Got this for my cats if we're going to be out overnight. I liked the idea of having the food cooled since I was using it for wet food. Unfortunately the cooling packets included are very small. I'm not sure how long they really keep the food fresh for. When it was really hot out I wondered if the food would stay good for very long. Due to the compartment size you really can't add any larger cooling packets. Seemed more often than not my cats didn't eat the food that was in there. Could be that they're not used to it. . . . I knew they at least had the option and weren't going to starve which was the real point. They also have dry food available all the time and are super picky! I would be happier though if there was a longer cooling option available just so I knew for sure the food was fresh when it popped open for feeding.I feed my cats wet food 3 times a day. I purchased this product so that my pet sitter would only have to visit once daily when we were away. The sitter served the afternoon meal and then set up one evening and one early morning feeding in each compartment.The ice packs that come with the product are tiny and could not be trusted to keep the food cold. I purchased igloo natural ice packs at another box store. They were individual cubes in plastic. They could be trimmed to size and worked perfectly. Regular ice packs were too big. I also froze the food that was to be the morning meal. The sitter confirmed the remaining morning food was still cool and fresh when she arrived in the afternoon.My only complaint about this product is that one side did not reliably open or it opened late. The other side functioned as intended. In my case it worked fine because the cats had dry food as well. The sitter just doubled the afternoon feeding and placed it one ice in the non-functioning side.This product is perfect for traveling and for keeping the pet food cold when away. I only wish it functioned correctly. Otherwise, this would be a 5-star product.This automatic feeder has successfully stopped our kitty from waking us at 5:00 a.m. for breakfast. She adapted to it easily. The timer is easy to set, but it is not terrifically accurate. It opens within half an hour of the time you think it will open. But that is good enough for us to be able to sleep in the morning. Spending twice as much for a digital timer which would open exactly on time doesn't make any sense. Your pet doesn't care if breakfast is 30 min. early, just make sure it isn't 30 min. late.I don’t like to write bad reviews but I wanted to share for anyone in the same situation! We got an 8 week old German shepherd puppy who busted this feeder open after the 3rd use. I assumed it would be strong enough to stay shut but he somehow opened it! And he popped off the battery cover on the back, which I feel should have a screw rather than just the little plastic tab. I think this product would be great for calmer dogs or cats but my hungry, monster puppy found a way to bust into it!Wasn’t going to work for us. We want a feeder that is somewhat accurate to feed our dog breakfast. It varied by almost a full hour. Returning.It's affordable(did not want to spend $70-100 for my dog's food bowl), and it works! I typically set the dial timer to 6 hours before leaving for work so that my dog can eat around 1PM. As I see the footage from my home monitoring camera, it seems to work every time. This is important for me as my dog sometimes throws up if he doesn't get fed for 6-9 hours depending on his condition. I feed my 55lb dog about 1-1.5 cups for each meal, which is about the max capacity for this container. I assume that if your dog eats more food, you may need a bigger container. Personally, I don't need to set the timer beyond 12, 24. 48 hours... so it's not necessary for me to have that much range. I'd rather have up to 12-18 hours or so and have more detailed control(which this one lacks if you want precise control like 5 hours, 7, etc). Lastly, this bowl seems to always make ticking noise like a loud clock even when it is not in use. It would be good for it to have a on/off switch. When it opens, as it releases the spring, it does make a loud noise. In a way, it's good as it alerts my dog to pay attention immediately and eat it at the precise moment! I recommend this product without hesitation.Inexpensive so I wasn’t expecting this to be amazing or anything. It seems to work fine but:1: there is no way to set this for smaller time increments than an hour with any accuracy. I had hoped to be able to use it even when I was home to set a twenty minute delay between two parts of his meals because he’s a scarf and barfer.2: the ice packs are tiny and thin, I definitely don’t think this would do a very good job keeping things cool for more than an hour or two.I’ll keep it but it only partially meets my cat’s needs so I’ll keep shopping for something that does what I really need.I opted to buy this automatic feeder since my kitty gets wet and dry food mixed, so I needed it to have the ability to keep the food cold. This feeder comes with a tiny pad to freeze and put under the food dish. I've since made my own pad, it's a bit bigger and tends to stay cold longer. Mind you, I set the feeder to open only 4 hours after I load it. There's no way food stays cold or cool for more than 4 hours. The ambient temp in my house is 73 F. The timer itself isn't precise, if you need it to be. I'd like to order replacement dishes, so I don't have to wash out the only one daily. I will say I'm happy with this product overall, I'm able to set it before I go to bed and I know kitty will feed herself. I got up early with her a couple times, to be sure it worked as described and it did. Now she's used to it and I figure she's in it's vicinity when it opens, since she's eaten most of it by the time I get up.My old catmate auto feeder conked out, I was devastated, my cat was even more devastated because that meant no food when he gets the munchies at 2am and again at 5 am. Do I get jumped on, run over and smothered all night if he’s not fed? Yeeees! An auto feeder is imperative for my mental health. I’d run across burning coals to save my cat. I’d fight to the death if anyone tried to steal him, but am I willing to get out of bed twice in the night for him? You must be joking. I need an auto feeder! This feeder is as accurate as the one that conked out, which means it’s not accurate. Put it on to open in one hour and it might open in 45 minutes, or it might open after the hour, it’s not perfect, but it does open, so that’s all that matters. The batteries are extremely tight, which I hate because I take them out so it’s not ticking all day long, and to remove them I have to pull them out with a nail file! Yes, they’re that tight. Would I buy this feeder again? Yes, as a spare, but it’s not my favourite one.Some auto feeders are hugely expensive so I was hoping this would be a good cheap alternative. It's okay but is quite basic. I bought it for 2 cats but because the timers can't be set precisely one feeder always pops open before the other and the greedy cat gets the food before waiting for the other to open and eating that too! I also couldn't find a way of stopping the ticking countdown without taking the batteries out so everyday the batteries come out and the feeder is forced back into the box to stop the doors from staying open the whole time.It works and doesn't cost the earth like some others but it is not the best.At first it was fantastic, put the batteries in, heard it ticking away. Worked a treat for the first few weeks and then noticed that I would come home and one of the lids weren't open and were still showing 4 hours. Thought it was me not setting the timer properly. Then started setting the timers to the same hourly interval to test them and found one to be out of sync and run slow. This got worse and worse. Tried new batteries, tried to reset it and nothing. Now only 1 of the compartments works, doesn't always open at the correct time so have wasted £20 when I should have kept that money and ordered the more expensive electronic automated feeder.This has been great for feeding my cat whilst I was away. My neighbour would set it, meaning she only needed to come in once a day to set up again and give third meal.Remember to turn the dials anti-clockwise to set the number of hours until you want it to open - simple.I've had it 1 month, and an ice pack has split. I've messaged the company, so we'll see how long it takes for them to send me a replacement.Bought these for when we go away for a few days and can't get anyone go look after my cats. You just install batteries, fill the bowls with the relevant cat/dog food, set the timer and hey presto. We checked using them before going away and they work a dream. We only use them for 2 nights at most as the timer does not let you use it any longer. The inner trays come out and are easily washable. Highly recommend but only for a few nights.