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Review of the new Omlet hamster cage. 88 x 56 x 49cm tall (4928 square cms external measurements).
This is a brief review of the new Omlet hamster cage. The box was very heavy! I struggled to lift it.
I'll start with the cage measurements which is what people want to know
Before moving onto other information.
After assembly I measured the length and depth inside the perspex to give floor area after bedding is added.
Size (internal measurements)
86cm by 55.5cm approx (4773 square cm approximately).
Or 22" x 33.5" which is approximately 737 square inches. These are interior measurements.
It has more floor area than the Savic Plaza 100 (see below) and therefore acceptable for current cage size guidelines.
Internal height 48.5 cm
The base is approximately 30cm deep (Height of base and perspex combined).
The door is 35cm wide by 15cm deep
I did try to take photos of the internal measurements but it was fiddly holding the tape measure in place and my phone at the same time and they came out unreadable! But I measured it carefully. It is either 55.5cm or 56cm wide but have only counted it as 55.5 cm wide internally.
The wheel is actually slightly over 27cm diameter - which was a nice surprise! 26cm is the minimum measurement right at the back of the wheel. But the running area is about 27cm. So just about an 11" wheel. It's apparently silent (haven't tested that) and screws to the bars.
Compared with the floor area of the standard Savic Plaza (also internal measurements between the bars)
The Savic Plaza 100 is 98cm x 48cm (4,704 square cm) inside the bars, so the Omlet cage is slightly larger.
Compared with a 40 gallon breeder tank
The floor area is quite a bit larger than a 40 gallon breeder tank, which has external measurements of 36" x 18" (ie 648 square inches). So this cage is likely to appeal to US owners (I believe it will be sold in the US as well).
It's not a bad size at all, and equivalent to a standard Savic Plaza in terms of floorspace. You can tell straight away, it's much bigger than an 80 x 50cm Hamster Heaven.
Bar Spacing
8mm bar spacing approximately
General Impressions of the cage
I'll go onto the building and packaging later, but a few general impressions and observations. It's quite tall. The bar spacing is good for all species of hamster. The door is not that large height-wise due to most of the height being in the base and perspex. So for taking larger items in and out of the cage, the barred top would need to be removed. There isn't a top door. But the front door is quite wide and fine for spot cleaning etc.
The barred top seems quite heavy and solid - I was surprised how heavy it felt. But it's a manageable size as not that tall.
There are a couple of small panels at either end of the bars, held in place with a screw (see photos). I'm guessing, therefore, that they plan to make it modular and make something that attaches to the cage. So clearly they have some more surprises to come. What I didn't like about this was the inside of the screws protrude very slightly - a bit of a sharp edge. They would need covering with something to avoid a hamster catching themselves on the end of the screw. Edit: I just unscrewed the screws slightly so they didn’t protrude inside the cage and that has worked well.
Assembling the cage
It's well made. I found it slightly fiddly assembling the perspex pieces and it took me a while to work out which way to do it. I got there eventually and realised you assemble the perspex upside down (to be able to fit the metal corner pieces in, then turn the whole perspex section over. This took me about 15 to 20 minutes of fiddling about but once I got the first corner done, the other corners were done quite quickly.
Mine had one end of the base slightly bent (see photos on next post) and I thought at first the perspex wouldn't fit on the base, but the plastic of the base is quite flexible so I was easily able to pull it out slightly so the base fitted.
Once the perspex is assembled it's all quite quick and easy. You place the perspex on the base and the bars on the perspex. Everything fitted together easily. I haven't actually added the cage clips/restrainers as yet, that hold the bars in place.
Packaging
There is a lot of packaging. It's very well packaged with corrugated cardboard thick sections to protect the contents. Maybe a bit too much packaging. It would be hard to put everything back in the right place afterwards if wanting to return it. But it's well protected with all the packaging.
There are a couple of little brown envelopes. One contains the metal corner pieces. One contains some little plastic strips which I haven't used and haven't quite worked out the purpose of yet. They are shown on the assembly video (which is linked on another thread). Presumably some sort of cushioning that only fits under the front edge of the perspex. There is Omlet branding on just about everything. They could cut the cost with less branding perhaps! There is a sheet of stickers for the perspex - designed to appeal to children probably, although some adults like stickers as well!
Price
It is an expensive cage at the full price of £169. With the 20% introductory discount it is £135.20. That is still fairly expensive but it does include a wheel which makes it more reasonable as wheels can cost quite a lot to buy separately. It also includes two thick cardboard multiroom houses! And so in that sense it is good value as you would already have a wheel and house and just need other enrichment. It's a shame the 20% off isn't for a bit longer. It ends on 12th September (ie in two days time). There is additional postage cost (I paid about £147 from memory, including postage and the 20% discount). A Savic Plaza only costs £80. But doesn't have a deep base, and to buy perspex all round it would double the price to about £160. It is about £10 cheaper than a 100cm Bucatstate tank, but more flexible in terms of taking apart and moving it - an advantage of barred cages. But some people prefer tanks which have their advantages as well. This cage is a bit of both though - part tank and part barred cage.
Conclusion
I was expecting to have to say this cage is not quite big enough to meet current guidelines. But in fact it is, as it has slightly more floor area than the standard Savic Plaza cage - measuring the internal floor area at bedding height - ie the hamster's floor area. I'm pleasantly surprised with the size of it and the measurements. I'm also pleasantly surprised with the size of the wheel, which would be fine for quite a few Syrians, except the largest ones, and definitely suitable for dwarf hamsters. And the fact the wheel screws to the bars is a big bonus. I really really like the Cardboard multiroom houses! They are a clever, simple and cheap addition and no stilts needed.
I would be happy to use this for Dwarf Hamsters and Syrian Hamsters. Although maybe not some female Syrians who are notorious for wanting more space but that depends on the hamster. I think with the dimensions it has, it will be easier for some people to fit in the space they have, than a 100 x 50 Savic Plaza as it's less wide (but is deeper). It has the option of up to 30cm of bedding if using a 21cm wheel. Although you would probably only be able to have 20cm bedding in places, to allow for the height of the included wheel, or larger wheel, but that is still good.
It's a clever and well-made design. I do wish they had made it about an inch or so longer! Then it would have been the full 5000 square cm internal floorspace, but it is still a very good size and the same floorspace as commonly used 100cm cages like the Savic Plaza. Bigger is always better, but this is a good size cage for a hamster.
More photos of the box contents below and in the next post.
This is a brief review of the new Omlet hamster cage. The box was very heavy! I struggled to lift it.
I'll start with the cage measurements which is what people want to know
Before moving onto other information.After assembly I measured the length and depth inside the perspex to give floor area after bedding is added.
Size (internal measurements)
86cm by 55.5cm approx (4773 square cm approximately).
Or 22" x 33.5" which is approximately 737 square inches. These are interior measurements.
It has more floor area than the Savic Plaza 100 (see below) and therefore acceptable for current cage size guidelines.
Internal height 48.5 cm
The base is approximately 30cm deep (Height of base and perspex combined).
The door is 35cm wide by 15cm deep
I did try to take photos of the internal measurements but it was fiddly holding the tape measure in place and my phone at the same time and they came out unreadable! But I measured it carefully. It is either 55.5cm or 56cm wide but have only counted it as 55.5 cm wide internally.
The wheel is actually slightly over 27cm diameter - which was a nice surprise! 26cm is the minimum measurement right at the back of the wheel. But the running area is about 27cm. So just about an 11" wheel. It's apparently silent (haven't tested that) and screws to the bars.
Compared with the floor area of the standard Savic Plaza (also internal measurements between the bars)
The Savic Plaza 100 is 98cm x 48cm (4,704 square cm) inside the bars, so the Omlet cage is slightly larger.
Compared with a 40 gallon breeder tank
The floor area is quite a bit larger than a 40 gallon breeder tank, which has external measurements of 36" x 18" (ie 648 square inches). So this cage is likely to appeal to US owners (I believe it will be sold in the US as well).
It's not a bad size at all, and equivalent to a standard Savic Plaza in terms of floorspace. You can tell straight away, it's much bigger than an 80 x 50cm Hamster Heaven.
Bar Spacing
8mm bar spacing approximately
General Impressions of the cage
I'll go onto the building and packaging later, but a few general impressions and observations. It's quite tall. The bar spacing is good for all species of hamster. The door is not that large height-wise due to most of the height being in the base and perspex. So for taking larger items in and out of the cage, the barred top would need to be removed. There isn't a top door. But the front door is quite wide and fine for spot cleaning etc.
The barred top seems quite heavy and solid - I was surprised how heavy it felt. But it's a manageable size as not that tall.
There are a couple of small panels at either end of the bars, held in place with a screw (see photos). I'm guessing, therefore, that they plan to make it modular and make something that attaches to the cage. So clearly they have some more surprises to come. What I didn't like about this was the inside of the screws protrude very slightly - a bit of a sharp edge. They would need covering with something to avoid a hamster catching themselves on the end of the screw. Edit: I just unscrewed the screws slightly so they didn’t protrude inside the cage and that has worked well.
Assembling the cage
It's well made. I found it slightly fiddly assembling the perspex pieces and it took me a while to work out which way to do it. I got there eventually and realised you assemble the perspex upside down (to be able to fit the metal corner pieces in, then turn the whole perspex section over. This took me about 15 to 20 minutes of fiddling about but once I got the first corner done, the other corners were done quite quickly.
Mine had one end of the base slightly bent (see photos on next post) and I thought at first the perspex wouldn't fit on the base, but the plastic of the base is quite flexible so I was easily able to pull it out slightly so the base fitted.
Once the perspex is assembled it's all quite quick and easy. You place the perspex on the base and the bars on the perspex. Everything fitted together easily. I haven't actually added the cage clips/restrainers as yet, that hold the bars in place.
Packaging
There is a lot of packaging. It's very well packaged with corrugated cardboard thick sections to protect the contents. Maybe a bit too much packaging. It would be hard to put everything back in the right place afterwards if wanting to return it. But it's well protected with all the packaging.
There are a couple of little brown envelopes. One contains the metal corner pieces. One contains some little plastic strips which I haven't used and haven't quite worked out the purpose of yet. They are shown on the assembly video (which is linked on another thread). Presumably some sort of cushioning that only fits under the front edge of the perspex. There is Omlet branding on just about everything. They could cut the cost with less branding perhaps! There is a sheet of stickers for the perspex - designed to appeal to children probably, although some adults like stickers as well!
Price
It is an expensive cage at the full price of £169. With the 20% introductory discount it is £135.20. That is still fairly expensive but it does include a wheel which makes it more reasonable as wheels can cost quite a lot to buy separately. It also includes two thick cardboard multiroom houses! And so in that sense it is good value as you would already have a wheel and house and just need other enrichment. It's a shame the 20% off isn't for a bit longer. It ends on 12th September (ie in two days time). There is additional postage cost (I paid about £147 from memory, including postage and the 20% discount). A Savic Plaza only costs £80. But doesn't have a deep base, and to buy perspex all round it would double the price to about £160. It is about £10 cheaper than a 100cm Bucatstate tank, but more flexible in terms of taking apart and moving it - an advantage of barred cages. But some people prefer tanks which have their advantages as well. This cage is a bit of both though - part tank and part barred cage.
Conclusion
I was expecting to have to say this cage is not quite big enough to meet current guidelines. But in fact it is, as it has slightly more floor area than the standard Savic Plaza cage - measuring the internal floor area at bedding height - ie the hamster's floor area. I'm pleasantly surprised with the size of it and the measurements. I'm also pleasantly surprised with the size of the wheel, which would be fine for quite a few Syrians, except the largest ones, and definitely suitable for dwarf hamsters. And the fact the wheel screws to the bars is a big bonus. I really really like the Cardboard multiroom houses! They are a clever, simple and cheap addition and no stilts needed.
I would be happy to use this for Dwarf Hamsters and Syrian Hamsters. Although maybe not some female Syrians who are notorious for wanting more space but that depends on the hamster. I think with the dimensions it has, it will be easier for some people to fit in the space they have, than a 100 x 50 Savic Plaza as it's less wide (but is deeper). It has the option of up to 30cm of bedding if using a 21cm wheel. Although you would probably only be able to have 20cm bedding in places, to allow for the height of the included wheel, or larger wheel, but that is still good.
It's a clever and well-made design. I do wish they had made it about an inch or so longer! Then it would have been the full 5000 square cm internal floorspace, but it is still a very good size and the same floorspace as commonly used 100cm cages like the Savic Plaza. Bigger is always better, but this is a good size cage for a hamster.
More photos of the box contents below and in the next post.
Last edited:
