With the mercury slowly creeping up many pond/lake owners will fill up their fish feeders after a long winter to discover they are not working. Texas Hunter fish feeders are incredibility hardy machines. We have been on lakes that flooded to discover the Texas Hunter fish feeders are still working. This blog is going to be a quick post on feeder maintenance.
What You Need
These are all the tools you will need to get started. Gloves are good to protect your hands from sharp edges and moldy fish food. Use the scoop to remove old fish food from last season if any is still left in the hopper. The spray bottle has degreaser in it to clean solar panel off with the shop towels. The silicon is to seal the corners of the feeder lid.
Getting To It
The first thing we do is test the feeder and make sure feed is coming out. If no feed is coming out then we check the battery charge or clogs in the hopper. Often times one of these two is the cause of a feeder not working. Motors do go out from time to time but they last years when taken care of. We have serviced feeders that have been underwater and the motors still work.
This is old food left from last year. It can be used but we prefer to put fresh Purina AquaMax fish food at the start of the new year. Notice the white spots on some of the feed. That is mold and mold isn’t good for fish.This is the reason we seal the corners. The clogs are caused from moisture getting in through the corners of feeder lid. Granted this only happens during a driving rain storm but it’s still something to look out for.Right in the corner there is a small hole. It only happens during a driving rain storm but water can get in.Problem SolvedAfter testing all the internals the last thing to do is clean the solar panel. These panels pick up a surprising amount of grime over the seasons. This can negatively effect battery power. Batteries should last two or three seasons. If you are burning through batteries by the month then something is wrong. The solar panel is usually the culprit.
We hope you enjoyed this quick guide. We love Texas Hunter fish feeders but like anything they need some maintenance to get the most out of them.
