Contech StayAway Automatic Pet Deterrent

Saturday, September 12th, 2009 at 1:26 am

Contech StayAway Automatic Pet Deterrent

Automatic pet deterrent. A short burst of air and a warning sound are activated by a motion sensor, keeping your pets from causing harm or getting hurt. Sensor detects motion up to 1 yard away and activates spray. Sprays odorless and stainless compressed air. Adjustable detection angle and spray angle. Requires 4 AAA batteries. Each can holds over 200 sprays. 2 year limited warranty.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Works very well
I really like this product. Does the job it is intended for. Keeps pets away from areas you don’t want them to be in. The only drawback from my point of view is the unit has to be in place for the deterrent factor to work…once my cat noticed the can wasn’t there he went in the forbidden room. It will work much better if the unit can stay in place but unfortunately my situation would not allow such. The product is just as advertised but it still requires work from the owner.

4 Stars Very Happy with StayAway
I am happy with StayAway and so far it has been useful in keeping my cats out of the room I want them to stay out of. I think the blast of air really helps. If it was just a sound without the blast of air I do not think I would have the same results. Very happy overall with this product.

2 Stars Sometimes works, sometimes not so much.
I got this to keep the cats out of the bedroom. The good is that it has both an alarm and spray. You can choose between alarm only or alarm and spray. The bad is that it only works sometimes, which has one of my cats still trying to get into the bedroom. I’ve tried changing the batteries to lithium and the sensor still only works intermittedly. At night I’ve tried leaving the light on in the hallway, which means I still have to close the door which defeats the purpose. If the sensor was able to detect the cat’s on a more consistent basis, I would highly recommend this product. As it only works sometimes it hasn’t done much to keep the cats out.

5 Stars good product
I got one of these several months ago to keep the cat off the counters. As far as i know, it’s working. I never see the cat up there. It also keeps the dogs out of any area or room i don’t want them in.

When i first read about this concept on the web, i read about the SSSCAT product by Premier and i came to Amazon to buy it, but i read reviews in which the users reported that there was an older version of the product that had both a sound alarm and the spray of air, with the option to use sound only. SSSCAT was advertised as having both features, but users reported it had air spray only, no alarm. Apparently no one updated the page on Amazon after they discontinued the alarm. There were disappointed reviewers complaining that the product was not correctly described in the ad, and also, that the alarm option was not available anymore.

I really wanted the alarm, with the option of sound only. The spray uses up the supply of air pretty fast, and then it costs $20 including shipping to get another can of air, that doesn’t last very long. I was very disappointed that the Premier product took this feature away. That’s when a search led to the discovery of StayAway. True enough, the spray ran out very quick when i first got it. I had to buy a new one and during the long period between buying the refill and receiving it, there was no continuity of the cat’s training. But since then, i have used mostly the alarm/sound only and not the spray, and have not run out of spray again, after a very long time, months.

I began worrying that it would wear out and that the product would be discontinued, and also, i wanted to position more of them in different parts of the house, so i just bought two more today.

In other words, i think they’re great.

2 Stars 2 swings and a miss
After considerable review of the different manufacturers of this type of product I chose Contech specifically because their customer reviews indicated it was a better product, i.e. better quality, performance, etc. compared to the competition. I’ll relate my experience and let you be the judge. I ordered two of the StayAway Pet Deterrents and they arrived promptly. The product is easy to assemble and place into immediate use. However the motion sensors on both units proved to be hypersensitive. Instead of limiting their sensing range out to 3 feet (the manufacturer’s specifications) they detected movement and activated at a range clear out to 15 feet. So now you can’t walk through our living room at all without them activating. I contacted customer service who were very friendly and the rep told me she had not heard of such a problem and would consult with one of their engineers and call me back which she did in a timely fashion. She stated that the engineer indicated that it was a bad sensor within the unit and they promptly shipped me 2 new units at no cost. I now have 4 units and they all have the same exact problem. They all fire at a range out to 15 feet. Unfortunately in my case the excess sensing range renders them very impractical unless I want to be purchasing the expensive refill canisters every week and putting up with the annoying blast every time we walk through the living room (high traffic area). I’m sure that the product normally works as advertised. Every manufacturer produces a lemon from time to time. But 4 units all performing outside their specifications indicates to me their is no quality control going on and neither did their customer service take the time to ensure they were sending me a properly functioning replacement.

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