What Our Research Found
The question we wanted answered wasn't "does it dispense food". Almost every feeder does that. It was whether the two things Yakry charges extra for, the 12L hopper and the camera, actually solve problems that large-breed owners have, or whether they just add two more things that can fail.
The 12L hopper is genuinely useful for a 70 lb dog eating 4 to 5 cups a day, roughly ten days per fill, which turns refilling into a fortnightly job instead of a twice-weekly one. But capacity only pays off if your dog empties the bin fast enough to keep the food turning over. The same hopper on a 20 lb dog holds close to two months of kibble, and at that point the size is a freshness liability rather than a convenience.
Here's what the spec sheet and the aggregated review pattern show. Capacity is 12L, listed as about 50 cups, which is honest for standard-density kibble and optimistic for large, airy pieces. Portions are dispensed in small volumetric increments and stacked to build a meal, so a 3-cup breakfast appears to require many small auger turns. More turns means more variance, and more chance of a jam with irregular kibble. The camera is a 1080p-class unit with IR night vision and two-way audio, which is enough to confirm your dog ate and to call it over, and not enough to read a collar tag from across the room. Wi-Fi is 2.4 GHz only, which trips up people on mesh routers that hide the 2.4 GHz band. Power is mains via DC adapter with battery backup. On this class of feeder, backup batteries keep scheduled dispensing alive while the camera and Wi-Fi generally go dark until mains returns, so treat the backup as a food guarantee rather than a monitoring guarantee. The 4.1/5 rating is the tell: the hardware is fine, and the variance sits in the app and connectivity.
Bottom line
For $159.99 you get more hopper than almost anything else at this price plus a camera that most rivals in the $120 to $160 band skip. What you don't get is dual-band Wi-Fi, any published tip-resistance or lid-lock figure, or the polished app experience of a Petlibro or PetSafe. Budget for spare backup batteries and a wipe-out of the bin between bags, because a hopper this size keeps food sitting long enough that hygiene stops being optional. If your dog eats consistent, mid-size dry kibble and your router plays nice with 2.4 GHz, it does the job.
Buy it if you have a big dog, a long workday, and you'd rather refill once every week or two. Skip it if your vet has you measuring food by grams, if your dog is a determined feeder-wrestler and you'd want a published tip-resistance or lock rating, or if you feed anything other than dry kibble.
How we assessed it
We didn't run a lab test, and we won't pretend otherwise. This assessment is built from the manufacturer's published specifications, the mechanical realities of auger-based dry-food dispensers, and the recurring themes across the aggregated public review pool on Amazon Canada. For a feeder, the decision factors that actually matter are capacity versus your dog's daily intake, dispensing accuracy and jam resistance, connectivity reliability, behaviour during power and internet loss, and how easy the food path is to clean. We scored this product against each. Two external reference points are relevant. First, any Wi-Fi camera device sold in North America has to pass radio equipment authorization, and you can look up a device's FCC ID to confirm the unit was authorized. That's a basic sanity check on any imported connected gadget. Second, food safety: the FDA's guidance on handling pet food is straightforward about keeping dry food in its original bag inside a sealed container, in a cool dry place, and washing bowls and scoops regularly. That guidance is the reason we flag the 12L hopper as a downside for small dogs rather than a universal win, and the reason we'd tell any owner to empty and dry-wipe the bin between bags rather than topping it up indefinitely.
The Good & The Bad
thumb_up What We Loved
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Real large-breed capacity at a mid-tier price
12L is roughly double what most camera-equipped feeders in the $120 to $180 range offer. For a multi-dog or giant-breed household, that's the difference between a weekly chore and a fortnightly one.
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Camera plus schedule in one box
Buying a $130 feeder and a separate $60 pet camera costs more and gives you two apps, two power cords and no link between the feed event and the footage. Here the dispense and the view are the same device.
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Battery backup protects the actual feed
A scheduled feeder that stops during a storm is worse than no feeder at all, because you've stopped leaving a manual bowl out. The backup covers the part that matters most.
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Two-way audio owners say they actually use
A recurring testimonial theme in the public review pool is dogs responding to the recorded voice cue at feed time. We're reporting that as an owner-reported pattern, not a verified behavioural result. The live talk function also lets you interrupt counter-surfing or barking mid-act, which a silent feeder can't do.
thumb_down Honest Drawbacks
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No weight verification, so portions are estimates
Everything here is volumetric. If your vet has your dog on a measured weight-loss or renal diet, this feeder can't guarantee grams, and switching kibble brands silently changes the amount per portion until you recalibrate.
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App and connectivity are the weak link
The 4.1/5 rating isn't driven by hardware failures. It's driven by drop-offs, notification delays and 2.4 GHz pairing headaches. Reliability appears to depend heavily on your router, which is a lousy variable to gamble on when food is involved.
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12L is a liability for small dogs
Kibble degrades once the bag is open. A 20 lb dog eating a cup a day would take nearly two months to empty a full hopper. Unless you deliberately underfill, the food at the bottom gets stale, and a smaller feeder is the better buy.
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Key durability and security details are undisclosed
Yakry publishes no tip-over rating, no chew-resistance claim, no lid-lock spec, no video encryption details, and no answer on whether cloud storage requires a subscription for clip history. For a camera in your home, that silence matters.
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It needs a week of supervision before you can trust it
Between volumetric drift, jam risk on irregular kibble and app notifications that don't always arrive, the sensible approach is checking the feed log daily for the first week. A feeder you have to audit isn't a feeder you can leave and forget on day one.
Technical Breakdown
Hopper capacity
12 L / ~50 cups
Camera & audio
1080p-class with IR night vision, two-way talk
Wi-Fi band
2.4 GHz only
Portioning method
Volumetric auger, small stacked portions, multiple meals/day
Power & backup
DC mains adapter + battery backup
How It Works
Setup is the usual smart-feeder routine: plug in, pair to 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, calibrate against your dog's actual daily amount. Budget 20 to 30 minutes for the first day, plus a week of watching before you trust it unattended.
Assemble and power it before you add food
Snap the hopper, dispensing tunnel and bowl together, drop in the desiccant pack if one's included, and connect the DC adapter. Install the backup batteries now rather than later, because they're inconvenient to fit once the bin is full.
Pair to 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi
Install the Yakry app, create an account, and connect the feeder. If you're on a mesh system, split or disable the 5 GHz band during pairing. This is the single most common setup failure across public reviews of every 2.4 GHz-only feeder.
Calibrate portions with a measuring cup
Run one portion into the bowl and measure it. Kibble shape and density change the volume per turn, so work out how many portions equal your dog's real meal instead of trusting the app's cup estimate. Redo this whenever you switch food brands.
Build the schedule and record a call message
Set your meals, since the app supports multiple feeds per day, and record the voice clip that plays at dispense time. Use the same phrase you use at home. It gives an anxious dog a cue and helps stop it from bolting the bowl at random hours.
Fill, aim the camera, then test for a week
Fill the hopper no higher than the fill line, angle the camera so the bowl and the surrounding floor are in frame, and check the app log daily for a week. Confirm every scheduled feed actually fired before you leave the dog alone with it overnight.
How It Compares
| Feature | Yakry Automatic Dog Feeder Large Breed with Camera 12L/50 Cups | Typical Alternative |
|---|---|---|
| Price (CAD) | $159.99 | cancelPetlibro Granary camera feeder: roughly $150-$200 (approximate, based on typical retail listings, not a verified figure) |
| Hopper capacity | 12 L / ~50 cups | 5-6 L / ~20-25 cups |
| Camera | Built in, 1080p-class, night vision, two-way audio | Built in on camera models; absent on most sub-$140 feeders |
| Portion method | cancelVolumetric auger, no scale | Volumetric on most; a few premium models add a load cell |
| Wi-Fi | 2.4 GHz only | 2.4 GHz only on nearly all competitors |
| Power backup | Mains + battery backup for scheduled feeds | Battery backup common; camera usually off-grid too |
| Refill interval, 70 lb dog | ~10 days | ~4-5 days |
| Best for | Large or multi-dog households on dry kibble | cancelSingle small-to-medium dog, or owners who want a more polished app (our read of the category, not a manufacturer claim) |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Yakry automatic dog feeder with camera worth it for a large breed?
If you own a large or multi-dog household on dry kibble, yes. At $159.99 you get a 12L hopper plus a night-vision camera and two-way audio, and that combination normally costs more. Small dogs, wet food and gram-accurate prescription portions are all reasons to look elsewhere, because dispensing here is volumetric with no scale.
Does the Yakry feeder work with 5GHz Wi-Fi or a mesh router?
No. It connects to 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi only, like nearly every smart pet feeder on the market. On a mesh system that merges both bands into one network name, pairing often fails outright. The fix is to split the bands or disable 5 GHz in your router app during setup, then re-enable it once the feeder is connected.
How accurate are the portions on a volumetric feeder like this?
Approximate, not exact. The feeder dispenses fixed volumes rather than weighing food, so actual grams per portion shift with kibble size, shape and density. Measure one test dispense with a kitchen scale or measuring cup, set your portion count from that, and recalibrate whenever you change food brands.
Will it still feed my dog during a power outage?
Scheduled feeds continue on the battery backup, so the food still drops. On feeders of this design the camera, Wi-Fi and app control typically stop working until mains power returns, which means you lose remote monitoring during exactly the window you'd most want it. Keep fresh backup batteries installed and check them a few times a year.
Yakry vs Petlibro Granary camera feeder for a big dog?
Choose Yakry for capacity, Petlibro for app polish. Yakry's 12L hopper is roughly double Petlibro's typical 5L to 6L, which matters for a 70 lb dog. Petlibro generally has a more mature app ecosystem and more consistent connectivity reports. Small-dog owners are better off with the smaller hopper anyway, for food freshness.
What kind of food can the Yakry feeder dispense?
Small to medium-sized dry kibble only. Exact size limits are undisclosed by Yakry, so test your own food for a full week before relying on it unattended. Wet, raw, semi-moist, freeze-dried and oily foods clog the auger and can spoil inside the hopper, and very large, flat or irregular pieces raise jam risk.
library_booksReferences & Further Reading
Our reviews are informed by peer-reviewed research and authoritative health organizations. These sources provided context for this review:
- linkFDA — Tips for Safe Handling of Pet Food and Treats
- linkFCC — Equipment Authorization and FCC ID Search
- linkYakry — official product and support pages
Editorial note: Links to external sources are provided for informational purposes. ReviewHubNow is not affiliated with these organizations and does not receive compensation for linking to them.
The Yakry 12L camera feeder does the one thing large-breed owners actually need. It holds enough food that refilling sto...
Based on our research and analysis, Yakry Automatic Dog Feeder Large Breed with Camera 12L/50 Cups scored 7.2/10. See the full verdict above for who it suits — and who should pass.
View Price on Amazon Canadaarrow_forwardVerify official availabilityWhat Owners Report
Recurring themes we found across public owner reviews.
Owners with big dogs repeatedly say the capacity is the selling point: they fill it every week or two instead of every few days, and the camera plus voice recording is what stops them worrying during long shifts or short trips.
The most consistent negative theme is connectivity: app disconnections, delayed or missed notifications, and difficult initial pairing on mesh or combined-band routers. Owners who got past setup generally report far fewer problems afterwards.
Portion accuracy comes up often. Buyers note the delivered amount doesn't match the app's cup estimate for their particular kibble and that they had to measure a test dispense and adjust the portion count themselves.
Amazon Canada's standard 30-day return window normally applies to this category. Yakry's own warranty length and whether cloud clip storage requires a paid plan are not clearly published — check the store listing and the app's subscription screen before you commit.