Purchased for single working cocker spaniel (~12kg), with plan to get another dog in about a year. Was concerned about plastic lid. Especially the idea that the lid would be too flimsy or that a child might step on the lid and fall in. But, on delivery, found the lid to be quite small, so I'm not concerned. The lid is big enough to make it easy to put in the dog waste, but not so big that I'm worried someone would fall in. I knew at the time of ordering that my ground was not clay. The problem with clay is that the ground is required to absorb excess water from the unit. As every gardener knows, clay ground doesn't absorb water. I chose unobtrusive location to install, nestled in a corner and slightly hidden by a hedge. But near the place where we have encouraged the dog to go to the toilet. Took about two hours to install, about an hour of which was removing two large stones found when digging. Used post hole digger, spade, trowel, and spirit level. The only reason I needed a trowel was to clear space around large stones so they could be lifted out. Getting level was important to me because of flow of waste water. Installation guide suggests digging 48" hole depth (14" around), with the unit sitting in the top 24" and an empty space below (also 24"). When you add water to the unit day-to-day, the excess water drains from the unit above into the hole below, and this excess water then seeps into the surrounding ground. I had concerns with the side walls below being unstable, and what I would do if the hole is was dug too big and then the unit wouldn't be held in place at the top. So, instead of leaving a bare hole, I took a section of plumbing soil pipe (about £10 from B&Q, but only comes in 10' length), cut to about 3' length with a hacksaw, drilled with many holes, and buried this pipe section below the drain from the top unit. After this, I was able to fill in around the drain pipe, and then have a solid base upon which to set the top unit. Started the unit today by filling with a hose and adding a couple of the digester tablets that came with the unit (it came with 12 tables, recommended one tablet per dog per week). The instructions suggest adding 4 litres of water each time you add waste, and not to overload the unit by adding multiple days at a time. We collect the dog's waste as she produces it, so I expect I'll end up adding a few litres a couple of times a week.
