Reviews for Critter Ridder® Motion-Activated Animal Repellent & Sprinkler

I purchased two of these units - one last year (in the spring) and the second one in the spring of this year. Both worked as expected - until the spike broke on each. I pushed the spike into the ground as far as it would go (down to the plastic unit), but each spike broke into two pieces rendering each unit inoperable. From what I can make of the spike is that it is of inferior quality. The better part of one hundred dollars spent each of two years for a product that doesn't last the summer ? Not worth it. Sorry. Needless to say, I'm very disappointed

I've purchased and tested several brands of motion-activated sprinklers - Havahart performed the best. A major issue is battery life - I'm lucky if they last a week even with turning the unit off during the day. There also seems to be a reliability problem - one unit I have works intermittently. It flashes red (I assume this is a low voltage indicator) and has a strong electronic smell. When working, they work great.

I know the instructions say to not use a wrench, but for the dial on the top, it isn't budging even with a wrench. It also leaks in two places, no matter how hand tight I make the joints. It truly isn't worth the money or time. And it doesn't turn on every time an animal goes by on 20ft away.

Not used much and now the water won't stop coming out. Its more of an expensive sprinkler that won't stop sprinkling when turned off after not being used much.

These are great when they actually work. Ours quit on us after a couple months, replaced the batteries with no luck. Bought one more hoping for improvement, but it quit on us even sooner and I took that one back to the store. Like I said, great when they are working, but it only took one evening of it not working for the deer to chomp down on our newly planted fruit trees.

Grackles were defocating all over my yard, pool, driveway, garden. Once this product was installed and they were squirted, the grackles became afraid and averse to swooping into my yard. Great product and keeps the critters away. Thank you.

Initially I was thrilled with the results. I had been getting raccoons ripping up my lawn and it worked wonderfully in keeping these pests away. Alas, this has now stopped. This morning I awoke to find my lawn ripped to shreds. I could not understand this as the damage was done right in front of the sprinkler itself. It was turned on, and so was the water supply so I stood in front of it and nothing happened. No wonder the raccoons had such fun last night. It lasted maybe three months and then kaput so be forewarned with this tool. Prior to last night I would have written a glowing recommendation but that is not happening now. It's a shame because it was effective but I cannot be replacing these every two to three months. On to the next solution whatever that is.

I have several of these units, and shared the issues described in the other reviews. I solved the short battery life issue by connecting each unit (I have 3 guarding my pond) to a 3V power supply. The units not working, or not turning off, were due to “rust” in my water, solved by adding an inline water filter. I also found cleaning the sensor to be helpful.

I have two of these and they have worked well as a deer deterrent on my property. One of those recently broke and could not be repaired and when I contacted the company they sent out a brand new one with no questions ask.

Only getting three stars because of the claim to work for small birds being false. I purchased this product to keep some dark eyed juncos from eating all my newly sowed grass seed. No matter what sensitivity I set it at, the IR motion detector would not sense these birds, even when landing near it. It does get three stars because I still managed to get it to “work” by placing it so that the sensor would face the road, in which case the vehicles would trigger the sprinkler. Not ideal as it is triggered more often than it’s supposed to be, but it is keeping the birds off my yard. So, if you are looking at this product for keeping smaller birds away and don’t have something like traffic to trigger it periodically, look at alternative measures. In saying all this, I believe it would sense anything the size of a cat or larger, so I think if you’re trying to keep larger animals out of your garden, you would love this product. Pros: - Easy to assemble - Easy to adjust - Decent quality Cons: - Does not sense small birds as advertised - power of spray can dislodge from loose soil, but that’s to be expected. I’d rather have water that comes out with force and shoots the 30’ than a product that stays put in loose soil and barely dribbles water.