Are you thinking of having someone stop in at least every couple of days? Just to make sure the tank is running okay - no loss of power, etc, etc? Being in zone 4, I'd worry about losing power and heat, which of course then your fish will be gone.

Yes, I plan to have someone check the tank while I am away. I'm new to my community, so I don't have a lot of people that I know or trust to take on such a task, unfortunately. I had a neighbor feed the fish when I was away for 4 days not long ago, and the fish were waaaay overfed. I came home to a mess.
I really need to get a feeder that is reliable. Have narrowed it down to either a Hagen NutraFin Profeed or an Eheim Feed Air Automatic, both of which appear to be high-end feeders.

They're both battery operated, right? I'm sorry - I have no experience with automatic feeders - so can't really recommend one over the other.

If you wind up just having a human do the feeding, perhaps just request an every other day - or even every third day feeding. Fish would be fine without a couple of days of feeding. Last time I went away, my friends who were taking care of things offered to come twice a day to feed. But I knew that wouldn't be necessary - I was afraid of my fish being overfed as well. Plus I premeasured out the tanks daily feeding - especially since all my tanks are different sizes and have different fish populations. I just used small snack sized zip bags, measured out the daily portion and instructed my friends to feed ONLY that measured amount ONCE a day. That prevented any overfeeding of the fish.

Those automatic fish feeders are quite interesting. I do not know if they are great and such. There is one at WalMart, but I think it take flakes. I do not feed my fishes with flakes, but with granules. I suggest that you just buy whatever you want and test them for a few days and decide.

I have tried a few automatic feeders and what I have found to be the best one so far is the Eheim Everyday Fish Feeder. Reliable and appears to be very well built. It has a lot of different feeding intervals you can program and it is fairly simple to operate. I use mine to feed three small feedings a day. Works great for me. I leave it running all the time. I never have to worry about feeding and it gets done consistently. I always change to fresh batteries before going on a long trip just to be sure.