"I was fortunate enough to get two of the newest Le Bistro Automatic feeders (5lb).
The company sure listened to the complaints of commenters from 2006 -2008 and made improvements.
1) The unit now has the option to use an adaptor instead of batteries if you wish.
2)You can program different amounts of meals to be served during the day (I serve my 3 cats 1/4 cup for breakfast and 1/2 cup for dinner).
3)You dont need to reprogram the unit after replacing batteries; per the manual (I have not had to do this yet because my batteries are still going strong).
4)When I first got the units I thought the programming was going to be difficult from what past consumers had said; but it was so simple to program. It took me less than 3 minutes to program one unit (and that was with only looking in the manual on how to clear the amounts served and how to bring up the breakfast, lunch and dinner menu). I dont know why past consumers had such difficulty but I'll give them the benefit of figuring that the company made the programming much more simpler because if they didnt make any improvements, then these people better stay away from anything electronic that needs to be programmed because it couldnt get any easier.
5)I did follow the recommendation of a couple of people who said they had to cut a circle out of a paper plate to have less food dispensed. The maual does clearly state that the amount of food dispensed depends on the size of the food. One of my units has kibble that is approx. 1/2" and does serve 1/4 cup of food exactly (I measured just to see). The other unit has kibble that's approx. 1/4" and the unit served between 1/4 to 3/8 of a cups. So I cut a circle out of a paper plate to fit between the hopper and the wheel that serves the food. I was lucky and on my first attempt, the circle was large enough to serve only 1/4 cup of food. The unit does cough up a few extra kibble (5 - 10 extra pieces) that comes from the wheel but not enough to make any difference.
6)I found the machine to be very quite. The only noise you hear is the food comming out into the bowl.
7)The only thing about the unit I dont like is the cheap plastic used for the hopper. When I close the lid or turn the hopper to lock it into place, I'm sometimes feel that I may crush the plastic.
I would highly recommend this feeder to other people."
