The automatic chicken coop door I installed failed twice in one week

I put in one of those solar powered auto doors back in March and it worked great for 3 months. Then last Tuesday morning I went out and all 6 of my hens were still locked inside at 7:30 AM, no idea why. I reset it and thought it was fine until Thursday night when it closed at 4 PM instead of sunset and trapped two of them outside after dark. My neighbor helped me chase them back in with a flashlight. I took the whole thing apart and found a loose wire connection inside the control box, so I soldered it back together and coated it with silicone. Has anyone else had these solar doors get flaky after a few months? I'm thinking about just going back to opening and closing manually.

2 comments

2 Comments

beth_mitchell1mo ago

You mentioned you soldered it and coated it with silicone, but I actually think the loose wire might not be your only issue. Those solar doors can also get flaky when the battery starts to lose its ability to hold a charge, especially after a few months of use. The motor needs consistent power to open and close, and if your battery is on its way out, it can mess up the timing even if the wires are fine. I had the same problem with mine last summer and swapping the rechargeable battery fixed the weird opening and closing times. Did you check the voltage on your battery before you got into the soldering?

caseywest1mo ago

Oh man, same here. I had a solar birdbath pump that would just quit randomly and I spent hours cleaning it and checking the lines. Turns out the rechargeable battery was barely holding any juice and a fresh one fixed everything. I bet that battery voltage check would have saved you a lot of hassle.