SureFlap Microchip Pet Door

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.

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.