Safety
Battery, water and network: the three ways smart pet gear fails
Coin cells, mains power next to a water bowl, and a camera on your home network each carry a specific risk. Here is what the rules require and what to check.
Three risks in this category are worth taking seriously, and all three are checkable in a few minutes. A coin cell in a collar tag is a swallowing hazard for a child as well as for an animal. A pump and a heater sit in water by design. And a camera is a computer on your home network with a view of your living room.
None of these is a reason to avoid the devices. They are reasons to apply three specific tests before the device is in use, and to know what the rules already require of the manufacturer.
Coin cells: what the rule actually requires
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's rule at 16 CFR part 1263, made under Reese's Law, sets requirements for consumer products containing button cell or coin batteries. Battery compartments containing replaceable button cell or coin batteries must be secured such that they require the use of a tool or at least two independent and simultaneous hand movements to open. The packaging for the overall product must bear a warning, and the product itself must bear a warning where practicable.
The rule defines a button cell or coin battery as a single cell battery with a diameter greater than its height, and excludes zinc-air cells from its scope. The requirements applied to products manufactured or imported after October 23, 2023, with CPSC enforcement discretion such that they apply to products manufactured or imported after March 19, 2024.
On a pet product this has a specific practical edge. A tag hanging from a collar is handled by children, chewed by animals and dropped on floors. A compartment that opens with a fingernail is the failure mode the rule exists to prevent, and it is something you can test in the shop in about 5 seconds.
| Check | What a compliant design looks like | How long it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Compartment opening | Needs a tool, or two independent simultaneous movements | 5 seconds |
| Warning on the product | Present where practicable | 5 seconds |
| Warning on the packaging | Present | 5 seconds |
| Battery type | A cell wider than it is tall is in scope of the rule | Read the cell marking |
These restate requirements in 16 CFR part 1263 rather than adding our own. Zinc-air cells are excluded from the rule's scope.
Water and mains power in the same bowl
A fountain is a mains-powered pump sitting in a vessel an animal drinks from, and a heated bowl adds an element to the same problem. Three habits cover almost all of it: run the cable so that any water travelling down it drips off below the socket rather than into it, use an outlet with ground-fault protection, and unplug before cleaning rather than after.
Dry running is the commonest way a fountain pump dies, and it happens when the reservoir empties while nobody is home — exactly the scenario the device was bought for. A reservoir sized for more days than you are ever away is the simplest fix, and checking the water level is a 10-second daily habit that no automation replaces.
Cleaning intervals matter for the animal, not the pump. Biofilm builds in any standing water, and the filter interval is not a cleaning interval: a $4 filter every 30 days, which is 365 ÷ 30 = about 12.2 a year, does nothing about the film on the reservoir walls between changes. Those two schedules are separate, and only one of them is in the manual.
- Route the cable so a drip loop hangs below the socket
- Use a ground-fault protected outlet for anything powered near water
- Unplug before lifting the pump out, every time
- Size the reservoir for longer than your longest absence
- Scrub the reservoir on its own schedule, separate from the filter interval
A camera is a computer on your network
The National Institute of Standards and Technology runs a Cybersecurity for IoT Program and publishes the baseline that consumer connected products are expected to meet, in NISTIR 8425, Profile of the IoT Core Baseline for Consumer IoT Products, alongside the NISTIR 8259 series of foundational activities for manufacturers. The existence of that baseline is what gives a buyer something specific to ask about.
Three settings do most of the work on day one. Change the default password and do not reuse one from elsewhere. Turn on automatic updates if they exist, and find out when they will stop if they do not. And put the camera on a guest network segment if your router supports it, so a compromised device sees the internet rather than your file shares.
The support window is the part that decays. Federal Trade Commission staff found nearly 89% of 184 surveyed connected products did not disclose how long they would receive software updates, with 161 giving no date at all. A camera that stops receiving updates does not stop working, which is precisely the problem: it keeps watching your living room with software nobody is patching.
| Step | Why it matters | When |
|---|---|---|
| Replace the default password | Default credentials are the most-used route in | Before first use |
| Enable automatic updates | Patches arrive without you remembering | Before first use |
| Isolate on a guest network | Limits what a compromised camera can reach | First week |
NISTIR 8425 sets out the consumer IoT baseline these steps sit under. None of them requires technical skill beyond following the router's own guest-network setting.
What is regulated here, and what is not
It is worth knowing which claims have an agency behind them. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine regulates animal drugs and animal food, and requires that all animal foods be safe to eat, produced under sanitary conditions, free of harmful substances and truthfully labelled. It regulates medicated shampoos for animals, such as those treating fungal infections or allergies.
It does not regulate non-medicated grooming products, and it does not regulate pet supplements. The FDA is also explicit that it does not give veterinary advice. A device marketed as improving an animal's health is therefore making a claim that no agency has reviewed, and the burden of judging it sits with the owner and their vet.
That is the honest frame for this whole category. The battery rule is enforceable and specific. The electrical practice is ordinary domestic good sense. The network baseline is published and checkable. Health claims attached to a feeder or a fountain are marketing until a veterinarian who has seen the animal says otherwise.
Before you buy
- Try to open any coin-cell compartment one-handed without a tool, and reject it if that works
- Check for the required warnings on both the product and its packaging
- Fit a drip loop and use a ground-fault protected outlet for anything powered near water
- Unplug a fountain before lifting the pump out for cleaning
- Set a reservoir-scrubbing schedule separate from the filter-change interval
- Change the default password and enable automatic updates before first use
- Put the camera on a guest network segment if the router offers one
Questions readers ask
- How do I test a battery compartment in the shop?
- Try to open it with one hand and no tool. Under 16 CFR part 1263 a compliant compartment for a replaceable coin cell needs either a tool or at least two independent and simultaneous hand movements. If a thumbnail alone opens it, the product is not meeting that requirement, and a collar tag is exactly where that matters.
- Is a fountain safer than a bowl?
- It introduces a mains-powered pump into drinking water, so it adds an electrical risk a bowl does not have and removes a refilling chore a bowl does. The deciding factor for most households is the animal: a cat that will not drink enough from a still bowl is the clear case for a fountain, and the electrical risk is managed with a drip loop and a protected outlet.
- Does a pet camera need its own network?
- A guest network segment is enough, and most routers have one. It keeps a device you cannot patch yourself away from laptops, backups and file shares. This takes about 10 minutes once and does not change how the camera's own app works, since the app reaches it over the internet in either case.
- Are pet supplements regulated like medicines?
- No. The FDA regulates animal drugs and animal food, and states it does not regulate pet supplements. It does regulate medicated shampoos, such as those for fungal infections or allergies, but not non-medicated grooming products. A health claim on a device or supplement has not been through an approval process.
- What should I do when updates for a device stop?
- Decide whether it keeps a job that justifies the risk. A feeder with a local schedule can stay; a camera watching an interior room is the one to retire or move to a guest network and a changed password. Since most manufacturers do not publish an end date, treat a year with no updates at all as the signal.
Sources
- U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission — Button cell and coin battery business guidance, 16 CFR part 1263 (Reese's Law) — checked 2026-11-03
- NIST — Cybersecurity for IoT Program, including NISTIR 8425 Profile of the IoT Core Baseline for Consumer IoT Products — checked 2026-11-03
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration — Got a question about your pet's health: what CVM regulates and what it does not — checked 2026-11-03
- Federal Trade Commission — staff survey of 184 smart products on software update disclosure — checked 2026-11-03
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