Years ago (before the supersoakers became common) I used to join friends down at Newquay for the Run To The Sun. For no apparent reason, everyone used to attack everyone else with water pistols - so we built our own! The first couple of years we had ones running off compressed air, with coke bottles as air and water reservoirs (carefully tested to much higher pressures beforehand!) There was nothing to compete with them - indeed on returning the next year, we were met by people saying "Oh no, it's that lot again!"
The next version was a backpack carrying 3 3-litre bottles of water, with an electric headlamp washer pump (the type that blast the lens clean) and a gel cell battery. They were actually not quite as good as the first versions, but held three times as much water.
The final version was strictly an in-car weapon - a hand-built centrifugal pump, powered with a car starter motor. It could fire a half inch jet of water accurately 30ft or more and pump 25 litres in a matter of seconds!
A guy rigged up a video camera by his cat flap to his computer. The computer compares the image of whatever is trying to come in with images of his cat, and the flap is opened if it matches. If his cat is carrying a rat in its mouth the flap will not be opened.
I know. I know. We did make a point of only firing at people holding water pistols though. In fact at one point we refused to fire at an elderly lady leaning out of her Triumph Herald, even though she invited us too - then she pulled out a water pistol, shot one of us and wound the window up quick!
It was.:) Although it cost us more in cat food as it used to sneak up to my office where the cats get fed.
It used to come in very late at night and it took a while to spot it - it was only when I'd seen a cat running down stairs whilst my 3 were sat upstairs still that I knew for sure. We decided in the end catching it and taking it to the cat rehoming place was best but it took a while until we got hold of it. It was too scared to come near people so no soft option.
After it'd bitten and scratched me we ended up letting it go - it's not been back in since though. Walk in centre sorted out a tetanus and about a month later I got bitten by a rat the cats had bought in. Well large mouse maybe - but the walk in centre played it safe and gave me AB that time. They were also disappointed that I'd not put it in anything to bring and show them.
After cat and rat bites I stayed in for a while to avoid the bats...
We've got the same cat flap as the one on that site:
formatting link
is now on its second cat!
As for strength, there is a massive un-neutered male around here which has chased both our cats and been seen more than once to collide with the flap at full speed and come to a very abrupt stop!
The only problem we've ever had is with our current cat who has a very, very long tail and has a habit of coming in very slowly sometimes, so that the end of her tail remains in the flap! When she finally removes it, there isn't enough weight in the flap to pass over the locking claw.
I resolved this with a counterbalance weight device to help the flap close properly (fortunately, the extra push needed to get in doesn't seem to worry the cat.)
However, for cats with normal length tails, there isn't a problem and the battery lasts for ages and ages.
makes little difference however if you ever 'upgraded' to one of their magnetic/IR versions you'd have to put it the right way around.
The Staywell door hinge design is, as you've found out, particularly weak. We started off with their standard one (as yours) but indeed started to get unwelcome visitors coming in. We then replaced it with a magnetic version but this was truly awful - correct operation was hit-and-miss and the cat kept coming in with screws and nails stuck to his collar. Even had half a spoon dangling from it once.
We then tried the IR version. Much better than the magnetic one as it was more forgiving to variations in cat-catflap alignment. When it worked, it worked well. However we were plagued with problems over several years - fobs going missing (they're pretty big and prone to getting caught on things), fob lenses scratching thus attenuating the IR beam/range, the catflap control panel stopping working for no apparent reason. I must say that Staywell customer service was nothing short of excellent - they sent out spares, new fobs, even entire catflaps by next-day Special Delivery without me barely having to raise a moan but they couldn't make up for its unreliability.
In the end we decided to give the microchip-enabled Pet Porte a try. Fortunately their latest version requires a cutout coincidentally the same dimensions as the Staywell so it was a slot-in replacement. In my case, fitted within a wall, I opted to accomodate the scanning coil within the wall itself for various reasons. There are some photos/ details of its installation at
formatting link
at =A3100 it is expensive, but it is world's apart from any of the Staywell's. Firstly, it is extremely well built and really shows up the Staywell's as being flimsy toys. Secondly, the microchip detection and locking mechanisms work extremely reliably - positive detection and subsequent action in every respect. No more lost fobs, flat batteries (given the lack of fobs, and the flap itself is mains powered), and no more unwanted vistors either as the door design is much more robust. Our only regret is that we didn't buy one sooner. Highly recommended.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.