Sure Petcare SureFlap Microchip Pet Door for Cats & Small Dogs with Curfew Timer, Compatible with RFID Collar Tags and Microchips, 1-Button Control, White, 4 x C Cell Batteries Required, Not Included

After not liking the idea of these mainly based on price/value, I'm completely converted and love this door. We bought this after getting a new kitten who wasn't supposed to go out but we wanted our other cats to be able to come and go. Our installation was slightly unusual as it's on an internal door which leads to the room with the outside cat flap in and we put it the "wrong way around" i.e. will let cats into the house but only authorised cats out. If we'd only known about custom modes, we could maybe have installed it the "right way" but it serves our purpose as it is (see later for custom modes). The comments below will refer to a normal installation with the flap allowing only known pets in and anyone out. We got the pet door rather than the cat flap as one of the cats was a Maine Coon and needs a larger door. The bonus is that the pet door does a lot more than the basic cat flap. Installation is much like any other door - cut a hole to the template size, drill two screw holes and secure the two halves either side of the door with the screws. There is quite a lot of play to allow for different width doors. The provided screw covers make it look like a well finished job. Everything you need access to (programming buttons, batteries and lcd panel) is on the inside. For glass or wider doors you can buy extra fittings to make a neat job. Ours is a normal width wooden door. Batteries (4x'C') last a long while and even with 8 cats last well over 6 months. Curfew mode works well for stopping them going out at night and reducing the local wildlife population. Programming is easy, and accomplished by buttons beneath a slide out cover which hides the buttons when in place but allows easy access when removed. For a new cat, push the "learn" button and hold the cat somewhere near. Its pick-up range is impressive and it senses the cats about 20cm away. Some of the cats were a bit tentative at first due to the click as it unlocks but all soon got used to it and for most it was second nature after their first trip through with us holding the flap open. There's a clock and you can set times for curfew so cats can come in but not go out during those hours. The door has "prongs" that are raised on either side of the flap, so usually the inside prongs are raised and cats can go out but not everyone can come in - the door will lower the prongs for a known cat and allow them in. For curfew mode, the outside prongs are raised so nobody can go out but the indoor prongs still lower for a known cat/pet. You can manually toggle through the 4 lock modes (in/out, in only, out only, locked) by pressing the lock button. The display shows you how it is currently set with arrows pointing in the direction allowed or crossed out arrows pointing in the prohibited direction. So, is it foolproof at preventing cats entering? The answer is "mostly". Can an unknown cat "tailgate" another through? Yes, we've seen it happen but the flap does re-lock quickly so the other cat has to be right behind. Our cats know each other so being close isn't an issue but it's unlikely an intruder would get so close and this is an unlikely way for strange cats to get in. Can cats lift the door towards them and sneak under? Yes. We have one cat who figured this out in our reverse install mode to outwit curfew mode and is an expert. However this door has anticipated that for intruders. You can set a custom mode that will lock the outdoor prongs if an unknown cat is standing there (unknown as in not programmed in). The outdoor prongs being raised completely prevents lifting the door. Other custom modes include non-microchip mode ( a normal non selective flap but curfew mode still works), two modes for timid pets which leave the door unlocked for different longer times so they can get over the click of it unlocking and finally "reverse mode" which reverses curfew and keeps them out at certain times. As the manual says, use of this is probably rare but it's there if you need it! The best commendation is that we never really notice the flap other than the click when it unlocks and we know someone is going in or out. Mostly it just sits there and works. Brilliant from day one and we couldn't have easily brought 4 new cats into the fold without it, keeping them in whilst letting the others have free rein until the new arrivals get what is now called "cat flap privileges" or to put it another way, get programmed into the flap. Great product, best sensor range and just works.

I'm so pleased with this item. After multiple cats coming into my house and eating my cats food, I looked for a solution - there were so many cat flaps available, so was difficult to find the right one. this item is amazing for a number of reasons, it fitted snuggly in the opening from my previous cat flap - no refitting needed. Really easy to program. It picked up my 2 small dogs (12 year old chips) and my cats microchips with no problem at all. Please ensure that you fit the tunnel on the outside of the door. Top tip program your animals microchips before you fit the tunnel, as its a little tricky to do afterwards but still absolutely possible. I fitted this to an old wooden back door - the inside braces of the door cover the battery flap - so i didn't use the long screws that came with the pack - i used short screws on the outside only, thus allowing me to pull out the unit to replace the batteries when needed. My cat was a little scared of the lock unlock noise at first of all, but the need to be outside got the better of him after 2 or 3 days - he's fine now. This cat flap is an excellent choice. If your animal is not microchipped the pack comes with one external tag, so do order some extras if you decide to use the external tags - the tags are small and thin so not overly annoying - like other units i saw when researching. This was a top buy and well worth the money.

Update: we've had the door in place for almost a year now and I needed to provide an update because of the battery life. It's absolutely brilliant! As mentioned in my original review, they state a 6 month battery life, however we're still using the first set of Duracell batteries after nearly 12 months and the battery indicator is still showing as full! This is with one cat with a 10pm to 6am indoor quarantine, so is likely to vary depending on the number of pets you have. We haven't had a single issue with the door since installation, it works flawlessly. Only thing to be aware of is that if you use worming/flea drops on the neck of your cat, the fluid can stain the flap whilst wet leaving a permanent white mark, so I'd recommend applying when the cat is locked in and allowing it to try before letting them out again. -- We've had the door in place for a couple of weeks and have been impressed so far. Nicely built with excellent, clear instructions for installation. Took me about 30 minutes to replace our existing cat flap, using jigsaw, spirit level, drill and screwdriver. We chose this larger version as the smaller cat-specific flap wouldn't have covered the existing hole in our uPVC door. I'm glad we did, as this gives a nice size opening for an adult cat. Operation and programming is very straightforward and once you've done it once, you won't need the instructions the next time. The curfew mode works perfectly, allowing the cat to exit from a certain time and then only permitting entry after another time. Only irritation is that when setting the time, you can only scroll forwards through times, so if you wanted to set it 10 minutes earlier, you have to go all the way through 24hrs to get there, which only takes an additional 10-15 seconds, but feels like an easy thing to improve upon. Locking/unlocking works as advertised. Reading your pet's chip is simplicity itself, set the door into learn mode and then first time the pet uses it, the chip is read. The locking mechanism does make a fair 'kerchunk' noise when activating and can spook the animal to start with, but they quickly get used to it. The locks themselves are only plastic, but seem robust and have stood up to a number of direct assaults by the neighbourhood bully-cat. It was very satisfying watching it batter itself half-senseless trying to chase our cat into the house and bouncing off the flap which had locked behind her, hah! 4 'C' cell batteries are easy to install and if the display is to be believed, they've not been drained much so far, so I'm confident that the 6 month battery life is achievable. Overall a really impressive product that I'd happily buy again.

This was purchased to tackle a cheeky nocturnal visitor that was coming in to polish off the cat's food at night. At first I thought the cat was eating rather a lot until the night I was snoozing on the sofa and awoke to find a strange cat standing in the doorway looking at me - it scarpered pretty quick after I woke up. I'm not averse to feeding poor waifs and strays but our nocturnal visitor was spraying occasionally so although it was quite amusing at first it wore out its welcome pretty quick, I was also a little worried about the potential for a cat fight if it came face to face with our cat as both could have been seriously injured. We live in the country so there are potentially other types of wildlife and/or vermin that could start coming in - I've heard of foxes using catflaps (small foxes). Fitting is very easy, the most complicated bit is cutting the hole - or enlarging the existing one if you already have a catflap. The unit comes in two pieces; one piece houses the flap, electronic gubbins and the tunnel that pokes through the hole in the door/wall; the other piece is the cover that you slide over the tunnel on the outside. Once you have the hole cut, you slide the tunnel through the hole then screw on the outer cover. The only complicated part of this (apart from not making a cod of cutting the hole) is lining up your screw holes - the screws for the outer cover go through the door and into holes on the unit inside, pulling the whole thing together tightly so you need to make sure you predrill the holes perpendicularly so they come out in the right place otherwise you'll have a problem screwing it together. The unit is supplied with three different lengths of screws to cope with different thicknesses of door. There are various modes which allow you to restrict access at certain times, or lock the flap entirely. "Learn Mode" couldn't be easier, just push the button, hold the cat near the scanners, press the button again. Hopefully it will continue to operate without a problem for a long time, that remains to be seen but it certainly seems robust enough. The only thing that needs to be watched is that the batteries aren't allowed to run down but there is a battery indicator on the panel and a warning light that flashes when the batteries need replaced. I have to say it was really satisfying watching it working the first time the cat came back in again! Can go to bed not worrying about it now. Update: Changed the batteries for the first time this week, quite impressed by that. I thought when I fitted it that I'd be happy if the batteries lasted longer than six or seven months. August 2014 to Feb 2017, two and a half years. Duracell of course. Door is still working well.

We have a big cat, so I was pleased to have bought this one, and not the smaller version. I made a paper template from the published dimensions, to see both sizes. The smaller one is quite small. I installed it in a wooden door, and by using the outer frame as the template (as the instructions say) it was easy to find a suitable location that avoided a cross brace on the back of the door. Make sure you give yourself enough room on each side to open the battery covers. Overall, installation for an average DIY’er with a drill and a jigsaw is very easy. Registering the cat’s chip with the unit was straightforward. He just needed to be poked through, and it found his chip. He was used to a cat flap anyway, so it didn’t take long for him to get the hang of going through it. The unit unlocks with a reassuring ’clunk’ and it has 2 latches to stop unwanted guests battering their way in. We have it set to just him inwards and anything outwards - just in case. It’s a well made, solid, catflap, that I hope will give years of good service.

I bought this to stop a neighbours cat from coming into my house - previous cat flap was not a microchip one, just a manual so I had to keep it locked all the time. This microchip flap worked perfectly when first fitted (Aug 24) and the neighbours cat couldn’t get in. I never used the timer, just left it free during the day and then manually locked on the night to keep them in. I then found the neighbours cat in my house on odd occasions and just assumed he had tailgated one of mine into the house. Fast forward to Dec 24 and the neighbours cat is CONSTANTLY in my house - he is managing to pull the flap outwards and get his head in and the rest is history. He is so brazen he even does it when I’m sat in the room. My cats are not happy and now I can smell cat pee in the house. I now have the lock the flap for ‘exit’ to stop him pulling the flap outwards, but this then means my cats can’t get out, only in. That’s fine if I’ve let them out first, otherwise they’re locked in all day. I suspected I may have a faulty one but can see from other reviews that they also have other cats getting into their houses too. Must be a design fault. It’s such a shame because otherwise it’s a great catflap.

Works well with a slightly portly older cat who hated crawling through an ordinary flap, bought the same make as the old one as that was still going strong after 12 years hope this larger one lasts as well

This has Worked brilliantly for both of our cats for the last 3 years. It was easy to set up and register the chips of our cats by gently pushing the cats through the flap, this helped to train them as well. The cats have developed different techniques of opening the flap but both have been happy and confident to use it from the beginning. It does have quite a loud click when the lock releases and locks, but the cats are used to the noise which doesn’t seem to bother them. It also marks as an alert to us of our cats movements, this noise doesn’t bother or effect us in anyway. It has been a great alternative to our old flap which would allow our neighbours and local stray cats into our home, this meant our cats didn’t feel safe and secure in their home. With this flap however, it only allows our 2 cats in and out. We have found the different open/lock combinations very useful if we need to separate the cats or ensure they stay in (e.g. before an early morning vet visit) We have had to change the batteries once in the last 3 years which we think isn’t bad considering it is used by 2 very active cats throughout the day and night. The flap gave plenty of warning that the batteries were running low, which gave us a few days to get to the shops to buy replacements. The only thing I would change is that the flap could alert you, somehow to the batteries running out, I understand that an alarm could potentially frighten the cats. I happened to spot the warning on the small screen one day and as our cat flap is in our utility room it isn’t something we regularly look at. A great flap which has reassured us that our pets are safe and can come and go as they please! Highly recommended!