Pet Mate Cat Door - Indoor & Outdoor Use for Pets

The door works great to keep the dog out of the cat room. Our cat is about 17 pounds and she has to slink through the door a little bit, but fits fine. It took a few hours for her to figure out how to get through and a day to be comfortable with it..The magnetic tag for the collar has been cumbersome for the cat, it sticks to metal surfaces as she walks by (desk legs, safety gate). Has also collected a couple of objects..see the photo of said objects (scissors and kids magnetic ball). :/ A little scary bit we are still using it!Installed on an interior door to keep Chihuahuas away from cat food and litter. Extensively used by two cats. Needs occasional cleaning to keep the door from sticking. Battery change twice a year. Placed tape on the battery compartment to keep the cover in place. Works for about three to four years before wearing out. We are on our third one. Easy to install new one. REPEAT: used extensively by our two cats. Would be a Five Star item if it lasted forever.I originally bought the Pet Safe Magnetic door (not this one) because I liked the idea of not needing batteries as this one did. I needed an electronic door for a feeding box to separate my two cats during feeding time since one had to be put on a prescription diet. I was going to put the non prescription cat's food in the box (since it would be bad for the sick cat to eat the regular food, but not the end of the world if the other cat had a bit or two of the prescription food).The sick cat is definitly the dominate, more food-motivated cat, so I figured he'd be first at the trough when the auto-feeder went off with his food anyways. So, everything should have worked out.I bought a large storage tote with handles that locked over the lid, cut the door-sized hole in the side of it, installed the door, and set it up with the non-perscription food in it.Literally, in under 10 seconds, the dominate, food motivated cat had popped the Pet Safe door open and had gained access to the off-limits food. I returned that door.I think it really is a design flaw on the Pet Safe door that the latch that holds the door closed until the magnetic tag trips it is located at the bottom corner of the door. When a cat (or raccoon) pushes hard enough on the other corner, the clear plastic door is flexible enough that the whole door just pops over the latch that is supposed to be holding it closed.I ended up deciding to get two other different doors so each cat could have their own private eating space. I got a Cat Mate magnetic door (the one described on this page), and a Cat Mate Super Selective microchip activated door. The magnetic Cat Mate door is similar in price to the Pet Safe, but the Super Selective costs about twice as much. But, if you have two cats in my situation, you can't have two magnetic doors because any magnet will open either door, so they wouldn't be kept away from the other's food.I love the Cat Mate doors. Even on the magnetic one, the latch is centered at the bottom of the door, so it would be much harder to get open just by pushing on it. But, a smart racoon with claws might figure out that he could pull the door back toward him and get in that way. My cat that is not allowed in this door is not super agressive, so I haven't seen her try to get in, but I can tell this is a sturdier magnetic door than the Pet Safe and would probably keep most all cats out.The Cat Mate Super Selective has little pegs that pop up into the base of the door and hold the door in place from both directions, so it is advertised as "racoon proof." I have found it to be very effective against my food bully tomcat. He's almost tipped the box over (and spilled the water bowl inside), but he hasn't opened the door. Plus, if you have several cats you need to separate, the Cat Mate Selective or Super Selective is your only option since it senses each cat's unique microchip tag and allows or disallows access based on each individual cat's chip. If you only need to separate two cats, or two groups of cats, you can get away with using one magnetic door and one microchip door.In summary, I would not use the Pet Safe magnetic door if I were using it as a door to the outside. It would be too easy for other animals to get in. If you need to separate indoor cats for feeding purposes, and none of the cats are too strong or motivated to get at the other's food, the Pet Safe door might work, but I believe the Cat Mate options are better designed, sturdier, and just better doors. I've been using these for just over one month now, and am very happy with them both.First, I want to share my concerns about the possibility of the magnet causing or contributing to cancers. Our oncologist thinks the magnet could be a contributing or the primary factor in the development of tumors in the lower jaw and throat. It is a strong magnet. Only one of our 6 cats wore the collar. She is the only one to have gotten cancer in the mouth/throat, but we have seen other cancer types pop up so there is clearly another cause of cancers in our pets and I wouldn't blame the magnet entirely. I would, however, recommend we wait to find out if there is an increased incidence of localized cancer in cats who have used magnetic collars before we put these on middle aged or senior cats who are more prone to the metabolic conditions that prevent the body from effectivly controlling cancer.The door is a little ridiculous for it's intended purpoase, but is very useful for our purpose. The one cat wore the collar because she is a slow eater and we wanted her to have access to food in her cage while keeping the more eager eaters out. She is a petite cat so the magnet used to stick to the bars making her stuck for a moment. It also stuck to her stainless food dish at times, causing the food to spill out a bit. If you offer a tin of cat food, it could jump right up to the magnet. This could result in a skittish cat jumping or bolting with the can attached. These are minor issues, not faults with the product. Jus know a very small or weak cat might actually get stuck to something metal out of doors (like the hood of a car, fence posts, etc), so use your discretion.Please note tht you need to choose correct height for the magnet to work or you will have to train the cat to be patient while working the latch. This door reminds me of the automatic paper towel dispensers when you have to move your hands around to get the sensor to detect you. A cat, isn't going to understand this process easily, so you may need to train kitty to be patient and persistent. If you have more than one cat and they are different sizes, you may have one cat who isn't able to work it due to height or lesser intelligence/determination so plan carefully before installing it so that the challenged cat is accommodated. Pratice makes perfect. Do not take this advice lightly as you may wind up with a useless hole in your door.Before I installed it in the cage door, I made a corrugated plastic temporary cage door and installed the cat door in this before committing to cutting a hole in the cage door. If you aren't adding this door to a cage, you could determine the corret height by installing this in the side of a cardboard box so that the cat has to go through the cat door and trigger the latch with the magnet to exit the box. Unless your cat is already familiar with a hard-flap cat door, you may need to teach the cat to exit with treats with the flap taped 1/3 open. After this you can lower the door, bit by bit, as kitty learns to push it up to exit. Once kitty is pushing the fully closed (not latched) flap open, teach the cat to be patient while learing the right position to get the magnet to open the latch. With the right treats, any cat should get this. Move the door up or down if you feel it is necessary then use the final cutout to determine where you will place the hole in your door.As other reveiwers state, it is too easy to break into from the outside by pulling the flap outward so unless you plan to lock it every night so your cat cannot go in or out, do not expect to keep racoons or smart cats out. The dial is also too easy for a pet to fiddle with and if a cat really wanted out when it was locked, they would probably figure out how to work the dial. Like I said, it worked great for my purposes but would not be a great option for an exterior door.Lastly, it would be a much better product if you could select which pets could go out, if using this in a multiple pet home.When we purchased this it was $50 (we deducted a star for that because we did not receive the value we expected but it doesn't apply to the current pricing). As I post this it is only $35 most likely due to the poor reviews. The reviews seem warranted but it is not a bad product. It simply is very buggy. If your door seems to have issues when you are doing the practice run, send it back for a replacement before giving up. We didn't have some of the issues others are reporting such as cats breaking the battering housing (I think this person must have had a bobcat. ?) we also did not have an issue with the door failing to open or sticking open.My cat can't open the door.Pretty solid door easy settings. Be sure to encourage your cat to keep trying cause the magnet is very peticular about where the collar isExcellent product, It did the job perfectlyThis Pet Mate design has been around for many years (our previous Pet Mate survived 20+ years) and now with a new cat felt it appropriate to replace with a new pet flap.. Glad I didn't have the hassle of having to change size of hole in our big Vctorian kitchen door because the dimensions and style of the original were still available. Simply unscrewed our old one and popped in the new one - job took no more than 6 minutes.Most importantly this brand still available in a brown option which matches our wooden door better than most brands who only manufacture white. Magnets are smaller and lighter than before Would always recommend this brand - quality/durable/stylish/easy to fit/easy to operate..I have a had a couple of these as I move house and they are excellent. They need a Duracell 9V to work (yes, it must be Duracell - bizarre I know but I tried a couple of other brands and it wouldnt work).They are very reliable and dont let drafts in. They are much better than the useless non-powered magnetic ones.This item works well provided your cat isn't scared to use it. It's fine exiting but requires the magnet to be reasonably close to the door to work on entering and our cat has a habit of trying to push the door with her paws instead of putting her head in first so the magnet doesn't get close enough to operate. One thing you don't want of course is for your cat to be able to get out of the house but not be able to get back in. Our previous cats had no problem with this type of flap, so it is cat dependent. I've sellotaped the latch down now so that it doesn't need the magnet to operate and any cat can get in, but we have been fortunate enough to not be bothered by other cats so far.This cat flap has transformed life for our old cat. His previous Staywell was open to all-comers, especially overnight. Now he is safe from invaders - and we are not feeding every cat in the neighbourhood. At age 17yrs we thought it might be hard for him to use, but it has been no problem at all. Also quite simple to fit in place. We couldn't be more pleased.This cat flap seems to have come down quite a lot in price over the years. This is my fourth one now (due to house moves) and it is still the best and most reliable cat flap out there. I wish the magnets were a bit less pricey though as my cats tend to lose them quite often but it's so important to know that only my cats can get into the house and unwelcome visitors get to stay safely outside !