premium Automatic Chicken Coop Door Opener, Grey/Yellow

Your browser does not support HTML5 video.  This is a MUST for anyone keeping free-ranging chickens. We are retired with some health problems. We have a large flock of chickens, because chickens are addictive, Actually, it was an accident, but that's another story. Plus, we actually have several flocks of chickens, plus ducks, plus turkeys, and now quail. (This isn't useful for quail. They fly away and never come back. But I digress)The flocks free range together if I don't have any isolated for breeding (Yes, I make more! Because, well, chickens are addicting. Plus you can sell chicks to pay for your chicken habit.) But that requires letting them out in the morning. Every morning. Even if you're sick, or in pain, or just want to sleep in or (GASP!) take a vacation. Since we don't keep food out in the coop, because chickens are pigs with feathers and will eat themselves to death, and spilled food draws rodents, and the entire point of free-range chickens is they go out and scrounge up food for themselves, we absolutely must open the door and let the hungry birds out.THAT GETS OLD FAST!!The discovery of automatic coop door openers was the answer to prayer. Finding one that worked right? A miracle.We got our first one from a local store (different brand). It didn't work. At all. So we exchanged it. The second one was very difficult to program, but it worked.......... for a couple of weeks. Took it back and went back to DIY door opening. We tried a third one, which worked well, except it had no timer option and we live in heavily wooded area with lots of shadow. It closes by light sensor. Anywhere else, this would be great. Here, the door closed well before all the chickens were ready for bed. Rats.I have 3 Brinsea incubators (because chickens, and ducks, and quail, and turkeys are addictive, so I make more) which I love. Best incubators ever, great hatch rates, easy to use, I could go on and on. I discovered Brinsea made door openers by accident, while looking for something else.I checked the specs, and found they were adjustable, can be set by light sensor or timer or both. We already have the doors, so I ordered 2 motors/controllers. They are easy to install, battery operated, and need not outside power source. We set them to open at sunrise, and close 1/2 hour after sunset by timer.They work. The flocks are out when we get up, and they are safely tucked in protected from the owls, raccoons and coyotes by evening when the doors close. We do reset the closing time every a couple of weeks,as the days grow longer or shorter, but that's very easily done, the instructions are clear and it only takes half a minute. We haven't had even one second's problem. I love this door opener. We get up in the morning when we please, we don't worry about forgetting to close the doors, we recently went on a week long vacation, our caretaker didn't have a slightest problem with them. We have our lives back, and we still have the flocks. Because, what's life if you haven't got chickens??? (and turkeys and ducks and quail)

Works mostly as expected, but for how expensive this was it could be better. Biggest issue is the door travel limits move slowly over time and as the batteries wear out you need to readjust the limits so the door opens all the way. Other concern is the buttons are hard to press and the switch debouncing in the firmware is not great, so end up having to go through the menu system multiple times to get it set up. Also settings are not saved to non volatile memery, so remove batteries, need to reprogram the settings.

I have been using it for several weeks now, and couldn't be happier. In fact, I'm buying another one to use on their run gate to let them into the orchard as easily as they now go from coop to run. This product does exactly what it's advertised to do: it opens and closes the door to the coop so that you don't have to! No more having to be there at dawn and dusk to open and close the door for my hens. I can even be gone in the evening, and not have to worry about rushing home to keep the predators out.It was easy to install, and fairly easy to program - or, quite easy to program once I read the instructions. Four screws inside the base mount the device to the coop, and four more seal the cover to the base. One comment: read the instructions carefully. The seal must be installed between the cover and base. Also, in spite of the 9v connection inside, no 9v battery is required. It seems odd that the connection is there, however. Watch the wires between the cover and body when you open to install the batteries. If I'd designed it, I would have probably used an externally accessable battery port. I don't imagine there is much wear and tear involved in the process of installing batteries, but certainly more than there would have been if there had been a battery port on the outside. That would also require mounting holes on the outside - weaking the mount, but easing the installation.I have no idea how to determine lux level if I wanted to change the light settings from the default. Obviously, it means that you can if you might want to, but I have no reason to do so. It opens when the sun comes up, and closes when the sun is down. If I decide for some reason that I want to set it to a specific time instead, it's easily done.The door adjustment from fully open to fully closed at initial setup appeared reversed upon first use. I pressed down, the line went up, and vice versa. That was easily managed: I simply held the down button until it rewound and went up. I might have made this device with monofilament line rather than braided nylon string, but at this point I am willing to defer to their expertise. As for the attachment of the pull string to the door: I used a bit of fishing tackle - a hook to line swivel attached securely to the string, and then used wire to attach that to the door. That prevents any concern of knots slipping and the door remaining closed when I'm not there to inspect. Because the device is mounted on the coop frame some 2.5" farther out than the door below, I used two single wheel pulleys linearly to "s" turn the line into the recess without any additional drag on the device. However, before installing the pulleys, I used the line directly attached to the door. It worked without fail.

Amazon has Fast delivery, great condition.This is my 2nd Brinsea door opener. It's a super product I love it ! This newest version has some great upgrades.1) Buttons are soooo much easier to operate than the older version2) All fasteners are included3) Installation and door alignment is quick and easy with screw holes on the outside of product vice inside.4) Internal electronic connection is labeled so no mix up when plugging in the 2 prong fitting5) Has an optional USB port bottom right to hook up to electric power if desired (USB and and elec charge connection not included)6) Warranty is now 3yrs vice 2 yrsNegative: Directions are for the older version. Does not address USB port nor any of the other upgrades except 3 yr warranty.Recommendation to Brinsea: Please include how to for LUX setting when updating directions.Lux How to: This setting is there to operate door if using Sensor Mode and sensor fails. Daylight is around 250, darkness is 0, dusk is 80-90, to close when darker, the number should be lower. The information is from Chickenguard/instuctions website.