SureFlap-Sure Petcare Microchip Pet Door (White)

I love it, my cat despises it! (If you do not believe me, see the attached photo.) On the flip, the SureFlap door does make an excellent cat window. (ie. See attached photo.) I think the reason why he doesn't like using the SureFlap door, cats tend to get spoiled easily, such as eating treats and refusing to eat regular food. He enjoys when I open the regular door for him when he's going outside, as this also scares any predators away. He then enjoys when I open the regular door and greet him to come inside after roaming around for awhile. Day 1 after installation of the SureFlap Pet Door Cat lays limp nearby the SureFlap Pet Door, in obvious protest of the dehumanizing SureFlap Pet Door. (He performs similar when being dawned with his cat leash harness.) Day 2 While he's crying to be let outside using the regular door, I was retrieving and readying to turn on the vacuum sweeper when he gladly hopped out the SureFlap Pet Door all by himself! Day 3 He's still hesitant to use the door when coming in, but not so much going. I'm now putting dry food stacked with snacks and treats after he's been out for awhile near the edge of the SureFlap Pet Door, in hopes to entice him to enter the house with a little more vigor. This is working, and he's somewhat used to the locking noise now, but still finds the door dehumanizing and would rather sit outside for four to six hours until I let him inside using the regular house doors. Day 5-7 He's now getting more used to going out the SureFlap Pet Door, but entering the door is still dehumanizing for him. No problems with the unlocking mechanism of the door, just psychologically dehumanizing! He knows to use his paw to push the bottom of the door, but just doesn't readily enter the SureFlap Pet Door. Two Week Interval Absolutely no problems with the cat using the door to exit the house now. Only problem, I'll tend to still see him waiting on the front porch to be let inside at night, instead of him using his cat door on the side of the house. During the day, he does use his door. He's learned well for the past weeks that he can use his front paw for opening the cat door, or at least play with the magnetic door sealing door. I think the action of the magnet tends to scare him a little, as he does not understand how magnets work. He's also still on the ten second delay. Might also be getting skittish while exiting the door this morning, likely smelling the possible presence of a raccoon within the exterior of the entry way. In another week, I'll try disabling/reducing the 10 second delay, and hoping this doesn't also teach the raccoon how to use the door. No more leaving any food on the inside of the door, nor do I think the cat needs anymore encouragement at this point. Three Week Interval My cat is becoming more used to the locking mechanism and the mystical magnetic door closing action. I think placing some catnip at the bottom of the door has made him extremely more comfortable with using the door more often. Still using the ten second mode, although he his making the transition much faster from outside to inside the house, and vice versa. PROS 1) Well made. I haven't seen such a well made product for such a long time! 2) Pretty easy to install, within a 2x6 exterior wall. (I used two white 2-2.75 inch SureFlap Microchip Pet Door Tunnel Extenders. The brown extenders tend to interfere with the unit's operation.) 3) Electronics and electrical user interface works well, and intuitive. 4) Uses some good sized batteries, for providing the amps for longtime operation. CONS 1) No significant cons so far, besides the unit doesn't include a vinyl siding curved U channel. 2) I was a little hesitant to purchase this product due to all the negative reviews, but latter realized those writing negative reviews were likely writing for different earlier product models. 3) When the cat goes through the door and the door closes, the door tends to catch the end of his tail. Although the door is really light, I still wonder if it is bugging the cat. I doubt it though. 4) I'm wondering if such a door used within colder climates should have some method of preventing heat loss, such as an arctic entry way. (I have not had the time to engineer an arctic entry for this little door for prevent heat loss, as this seems less of a concern for the tropical climates of northeastern Ohio.) I measured the temperature loss using an HVAC laser thermometer during a cold night during Winter, likely around just below or at zero Fahrenheit as we had a warm Winter; and noticed likely due to the small opening, heat loss appeared minimal and the only heat loss registering on the thermometer was primarily extending approximately 1-2 feet around or in front of the pet door by a few degrees loss in comparison to the average interior temperature. Since the pet door is in a small rear room containing the litter boxes, and the room's heat plan is engineered a few degrees cooler than the rest of the house, doesn't seem much of a concern. 5) WARNING: Keep the buttons covered using the button cover plate, else your cat may accidentally unlock the door by repetitively pawing at the pet door, inadvertently hitting the unlock button! Due to my cat's injuries sustained while fighting with other stray cat(s), I had to lock him inside for a month. One night, while he likely had to pee really badly and not wanting to use his litter box, I found he was partially through the supposedly locked pet door after frantically pawing away at the pet door, but was luckily partially temporarily caught in the pet door by his pet large cone, or "Cone of Shame." Nowadays at most times, I still have the buttons uncovered for easily temporarily locking him inside while cutting the grass, or other times. I just try to remember to use the button cover plate, for when I'm trying to keep him inside longer than a few hours. TIPS 1) I used an average rise or height from floor, four to five inches. The hinged part of the door adds about an inch to the rise, so the bottom of my door has about a four inch rise, while the hinges rise to about five inches. 2) Use the included collar RFID key for testing the door. Do not use the key on a outdoor cats, as outdoor cats loose their collars on a weekly basis. 3) Once you have the pet door installed, I suggest using catnip to further entice your pet to become comfortable with using the pet door. Using food after the door installed may entice raccoons, however, I myself did use a dish of food loaded with his treats within the first one or two weeks. (Figured once he got his nose through the door, the smell of his treats would further entice him to enter the house instead of being scared-off by the locking mechanism.) 2019.03.10 WARNING! If the pet door is locked, your persistent cat can still bypass the lock to get outside. My cat only takes about ~2-3 minutes to bypass the locking mechanism with his claws & paws. Seems to be like riding a bike to him. Once he learned, he now seems to bypass the mechanism quite routinely now. Be careful and permanently seal the door using a board and some long drywall/wood screws. Using a movable bucket, your pet will still get out but likely will not be able to re-enter due to the temporary obstacle nudged aside, preventing the pet door flap to open full for re-entry. Do not be fooled your pet cannot escape through the door while wearing an "Elizabethan collar" (AKA cone-of-shame), as this would only be a temporary hurdle. 2019.05.30 Added photo of door stopping a bunny, dead in his tracks, from breaking into my house and robbing me of all my belongings. Yea, at first I thought he was having a hard time entering the door for some reason again, then to my surprise, he wanted his "catch of the day" brought inside where it's likely cooler and also likely wanted me to prep the fresh kill. I should have, because he later devoured the entire rabbit. If I were a dentist, probably be pulling lucky rabbits paws from between his teeth! Regardless of the size, he still ate two more full cans of food that night and in the morning... Small cat, many stomachs.

After owning this pet door for nearly two years now, I can confirm it is by far the best on the market (and I tried and returned two other brands before buying this sureflap model). (PLEASE GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS REVIEW FOR A PRO TIP ON HOW TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR YOU PET TO USE) I originally bought it for a cat that adopted us (showed up one day in our garden begging for food). He was not an indoor cat and seeing as he came to us, we couldn't just lock him in so the hunt for a cat flap began. Unfortunately, we have seriously cheeky and aggressive racoons where we live and the existing open swing cat flap let those little b@stards raid our kitchen while we were away one weekend. First I tried the Catmate models - useless. The first one they sent me only worked with special even though it said RFID on the packaging. They meant RFID tags, RFID microchips tags You literally had to wipe your cats face vigorously against the door to get it to sense the chip. Back it went. Their customer service was excellent, but their catflap just did not work. So on to the Sureflap. I can imagine installation in a regular door being a breeze - I actually was installing in a thin metal security door, the outside of which has 2 small downward steps immediately outside and unfortunately, it's really not designed to do this. I managed to find a away around it by buying this hard pink foam insulation board from home depot that was about 1.5" thick and using the supplied tracing outline (good move sureflap) cut a spacer. this went on the inside of the door. Now there's still a bit of a "tunnel" on the outside but that extra 1.5" made the difference for it not to protrude too far out in front of those little steps. Why did I get the Pet Flap and not the Cat Door for my cat? Because he was a big boy, a Ginger tabby at a lean 15lbs. He was just about able to fit through the Pet Door, I can't imagine him trying to get through the cat door, so unless you have a petite cat, don't get the Cat Door, get the larger Pet Door. All in all installation was easy but I did have a tiny problem in that the long supplied screws, given my thin door and homemade spacer are just a fraction too long so I had to find a careful balance of tightening them to hold it in place, and not so tight that the plastic casing warps as they press on the inside (you'll see what I mean if you ever have my predicament, but I managed to make it all work). Function: the thing works flawlessly. I mean every single time the cat gets about a foot away from the outer tunnel, you hear the signature click of the locks popping down to release the door. I actually think over time the cat gets to understand this sound as part of the accessing ritual.If you have a really skittish cat then it may take a little while for them to get used to the click but it's really quite minimal and if you're cat is that skittish, it probably shouldn't be outside. Programming is easy, just press the button, get the cat to go in to the tunnel and it licks and displays that he's registered. That's it. there's all sorts of curfew functions and only allowing certain chips to have access certain ways etc (like if you want you cat to be allowed in at night but not go out until morning etc) but my cat was too free a spirit for any of that.The videos by sureflap are great so be sure to watch them for installation and programming. I think the first time I wanted him to go though I taped the thing open and put his dinner on the other side. No issue.Then the next time, had it closed and after a few timid attempts the want for food was too great and he bullied his way trhough. After that, plain sailing. PRO TIP: The only issue (and I'll also add this as a tip) is that there are two magnets, on on each side of the lowest part of the door, that help gravity to "snap" the door in to the resting "down" position. They were a little too strong for even my beefy cat to muscle past and even though he would still get in, he would struggle with the door sometimes. I saw that when he wanted to push open the door, he would always go for the bottom right corner. So thinking about how to make it easier, I found that if you manually open the door to the horizontal position, you can use one of the pick tools (or similar) on a standard Swiss Army knife to pull out one of those two magnets, and I did it on the side that he usually pushed on as that would give just a tiny bit of flex and made it about 50% easier for the act to open the door! I strongly suggest doing this if you have a small dog or cat that doesn't like having to press their face on the door. It's been two year of constant operation and the Duracell batteries are still showing full on the LED. I can honestly say, a person with a background in engineering, this is one of the best working and design electromechanical devices I've ever seen. Unless for some reason this doesn't fit your door or animal, you'd be a fool to buy anything else.

Very disappointed in this door. We bought it for our dachshunds and it will not work for them or any dog with a long face. Their microchip or even their collar is too far back to activate the door. I would return the door but we already have it installed so it’s a little late at this point. We ended up putting tape over the latches to keep the door from locking so we can use it. However, now we have an expensive non locking door. Not what we wanted or paid for. One other note is the unlock function is slow, so pets have to be patient to wait for it to unlock so they can go through. Not a fan of that either.

I absolutely love the concept, and the door is well-made. However, the click when the door reads the chip and unlatches (or when it latches after the cat passes through) is VERY loud. Most of my cats have gotten used to it, although 1 very skittish one really hates that click and still jumps after over a month. They have not gotten the hang of using it yet, so I have to leave it open for the most part. Two (of eight) have learned how to push it open now, the other five still need a lot of work (one is intentionally excluded). My purpose for using this door is for the "food room" I have set up for my cats because one of them is overweight and the others free feed in the food room, so "fatty" needs to be kept out of that room. I did find that customer support was good. If you contact them, make sure to give the serial number of the unit (on the pet door, it's beneath the button cover) to make things go faster/smoother. I didn't do that, so it took a month to get what I needed. I'll update the review once the kitties (hopefully) all get with the program. Once they do, I think this will be a great solution. Previously, I had a hole cut in a thick cardboard "door" that everyone except "fatty" could fit through. It worked great until he lost enough weight he could get through, then he started gaining back and would start getting stuck trying to go through. This way, he won't be able to get through at all. Update 3-14-2015: All of the kitties are with the program now. The 1 really skittish one still jumps a little sometimes when he hears the click, but he's getting better about it. It has definitely kept the one kitty out that I needed to! I recently had an issue where the door apparently forgot the skittish one and wouldn't program him back in, but it was "user error" as it turns out. I had moved an air purifier a few feet away from the door to help with my allergies, and it was causing interference with the door. I didn't realize that, so I tried the troubleshooting they have on their website and everything seemed ok. So, I contacted customer service, giving the serial number of the unit and the microchip number of the cat having the issue. They sent a range tester to me, I got it within 2 days! It enabled me to figure out (without causing further stress to my poor cat) that the air purifier was causing interference. That, combined with that cat's chip either being migrated or having been placed farther back than the others, was enough to cause problems for him. I unplugged the air purifier and he's a happy cat again :) This works great for my purposes of having a "food room" for the cats who don't need to lose weight and keeping out those who do need to lose weight. Their customer service is very responsive and helpful. Programming the cats in is pretty easy as long as you don't have any that are really feral or skittish along with others you don't want to get programmed that have chips. *** update 5/10/2015: I have one very pushy and motivated cat who has figured out how to get in when one of the "authorized" cats does before the flap can fully close and lock. Not sure how to keep this from happening yet, but if I figure it out, I'll edit this review again. For now, I have a camera in there that I can see when I'm at/near my computer so I can at least catch him at those times and get him out of there before he eats all the food. Not the best solution, so I'm also trying to see if others have had the issue and resolved it at their sureflap.com site.

This door can be a bit confusing as to what exactly it does when you read the description or the reviews. So hopefully this review will help someone. Please note that I am NOT using this door the way it is intended to be used. So I do not recommend using it the same way I'm using it. This said, it works the way I'm using it and I'm delighted with it. How this door works: The most important thing to understand is that this door is meant to restrict which pet can come *in*. With this door, all pets can get out (but read on!). The default setting is that only allowed pets can come in and everyone can go out. The way it works is that there is a 'tunnel' facing the outside. When a pet sticks her head in the tunnel, sensors in the tunnel attempts to read the pet's chip or pendant. If it can, it unlocks the door so that the pet can come in. There are other modes for this door (like locking it completely or putting it on a timer), but none of these modes change the basic behavior of the door. The controls for the door are meant to be on the inside (and the tunnel on the outside). If you are looking for a door to not let some of your pets go out, then this is not your door OR you will need to use the door in a way it was not intended to be used (like I'm doing). Concretely, that means that you will have to install the door the 'wrong' way'. That is with the tunnel facing inside and the controls on the outside. To be as clear as I can be: regardless of how you install it, the door can filter only one way through, it cannot filter both ways. You can lock one way completely (or both ways completely) but you can filter only one way. How I am using it: I have a cat enclosure in my backyard. All of my cats are allowed in the enclosure (through an non-restrictive pet door in my house). Now some of my cats are senior cats and they are allowed outside of the enclosure. So I wanted a cat door that would let only my senior cats out. So I am using this door completely outside of its intended use. I installed it in the frame of the enclosure (so the whole door is outside) with the tunnel facing inside the enclosure and the controls on the outside of the enclosure (see picture). This way, only allowed cats can get out of the enclosure. I was really worried about rain messing up the electronics so I protected the control side of the door with a little roof (see picture). I also taped over the battery compartments on each side as well as tape some heavy duty plastic over the controls. It has rained a lot this winter and the door still works great. But the enclosure is somewhat protected as it stands partly under an upper deck. I'm not sure how well the door would work if it was fully exposed to the elements. How it performs: I'm really impressed with it. Setting it up is a breeze. It does a great job at recognizing my pets' chips. It also comes with one pendant that I use to make sure the door still works. It looks to be really sturdy too. I've been using it for 3 months and it has been working flawlessly. My senior cats love it and the kittens can't get out. Even my 'Houdini' kitten has not figured out how to defeat it to get out. And if the kittens ever make it out then I have the peace of mind that they can come back in easily. This door was worth every penny! ————— 5 year update: Quick update after 5 years. The door finally started acting a little funky. I only changed the batteries once in 5 years but lately it has started acting like the batteries are low even when i put new ones in. I have not tried yet to call the manufacturer about it but i will and will post an update afterwards. I had another one of these doors on an inside door (to stop an overweight cat from getting into my other cats’ food) but i was not using it anymore. So i swapped the 2 doors and the working one is now outside in the enclosure. A few interesting facts: * the door that has been outside for 5 yearS and went through hurricane Harvey and kept on ticking for over 2 years after that * the protection that i describe in my originally review was pretty much useless and i got rid of the tape and the little roof after a year or so * the door i was using inside is also about 5 years old but seems to be working great * it is easy to reset the memory but you will have to reprogram the pendant that came with the door if you do that.

Not for smart, determined cats. While this is a well made product that works well for some cats, it will not keep the determined cat locked inside as you can see in the video. I have 3 cats and just these two can defeat it - and perhaps only the one. The second may have just followed the hacker through. At any rate, it is not secure. I had to make a cover for the door to keep them in - which sort of defeats the whole purpose of a programmable cat door. For the most part, setting it up is easy but the instructions are lacking in examples of how to do the various setting. And there is no guidance regarding combining features. There is a lot of trial and error in setting up the more complicated modes. When installing be careful to match the hole to the unit as the screw holes are very close to the edge of the opening. Battery life is very good. BTW - the cat hacker also defeated the first door cover I fabricated. He likes his freedom.

I read this pet door has an optional feature that detects unauthorized critters attempting to enter and locks them out. So I bought two of them (one between an enclosed patio and our backyard and the second between the house and the patio) to replace ordinary pet doors because our neighbor's dogs have learned to climb a fence and jump into our yard and then come in our house to eat food intended for our dogs. This pet door does a good job keeping unauthorized critters out. But our dogs are Papillons, so they have a long snout for their small size. This means they aren't able to get the microchips embedded in their necks close enough to the sensor to detect them when they attempt to enter. One microchip disk was included with each door, so we added one to each of their collars. Doing this did help some, but not enough. Now whenever they attempt to enter there is only about a 50-50 chance the sensor will detect the chip before it locks them out. And they often like to enter and leave together, one right after the other. But each time one goes out the door, the sensor detecting unauthorized critters is activated and blocks the second one from leaving until it times out. So there needs to be an inside sensor detecting whenever an authorized pet wants to leave. Since they are being locked out so often, both of them now hate having to go through these pet doors. The only reason I've not reinstalled the old pet doors is because the neighbor's dogs continue to attempt coming in. I feel this pet door is very close to being an excellent product, but it needs to be redesigned so it will always be able to detect microchips in dogs with long snouts. Also, I would like for them to install a 6 VDC power jack behind the inside frame and then sell an optional 120 VAC to 6 VDC transformer with a small cable and rechargeable batteries so we never have to worry about changing the batteries and it will continue operating when the power goes off. Also, whenever it's raining outside and our dogs attempt to come inside through this pet door with wet paws, they often slip down in the slick tunnel and extensions. So I ordered some "Non Slip Furniture Pads X-PROTECTOR" (Amazon item B07MHHP6F7) and stuck them on the bottom of the tunnel and extensions. This solved that problem so well that rubber pads should be included with these pet doors. Also, our dogs don't like to go out whenever it's dark outside. So I would like for the company to consider including some bright LED lights aimed downward towards the floors from the top bars of both the inside and outside covers, and possibly some small LED lights inside the tunnel and extensions. These LED lights should automatically turn on to light both the inside and outside floors just below the pet door whenever it's dark outside and motion is detected on either side of the door. Since these LED lights wouldn't require very much power, they should stay on for at least ten minutes after any motion has been detected in order to give pets plenty of time to go out and relieve themselves and then return and reenter through the pet door. But the motion sensors should be disabled whenever pets are being blocked from passing that direction so that the pets can learn they cannot pass through at those times. In fact, bright two-color LEDs could be mounted on both the inside and outside covers to indicate when authorized pets are being allowed to pass through the pet door. Pets can be trained to know they can pass that direction when the LED is green and they can't pass that direction when it is red. Yet another feature I would like for the manufacturer to consider installing are several small 6 VDC buzzers, each having unique tones. One tone should sound when a pet goes out, another tone should sound when they come back in, and a loud buzzer should sound whenever it detects an unauthorized critter attempting to enter. Or, if they want to get really fancy, they could install a solid state recorder with non-volatile memory. Pet owners would then be able to record unique messages for each of their pets. These messages would then automatically be played each time the sensor detects an authorized pet passing through the door. For instance, we should be able to have such a recorder play "Willie has gone outside" or "Lillie has gone outside" whenever one of them leaves, and "Willie has come inside" or "Lillie has come inside" whenever one of them returns. We should also be able to record short messages whenever one of them attempts to leave or enter but are locked out. And when an unauthorized critter attempts to enter, it should say something like "Unknown critter attempting entry" or if it detects an unauthorized critter leaving, it could say "Unknown critter has gone outside". Since I'm dreaming of a better pet door, lets go ahead and let it connect to our home Wi-Fi and have it capable of sending us text messages each time a pet or critter enters or leaves along with their photo. And develop an app that will allow us to change the settings to control entry and exit. Don't worry, I realize I'm asking to have a lot of features for what is normally a very simple device, so I'm not holding my breath waiting for this to happen.

Updated Review - I had a raccoon get in the pet door by gripping and pulling out towards the outside. Got no help from the A.2.Z. Store which is the Seller on Amazon, Hence, my original review expressed my dissatisfaction with them. However, after hearing from my inquiry to SureFlap UK, they informed me of Custom Mode "C05." This mode will lock the exterior locks when the scan sensor senses a non-chip programmed animal in the tunnel trying to get in. This looks like it will solve my problem with the "persistent and very dextrous intruder." Brilliant and very well thought out custom modes for various situations. SureFlap has also designed in other Custom Mode operations that are found in Section 14 of the Pet Door Instruction Manual. My cat was scared of the clicking noises for the first month or so. There are a couple Custom Modes that might have helped me get him acclimated The door is very good quality, the procedure for scanning and saving my cat's chip could not have been easier. If Custom Mode 5 works as I anticipate it will, then this is a 5 star pet door for me, keeping raccoons out and allowing my cat to enter and exit as he pleases. The Seller, A.2.Z Store still gets a ZERO for customer service. They could at least point a customer to the SureFlap website that has a customer support inquiry form to contact them. ----- First review after discovering a raccoon could open the door ---- I was quite happy with this door as it appeared to solve the raccoon problem. But this raccoon figured out out to grab the outside of the door (at the bottom of the clear window there is a seam that I could get my finger nail in) and pull it open. When I contacted the Seller, A 2 Z Store, they offered ZERO customer support, but copped out by referring me to Amazon because it was “FBA” - Fulfilled By Amazon. When I told Amazon that the product is defective since it DID NOT “prevent intruder animals from entering your home” with “RESTRICTED ENTRY ONLY,” quoting the advertised listing, the response was this item is not eligible for return because it is past the 30 day return window. It took me about 50 days to discover the defect between the advertisement and the actual performance. It is a very good product, the chip sensor works perfectly, it appears to be well made, except for the seam that raccoons can get a grip on. I wasn’t sure I wanted to return this. I was more interested in figuring out what to do about the seam, if is something that could improve the door and perhaps make it “raccoon proof.” But obviously the seller is not interested in customer service or customer satisfaction. So they get a 1 star review. If you need a door that is raccoon proof, this is not it. AND DON’T EXPECT ANY CUSTOMER SUPPORT FROM THE SELLER. It is tough when you pay for a premium product and get treated like this. Sure Flap needs to find a better US distributor.

Dirty old used product. Parts missing. Terrible.

This cat door is well made, easy to program, reads my cat’s microchip without fail and was easy to install. Our older cat is very hesitant to use it. She has never used a cat door before. The clicking sound it makes when her microchip is being read (and the latches open) makes her nervous and causes her to back away. It’s only been a week though. I suspect she will become more comfortable with it. Unfortunately what we need it for is to keep our kitten indoors while allowing our older cat to go in and out as she pleases. The side with the tunnel is the only side that reads the microchip. Our only option at this point is to install the product backwards but I’m not sure we should because the buttons probably shouldn’t be exposed to rain etc. Awesome product, I just wish I had read the description better. In a few months when our kitten is old enough to go outside it will work like a dream.

NÃO COMPREM! Se der problema vc não vai ter suporte para acionar a garantia nem mesmo assistência técnica para reparar. O meu deu problema com pouco mais de 3 meses( não lê mais o chip) e não tenho suporte nem do fabricante nem da Amazon.

Nos costó entrenar a nuestro gato gordo pero ahora la usa sin problema. Una de las razones por las que compramos esta marca es que encontramos en Google las instrucciones para hacer que funcione con baterías recargables porque odiamos el desperdicio que generan las no recargables.

Bien, acheté en remplacement d'une chatière normale, fonctionnement OK même sur porte métallique isolante sans prévoir l'accessoire spécial, il suffit de couper les tôles au bord du cadre plastique et d'intercaler un cadre bois Dommage que mon chat n'ose plus pousser sur le vantail, mais ce n'est pas de la faute du matériel...