Pro tip: That $80 'smart' bird feeder I bought last spring was a total ripoff

I got sucked into one of those fancy bird feeders with a camera built in, the kind that sends you pictures to your phone when a bird shows up. Cost me about $80 plus a $10 monthly subscription for the cloud storage of the photos. First week it worked okay, got some nice shots of cardinals and chickadees. Then the battery died after 3 days even though they said it lasts a month, and the app kept crashing when I tried to reconnect. By week three the camera lens fogged up so bad you could barely see anything, and the birds figured out they could just peck at the tray from the side without triggering the sensor. So now I'm out $80, plus another $30 in subscription fees I forgot to cancel, and all I got was a handful of blurry bird photos and a plastic box that keeps filling with rainwater. Has anyone else fallen for one of these gimmicky 'smart' gadgets that just don't hold up to real weather or wildlife?

2 comments

2 Comments

daniel2142d ago

idk it kind of feels like everything is jumping on this "smart" bandwagon whether it actually makes sense or not. My buddy got a smart trash can that opens when you wave your hand at it, but the sensor stopped working after a month so now he has to kick it to get the lid open. Maybe it's just me but I think companies are slapping wifi on anything they can find and calling it an upgrade, when really it just gives you more stuff to break or forget to charge. That bird feeder story sounds exactly like that - they promise a magical experience but the basic stuff like keeping water out or holding a battery charge just falls apart. I'd rather just put out a regular feeder and watch the birds myself, way less hassle.

fiona_clark2d ago

Wound up buying one of those "smart" garden sprinklers that connects to wifi so you can water your plants from your phone. Worked great until my neighbor got the same wifi password and accidentally turned my sprinklers on at 3am while I was on vacation. Came home to a flooded backyard and a $200 water bill. Still makes me laugh though.