Eglu/Omlet concerns/warning

[chickens in VA]

So this morning I attempted the assembly with a friend. It definitely doesn't take just 2 hours as Omlet claims! We worked for 2.5 hours, until my friend had to leave, and we didn't finish. I don't know yet if it leaks, because after my friend left, I tried to get the roof on and couldn't do it. I'm not sure if this is a warping problem or just an adjustment issue that will take a second person to help fix (one person juggling the roof while the other adjusts the bolts). Hopefully will get some more help tomorrow and be able to test the leaking for sure. It won't be good if the roof is always this hard to get off, since one of the big selling points of the Eglu is easy disassembly for cleaning! I'm a bit concerned about the run too - it doesn't appear particularly stable and the various pieces don't meet up perfectly, but that's not totally done yet either so I'm attempting to reserve judgment.

 

[s80spf]

I'm hoping they are ok as orderd an eglu cube yesterday and now just read this thread. I orderd from a third party as omlet was unhelpful and wanted £35 for delivery on top of the £699 for coop and run. So I got free delivery from one of there stockist and still cost £699 same as omlet

 

[nmr6029]

Update: we re-assembled the cube for the fifth time but this time we angled the outer walls out a bit by not tightening them as much as before. We have had two torrential rain storms here in Buffalo, NY and there has been no leaking.

Thank goodness!!!!

My roof goes on easily...try adjusting the side rails to help it out

 

[chickens in VA]

Update: we re-assembled the cube for the fifth time but this time we angled the outer walls out a bit by not tightening them as much as before. We have had two torrential rain storms here in Buffalo, NY and there has been no leaking.

Thank goodness!!!!

My roof goes on easily...try adjusting the side rails to help it out

Interesting about the walls. I finally got mine together and tested it for waterproof-ness with a hose and it did leak. Not sure about an actual rain, but we're supposed to get thunderstorms this weekend. I'm hoping that part of the leaking might be due to the difference in hose ''rain'' vs real rain, and also that the coop isn't on perfectly level ground yet. It's pretty flat but not totally, and its eventual location will hopefully have been completely flattened by the excavators who are coming soon. I was surprised by how perfectly flat it seems to need the ground to be.

Anyway glad you've solved the leak issue - will update on mine after the rain!

 

[nmr6029]

Any updates?

 

[chickens in VA]

Any updates?

Yes - it doesn't leak!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Frankly, I'm amazed. There was a torrential rain yesterday afternoon, though, and steady rain most of the night. This morning I went out and opened the roof and the only water in the coop was drops coming off the roof when I moved it. Now, the coop still isn't in its final location, and it's definitely tilted (with the back end down) where it is now, so that may have helped a bit in that the water ran off in the right direction. Still, I would have expected to see some drops inside if any had gotten in in the first place. I'm going to see if I can move it into a flatter position before the further rain that's expected tonight and tomorrow.

 

[TedP]

I have the Eglu Go Up coop and the Eglu Cube. LOVE them both. The Eglu Go Up was delivered to our door in good shape. It was fairly easy to assemble, looks good, works good, our 3 chickens are happy in there.
A year later I decided to buy the Cube.
It was delivered to the Greyhound station. It just barely fit into our minivan and the boxes were very beat up. I brought them home and did an inventory to make sure all parts were there. Not a surprise, several items were missing. I contacted the Omlet customer service by email, a person named Clare. She was very helpful and very apologetic. She sent me the missing parts quickly. I proceeded to put it all together. It did take longer than they said, but it went together fairly easily. The little clips on the run had my fingers sore by the time it was all together, but it does seem very secure. After it was all together I noticed that they had given me two waterers and no feeder, so I once again contacted Clare, and she was very nice again and said that they will send us the feeder in ten days. I have 6 hens in there, and they seem pretty content. I can move them around my yard easily. Very easy to clean, empty the trays, get to the eggs. Just what I wanted. No smelly run to rake out, or coop to clean out. And my lawn stays fairly intact and they fertilize it for me. I am really happy with both of them. The design is great, the cost is a bit steep but the ease of the care makes up for it.
They do need to find a better way of shipping the Cube though - I will say that.

 

[path.otto]

I know this post is a couple of years old but I wanted to add my two cents worth in case some one searches for this in later years. I have both a new MK2 Cube and a used Go Up. I love them both! They are very easy to clean and maintain. Omlet, in 2017 at least, was very clear about the # and sizes of birds for these coops. I have 3 regular sized in the Go Up and 5 regular sized in the Cube. I also just purchased a 3 meter x 3 meter x 2 meter walk in run, both coops will attach to the run. We have hawks and owls and I wanted protection this fall and not just let out in the fenced area (which is also from Omlet, BTW). The amount of time they say it will take to put together or build these items was laughable! What ever they say quadruple it!

Omlet now has a US presence and UPS delivered everything to my door. Clare is still the US customer service rep and has always been very polite and helpful if I've had questions.

Just wanted to update this with a more positive outlook in the changes at Omlet.

 

[gundalyn]

Hi, I'm new to chickens (just posted in the intro forum) and I bought an Eglu Cube for the 4 girls arriving soon. I chose the Eglu based on a lot of reviews, and was excited that it is supposed to be super easy to clean, predator proof and less prone to mites than wooden coops. The price made me cringe, but unfortunately I'm not at all handy and paying someone else to build a durable, predator proof coop would have cost even more than the Eglu.

So far, though, I've been pretty upset by the Eglu experience and wondering if anyone else has had similar issues/wanting to warn potential Eglu purchasers. In the US, they only ship them to Greyhound depots, and since the boxes were too big to fit even on top of my car and I live very far from the nearest Greyhound, I had to pay someone else a small fortune to pick up the coop. I also couldn't get it in any of the colors I'd wanted, since despite their website showing them as available at the time, they apparently weren't. Still, both of these issues I was aware of when I paid for the coop. The problem was really after it arrived...extremely scuffed up, scratched and dirty. I do of course realize that a chicken coop is going to get very messy once it's used, but for the very high price of the Eglu I did expect that it would arrive in decent condition. Instead, it looks like it's been mauled by a rather annoyed creature.

I sent pictures to the people at Omlet, the manufacturers in the UK, and they've basically blown me off in a rather patronizing manner. They sent me an email ''assuring me that my coop was fine'' when it clearly isn't. According to them, the scratches will either come off with mineral spirits (they don't) and/or will fade after I've had the coop a couple of weeks. I've had it a week and no sign of fading. They also suggested that I sand the deep scratches down with very fine sandpaper. Fine sandpaper won't make a dent in those, and for the price of the Cube, I really don't feel I should have to be making a big indentation in it with rough paper...or actually, fixing damage at all.

If the coop were much less expensive, or if it were secondhand, I probably wouldn't be bothered about it, but at this point I'm very irritated. I haven't even started putting it together yet, and am also wondering, given that Omlet's response was so bad to clear damage, what it will be if there are more issues assembling the coop or it it turns out not to be nearly as durable as advertised. I did find, especially on Omlet's own forum, that a number of other people have had similar issues with the coop arriving super scuffed. It's partly a packing issue, as there is no protective material around any of the pieces, so they rub against each other in transit. Apparently Omlet refused to take any remedial action for these other customers either...and of course, especially for US buyers, it's practically impossible to return.

Anyway, hopefully I won't have more problems with it, but I did want to warn other potential buyers not to expect their coop to arrive in great shape, or any help from the company when it doesn't! I'm still hoping the chickens will like it better than I do.

Below is a sample of the scratches - much of the coop looks this way.

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. I ordered the Eglu coop with extended runs (3 of them) along with various other extras and I have been very very happy with the service I received and the pristine condition of my product. It was a bit time consuming to put together but once completed, it is a very secure, safe environment. I have 5 chickens and they are just fine! I would have to recommend this product, for sure.

 

[peckpeckpeck]

We got an Eglu Cube this spring as well.
The boxes came via UPS. Definitely took longer than what they said to assemble, but we figured it out. The gift-giving egg cartons are really cute!

Question for @path.otto & @gundalyn & anyone else who has an Eglu

How do you feel about the "roosting bars"?
I tried putting actual wooden roosts in on top of them but then the poop piled up on top of the roosting bars instead of sliding to the tray below. I guess I thought my hens would be more comfortable with wooden roosts. Should I just take the plastic roosting bars out?

Are you guys doing anything extra to the run for winter?
I'm in Oregon & there's a lot of rain & wind here. Tried covering the run with clear plastic but can't get good rain proofing and ventilation at the same time.

Lastly I had some rats dig in underneath the skirt to get in. So had to patch those areas with buried hardware cloth. Also added hardware cloth around the lower parts to keep grubby raccoon hands out. But then It's hard to find a place to hook the bungee cords for the cover

Thoughts?