For what its worth, one of my feeders is homemade and it needs a plastic funnel inside it. The last time it got down really low I could see all the old corn that had been in there too long and had gotten pretty nasty. I had to take the whole thing down and clean it out. When it goes empty this time I'm putting a funnel in mine. Also I've had pretty good luck with Kenco smart timer 2s. One of the timers went out but I called the company and they mailed another one right out for free. I like them because you never have to change the time when daylight wasting or saving time comes around. I used to have a really good feeder that was two 55 gallon barrels stacked and welded. It was really stout and held a lot of corn you might experiment with that idea if you have a welder.