Microchip Cat Flap - Secure Pet Door for Indoor/Outdoor Use

We needed to create a space for our older cat to escape from the playful pouncing of our new kitten. This cat flap was installed on an interior door to allow the older cat access to a room that the kitten did not have. The functionality of the flap is great. The chip reader works with my cats microchip consistently. The chip will need to be in the upper shoulder or neck to work, though. It was easy to program. We left the flap in training mode for a couple weeks so the cat could get used to using it. The biggest/only complaint I have is that the flap is loud. The locking/unlocking mechanism is loud as well as the swinging flap itself. It works nicely for our purpose and because of the affordable price, I would buy again despite the loudness.Does what it says. The feral cats were coming in my tiny studio apartment in the middle of the night. My kitten and I were not pleased. Took a little trying to set it up but it worked! 3 months in and my cat can relax a bit more and i don’t need to come home to a weird cat under my bed.dislike: it’s clunkier than a simple one. more effort is needed to open the door. my cat definitely uses it when he needs to instead of before when it was easy.I purchased this cat door for indoor use because we have 4 cats 1 girl and 3 boys and the boys try to rough house with my female cat and she hates it. She likes to just be by herself unbothered (i tottally get it). So i wanted her to have her own room and this cat door allows her just that but with the ability to come and go as she pleases and doesnt have to be locked up. Not only can she be by herself, the boys cant steal her food anymore cuz shes a slow eater and they cant beat her up anymore. It litterally was the answer to all our prayers for a decent price and i dont think its as loud as people say.Now my cat is so much happier and it showsThis is exactly what I was looking for! In my house I have one cat who inhales his food and seeks out any other food he can destroy. My other 2 cats are grazers and are in need of some weight gain. I have spent a lot of time finding ways to separate the cats... too much time actually! I feel bad having to either lock my food-seeker in the basement or lock the grazers away in another room. Enter the microchip cat door! I have long used basic cat doors in my house, but now I have replaced a basic door on one room with the microchip door! Now I can allow access to my 2 grazers and deny access to my inhaler. No more cats being locked away! So, I am very happy that this exists and is helping to solve a real problem in my house.The negatives:The "tube" the cats have to go through is rather large and made the grazers nervous to use, even though they are used to cat doors in general. It took them a while to figure it out. It seems a little more difficult for them to use than a basic cat door/flap. (Of course, fatty mcfat fat had no problems using it while I had it in "training mode").Speaking of which, I couldn't get "training mode" to work, so I just taped down the locking mechanism for a few days - worked the same and was probably better for them to get used to the sound of the lock mechanism. Another downside is that the lock makes a loud sound that scared the cats a bit. I think they are getting used to it now.The scanning/ lock unlatch seems inconsistent in how quickly it works. Sometimes the cat is just standing next to the door and it unlocks. Other times the cat has his head in the tube, pressing his head against the flap and it doesn't unlock right away. While learning to use the door, this was discouraging for them. When the door wouldn't open they would back off - and then the door would unlock when they backed away. It helped if I stood by the door and then held it open when it unlocked. It took some encouraging, but I think they are understanding it may take a few seconds? Because of my assistance with the door, sometimes one of my cats comes to me and does annoying things to get my attention - I think he wants me to open the door for him. We are working on it!Another con is that the door itself is really loud. This is only an issue for me because it is about 5 feet from our bedroom, so it is annoying at night. First the unlocking sound is loud, the cat beating his head into the door a few times is loud, and then the actual opening and closing of the door is loud - particularly because when the door closes it bangs into the lock. I'm sure if I closed my bedroom door it would help, but my cats don't allow me to close my bedroom door - they will claw at it until I let them in. If I get that annoyed at night I can just lock the cat in his room (you can adjust the lock to allow no entering or exiting).In any case, I am very happy this product exists. I wish it were a little bit quieter, didn't have such a long weird tube to enter, and scanned and opened more quickly. I will say that this microchip door was the least expensive of the ones out there (that I saw), so it's possible a better one exists. My previous basic cat doors were Cat Mate, so I thought it would be the easiest for the cats to work with.****UPDATE**** After using the door for about a month, everyone is fully adapted to using it. It's still loud, but my boys know how it works. Fatty McFat Fat still sits outside staring longingly at the food he isn't allowed access to. He never gives up! I was very happy I was able to use this door while we were on vacation. No one had to be locked into the room for days (which would have resulted in at least one anger poop on the floor if he was locked in), and no one had to go hungry. I am so happy! I hope that this product continues to work well.Have four cats total. One of my cats has no sense of direction and she also has bad hips so I don't want her going outside. My other three cats are indoor outdoor and I got really tired of letting them in and out all the time and dealing with him scratching my doorways. For two cats this works perfect it allows them to go in and out as they please and I don't have to worry about them scratching anything anymore. My third indoor outdoor cat refuses to use the door not only issue terrified of the other two cats she's also terrified of it which kind of defeated the whole purpose because I did want her to be able to come in and out but she's a turd about it. I really like the ease of access of the store it has four settings where you can one lock the door so no one can go in or out, you can lock it so only the cats can go outside but can't come back in, you can lock it so that cats cancan only come in if they are already outside when you lock the door and then you can set it for unlock which allows for any cat to leave the house but only cats with chips to come back in. I've had the store for a few months and it's worked great so far I never thought my fat crippled cat would attempt to leave the house but apparently she thought it looked fun to follow her brother and sister outside and they got locked out because she is not microchipped. Unfortunately there is no option to set it so that only microchipped cats can go in or out without having to leave it unlocked for everyone. Great door if everyone is able to go in and out.I'm sure you all know that some cats open the cat flap with their heads and some with a paw. My cat has unusually long legs which is probably why she's a paw opener. She's having quite a bit of trouble with this door. Here's what happens - she puts her front leg right through the tunnel and pushes the flap - it stays locked of course - she wonders why it won't open like her previous door did and puts her head inside the tunnel to sniff at it - it reads her chip and the catch releases, making that fairly loud noise - she jerks her head back - the flap locks again immediately as it's designed to do - she pushes it with her paw - nothing happens! She repeats this 3 or 4 times and eventually gets through, I think by sheer luck just before it locks again. She's not stupid so I hope that she will get used to the door and maybe she will learn that the catch release noise means that it will now open. In the meantime I really worry about what might happen if something was chasing her - and I bought this door because a new local cat has attacked her. I'm leaving this review here in case any other potential buyers have cats they know to be paw openers.Bought the flap and had it professionally installed. Unfortunately, the microchip catch to lock out other cats had failed. I contacted customer service, who promptly sent me a replacement. I exchanged the flaps and returned the original one by free post using the label provided. Customer service were extremely helpful, and the whole issue was resolved within 48 hours of contacting them. The replacement had been working perfectly for over 3 months now.My cat is larger than average, and he uses the flap comfortably. With the help of some treats, he learned to use it in only a few days, having never used a flap before (he’s 7). The microchip feature keeps other neighbourhood cats out. Very satisfied with the purchase.This does exactly what it says it does, and it works well!It's not perfect - there are a lot of little improvements that could be made but they are minor. It is a hassle to program it at first (mainly because your pet will not like being held in it!) but when done it works smoothly.My main concerns were security - it has a tiny plastic latch to hold it locked against rogue animals, and a different tiny latch to stop it opening outwards if you wish to keep your pets in. They really look as though they will break, but ours has taken a few batterings from next door's cats trying to get in, and hasn't broken yet! A firm punch from a burglar (or a small saw blade) will open it though...Another issue is that it is not draught proof, despite having draught seals around the flap perimeter. We get quite a wind blowing through it (ours faces windward out of the house). So if you can locate it out of the wind, do so.I was forced to buy a microchip Cat Flap when my neighbour's cat decided to take up residence and create a disturbance in a happy home! My 2 cats were used to using a basic Cat Mate catflap. I was worried that 'programming' them would be tricky but in fact it was very simple. I just put some irresistible cattreats into the 'tunnel' end of the flap, each cat obligingly walked in to collect, the light flashed and the job was done! There was no need to put the whole contraption over their head. I then played a treat game with them to doubly check that the flap would in fact work. We played the game for several days to get them used to pushing the flap with the head.The flap was then fitted into the door. It is a shame that it wouldn't fit exactly and so needed some adjustment, the measurements being slighter bigger than previous CatMate flap. They used it insitu straight away, The Tom cat was very confident from the start. The female was slightly more cautious but as soon as she adjusted to using her head first as opposed to her paws she was fine. The clunking noise as they go in and out takes some getting used to - for cats and humans!!To date we have had no intruders and it's peace at last! I would have given this product 5 stars but the draught excluder around the edge of the flap doesn't fit too well on one side which was not noticeable until the flap had been fitted.Overall I'm extremely satisfied with this product.Our cats were happy to pop in and out of their ordinary Cat Mate Cat Flap but following the discovery one day of one of our cats badly injured and completely traumatised after an unknown creature had entered (and fortunately departed again) through the flap, we decided we needed a safer option. The programmable flap arrived next day courtesy of Amazon Prime and we fitted it immediately (unfortunately although the same make, the screws were in different positions and the hole a different size). Eventually we programmed it to the cats and fitted it to the door. The cats wouldn't use it. At all. There was a bigger tunnel to put their heads into on the outside, but worse, the microchip activated locking mechanism makes a loud click when activated/deactivated, which put the cats off. We deactivated the locking mechanism which, please note, is not as simple as just removing the battery. This defaults the flap to locked. DON'T THROW AWAY THE INSTRUCTIONS! It still took weeks for the cats to accept it. Even smearing cat food invitingly on the threshold didn't work. The dog just put his head through and licked it off. Eventually the cats began to use it and after more weeks, we activated the personalised lock again. One cat eventually got the idea but it took two more weeks for the other to pluck up courage. So after nearly two months I can report that all is well and the cats pop in and out as before. Hoping other cats aren't as fickle as ours. Would give this five stars but think the mechanism needs to be quieter so as not to frighten the cats.