Refrigerated Auto Feeder coming soon

[Gundy]

In 2019 a company called InD created a prototype for an automatic frozen fish feeder. Out of curiosity, I searched for this product online and visited their website. From what I can tell, the feeder has undergone 3 major design changes and their website says the feeder will be available this year. You can preorder a unit now but no date is given for delivery.

The unit apparently delivers the food through a 6 mm wide tube, allowing for larger pieces to be used In a slurry delivery. It looks very professional and the price was stated as $299.00 a while back. The company has gone though a name change along with the latest design so I wouldn’t think the price will be the same. Who knows when it will be available but if the unit is dependable, this will be a game changer for a lot of people.

 

[blaxsun]

Well, time will tell. I think this is one of several "prototypes" that have been slowly making their way to market. So far, nothing...

 

[Harpo]

Interesting. I signed up for their news letter.

 

[Ben549]

In 2019 a company called InD created a prototype for an automatic frozen fish feeder. Out of curiosity, I searched for this product online and visited their website. From what I can tell, the feeder has undergone 3 major design changes and their website says the feeder will be available this year. You can preorder a unit now but no date is given for delivery.

The unit apparently delivers the food through a 6 mm wide tube, allowing for larger pieces to be used In a slurry delivery. It looks very professional and the price was stated as $299.00 a while back. The company has gone though a name change along with the latest design so I wouldn’t think the price will be the same. Who knows when it will be available but if the unit is dependable, this will be a game changer for a lot of people.

I worked with Erik on this after his Kickstarter. I will say this, Erik is an awesome person who cares deeply for people who are willing to buy his product. At one point, he was selling his house to free up funding for the development.

I don't know the details behind the current design iteration but it looks great IMO and I'm looking forward to seeing reviews for it once it's released.

 

[Gundy]

I received an email from the company today stating that the feeder will be available in the winter of this year. They are finalizing last minute details before it’s release. My guess is that it’s very close to being ready or they wouldn’t have made this announcement. Depending on initial demand, it could be backordered for quite awhile as well and not really be available until early 2024.

 

[blaxsun]

I received an email from the company today stating that the feeder will be available in the winter of this year. They are finalizing last minute details before it’s release. My guess is that it’s very close to being ready or they wouldn’t have made this announcement. Depending on initial demand, it could be backordered for quite awhile as well and not really be available until early 2024.

So basically late Winter... 2024.

 

[dangles]

the aF4, the world's first and only frozen fish food feeder.

Explore true aquarium innovation at inD Aquatics, the pioneer in automated frozen fish food feeding. Creator of the aF4, the world's first and only automated frozen fish food feeder. Perfect for reef aquariums and fresh water aquariums. A smarter way to feed your fish.

www.indaquatics.com

I signed up for the updates a few weeks ago. Definitely intrigued!

 

[BeanAnimal]

Good intentions… 3+ years of missed deadlines. Hopefully this year it will ship.

I see a limited run of units and then maybe batch runs of pre-order cycles unless another mainstay buys in. The market is too small to sustain a long term business building, selling and supporting these alone at such a slim margin with no RMR component.

 

[dschuffert]

the aF4, the world's first and only frozen fish food feeder.

Explore true aquarium innovation at inD Aquatics, the pioneer in automated frozen fish food feeding. Creator of the aF4, the world's first and only automated frozen fish food feeder. Perfect for reef aquariums and fresh water aquariums. A smarter way to feed your fish.

www.indaquatics.com

I signed up for the updates a few weeks ago. Definitely intrigued!

Thanks for the info; I just signed up to get notified when it is released.

 

[CasperOe]

I did see this one last year on Kickstarter and it sort of just faded away it seemed. Glad to see it's resurfacing again! Wonder how it will work when/if released to the market. I am sure we will see reefers from R2R starting to pick them up once they're out.

 

[Gundy]

The biggest problem they have had was not getting the design right. They had a prototype done in the very beginning and did a complete 180 and went in a different direction. From the released photos of the 2 units, they definitely made a good choice. Also, they obviously have strong financial backing which has allowed them to make decisions they thought they needed to make and not be in a hurry.

Getting the product to be reliable and of good quality will be a must if a company this small is to succeed with only one product. Hopefully it is out soon and can deliver what it promises.

 

[BeanAnimal]

As much as I think it is cool, I don’t think the math works at any reasonable price point unless a large OEM in the space buys in and adds it to their line…. Even then how many a year can realistically be sold?

 

[Raul-7]

As much as I think it is cool, I don’t think the math works at any reasonable price point unless a large OEM in the space buys in and adds it to their line…. Even then how many a year can realistically be sold?

Why is $299 a bad price point? Avast's dry feeder is $200. I'd pay $299 for a refrigerated one.

A lot of reefing equipment is expensive...

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Why is $299 a bad price point? Avast's dry feeder is $200. I'd pay $299 for a refrigerated one.

A lot of reefing equipment is expensive...

The point he's making is that without backing from one of the main players in the market, regardless of the persons intentions and how determined they are to succeed, chances are it's going to be extremely difficult in this small market space.

And if what was said is true about mortgaging or selling the house, the owners already "all in" with a huge anvil above his head, waiting to drop. That's a lot of stress!

I've been keeping an eye on inD, I like the idea, and hope to see it come to fruition.

Let's just hope the ui isn't cloud based, because then everyone will be owning a brick if the company goes under.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Why is $299 a bad price point? Avast's dry feeder is $200. I'd pay $299 for a refrigerated one.

A lot of reefing equipment is expensive...

This is a very very small hobby to begin with. Let's call it 2 million.

Let's say that 1/3 of those people feed frozen food. That is 680,000 people.

Let's say that of those 650,000 people, 20% are interested n food automation. That is 130,000 people.

Let's say that of those 170,000 people that 10% are willing to spend several hundred dollars on a frozen food fish feeder. That is 1,700 people.

Let's now say that of those 1,700 people that 50% follow through with their purchase. That is 850 sales.

Let's round it up to 1,000 sales for easy math.

Let's assume that he found a super cheap way to build these and his total cost to your door is $100. So $100K in gross revenue.

Take away the initial investment and he is left with $50K profit.. but is he?

Now - let's assume that of the 1000 units 5% have some type of warranty failure. That is 50 extra units (assuming they were either returned or replaced) so - $5000

Add in a few promo units for trade shows or possible resellers, etc. He has a business, so needs some kind of insurance and will have to pay taxes on his profits. All of this out of $45,000 or less in profit.

There are no recurring sales to people. as this is a once in a lifetime purchase likely. The market is not getting bigger and while there is high turnover, demand for such a niche product will remain low, maybe a few dozen units a quarter at best, or less.

So the $299 price... more than likely needs to be $1299 for this to be more than a 1 time kickstarter production run.

At least that is my take.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Good point Bean, you definitely know how to put things into perspective. Although people are going to nitpick at where you draw your numbers from. But I get the gist.

So the $299 price... more than likely needs to be $1299

I honestly though that this would retail closer to $695-$995.

 

[Raul-7]

Is 2 million only Reefers or all aquarists? I know the number is hypothetical.

I can see this being a God-send for breeders, FW enthusiasts, etc.

But I agree, ideally he'd sell the patents to a large manufacturer like EcoTech, Aqua Illumination, Neptune, etc.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Good point Bean, you definitely know how to put things into perspective. Although people are going to nitpick at where you draw your numbers from. But I get the gist.

I honestly though that this would retail closer to $695-$995.

Yeah, the actual numbers are not important in the sense that a larger error one way or the other does not change the result for any reasonable number of sales to sustain a long term business at that price point or anything close to it.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Is 2 million only Reefers or all aquarists? I know the number is hypothetical.

I can see this being a God-send for breeders, FW enthusiasts, etc.

But I agree, ideally he'd sell the patents to a large manufacturer like EcoTech, Aqua Illumination, Neptune, etc.

No it it not hypothetical. There are/were between 2 and 3 million pre-covid active marine aquarists. In the US. Worldwide doesn’t count and is a whole different business model and set of problems.

The bulk of people attempting to design a tech product and make a living off of this (or any) hobby almost all grossly misjudge their target demographic. Most predictably fail.

The large vendors may be able to make it work because they are already paying the overhead, but even then a low volume specialty item that is certain to be problematic and a support nightmare would need to be closer to $750 - $100 to make sense.