iFetch Too

Just to start with, I hate the customer service because of the first version of iFetch. They are not friendly and not interested in helping. Even though the first one was a huge failure for my dog (everything was a limitation) and their customer service was horrible, I had to try out the "iFetch too" version with fear but backed up by amazon excellent service, I could take that chance. My dog is a boston terrier 2 yr old and is very active. His play time involves ball for more than 5 hrs a day. So we wanted something like this and since he was already trained on the first generation of the ifetch, he immediately realized that it is a bigger version and started playing on it from day 1 of the machines arrival. He has been playing with it indoors and outdoors for almost every day 2 hrs total for the past 5 months. I repeat: every day 2 hrs for the past 5 months and the machine has not shown any symptoms of breaking down like the one before. So there is no need to contact customer service as of now. I do charge it every day, clean it once every 2 weeks, especially when he plays outside with it. When playing outside, we tend to monitor him and change tennis balls frequently to avoid the slobber problem, since it slows down the tennis ball. Also, when the tennis ball is more wet, he tends to catch at the opening it self rather than chasing it. We use Penn tennis balls for this and they seem to work well. He can be considered as a beta tester for this model and he is pushing limits of the machine even when I am writing this review. He does play by himself now and takes rest in between and plays again and goes on doing that. Will definitely be interested to buy more of their products in future and definitely will recommend this version. ******Update***** Still going strong after having it for 9 months now. Just continuing to clean and change tennis balls when they get too wet. Still recommend and 5 stars ******Update******* More than a year now and still going super strong. I just opened up the back of the iFetch to clean and found a lot of grass (my dog plays outdoor) and ball fur stuck in there (see pic). Cleaning was easy and it is good to go again. ******Update******* Finally after 1.8 years of service the iFetch crashed on us. The rubber rolls inside eroded and item is broke now. Ordering one more now.

Well where to start? First things first, in theory, this could be a great item but in reality, it simply fails. Before I go into the several design flaws, let me get to the final point that after about 2 months, ours has completely died and will not throw a ball at all. Basically a $216 paperweight. The good news is that our dog loved ours before it died, it was just more trouble than it was worth and now it's worthless to boot. As to the specifics. There are several minor issues that really aren't that big of a deal if the big issues were not present. The included tennis type balls are basically junk and my 1 yr old beagle destroys them in just a couple of hours. If you have a bigger dog or a real chewer, I wouldn't even risk giving them to the dog for fear of choking. The other issue is that any tennis type ball seems to get slobbery (if that's a word..LOL) to the point that the thrower will not throw them. Again, not that big of a deal because we replaced the tennis balls with the medium sized Chuck-It balls (2.5") which throws very well. The outside plastic trim ring on the opening where the ball ejects also was rather flimsy and our beagle scratched it off trying to get the ball out of the launcher when it failed to launch. Didn't really affect the machine so not that big of a deal. The one issue we had that really isn't the fault of the machine was our dog would often put the ball in the opening where the ball comes out causing us to then get the stuck ball out. Some sort of guard would be great to prevent that, but my option was to build a box that the whole machine fit into with two boards on the outside that kept her from putting it in the wrong hole. The biggest design flaw in my opinion is that the machine works off of a battery that quickly loses charge even when plugged in at all times. I doubt many buyers will ever use theirs outdoors, so why not just make the motor run directly off of 110v AC so the motor throws consistently? With the way these work, the first dozen throws on a fresh charge will throw very strong and far but very quickly the battery weakens and before long, the thrower is throwing the ball 6-8 ft max even on the highest setting. Our dog loved ours so much she would play non stop for hours if we didn't take it away from her, but most times we didn't have to because it would stop throwing very far at all anyway, so we turned it off to let it recharge. The 2nd serious issue is with the launcher rollers that have these elevated ribs. Those seemed to wear down to nothing in no time and that was before we switched to the chuck it type ball. With those worn down, it further reduced how far it could throw and caused a lo of very short throws. Finally, the BIG issue. Despite the shortcomings we figured it was still an OK purchase until it totally and completely stopped working less than 2 months after purchasing it. We're past the Amazon return time frame so now we are going to be at the mercy of iFetch directly. Hopefully they will treat us fairly, I will update this review with what happens. In short, had I known then what I know now about the machine, I would not purchase it again.

We have had it for a few months and our dog still can't seem to get the hang of it. We have tried many incentives but it does not seem to help. Once we have a treat in our hand she gets too excited about the treat and could care less about the ball. It costs a lot of money, so we are disappointed. Update: I changed my review from 3 stars to five. We have had the iFetch for almost 6 months now. Our dog is much better at dropping the ball into the whole. I had to stop using treats and I would put my hand over the hole. She is very good at giving me the ball and understanding the "drop it" command, so I used this to train her. However, if one of us is not there she rarely does this on her own. Overall, I am happy with the progress our dog is making but it is a commitment. My main reason for the change to the 5 star review is that our iFetch was no longer charging. After 6 months and paying $200 this was very upsetting. We contacted the seller and they immediately shipped out a new iFetch with a prepaid return label for our defective unit. I could not be more pleased with the customer service. There was no questions asked and they clearly stand by their product!

Prior to purchasing I had read online in a review by another the iFetch Too turns off after not being used, but the one I received Dec 2017 - when I leave it turned on and the light does go out, but it appears to me to be in what I think of as a "stand by" mode until a ball is dropped in and then it turns back on without any buttons needing to be pushed or the switch turned. I like the switch in the white position allows for the unit to be locked into the lowest setting for distance, so perfect for use in my kitchen. I have found the different brands of balls go different distances. The balls the unit came with seem to me to be heavier balls in comparison to the Kong and SqueakAir balls I purchased, so balls the iFetch Too with do not go as far as the Kong balls I have that I am guessing will not hold up to this type of use as long as the iFetch Too balls. The balls the iFetch Too came with seem to me to be made to last longer for this type of use, because both the Kong and the SqueakAir balls have already started to show wear on the outside and have had the same amount of use. August 2018 -I should have updated this long ago- Not long after having battery didn’t hold long of a charge, so I wish the battery was replaceable. Only first few balls go about 20 feet and then after the balls don’t go far. Decreased rating due to poor battery life.

I purchased this on August 27, 2016 and have been using it to this day with my German Shepherd puppy. In terms of battery life and launching distance, it seems to perform just under the advertised 10, 15, 40 feet launch distance. I have had no problems with the battery when it is used, though more often than not since we use this indoors exclusively it is plugged in most of the time. It seemed like it would hold up fine at first getting light use but as time has gone on and my dog has learned to use it himself, combined with his insatiable fetch lust the rubber gears that launch the ball just don't seem like they are going to hold up in the long run. The rubber has started to rub away and more and more often I hear the sounds of the ball being launched once or twice, then a hissy fit of a tantrum while my dog paws at the machine because the ball gets stuck. I can't let him use it unless I am personally around to unstick it as no one else will, and he takes out his frustration on the machine, chewing up the rubber feet and recently the blue ring in the front. I wish the rubber held up better and sadly I am experiencing these problems just after the 6 month warranty passed so I'm out of luck. Overall I will say the machine works for the most part as advertised, and my dog loves it to bits, but it just doesn't seem it's going to last much longer with the gears wearing away. If you have a dog who adamantly plays fetch while this may keep him happy, if its used a lot don't expect it to last more than a year. Edit: iFetch Customer support did reached out to me and let me know that it is in fact a 1 year warranty and not 6 months. I got in touch with them and they offered to not only send a brand new unit to replace the faulty one, but also paid for the return shipping on the old one. I was very impressed that they did that little extra and I am pleased to report no issues with the new unit so far, though time will tell. I will say the unit definitely did not work the second it was plugged in, but after a 14 hour charge time it worked perfectly so if your unit doesn't work right out of the box, give it time to charge and try again. Thanks iFetch!

I made two videos but it looks like I can only upload one of them. The first video talked about using different balls, I showed how the rubberized chuck it ball only goes for about two throws before it can’t go through the machine at all once it gets a little bit of slobber on it. The balls that come with the machine are pretty cheap and any medium size dog is probably going to break them after a couple of throws. The chuck it balls that I had been using previously for about two weeks unfortunately also seem to break while I was making a video. Overall I just wanted to show how short the machine throws once you put in a used ball at all. Even the brand new I fetch balls only went about 25 feet on the highest setting so don’t have an expectation that this is going to consistently throw a 40 foot ball for your dog to chase down. As the balls get a little bit of slobber on them, I’m talking three or four throws, the distance is going to be reduced to about 15 feet on the highest setting with it potentially getting lower and lower after that. I bought this mainly to save my arm from having to throw for 20m but it seems to be more effort for less reward. If I took the time to teach my dog how to drop the ball in the ifetch I think it could be a bit more useful but she is not going to be running after a ball which is what I wanted. The amount of time she would need to be engaged with this machine to get the same level of 15 long throws from my arm would be hours of time spent outside. I think if you have a big indoor space or a smaller dog this would be a good toy for them but if you have a dog that likes to run even a little bit to chase down their toys this thing fall short. I think what could really improve the product would be a setting to allow for the smaller rubberized balls from other manufacturers. I believe there is a larger rubber ball available but it is not an ifetch product and they are roughly $10 a piece. That didn’t seem like it was a necessity so I didn’t order one but perhaps that could make your experience better if you bought a couple of those instead.

This is the larger iFetch, as we own the smaller one too. It's kind of pricey, but teaching my dog to play fetch by herself is worth the price to me! I like this bigger one better because it's more difficult for my dogs to chew up a regular size tennis ball so it doesn't get as slobbery and it doesn't stick in the machine. Plus, I can use any regular size tennis ball instead of specialty ones. This one is great that you can charge it and then take it outside to use without worrying about batteries or power cords. Just charge it up and go! We have only used it a few times so far, so I will update my review if I find any flaws with more regular use. I don't leave it down for her to use without my supervision because you just never know what kind of trouble a dog can get into when you're not looking! I have a 12 pound miniature dachshund who LOVES to play fetch. She is just tall enough to reach her head over and drop the ball into the machine. And there are 3 different distances to choose from, so I can start long and reduce the distance as she starts to tire out. It does technically turn off after a certain amount of time, but seems to turn itself back on as soon as she drops another ball into it.

Feb 2016 Update: IFetch contacted me through my review and then immediately responded to my email contact. They have placed an order and are sending me a brand new Ifetch Too in the mail right away with a prepaid label to return my defective one. Because of their willingness to rectify the situation quickly and at no cost to me, I've ammended my stars. It's hard to find a company that will take full responsibility and the fact that they are start up and still willing to do this means a lot. It's hard to find these days and much appreciated. I'll update again on the use of the new one I get in the mail. But for now, thanks! ----- Feb 2016 I'm updating this after 2 months of LIGHT use. My dog uses this about once a week for 10 minutes at a time. 2 months later after we bought it brand new we noticed that the plastic wheel cogs inside that grab the ball and launch it are getting worn down, causing the ball to repeatedly get stuck in the machine because the cogs won't grip anymore. ------- Dec 2015 The machine itself works, is quiet, and shoots true. Few kinks: It doesnt work well with Chuck It rubber balls because there's not enough grip for the cogs to grab the ball and propel it. Also, the ball gets stuck inside about 40% of the time and needs to be removed by a human. Lastly, sometimes the machine will just jam or turn off and does nothing until I hit the power button again and then the ball is propelled out. This happens about 10% of the time. The other thing, our dog is so used to us throwing the ball and is so obediant that she will only drop the ball in the bucket if we tell her to! We despeartely want her to do this on her own (it's the whole point of such an expensive purchase!!) but for now we will continue to train her and see if she will do it on her own. Any tips on overcoming this issue are welcome! Update: had it in storage for 2 years while our dog recovered from knee surgery. Charged it overnight, but refused to launch a ball, it then stopped turning on altogether. I would pass on this. Its a great idea but falls short in build quality and its features are too limited and doesnt take into account the wide range of dog behaviors.

La carga de la pila toma mucho tiempo y las pelotas son demasiado ligeras y fáciles de romperse por un perro.

Absolutely fantastic my dogs love it

Sicherlich hat dieses Gerät seinen Preis. Die Wurfmaschine beschäftigt unseren Benny aber kolossal. Leider ist die Wurfmaschine mehr Interessant als eigentlich der Ball der abgefeuert wird.Benny kann es nicht erwarten bis der ball fliegt, sondern sobald sich die Wurfmaschine spannt und der Ball aus der Öffnung fliegen möchte, ist unser Benny schon am Auswurfloch mit seiner Schnauze drinn..... Wir üben noch an Bennys Geduld. Und wenn der ball mal fliegt, dann bringt Ihn Benny auch gleich zurück. legt Ihn aber bis jetzt noch vor der Wurfmaschine ab....Na ja ...denke es muss noch ne weile Geübt werden. Mehr wie 10 Minuten sollte man allerdings nicht am Stück üben... Dennoch bereitet uns der I fetch Too ser viel Spass .

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It works perfectly and it's very easy to use. The only warning would be that if your dog likes to wait for the ball to catch it, it will be very difficult to train them to drop the ball themselves as there's no time delay from the ball being dropped and launched. I have read that tennis balls work as well but I didnt find that to be the case. They do launch but only a few feet. Instead buy Kong balls and those work perfectly. Overall great toy, its sturdy and keeps my dog entertained.