Automatic Chicken Coop Door Drive Mechanisms

A major considerations when selecting an automatic chicken coop door is the mechanical process used to open and close your coop door. 

There are many ingenious designs ranging in methods including cables and pulleys, gears and Rube Goldberg automatic chicken coop doors like this one:

Although these methods may work, challenges tend to surface using these methods which may compromise the safety of your hens. 

We designed our automatic chicken door to keep it simple, yet effective.  A high-torque gear motor is connected directly to a 5/8 inch Acme Worm Drive. 

The worm drive is attached directly to the door. 

This design provides a simple, yet effective means by which to open and close the door and keep predators out of the coop at night.  The simple design also makes it virtually maintenance free.

Our coop door worm drives are custom manufactured locally in western Pennsylvania by Baden Steelbar and Bolt Corp. (http://www.badensteel.com). They’ve been in business for over 50 years and provide us with custom cut, drilled and finished worm drives.  They start with 14 foot rods of 5/8 inch Acme threaded rod and cut it down to our size specifications.  Holes are precisely drilled into the threaded rod providing a solid connection to the drive motor. 

The drive motor is just as important.  We use a continuous duty high torque DC gear motor in our coop doors.

The gear motor drive consumes very little power when operating and is an ideal solution for our solar powered automatic chicken coop door.

When choosing an automatic chicken coop door it is important to consider the long-term viability of the solution.  

A general "rule of thumb" used in many manufacturing and consumer product scenarios:

More Moving Parts = More Chance of Failure 

Coop Tender Automatic Chicken Coop Door = 1 Moving Part

Coop Tender Automatic Chicken Coop Door has one moving part.  It works on the same principle as a linear actuator.  

The worm drive is the only moving part in our automatic chicken coop door.  We believe that this type of design is imperative to long-term dependability.

When comparing automatic chicken coop doors, consider the long term viability of the mechanical design.  

"Elegant Automatic Chicken Coop Door Design." Elegant Automatic Chicken Coop Door Design. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Aug. 2015.