[Closed] Cat Flaps with Microchip Access Control

I recently bought a SureFlap one which does seem to work but it's not perfect. I am on the second set of batteries after 3 months. It doesn't release the instant the cat puts its head in (takes about 2 seconds) but the cat seems to have got used to that and nudges it with its nose until it opens. It's a bit draughty but I guess they all are really.

Other than that it's OK.

I've got the sure flap one, works perfectly.. Don't get the timer one, those always have issues.. It's still got a manual 3 way catch when you want to stop them going in or out..

I've got the sure flap one too.

Works great with our two cats.

I have had the Sureflap for Ruby and Luna for about 5 yrs now. The batteries last about 6 months and the locking mechanism is loud, but they quickly got used to it. The only issue we had is that Ruby's microchip has migrated down to her arse, so she has to wear one of the supplied tags on her collar. We couldn't convince her to enter and exit backwards....cats, eh?

We’ve got a SureFlap one and it’s great. Batteries last years and our very nervous cat can use it.
He sometimes sticks his head in the tunnel so it unlocks then doesn’t push through so it locks again and he gets confused but he really isn’t blessed in the brains department - most of the time he uses it perfectly.

Incidentally; when we first got one it didn’t quite fit into the very narrow glass panel we have in the conservatory where the flap needs to be. They make several models and after many phone calls we found one that fitted. Customer service was amazing and I fell in love with the beautifully Irish-accented lady in the office. She was lovely!

Another sure flap user (well owner) here, has worked flawlessly for years. Broke my heart to cut a hole in the oak door, but the cats are happy

Sure flap owner here. In fact we have 2, one out of the front door and one out of the porch door. Batteries seem to last well but that will depend if they are in and out like yoyos. Our cat is now elderly and doesn't go out a great deal.

I would have no hesitation getting another one, they have been great.

Also have a sureflap pet door.

Batteries last one year, but they are slightly loose meaning the setting was defaulting to open every now and then. Once I realised I wrapped some tape around the batteries to pack them out and that's fixed it.

Other than that it's good. The big door for visibility is reassuring for our cat too.

Another satisfied Sureflap user.

We have a PetSafe one, which also works fine. Got to watch the batteries, last less than a year and you need to get the high power type (Duracell Ultra seem to work well). Swsi likes to spend her time with her head in the hole deciding whether to come in or not, which results in the solenoid clicking on and off repeatedly, not ideal for battery life. OTOH Medi comes in like an armour-piercing shell and the latch barely has time to open before she collides with the door.

We have a sureflap smart one with WiFi and a hub. It eats batteries and the smart features are really unreliable. It seems to have been discontinued and replaced by a monstrosity which uses c-cell batteries.

Before that we had a normal sureflap microchip catflap without all the smart stuff. That was flawless.

So get sureflap but just a simple one.

Sureflap here too. Rechargeable AA's last about 3 months and it's not too noisy.
I'd get another one.

Sureflap here which we've had since about 2013. It works well. One of our cat has a microchip that's migrated down his shoulder blade but it still works. The vet has said they can put a new chip in, if needed.

Last year, it stopped working. I think the door magnet broke, which then caused the mechanism to jam (something like that anyway).
I did the diagnosis thing on the website fully expecting to have to buy a replacement but it was sent out for free, which I was really impressed with. Really easy to fit the part & it was working again in about 20mins

We’ve had pet safe ones at our last and current house and they work fine. Both times we’ve had the plug in adapter so it’s meant no issues with battery life.

Both our previous and our current cat were/are pretty dim but figured it out. The funniest bit is having to code the chip - you have to swipe your cat like you’re at a till.

We have the Sureflap Pet Door, which is a sort of oversized cat flap for the larger animal. It's worked flawlessly for several years and batteries last about a year. It replaced an original Sureflap that had problems with the latches being a bit weak and tending to sieze up if a bit of debris got anywhere near them; the Pet Door being a newer design seems to have been much improved in that area. It's not exactly draught-proof though, so probably not something for those with passivhaus aspirations.

We have the Sureflap with remote control, two cats. They were 100% indoor cats before they came to us, and we didn't want them in the garden unsupervised, so it was more for keeping them in than keeping other cats out. We taped the flap up for the first couple of days, then taped the catch down so that the door was free swinging, then put the batteries in so that it made the click but they could get through it anyway, then finally releasing on the chip. No problems except it suddenly wouldn't release for one cat. Sureflap were very helpful, sent a test kit (chip on a stick) which proved the flap was working normally, took the cat to the vet who couldn't find a chip and put new one in.

I fenced the garden with flexible plastic mesh hanging off tensioned paracord with canes every 2m - it's too floppy for them to climb.While done to keep ours in, we have had a strange cat try to get in and fail.

Am I the only person who read the title as flat caps with microchip control?
Was expecting another conspiracy theory discussion
(Yorkshire specific)

Have we the right to interfere with the territorial disputes of other sovereign cats ?

😆

In a past life I had a (I think PetSafe) one which worked with a magnet on the cat collar. Pros: no batteries required, pretty reliable. Cons: won't work if the cat loses its collar, not coded so other magnetic cats can use it.

Quite a consensus on the Sureflap fat claps!

We tried two of the battery powered flaps.. but our cat is.. well.. hmm.. 🙂

Anyway.. the battery ones ran out of juice after a week (even with good batteries) as the cat was sitting next to the flap / struggling to get it activated.. taking ages to come in.. and basically running the battery down.

ended up with one of these..

Pet Porte Cat Flap

the 'roof' bit contains the sensor and means the chip gets read every time.. (it only seemingly read it about 50% of the time with the standard looking catflaps!) and it is mains powered, so no worrying about it running out of battery!

I want one of these but I'm a bit concerned about the draughts because our kitchen's already quite cold and we work hard on insulating it.

We've had 2 Petporte flaps, like Spacehopper links to.

I can't remember what happened to the first one, but we replaced it with the same. I've never noticed it being draughty.

You do get a slight draught through the sureflap flap.

My mothers cat has quite taken to sitting at the back door staring out the catflap as if guarding it. We've even put down a basket and warm cozy blankets to keep him comfortable.

Its been his new spot for a few months now. I think he also likes the fresh air that comes in.

I went to great pains and great expense to make him a heavily insulated outdoor shed, complete with multiple windows giving him 360 degrees of peering, A thick insulating foam covered floor and i think the little so and so has yet to use it.

The catflap i fitted to the front of it is opaque, unlike the house catflap which is clear, so ill maybe have to adapt it and fit a 6"x6" window to the front so he can sit and look out that way.

Sureflap. Has been flawless for years. The noise is just a "click" as the latch releases when it senses the chip. It took a couple of days for our version of Marvin Piss Pants to go from being intimidated by the click to relying on it as his signal to go through (which he still does, even when it's unlocked).

Another Sureflap ex user here (don’t have a car any more) and they are great, had a problem with one which was very old and they sent out bits to make it brand new for free. Never noticed a draught myself but it obviously won’t be as good as a solid bit of door.
Our cats never had a problem with them.

Our first one went faulty after a few years, they sent us a new one 🙂

There is some good advice in the instructions to get the cats used to it.

The standard one let's anything out, if you might want to keep certain cats in, there is a model that checks chips on the way out too.

Another Sureflap ex user here (don’t have a car any more)

That must've been a damn big flap.

We had the same issue with the neighborhood cats coming in to the house. Can't remember which chip reading flap we got but it's been without issue for 8yrs now. Batteries last around 6mths. Works whenever the cat is close enough, without fault.

I recommended a Sureflap to a guy at work. He came in Monday morning and told me it had been a nightmare trying to 'register' the cats microchip....turns out that rather than installing it in the door first he was chasing the cat around the house trying to lower it over her head!

We've had the same electronic cat flap for 5 years, battery lasts about 2 years, it's silent until the battery is low then it clicks a bit.
It's amusing to watch next doors cats try to follow our cat through it and the frustration when they can't access

We’ve had a SureFlap since they first started. A work colleague was a friend of the owner when they started. The guy who started SureFlap had designed a new RFID detector and wanted a means to show it worked so made a few cat flaps for friends and it’s gone on from there.

I now have four cats in a small house. The space is too small for them all and they fight.

I have no comment about cat flaps but whilst perfectly manageable imo 4 cats is a lot in a small house and requires special considerations.

I would very strongly recommend reading advice pamphlets by Cat Protection on multi-cat households so that potential problems which you might not be aware of are fully understood and can be dealt with. For example, problems with a dominant cat blocking a less dominant cat's access to a litter tray, and done so subtly that a human won't notice and is mystified as to why the poor cat is peeing in inappropriate places.

Multi-cat households are hugely rewarding imo but they do need special, often not obvious, considerations. IME Cat Protection provide by far the best expertise on all feline related issues.

we have 3 rescue fuzzies, all with odd characterisitcs* we have multi level cat runs around the house so if one is being a dick the more nervous ones can travel around the house higher up and then building a large catio outside that they cam access anytime has been a winner. they can all chill outside, not get involved in fights with other cats or kill the local wildlife and as a neutral territory, they are all happy to chill out togeather there.

*one is obsessed with getting in vans and was fostered with dogs, so now thinks all dogs are his best mates and will run up to any dog to say hi.

one looks all cute and floofy but she has a kill switch and goes from 0-kill in under 5 seconds with none of the usual cat behaviour of hissing making herself bigger etc... fine with our cats goes like an missile as soon as any other cat appears.

our latest is a half blind mentalist who is great but has bugger all depth perception and low light visibilty.

My cat never figured out the cat flap in years of practice. The only way to get him through it was to physically shove him through, and then he'd turn around and stare at the door with the same look that you or I might have if someone just pushed us through a brick wall.

Persuading him to stick his head into it long enough for the flap to read his chip was a non-starter.

As above. Faultless

@yourguitarhero
I have a sureflap catflap which I have'nt used. I was going to put in 2 but decided 1 was enough. It's yours for the price of postage if you want it.

Happy Sureflap user/owner here. On our third now, through change of circumstances. Started with the basic, moved to the larger pet door with clock timer locking, now on the dual entry with a chip reader each side.
The basic twisty plastic lock on the basic and dual will get dirt in it from the cats, will go crunchy and may break, happened on our basic and someone at work moaned that that happened repeatedly for them. I think we may have had the latch fail on the first one too but got sent the replacement part no issues.
Think my favourite was the door with the electric timable lock, allowed us to keep them in at night but let them out to roam again before we woke so they didn't wake is early.

All still work fine. The first one is now in our neighbors door so our cats can't get in and steal his cats food.

Oh, and programming them, why chase the cat with the flap? Just pick up the cat and push it through the flap.

@ernielynch
Thanks for the info, I will go look that up. It's definitely not easy - was two pairs with their own homes/space coming together so there's two teams to fight it out!

@gordimhor
Wow, that's an amazing offer - PM'd!

Having posted above that my Sureflap has had no faults, this morning the catches have released and it's swinging in the wind. I suspect rain has been driven into the works by the gales. Taken the batteries out and hope it recovers.

yep my Sureflap does this as well, it happens once in a while.
This time the catches must've popped back up and locked the door and for some reason the batteries were showing dead, although I know they're not. I could hear the cat meowing her head off this morning whilst I was in the shower, found her stuck outside unable to get in. All I do is remove the batteries and put them back in, that seems to fix it.

I read the thread title as "Flat Caps with Microchip Access Control", yet thought nothing odd about it.

I often misread cat flaps as fat claps

Taken the batteries out and hope it recovers.

Wiped all the surfaces (to makes sure sensors are clean, put the batteries back and it's working normally.

yep mine needs a good clean, will do it when I get home from work. She never wipes her paws before using it to come in! 😂

Installed out PetPorte in 2011, still works fine.

[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/3680/9201602913_0b701cac19.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/3680/9201602913_0b701cac19.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/f27BY6 ]Pet Porte Cat Flap[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

Quite tough too, the sensor bit which sticks out has taken quite a few knocks over the years and still works.

[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/7668/17927958872_dbb8f3a2a9.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/7668/17927958872_dbb8f3a2a9.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/tjetzb ]An unwanted cat at the cat flap[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr