P@H silent spinner review

[velma]

So I think I mentioned that I was getting the p@h silent spinner wheel for Hector, my robo, for Christmas. I put it in his cage at the weekend & thought I'd do a review. I had him in his play tank while I cleaned his cage so I took the opportunity to compare the p@h spinner with the Supervet version. My original spinner is from before the redesign that seems to be causing problems.

The p@h looks fairly similar but has a slightly different depth. It seems to be made of thinner plastic too. The most obvious difference is the plastic stand it comes on. The only plus of that stand is you can adjust the wheel height to have it set lower if you have a ham who can't climb up so well. But it feels a bit light & looks like the wheel is leaning forward slightly. Luckily, it can sit on the metal stand of my original wheel. I've already swapped it over to the metal stand as within a couple of days of being in his cage, I found the wheel (on the plastic stand) had toppled over. Luckily a wooden tunnel had prevented it from falling flat so Hector wasn't trapped or harmed but he was a bit wary of his wheel for a while after. So I wouldn't recommend using it on it's plastic stand, that could cause potentially nasty results.

It runs quietly but doesn't have the same bearing to run as freely for as long but from a hamsters point of view, it turns just fine. While the wheel itself turns quietly, the thinner plastic does mean that you can hear the footsteps quite loudly, which you don't get with the original model. And with a robo that's a lot of footsteps, really fast! I'm not sure how irritating that would if you had your ham in your bedroom. I'll have to have it a bit longer to see if it remains squeak free.

So, would I recommend it? Well, I don't think it's as good as the original & I think the stand is dangerous but if you can't get a pre-redesign version then I think this will do. And it's certainly a lot easier to get hold of for a lot of people.

To show you the wheel a bit better, I've tried something new & put together a youtube video. Hope you like it!



Hector demonstrates....silent spinners - YouTube

[kits]

Thanks for posting the review! I bought this wheel a few weeks ago for my Russian dwarf hamster. It is his third wheel in eleven months. He started with a plain plastic upright and ran until it was squeeling and the bearing got dusty. I bought him a flying saucer wheel which worked for a long time but eventually he wore it out too - I noticed he was gaining weight and not using it, turned out he had run so much the bearing was FULL of powdered plastic! I'm very happy with this one so far and its promise of a metal bearing inside, plus it is nice and quiet, but we'll have to see if it stands the test of time...

On a much less important note I like the colours of it. It's pretty and looks good with my white hamster in his blue ferplast cage...!

[Pebbles82]

Great video Velma! Suggest maybe adding a note to say your original silent spinner is the older version that spins! The review suggests that the Kaytee one is a better purchase than the Pets at home one - which your old version probably is, but the newer version silent spinners don't spin as well apparently.

[racinghamster]

Pets At Home have done well to introduce this wheel, albeit smaller then the original silent spinner. I agree about the plastic stand. These tend to make the wheel `tilt slightly forward`, therefor, could fall forward if the base became unsteady, so using a metal Rody wheel stand is the cure. These are available on sites like Pet Supermarket for around £2.99p. I bought one a while ago and have an original silent spinner wheel attached to it. Works a treat.

What I always do with silent spinner wheels, is add a spot of superglue between the splits, where the wheel clips together? I prize the sections apart using a thin knife and add a spot of superglue in each and then lie the wheel face down and place a heavy book on each end until the glue sets. Doesn`t take long. I usually leave the wheel a day for any glue smells to clear, although superglue doesn't have a strong smell anyway, it`s better to allow for that time to let the glue set really hard. WARNING: Always wear rubber surgical gloves if using superglue!

I feel this might make the wheel quitter. The original silent spinners could make a similar `rattling` sound especially if the hamster was heavier than a robo! Doing this just makes the wheel that bit more quiet. You don`t need to of course, but I always do this IF the wheel rattles. It`s usually the two split parts clanging together, so gluing stops them doing that.

Looks like Pets At Home are onto a winner with this wheel though, well done! x

[velma]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

Great video Velma! Suggest maybe adding a note to say your original silent spinner is the older version that spins! The review suggests that the Kaytee one is a better purchase than the Pets at home one - which your old version probably is, but the newer version silent spinners don't spin as well apparently.

Thanks for the feedback I think I put a caption towards the start saying it's an older model and that the newer ones seem to have a problem.To be fair to superpet as I don't have a newer version I can't really comment on how bad they are. And my preference was between the two wheels I own

Originally Posted by racinghamster

Pets At Home have done well to introduce this wheel, albeit smaller then the original silent spinner. I agree about the plastic stand. These tend to make the wheel `tilt slightly forward`, therefor, could fall forward if the base became unsteady, so using a metal Rody wheel stand is the cure. These are available on sites like Pet Supermarket for around £2.99p. I bought one a while ago and have an original silent spinner wheel attached to it. Works a treat.

What I always do with silent spinner wheels, is add a spot of superglue between the splits, where the wheel clips together? I prize the sections apart using a thin knife and add a spot of superglue in each and then lie the wheel face down and place a heavy book on each end until the glue sets. Doesn`t take long. I usually leave the wheel a day for any glue smells to clear, although superglue doesn't have a strong smell anyway, it`s better to allow for that time to let the glue set really hard. WARNING: Always wear rubber surgical gloves if using superglue!

I feel this might make the wheel quitter. The original silent spinners could make a similar `rattling` sound especially if the hamster was heavier than a robo! Doing this just makes the wheel that bit more quiet. You don`t need to of course, but I always do this IF the wheel rattles. It`s usually the two split parts clanging together, so gluing stops them doing that.

Looks like Pets At Home are onto a winner with this wheel though, well done! x

Good tip about the superglue but I like to be able to pull them apart for cleaning. Robo pee gets everywhere! But would work for a lot if people However, you can't really hear it on the video due to background noise but it's definitely the patter of footsteps, not rattling, in this case

You're absolutely correct about the Rody stand, for some unknown reason I have one (but for the life of me I'm not sure why) and it fits that so I'd definitely recommend purchasing one to go with the wheel.

I think the two wheels are pretty much the same size but the p@h looks smaller on the lower stand.

[racinghamster]

Thanks for the detailed revue velma, it really explains and shows how very similar the two wheels are. Given the sheer lack of decent wheels on the market, this is a good, easily available wheel for dwarf hamsters that everyone should consider. I would get one myself but my old-style` silent spinner works well!

I would go with this PAH wheel over the `newer` style silent spinner due to that wheels recent bad revues. x

[cypher]

Thanks Velma, I had been wondering how you got on, or rather how Hector got on! It's a shame about the stand, nice idea being able to adjust it which might have swayed me if I'd been tempted to buy one but obviously not so good if it's prone to falling on your ham, it always helps to see a wheel going for a test drive!

[freyashamsters]

What if something heavy, like a sanitised stone/rock, was put on top of thre bottom of the stand to keep it in place to prevent the hamster pulling it over? Considering getting a couple of these wheels for my Robos but can't find a metal stand anywhere

[CMB]

Originally Posted by freyashamsters

What if something heavy, like a sanitised stone/rock, was put on top of thre bottom of the stand to keep it in place to prevent the hamster pulling it over? Considering getting a couple of these wheels for my Robos but can't find a metal stand anywhere

You can buy just a stand at P@H.

[freyashamsters]

Originally Posted by CMB

You can buy just a stand at P@H.

Lol I'm aware of that, they're out of stock though.