Hartz Play City Extreme Home

Pros: cheap, solid bottom, quiet wheel, nice water bottle
Cons: not well planned, hard to clean, hard to get animal out

I raised mice, gerbils, and hamsters for years. . . we're talking 80 + cages at a time.  I made my own cages out of Sterilite boxes and hardware cloth. When PetCo came to town, I sold everything. Naturally, now my daughter wants a pet gerbil. ...

Pros: Nice size space for small animals and attractive easy to clean design.
Cons: The links for the wheel and accessories are useless and the pet will escape.

At first glance this appears to be a wonderfully made product and if Hartz had not skimped on their locking mechanisms, this could have been a wonderful value.  However, to save a few cents, their tubes and accessories attach using just linking washers that do not engage the tubes other than just a snug fit.  We wound up losing three hamster who managed to push the parts apart.  We stopped using the accessories, and just used the home with the wheel that was provided with the product.  However, the cheap orange clip that holds the wheel on is not strong enough to contain a healthy hamster.  The wheel repeatedly fell off, even when it seemed securly fastened.  We finally chucked the cage altogether and bought a different brand from another manufacturer who actually appears to have tested their product on live animals.  The links are excellent.  Yes, the product cost more, but if you lose enough hamsters you really aren't saving anything buying the poorly designed Hartz product.