Yescom Feeder, Simply Scary….

 

Selling for $72.95 on Amazon 
Selling for $70.95 on Walmart’s website

This was kind of exciting to find this week, a new style of mechanism for a treadle feeder.  But the excitement was short lived when I scrolled down to the reviews.  But the design was innovative, the lid swings back and up rather than up like on a Grandpa feeder.

 To achieve this the manufacturer moved the pivot point for the door way forward and mounted it on the side guards.  When the treadle is depressed the lid slides back and up in an arc.  It has a handle on the lid I suppose for carrying although it would be off balance if it was full of feed and carried by that handle.  I has some nice latches on each side of the lift off feed fill lid, a nice touch.  

 The Yescom feeder is about the same size as a Grandpa feeder and holds around 16 pounds of feed.  It has a grid that is supposed to help prevent birds from raking the feed out on the ground.

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85% negative reviews at the Walmart website and 50% negative reviews on Amazon is not a sign of a well made product

Click here to see the reviews 

 The  reviews were very poor, 50% and 85% negative on Amazon and Walmart respectively  

The complaints ranged from rats building nests in the feeder, to the treadle not bottoming out and being wobbly as a result, a lot of leaking during rains and spoiled feed,  poor assembly instructions, one customer assumed it was all aluminum construction and at first reading one might assume that but it is really galvanized steel with an aluminum feed trough.  

 One review warned to put a strip of duct tape on the sharp leading edge of the feed lid as his roosters were getting their combs cut up.

The most common complaint was that the lid binds and refuses to close at all.

One good thing about the Yescom treadle feeder, it is about half the price of the very similar Grandpa feeder.

 

What We Don’t Like About the Yescom Treadle Feeder

 

First, it is obviously Chinese made and being sold by a huge California importer along with gizmos and the usual Chinese plastic junk.  Low price or not, you aren’t going to get any satisfaction once the company burns through its reputation online and changes names.
     The swinging door that glides back and up is an interesting feature but also one that is pretty dangerous and prone to failure.  Numerous reviews online mentioned the door jamming and being stuck in the open position and that one review on Amazon that mentioned the roosters with damaged combs shows that the product wasn’t properly tested.
 

Sharp Metal Edge on the lid….

 And thus the need to duct tape the sharp front edge… yikes!
Now the Grandpa feeder also has a lip on their feed lid but it is folded over so it is pretty safe, might catch a bird by the head but it isn’t going to slice their head off.  I am not that confident on this one, you have a single layer galvanized lid swinging down and forward against another single layer galvanized edge that forms the front of the feed pan.  If a bird is standing in the gap or a small bird is feeding when a small bird steps off… 

Our next concern is having the treadle/lid pivot point out front on the unsupported side guards.  A lot of pressure is going to be present and a single layer of sheet metal is going to bend and flex.  This is most likely why there are complaints about the lid not closing after the birds have used the feeder.

       

 

 

 

 going to be present and a single layer of sheet metal is going to bend and flex and is is most likely why there are complaints about the lid not closing after the birds have According to the online reviews the feeder leaks when it rains, probably because of the inadequate overhang of the lid on the corners.  The lower section where the lid comes down also has a slight raise, not enough to shed the water of a heavy rain but this feeder is almost a Grandpa clone and it has the same gutter behind the feed tray that will rust out like the Grandpa feeders are known to do.
 

 

Galvanic reaction due to Dissimilar Metals

 

One customer pointed out that the feeder isn’t made of aluminum, just the feed tray, although a quick glance at the headline leaves the impression that it is aluminum construction.  We have a huge potential problem when using two different metals,galvanic corrosion.

    Under normal, dry, circumstances you can indeed use aluminum and galvanized steel sheet metal.  But when moisture or high humidity is present, you have build a chicken feeder but it also is a crude battery.  But chicken coops are anything but normal situations, they are usually damp and plenty of poo putting out ammonia, nitric acid, and hydrogen sulfide. Add to that plain old salt that is always present in animal feed including chicken feed.
Remember that batteries are made using two dissimilar metals, water, and some sort of acid or alkaline.
 

 

  • Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in will dissolve in water condensate to eventually produce sulfuric acid.
  • Nitric acid (HNO3) is present in animal wastes.
  • Ammonia (NH3) dissolves in water to form an alkaline solution of ammonium hydroxide (NH4OH).

Mixing metals when building a chicken feeder is just asking for corrosion as you are actually building a battery that will corrode one or both of the metals.

 

 

 Then there is that grid that is used in an attempt to stop hens from  flinging feed out of the feeder while looking for treats or favorite food in the chicken feed.  As you can see in the Yescom promotional pictures, there is feed on top of the grid just like in the Grandpa feeder.  A proper feeder needs a 1/2″ wide lip protruding into the feed tray and sometimes, you will need a lip extender for that rare hen that is uncommonly skilled at flinging feed out for the rats and wild birds to eat.  But adding a lip costs money and makes the feeder more complicated so most companies do the minimum and slap on a grid when customer complaints become a dull roar.

 

The result:   You Have the Grandpa Feeder Clone With New Problems That is Made in China
 

We always love to see new ideas on feeders but those ideas must be proved safe and durable through product testing before the feeder is sold to unsuspecting consumers.  We see the same complaints that plague the Grandpa feeder, it is much more dangerous than previous guillotine style feeders, and some silly “engineer” in China must have been attending a Chairman Mao memorial or out persecuting Uyghurs  the day they covered dissimilar metals in construction and manufacturing.
Walmart.com reviews for the Yescom Treadle Feeder
 Click on the blue link above to read the Walmart reviews.
 

Amazon reviews for the Yescom Treadle Feeder

Click on the blue link above to read the actual reviews.

So you have a product that is a close knock off of one of the most expensive feeders on the market and selling for half the price.  Had it been an exact clone like the fairly new Rent a Coop feeder, there might have been some value there as it is an exact clone for the most part.  Yet there are better feeders on the market so we cannot recommend this feeder.

 

 
 




 

 

 

 The Reviews Say it All

 The 2.8 stars, with 85% of the reviews being negative (3 stars and below) on the Walmart.com website is a pretty dismal rating for a product.  And while the signs of future complaints are there, few of the really big problems with this feeder’s construction have yet to hit the reviews.
 

The Amazon reviews are somewhat better but still paint a disaster for the seller and Amazon will most likely pull this product.  When you realize that many of these online reviews are also fake, posted by companies that charge around $4.00 per posted review on Google and Amazon.  And many Chinese companies have rebate programs where people are recruited to purchase a product on Ebay or Amazon, then when they put up a positive review they are refunded the selling price of the item.  For this product, I would say that most of the reviews seem legit but I can also assure you that the company will “fix” the bad review ratings before long.

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