24.7.2014

This is not a 5-star review because the original order did not arrive as scheduled, apparently lost somewhere in transit by the USPS. And there were a few problems with the door itself, noted below. It is a 4-star review because, when I contacted Seacorals to report that I still had not received the shipment several days after it was supposed to arrive (and was not able to find out anything about its current whereabouts using the tracking number supplied by the USPS), they promptly sent me a new door and expressed considerable concern over the shipping failure. Also, the problems with the door did not prove to be serious.The cat door itself appears to be of good quality, and is not difficult to install,though installation in a 1.75 inch thick solid-core door between our house and garage presented some challenges.First, the liner that fits inside the cut-out is not nearly long enough to cover the entire thickness of a door this wide, leaving an unappealing brown strip visible through the middle of the opening. I solved that problem simply by lining the cut-out with white plastic duct tape. This matched the white paint of the door and the white plastic of the cat door liner closely enough to be unnoticeable, at least to a casual inspection.Second, although the cat door apparently is supposed to assemble using 8 short #6 screws to independently attach each side of the frame to opposite sides of the door (4 screws per side), I didn't like this "non-aligning" assembly feature. So I decided to get 4 long screws to "self-align" the two sides, cinching them together by passing the screws through the room door around the cut-out. For my 1.75" door, my first guess was that 2.0" #6 screws (the longest #6 screws I could find at the local hardware), would do the trick, but these proved a bit too short to go through the door when widened by the 2 frames on each side of it. I then moved on to 2.5" #8 screws, which were long enough. The extra thickness of the #8 screws was not a problem (I just drilled the pilot holes through the door a little bigger). So that was all good.The installation bonus was that, to position the cat door low enough for the cats to use, I had to install it across 2 raised panels of the room door. This meant there was a "V"-shaped depression in the middle of the opening on each side that, when I first cut it, I thought I would have to fill in with some type of sealer under the frames, to make the opening air-tight. However, when the frames were fitted to the opening--although the inside liner was not long enough to reach all the way through the door--it did prove long enough to completely cover these depressions, providing a good tight fitting seal all the way around the opening on each side, with no additional effort. (If you don't want to settle for the pretty good natural seal provided by the frame liners, you could easily caulk around the outside of the frames to ensure a perfect seal.)As for the cat door itself, once installed, it seems perfectly functional. Although our 2 cats are both still kittens, the door appears to be the perfect "Goldilocks" size -- not too big, but not too small either for an adult cat, just right. Due to the magnetic closure feature, the flap operation of this door is stiffer than the free-swinging flaps I've had in the past -- the flap stops abruptly in the down position and has to be "broken" free when opened -- but that fact didn't seem to bother either kitten, both of whom learned to pass through it freely in less than a day.The 4-way closure feature is logically complete, covering all possibilities (which I appreciate abstractly, as a former teacher of logic), though we only need 3 of the 4 settings. (Open both ways, so the cats can pass back and forth at will; open out only, so the cats can't come back in the house when they are banished to the garage for some reason, e.g., cat-allergic guests; & open in only, so the cats can't go out into the garage when some activity is in process better done without a curious cat in attendance, e.g., working with power tools. I guess the fourth setting, open neither way, might be useful if you had two incompatible sets of animals needing temporary separation.)My only small concern is the plastic locking tab has to be pushed up to slide it back and forth, and I don't know how durable this plastic tab will prove to be over time in daily use (I've had a lot of plastic tabs break off over the years). But, so far, so good.

22.8.2014

I am delighted with this. More importantly, the felines have not objected.Many years ago THE brand name for Cat Doors, Staywell, used to produce a square cat flap, with very little wasted space on surround (very like this one, in fact) only in an unappealing dingy brownish shade. This was what I had. it didn't look particularly pretty, but it did work well. Until a set of vigorous and destructive kittens broke it. Unfortunately, Staywell had upgraded to the (to my mind) stupid curved flap in the still square surround base. So that was what I had to have, and it never quite fitted. I was loath to have the carpenter enlarge and reshape the hole in the door, in case I ever found the right one again,or it came back into fashion.So, a slight draught was the result, and then those vigorous and destructive kittens, now grown, or at least ONE of them, to an impressive Robert Mitchum type shoulder and chest girth, began to struggle with the fact that the curved Staywell flap itself was actually fractionally less wide across the top, and the curved bottom gave much less wriggle room. And broke it. Not to mention the discomfort of his sagging beer-type belly being shaved by the curve (less height, as well as less width, on the inner flap itself)And then, finally I found Cat Mate's door - which gives the largest possible flap size for the same overall cut out size. AND comes with the 4 way lock (crucial for those nasty vet's visits, where the mere idea of time-to-get-the-basket-out entering my mind seems to provoke a mad dash for the cat flap, and the sight of a trio of cats heading for the hills)What I like also (compared to that curvilinear Staywell), is the refinement of the little brush surround and magnetised seal. Not only does this create draught proofing, but no longer does the flap slam shut, rudely waking me from slumber even in another room, when something causes those felines to charge in, with no consideration, no doubt well trolleyed after a night on the tiles.The see through flap is also good for scouting out the lie of the land before entering and exiting.The big challenge will be to see how the door withstands multiple battering when exit is denied and the hated wicker basket appears..........I can't comment about ease of fitting, as I was not the one who did it, but I heard no muttered curses whilst the deed was being done, and twere done quickly (cut out hole already being in place and just needing a light sanding to even up an edge)It's the fact that the maximum space possible is allowed for the flap itself, relative to surround, that makes this a sheer winner. Fat cat, (sorry, chunky, muscular, well-built cat) is particularly delighted, and strolls, rather than hauls himself, in and out

7.7.2016

I have ordered two of these + one wall liner.We have 4 cats and a binge eating Chihuahua. Our set up has the litter boxes and cat food in the garage, where the cats sleep at night. During the day, they have the run of the house and our fenced backyard.Because of our Chihuahua (let's call her "Roomba" to protect her identity) who is not only inhaling ALL the cat food when no one's looking, she also developed quite the taste for "uhm" tootsie rolls straight from the litter box.Roomba is rapidly approaching the shape of a 30 lb burrito, so we had to come up with a solution. Cat Doors!This model seemed right for our purposes. Easy install, great insulation, and I liked the idea of being able to adjust the locking mechanism,

21.6.2011

IMPORTANT! This is the product to use on interior doors and seals up to 2" thick. I installed on 1.5" thick interior door with no issues, no cutting the product, and a perfect installation.I needed a small cat door to provide access to my laundry room for the cat's litter box. The most important qualities were that it was small enough to install in the bottom of a 6 panel Masonite interior door to keep the door looking nice, seal the interior cutaway, and be quiet since the laundry room is 2nd floor and in a shared hallway to our bedrooms. This product met all of my expectations.* Just small enough to install in the bottom section of a 6 panel door, which it does,

6.7.2017

Bought this to allow our semi-feral cats in/out of the garage - which they use for shelter. We used to leave the garage door open a few inches so they can get in/out. Finally decided to put in a cat door. Installed this on a garage door that is insulated with Styrofoam insulation, so the mounting screws would not work to secure inside frame to styrofoam. Replaced the supplied screws with 6-32 x 2" screws, washers, and locking nuts. Had to widen the pre-drilled mounting holes on one of the frames to accomodate the new screws - I forget which, but it'll be obvious. After cutting the hole in the garage door with my Dremel with jigsaw attachment, mounting revealed that I needed to trim the inside bracket to fit the door's 1 inch depth...

21.11.2012

Purchased this cat flap having as we had moved and needed to fit a flap in our new house. Having previously had a cat mate flap which had served us well we decided to go for another one. This time we needed a flap to fit in the utility room window as our doors are extremely thick hard wood. Its a nice sturdy product, it was easy to fit and the template was of a good design which made it easy to cut out and fit a wooden surround into the window cavity as we has to remove a small pane of glass to put the cat flap in. We have had this product for two months now and so far it has served us well. The door in the flap is a good fit and the brushes and magnetic seal stop it from coming open in the wind and also stop any wet coming in when it is raining.

10.1.2017

The door is installed and it looks pretty nice for a pet door. It is sturdy and it does a nice job sealing air flow. We were leaving the sliding door open which was wasting a lot of heat. Not a huge issue in So. Cal. but still important. The cats learned to use it pretty quickly. Treats helped to encourage them. After two days they are still somewhat reluctant and the door does sometimes sort of pinch their tails.The directions for use of the locking settings and for installation are not very good. It took me a long time to realize the instructions for how to adjust the lock setting were a graphic on the outside of the box, and not in the instruction sheet.

7.9.2020

I've been buying and installing cat doors for over 25 years, in several different houses. I have no problems with the quality of this one. It is designed for a small cat of average intelligence. A little training is good, combined with the hunger urge. Of course raccoons never have a problem, so don't let them smell or see food inside especially at night. This is a problem with the simplest installation (into a screen). Installation gets progressively more challenging depending on the material, and thickness of the intended pass-through, as you might guess. A cardboard template is provided to define the exact size and shape of the required hole. One one side of this 6-7 inch cardboard is where all the instructions are crammed.

19.2.2019

This was purchased to use on the side wall of a cabinet we decided to turn into a litter box enclosure. It works perfectly for this application. We have the largest litter box we could find at our local pet stores and it fits perfectly inside once the top half was removed. Our cat is small but she likes a big litter box. We still wanted the second shelf for storage so had to do it this way. The included instructions are great and easy to follow. The wall insert allows you to hide the rough edges of the hole you cut leaving it seamless. I also installed a motion activated light because it's pretty dark. It's not really for the cat but for us so we can see in there when we clean.

9.9.2018

After 4 weeks ( yes 4 ....they are thick what can I say) my cats have finally got the hang of using this. So much so they go in and out of it when the door is open. A friend put it in for me through the bottom panel of a double glazed door. You will need a jig saw with a metal bit as the door has metal on both sides under the plastic coating on the panel but it was easy enough t to fit.Cons..every cat in the area comes in to chow down on any food still in their bowls. In fact they got the hang of it before mine did. We have also had a fox cub, a pigeon and a small dog. That could be solved with a magnetic flap and collars on the cats but mine lose collars so I didn't buy that option. Also,

4.12.2018

Update: During the Polar Vortex deep deep freeze I decided to lock the cat indoors. I left the incoming lock open in the event he sneaked out. It took him one day to figure out how to open the door in and get out! He's smart. Additionally, you should know that the locks can ice over and prevent the door from opening. So, if you're going away for an extended time and it's sub zero I recommend locking the door both ways, with the cat inside, of course.We installed this in the window on our back porch. We removed the lower half of the window and built a fitted frame with double 1/2" plywood including a little landing pad under the cat door. Our cat took to it once he figured it out, which only took a day.

4.9.2017

Purchased this product as we have a large cat, my wife and I were however worried it wouldn't fit through before receiving the product. However the dimensions and size guide was right, and our Siberian fits through no problem.Our upvc door is required us to use the tunnel which worked great. I had never cut a hole in our back door or installed a cat flap, but the instructions were easy to follow and it came with a handy template to put on the door and draw your cutting area. Fairly simple (but slightly time consuming as your have to cut a big whole in your door) installation.A nice neat finish once installed, no sharp bits that could hurt the cat,

10.11.2017

This is an outstanding cat flap. I purchased in 2014 and it's still working flawlessly. And I have 3 cats whom often charge through it. But it's so robust, it's incredible. The 4 way slide tabs at the bottom are still working great. Honestly, if you want a non fuss simple 4 way cat flap. Then this is the boy for you. The screen door being clear is something my cats love. They often simply sit and stare through it to the outside word. Plus even after 3 years the clear screen door remains unscratched and perfectly clear. It's a perfect size too. Suitable for the smallest to the largest cat. My largest cat is at 6kg and she fits through it lovely. (Btw I do have my 6kg cat on a strict diet at moment as she needs to be around the 4kg mark)

1.5.2019

We adopted a cat and she prefers outdoors but comes in the garage to eat. We were leaving the side exterior garage door open for her until she ate. The problem was she wasn't eating until 9:30 or 10 at night and leaving the side door open all the time wasn't an option. I bought this cat door and installed it myself in about a half hour. I have a six panel door so the only spot was center of the door towards the bottom. I ended up using a drill to drill two starter holes for a jigsaw. I used the jigsaw to cut out the opening. The door comes with a sturdy full size cutting template that was really helpful. Since my door is thick, I ordered the kit with the liner.

4.3.2013

We purchased this to install on our basement door so we can keep the door closed but yet still allow access to our cat. Her food and litter box are in the basement. Our son is crawling and basement stairs and babies don't mix. The hardest part was cutting the hole in the door, but the door itself was a breeze to install. We didn't even read the directions, it was self explanatory.I word of advice for those of you who are not exactly "handy". We cut the hole from the side of the door that we see all the time (the kitchen side, not the basement side). Our door was a hollow wood interior door from the 1960's, and it splintered around the hole. We used a drill to get the hole started and then used a sawzall to finish the job.

Pet Mate Cat Flap 4 Way Locking With Door Liner 235W - Reviews

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