Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2011
Update: Summer 2014: My 18 pound cat gained enough weight over the past frigid winter that he got stuck in the cat door long enough to damage the tunnel. So, I bought SureFlap's new, "second-generation" "Pet Door" and we are all living happily ever after. See my review of that much-improved product, elsewhere. If in doubt, do not buy the "Cat Door", buy the "Pet Door". You will not be disappointed with it.
Update: June 4, 2013: Ongoing maintenance issues: One side of the weather stripping came off months ago. Not too big of a deal, since air leakage is minimal without it, but still a nuisance. Awhile later, one of my cats was walking-around with the soft plastic "claw-proofing" bezzel (I assume it is supposed-to be) wrapped around her. Apparently it came off the backside of the flap where it must not have been too securely attached. No real harm done: cats clawing their way in has not been a problem for me. With (now) three cats, dirt builds-up on this thing pretty fast. Really needs wiping every week or two, including it's direction lock knob. Fair enough. But, the motorized catch extends from a hole in the bottom of the frame. Enough grit fell in the hole and collected around the catch arm over the course of a year, or so, to cause it to jam, keeping the cats outside. All that was needed was disassembly and cleaning, but some people will not be able to do that, or will not want to bother. Recently, the magnet on the bottom of the flap, that works with one in the frame below it to hold the door shut, fell off. This leaves the flap literally moving in the breeze. That might not sound like a problem, because the catch still works. But, the flap has gotten trapped on the inside of the closed latch, preventing the cats from leaving the house. Fortunately, I found the tiny magnet. Now, I'm off to try to glue it back into place, or otherwise reattach it somehow. Wish me luck. Does all of this justify downgrading to a three-star rating? Anybody listening at SureFlap? On a positive note, the unit has been quite happy with my modification for five 1.2V NiMh rechargeables. It runs for months and months on one charge, so long that I've recharged the batteries for other reasons, before ever seeing the low charge LED come on.
Update: March 21, 2012: SureFlap nicely sent me a Mark V front frame to replace the Mark IV, and it works very well. Quieter and with a fuzzy weather stripping added. My experience with new alkalines was about three month's battery life, with four cats using the door. So, it may be that the advertised one-year battery life is for one cat. No matter, I went back to NiMh 1.2V rechargeables by adding a single AA battery holder to the side of the unit, for a total of five NiMh AAs, to give it the 6 volts it wants. Has worked beautifully for over three months on one charge of those, as would be expected. Down to four stars, though, as SureFlap really should be able to accommodate NiMh rechargeables, not just throw-into-the-landfill alkalines.
Update: July 27, 2011: Operation became intermittent as new NiMh batteries aged. Works fine with alkalines. I've suggested SureFlap simply say it won't work with NiMh, rather than that they are "not recommended". I hope they will redesign the electronics to work with the lower NiMh voltage, which I assume is the problem. Many devices accept both alkaline and NiMh batteries. It's the green thing to do, after all. Maybe I will try the rechargeable alkalines they suggest, in the mean time.//
Original Review: April 28, 2011:
My four cats, 11, 14, 17, and 19 pounds, respectively, are nearing two months using this cat flap. The five of us could hardly be happier with it! We had a neighborhood tom using our old Johnson Pet Door at will, spraying urine around, eating our cat food, and causing a lot of angst for us all. No more! The tom sits outside, sometimes, but simply can't get in. And, I have every hope that the occasional racoons that used-to trespass are also things of the past.
The door is sturdy and elegantly designed in its simplicity. One button for setup and one LED light mainly to signal when the batteries are low. Yes, batteries to replace, but therefore no other electrical installation needed. The four rechargeable Eneloop AAs I'm using have lasted two months so far. Power consumption is minimized, because the mechanism optically senses a cat entering the tunnel and that triggers the radio exchange. Very cool.
The manual suggests testing if it will work with your cat's chips before you install it. For me, that just meant gently lowering it over each cat's head, in approximately the orientation as when a cat uses it for entry. It learned all four chips without a problem, making it already programmed before installation.
The frame's integral short "tunnel", which is where its radio antenna coil is located, incidentally, slipped snugly inside the wall tunnel I made originally for the Jonson door. The flap and works mechanism ("inside frame") are located inside the house, so you can use any sort of tunnel to the outside. You need not buy the optional spacers SureFlap offers, if you are at all handy. I screwed my inside frame to molding around my tunnel on the inside wall of the house, by drilling-througth the flap's four holes that accept screws from the outside trim frame, which I am not using.
My first reaction to the flap was that it has a much smaller area than the Johnson door the cats were accustomed-to, and that, at-least for the two bigger cats, it might simply be too small for them to fit through. I was quite worried. Happily, though, the seventeen and nineteen pounders have no trouble with the door in either direction.
The frame and flap, though sturdy, are plastic and the clear flap will probably get scratched over time, to the point where it won't be easy for the cats to see who is outside before they exit. And, grit has already gotten-into the otherwise very clever four-way manual twist-lock mechanism. But cleaning that is keeping it operable, and wiping the rest of the frame and flap clean is easy. And the flap is replaceable. Air entry through the thin boarder between the flap and frame is minimal compared to the old bi-directional flip-flop rubber flap that only slowly returned to shape in winter. This flap is rigid, so the air entry gap is a fixed (small) size. Also, I infer that a newer model of SureFlap has some-sort-of weather stripping.
But what peace-of-mind our multi-species household now has! Writing a review like this is an arduous chore, to me, but the ones most other's write are amazingly helpful, so I feel obliged to contribute, now and then, especially when a product deserves kudos as this one does. The SureFlap people have done a fine job developing this product. It is a winner. You almost certainly will be delighted with it.
