Moggie in a flap!..

Have a dig back through google in here. The "draught proof" cat flap has had reasonable discussion in the past. Ours, both of them in cascade from outside into porch and porch into utility room get blown open when the winds gets up... a 6" square hole don't half let a lot of cold air in. B-(

Our cats wouldn't use them. Every time they came close to the flap, it shouted CLICK! at them, they jumped back, stared for a while and then backed slowly away.

After about a week of opening doors for them, we gave up. :(

Never really had a problem with the standard Staywell types.

We bought one about 18 months ago. Think it's the Pet Mate one (works via an RFID chip on the collar rather than the cat's own microchip).

Two reasons for not using the actual cat ID chip one:

It works well. The user interface is heavily modal, and sucks like most of these things. However, once set up, it just works. It has a clock so you can see the last time of passage (in or out) for up to 7 cats, and it has a display to show the current in/out status of 3 cats (you can display the others via button pressing). Batteries last a year or so (4AA cells).

It was about £100, with two tags. Spare tags are around a tenner.

Reasonably draught proof. Our 10 year old cat was never bothered by the click as it turns on, or the whir as the lock is wound out or in. The younger cat was a kitten (never been out), and when eventually given her tag she took a couple of days and was fine too.

Yes. Works very well at keeping the neighbouring bullies out. Took our mog a little while to get used to it, but no problem now. The first one went wrong, but they sent me a replacement unit without any question.

The two I've seen that work on the cats' own ID chips are PetPorte and Sureflap. I think PetPorte have been bought by Staywell now. We went for a Sureflap because the PetPorte has a ruddy great lump sticking out of it that houses the sensor etc, and also because it is primarily mains operated (albeit with battery backup), and I didn't fancy having a cable trailing from the door to a wallwart. The Sureflap is battery operated, and I've been extremely happy with it. The batteries seem to last close to a year (4 x AA, I usually use Maplin's ones), and that is with 3 cats who all go in and out quite frequently. The wind can't blow it open because of the sensor operated catch, however I have noticed once or twice that if the cat enters very slowly, and their tail cushions the drop of the door, it doesn't have enough mass to go past the catch and close properly.

Cheers, danjimian

I have the Pet Porte microchip flap, as does my Mom. They both predate Staywell buying the company. They're great, work very well, easy to fit (requiring only a slight bit of cutting where they replaced other flaps) and have battery backup in case the power fails. I've had two minor issues- a local cat, trying to get in, unhooked the draught excluder strip, jamming the door once, and I also had to grease the door pivot a while ago- but then flap is probably 3 years old now, and my elderly cat manages with it fine. It also resisted the brute force attack by another local cat with no damage, which the old Staywell infra-red one didn't.

Someone else with the same catflap did a very good writeup of his experiences:

We simply have a large dog as well as three cats, no intruders except our own chickens occasionally if the door is open.

It's a pity Brian Hanrahan is not still with us to do the commercial ;-)

I'd have to echo your positive experiences with the Pet Porte. The above in= stall was at our old house and we've since moved us and it into our new one= with a similar in-wall installation.

The flap continues to function perfectly and the customer service from Pet = Porte regarding a suspected problem was absolutely excellent - they didn't = hesitate to send out a completely new flap when ours was suspected as being= faulty. Whilst Staywell have now bought the company I don't have concerns = that this will change as their customer service was also very good (I've lo= st count of the number of replacment PCBs they sent for an IR catflap over = the years - the quality was frankly appalling).

Mathew

It's the PetPorte that I avoided because of the person who was distributing it...I remember now.

I know exactly who you mean. He was just a 3rd party seller however and had nothing to do with the manufacturer. They, and others, sold it also.

The batteries in our Sureflap last about three months because one of our two cats sits in front of it looking through it and constantly triggers the switch - curse him.

Jonathan

I bloody do...

David

My cat flap is supposed to be allow me to manually turn a dial that allows

a) open and close at will b) in only c) out only d) locked.

Whan I used option b as it was time for a trip to the vets the cat just ripped the cat flap from the door and went out. Mind you last summer when the door was open the cat used to climb through the cat flap before leaving through the open door!

I can't remember his name though!

The real problem was the other one, though. We needed to control 'out' as well as 'in' and the add-on for that was vapourware.

Thanks for that info. Last week I was awoken at 4am when a cat that had come in through my cat flap was attacked by my cat. The visitor had run through the house and was trying to get out of the letterbox on the front door.

I might get one to save the cats from my cat.

We have a Sureflap one that works off the cats' microchips. For some reason the cats are happy to use it to come in, but (typical of cats) will often pester to be let out via the door. However, that's not the fault of the catflap and they will go out that way if I ignore them.

Ours is installed into a wall, so it's got a proper tunnel on the outside of the door rather than the relatively thin affair you'd get in a door, but the company sells tunnel pieces that fit nicely onto the main unit. It also opens onto a relatively sheltered area so I doubt if we'd even notice wind, not that the wind can open it without a suitable microchip.

The 'anything out' is touted as a feature so that should something manage to get in by tailgating another cat, it is able to get out again.

Dave

If you need a clue, I counted them all out....

Brian

Now that is cantankerous cat behaviour, you have to admire their attitude.

Brian