Recommendations on Cat Doors

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#3331457 14-Jan-2025 15:20

mdooher:

We have the sureflap connect, and also have individual feeders for each cat... no stealing the others food.

The door is great, but... it is not waterproof like it says. If it is not installed in a sheltered area water will track in at the bottom of the tunnel and eventually short out the antenna loop.

My first one suffered from this when it got wet when we had a contactor clean the windows. (a smear of silicon around the joint fixed it, but I replaced it anyway as I was going away for a week at the time)

I find the batteries last around 4 months or so, I do find for some reason one of the cats info does not always get uploaded to the cloud, the door always activates properly just no data stored.

Lastly, the cat we had when I got it took weeks to get the idea, I taped the door open for a week, then disassembled the catch and ran it like a normal door for a week then added batteries (so it made the noise), then added the catch back... and still had to do a lot of coaxing, she still couldn't get the idea. To this day if I set it to allow cats inside and not out, the slight difference in operation means she can't work out how to get in.

Our second cat.. pushed him through one way and called him back... job done

Seconding that they're not waterproof - mine only lasted about a year in a location where it occasionally gets indirect water ingress. Have been using it as a very expensive manual door ever since...

networkn

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#3331458 14-Jan-2025 15:24

So a second place has quoted a similar amount to the first place. About a $330 cost for installation over buying the new unit alone, to replace one with another. Overall, it's about $500 for installation across both doors.

This feels like some sort of price fixing scam :)

I am about 80% sure, I can do the glass one on my own.

FineWine

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Nurse (R)

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#3331536 14-Jan-2025 16:50

We have a SureFlap microchip door installed in our garage laundry for 8 years now. Our two cats took to it immediately. The batteries last approx 4–6 months (4 x c). We then have a door colour matching fabric flap from the garage into the house. As this internal door is right next to the garage door which on most days is open till 1730 but this internal we can close when working in the garage / workshop.

We also have a manual plastic flap in the glass panel in the lounge room immediately to the left of the ranch slider when it is open. (no impediment).

The electronic flap is set for;

inwards = always
outwards = 0700 till 1730

Manual flap gets open whenever we get up and locked around 1730.

The girls get told at 1730 that it is dinner time and in they come, mostly, and in they stay till morning.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

farcus

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#3331575 14-Jan-2025 18:28

Have had a sureflap cat door for a number of years. 1 cat - duracell batteries get me about 18 months usage.
One of the neighbours cats worked out that if he catches the edge of the plastic flap with his claw and pulls it back he can then get in. That cat is gone now though.

mdooher

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#3331577 14-Jan-2025 18:43

farcus:

Have had a sureflap cat door for a number of years. 1 cat - duracell batteries get me about 18 months usage.
One of the neighbours cats worked out that if he catches the edge of the plastic flap with his claw and pulls it back he can then get in. That cat is gone now though.

That is strange, they have deadlock, ie they cannot be opened either way when locked

Matthew

mdooher

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#3331579 14-Jan-2025 18:48

networkn:

So a second place has quoted a similar amount to the first place. About a $330 cost for installation over buying the new unit alone, to replace one with another. Overall, it's about $500 for installation across both doors.

This feels like some sort of price fixing scam :)

I am about 80% sure, I can do the glass one on my own.

I had mine put in a double glazing unit... (ie, they made the unit with a hole in the middle and a circular seal) I was building the house at the time so probably never noticed the cost.

Having said that, the old house used to get a stray Tom coming in and pissing everywhere, I told my wife I didn't care if it cost $10,000 we were not having that in the new house

Matthew

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#3331581 14-Jan-2025 19:05

mdooher:

That is strange, they have deadlock, ie they cannot be opened either way when locked

The Dual Scan Cat Door restricts entry and exit. The Microchip Cat door only restricts entry. I have the latter.

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#3331591 14-Jan-2025 20:23

The major difference on the Surepet Connect stack which impacts your battery life is how often you lock and unlock the doors every day. Also how far away the hub is from the devices. It’s all a custom 802.14.5 Zigbee style on channel 15. So if you put your home 2.4ghz wifi on 11 it won’t interfere.

https://www.metageek.com/training/resources/zigbee-wifi-coexistence/

Lots of other nerdy stuff around the fact the devices are constantly pinging the hub (3times a second) so they are never idle.

It’s good hardware as we have a pet door and feeder for 4 years now and it’s been solid.

Paul1977

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#3332774 17-Jan-2025 15:00

richms:

Sureflaps are quite annoying with the battery consumption, and extremely short warnings between low battery and door not working.

But as they have patents on the way that you can read a chip like that, they are the only game in town for secure ones.

for non-smart ones I have just bought the cheapest thing that I could find that would deal with the thickness. For the garage and shed I have a cheap one set to exit only to stop the cats getting locked in when they go in and sleep while I have them open. Seems that they are able to pull it open if they really want to but thats only happened once as they have more interesting places to go, they only go in the shed when I am working in there.

That's interesting re battery life, we haven't found that at all having owned both the cat versions and the larger "pet" version. The light starts blinking when the battery is low but the door still works for ages (well over a week). I don't know exactly how long because we've never had it stop working before changing the batteries.

And a fresh set of batteries seem to last a long time. I would guess a year, but I don't keep track because they require changing so infrequently.

All that said, we don't have it connected to a one of their hubs for the smart phone features (can't remember if ours is the "Connect" version of the door, but we certainly don't have the hub). I just didn't see the point of an app enabled cat door. But maybe the "Connect" versions when linked to a hub drain the batteries a lot faster? @richms are you using the hub?

If you have anything but a very small cat I'd go with the larger "pet" door. Our larger cat looked like an imbecile trying to squeeze through the small one.

Can't help with the internal door.

Paul1977

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#3332777 17-Jan-2025 15:07

richms:

Check pet shops and see if you can make mitre10 do the 15% thing that they advertise but only do begrudgingly. They seem to like to trot out excuses that they cant do it that are not in their terms to try to weasle out of it but if you persist they will match online things.

A little off topic, but I've never had either Bunnings or Mitre 10 kick up any kind of fuss when invoking the 15% off price guarantee.

Rikkitic

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#3332781 17-Jan-2025 15:32

The lady who served me at Mitre 10 handled it correctly but the face she made could have curdled milk!

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

richms

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#3332782 17-Jan-2025 15:33

Paul1977:

A little off topic, but I've never had either Bunnings or Mitre 10 kick up any kind of fuss when invoking the 15% off price guarantee.

Mitre10 near me do because they have to get the owners son over to approve it and they will find reasons not to like "Ill do it for 4 of them, we exclude trade quantities" and other nonsence.

Richard rich.ms

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#3332783 17-Jan-2025 15:34

It's annoying that the flap on the sureflap connect cat door is so much smaller (a 50mm difference in height) over what we have already. 120mm seems like a pretty small hole for an adult to get through (and yes I know they go through small gaps).

richms

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#3332785 17-Jan-2025 15:36

networkn:

It's annoying that the flap on the sureflap connect cat door is so much smaller (a 50mm difference in height) over what we have already. 120mm seems like a pretty small hole for an adult to get through (and yes I know they go through small gaps).

My fat one makes a swooshing noise going thru the one on the bedroom door. Now the pisser is gone I dont need a smart one there but I cant find a non smart one that fits the same hole size to swap it out for. I would then move the smart one to the shed as the exit only on a dumb one doesnt work too well when they figure out pulling the door open.

Richard rich.ms

Paul1977

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#3332789 17-Jan-2025 15:43

networkn:

It's annoying that the flap on the sureflap connect cat door is so much smaller (a 50mm difference in height) over what we have already. 120mm seems like a pretty small hole for an adult to get through (and yes I know they go through small gaps).

Yep, any decent size cat looks ridiculous going through it. They can do it, but our bigger cat (not fat, just large male) would have to kind of "superman" his back legs and pull himself through with his front ones. When we shifted we got the larger one. Much better (but a significant price difference just for some extra plastic).

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