Reviews for Victor® Rat Zapper Classic Electronic Rat Trap

I have been using Rat Zapper units (by a few manufacturers) for DECADES. Our original unit was made by Agri-zap, then they were bought out by another company and the units were called Raticator, and now it seems Victor bought the design and they are back to being called Rat Zapper -- essentially the same/similar design through the years. We use them primarily to kill mice but will get an occasional pack rat or ground squirrel. Many of our friends have them too (we live in a rural area). They have worked great for many years and we swear by them! Sometimes it's difficult to remove the dead rodent (b/c they can get stuck), so I bought 12" stainless tweezers on Amazon ($5.50). After a kill, if the rodent gets stuck, we REMOVE THE BATTERIES (CANNOT TAKE CHANCE OF GETTING SHOCKED B/C IT'S HIGH VOLTAGE THAT MIGHT KILL YOU) and use the tweezers to remove the stuck rodent. I am positive that Victor would absolutely not recommend this, but we have used tweezers for years -- BUT AGAIN, YOU MUST REMOVE BATTERIES BEFORE USING TWEEZERS TO BE SAFE! I can't find the specs on Victor's website, but Google indicates the Rat Zapper discharges 6000 volts(?) - if that is true, that is a TON of voltage! When there is rodent debris on the floor of the unit (feces, urine, fur), you need to clean it, or the unit may not work. I duct-taped an old toothbrush to a wooden paint stir stick to make a long cleaning brush. We have not used hydrogen peroxide to clean (per Victor recommendation) but instead mix small amount of soap+water, dip brush into mixture, use brush to clean floor of unit, then dip brush in clean water to rinse gently until clean (doesn't have to be perfectly clean but do a good job), then completely(!) air dry before putting bait back in and resetting it. However, if you remove a dead rodent quickly, you do not have to clean it often. However, a word of caution -- be careful when cleaning -- WATER IS A RAT ZAPPER'S ENEMY. When cleaning, do it slowly and do NOT splash water! DO NOT get water on the top of the unit or in the unit on the inside CEILING that has openings to the circuit board. I made this mistake once and ruined the circuit board and had to replace the unit. Otherwise, these units have worked flawlessly for YEARS. However, I recently had to replace one of my units after waiting too long to remove a zapped mouse one weekend and another rodent must have climbed in (presumably to eat the untouched bait the zapped mouse didn't have a chance to eat) and chewed the inside wires right through = dead unit. Argh! Advice: do NOT wait to remove a dead rodent, especially if there is still food inside and the unit has been discharged -- there will be other hungry visitors. I then purchased TWO replacements from Victor's website (one for us and one for a friend who wanted another one) in late February of this year. With our old zappers, when unit is turned on the light on top would quickly flash RED once and disappear (indicating it's armed and ready) and with a kill it flashed RED every 1-2 seconds (red is easily seen from afar). When the Victor units are first turned on, it flashes GREEN once or twice (or RED if your batteries are too low), light goes off, it makes a short-lived buzzing sound (my old unit never did that but apparently this is normal with these units), and the unit is ready to go. With a "kill," the unit is SUPPOSED to flash GREEN every 7 seconds (Attn engineering -- in our opinion, the new 7-second flash cycle is WAY TOO LONG. Users want to be able to check the units quickly (we are all super busy), not stand there and have to wait 7 seconds for a flash; is far easier to detect flashes every few seconds vs. every 7 seconds – too long). However, these 2 new units have yet to flash AT ALL with ANY kill. Both my friend and I had the same experience with the 2 units -- i.e., no flashing light but discovered dead mice inside. Tested several more times, including with brand new batteries, and each time there is a dead mouse but no flashing green kill indicator light. Since the flashing kill indicator light on both units is not working and both were purchased at the same time we are wondering if could this be a manufacturing defect (maybe same lot #)? In any case, this is a big deal to us b/c although the units did kill the mice, instead of looking over from afar to see the flashing kill indicator light, we now have to climb over stuff to pick up the units to check inside for a dead rodent. That means one of the best features of these units (the kill indicator light) is not working. In addition, with these new units, the batteries are not lasting as long as what the website says they should -- i.e., 1 set of batteries (non-rechargeable) should last for 20 kills -- nope, they are lasting for about half that or less. I am sure the batteries are not the problem -- we have been using the same brand for yrs. During certain months we can get a mouse per day. If we need to change batteries every 10 days, this makes these units far more costly than they already are. Wonder if anyone else is having this battery drainage issue?? The batteries should last as long as what the Victor website says. I really want to love these Victor units and to recommend these to others (as I have for years) but with the lack of a flashing kill indicator light and the draining of batteries, I cannot recommend them -- unless we just happened to receive 2 defective units??? Victor, please advise if you have any suggestions or if there is a way to remedy this problem. If they are defective and are replaced with fully functioning units, I will be happy to amend my review.

I was having a rat terrorize me for weeks in my garage and kitchen. I was a little skeptical but decided to give the Victor Rat Zapper a try. I set it out 2 nights ago and woke up this morning and saw the Victor Rat Zapper did its job and got that sucker!! I highly recommend this product.

I've used this product at two different houses - one in the SF Bay Area and one in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Highly successful. Killed 11 rats in garage of first house, and 7 outside ** at the second. Peanut butter as bait. As mentioned somewhere else, you have to be patient before the first kill - the rats are suspicious of this new thing. But after several nights, one goes in, gets killed, and leaves his scent inside. After that, it was continual until all the rats were gone. Or they went away. Or something. But the rat problem was solved. Highly recommend - but be patient for it to work. ** Yes, I know it's for indoor use but I was care to use it outdoors only in dry weather

I’ve put this trap out with brand new top of the line batteries and 5 times the light has blinked, bait is gone, but no victim. It doesn’t work. I emailed Victor to discuss but have only received sales emails. I spent over $40 for this useless contraption. To me, this is a money grab

This device is ridiculously good. I have an office in New York City some of the rats eat through the bottom of the door to get the garbage. The Zapper kills them with ease. No blood, no mess. And i just keep reusing it. This device is a beast

Trap worked exactly once. Changing the batteries did not help. Defective unit; please advise.

The best invention in the 21st Century !!! Our business has been "vandalized" by a rat for 3 months now. She comes in the middle of the night, eats our donuts, cookies, and recently she has been eating electric wires from our desk lamps at our office. We tried everything, including glued boards from the supermarket, the rat was so smart that she pushed them away or built a road of pieces of paper in order to cross over those glued boards. The old fashion traps didn't work either, she pushed them away. A trap made of aluminum we purchased at the hardware store, didn't work, apparently she was too big and the doors didn't close completely. We were desperate. We found this Victor Rat Zapper at our local Atwood store. Price didn't matter now. We installed it as instructed. Since she loved cookies, we decided to use cookies as bait. Today we found our rat dead inside this trap. Excellent job !!

I have three that I have had for at least three years. I use a soda or water bottle lid to place the peanut butter in and slide it to the back corner opposite of the wire. I also use a small steel brush to clean after use if it gets dirty, not always easy but effective. They work great. I have got rats so big they are hard to get out of the trap. They still work great. I have to change the batteries after about three kills. I use high drain double A. I would recommend these for anyone with rodent problems.

This Rat Zapper works for a few times until the metal plate at the very back of the trap becomes gross from the food bate and dead rodent debris. The plate is inside at the very back of the trap and it is impossible to reach to clean it. If the back end of the trap were removable, it would be possible to clean the buildup off the metal plate and continue to attract rodents. We bought two Rat Zappers hoping to catch many rodents and keep using it before we found this out and would not buy them again.

I’m a long time buyer of Victor rat zappers. And generally a fan. I recently bought 8 new ones from a local hardware store. After about 8 kills on four units, only two remained working. This is unacceptable, hasn’t even been two months.