Note: This review is part of a larger series on smart pet feeders. To see our 2018 smart pet feeder buyer’s guide that compares the Petnet alongside other smart pet feeders, click here. Thanks for reading!
The Petnet line of products have proven to be some of the most top-of-the-line in the pet accessories market for 2018. Many of the other smart pet accessories currently on the market are just plain ugly. They have bulky, outdated, cartoonish designs and most importantly they don’t have the latest technology on board. The Petnet SmartFeeder is a sleek smart pet feeder that allows you to feed your pet from your phone and monitor their food intake – something important when keeping an eye on your pet’s health. In our comprehensive review, we found that the Petnet can be used as either a smart dog feeder or a smart cat feeder. Have more than one pet using it? Its integration with the Nest home security system can help you keep a watchful eye on multiple pets’ food intakes, too. We go over this feature near the end of our review.
We’ll start with the specs, take a look at the app’s dynamic features, and finish by going over the special feature of the Petnet Smartfeeder. Let’s go!
The Petnet SmartFeeder measures 15.32″ L x 9.20″ W x 15.32″ H and can hold up to 7 pounds of food. It’s all black with a stainless steel bowl. While the Petnet is designed to stay plugged in all the time with its included power cord, it does have a backup battery that lasts 8-10 hours. For our review, we left it plugged in all the time so we really can’t speak to how well the battery charges.
The Petnet SmartFeeder app allows you to schedule your pet’s feeding times and portions. There’s a lot of customizations that can be done here. If you want to give your pet a different amount of food throughout different times of the day – you can do that! The app provides feedback that shows you how much your pet ate and when they ate it. There’s an optional feature that will send a notification to your phone when your pet eats. The notification feature tells you the time you pet ate and how much they ate. All of this data is stored in the app and can show you reports (charts, graphs, nutritional info) about your pet’s food intake.
While all the data is neat to see, the recommended amount wasn’t always what we found that our dog ate. In that sense, you can really make the Petnet your own and decide for yourself how much you want to feed your pet. Within a few minutes on the app, we had all the food dispersion tailor-made for our dog.
Feeding your pet from your phone and monitoring your pet’s food intake are really cool and unique features. But there are other devices on the market that also do this core feature well.
What really makes the Petnet a smart pet feeder, though, is its ability to make decisions with this information. The Petnet SmartFeeder uses this data to recommend a food amount and even order it automatically when your food is low. You can pause or cancel deliveries. You can learn more about the Petnet smart delivery system by clicking here and seeing if your pet food is on the SmartDelivery list.
The SmartDelivery app is a whole system unto itself that can even be considered separate of the smart pet feeder. The app uses an algorithm to “grade” your pets food based on its ingredients. It will even recommend other foods to try and you can order it right from the app. The app provides delivery updates on the food you order with SmartDelivery and right now you get 3 free bags of food with SmartDelivery. Awesome deal!
If you’re a Nest user or an Alexa user, you can use them with the Petnet. With the Nest home security camera, the Petnet will automatically take a snapshot every time your pet eats. This isn’t unlike many specialized pet cameras on the market (check out our pet camera buyer’s guide here), but it adds a neat extra feature if you are a Nest user. The Alexa integration allows you to ask Alexa to feed your pet and dispense without the app. If your pet usually wants a snack in the night, this is a really useful feature!
Out of these two extra integration features, we only used the Alexa one. It worked really well! We could say how many cups we wanted to feed our dog and it automatically dispersed the food – even if the amount of cups we said was different than the usually scheduled amount.
Overall the Petnet SmartFeeder works well as both an automatic dog feeder and automatic cat feeder. If you have two pets (we have two cats and two dogs), its calculations on the app won’t consider it.
Have multiple pets with one smart pet feeder?
Paired with the Nest security camera, you can figure out which pet is eating, how much they’re eating, and how often they’re eating. The Nest integration is awesome if you have an older pet you like to keep an eye on.
You can check out the Petnet SmartFeeder here on Amazon.
If you have multiple pets and you’re interested in using the Nest as a pet camera, click here to check out the Nest on Amazon.