Cat Mate 2-Way-Locking Cat Flap (304) - Secure Lockable Door for Small to Medium Sized Cats, Easy to Install and Use, for Screen, UPVC and Wood, White

Smart engineering and quality manufacture made this cat door a pleasure to install and use. I put it in the lower panel (1/8" aluminum) of my storm door. It seals against drafts pretty well, and I can't see any obvious points of wear or stress that would lead to future problems. Following the simple directions led to a good outcome. The only minor niggle was sticky movement of the sliding latch, but a couple of minutes with a scalpel, excising some untrimmed molding flash, got it moving smoothly. Some installation tips: 1. When placing the template on your door, use a bubble level across the top of the template. 2. Use a jig saw with the appropriate blade (fine-toothed metal-cutting blade in my case). 3. Cut/file the opening so that the door frame slips in with zero force, so as not to distort the frame and bind the door. 4. When marking the screw hole locations, use a bubble level (again) across the top of the inner frame. 5. Drill the screw holes in the door a little smaller than suggested, 9/64" rather than 3/16"; this snugger fit will ensure that the door remains plumb as you install the screws, assuming that you levelled it as above. 6. Vacuum meticulously afterward: the last thing you want in your feet (or your cat's paws) is sharp metal swarf. Being used to the unmodified screen door for 2+ years, my cat was wary (spooked, actually). After I taped the flap fully open, she gingerly approached and peeked outside. After 15 minutes of lurking, she took her first tentative steps through the door. After going in and out through the propped door many times over the next hour, she still would not nudge the fully closed flap, but when I lifted it halfway, she pushed her head under it and the body followed. Not bad for a couple of hours' work!

IMPORTANT! This is the product to use on interior doors and seals up to 2" thick. I installed on 1.5" thick interior door with no issues, no cutting the product, and a perfect installation. I needed a small cat door to provide access to my laundry room for the cat's litter box. The most important qualities were that it was small enough to install in the bottom of a 6 panel Masonite interior door to keep the door looking nice, seal the interior cutaway, and be quiet since the laundry room is 2nd floor and in a shared hallway to our bedrooms. This product met all of my expectations. * Just small enough to install in the bottom section of a 6 panel door, which it does, though it places to cat door a few inches lower than it really should, but keeps the door looking nice. * Super easy installation thanks to the cutout template and the fact the two halves of the door do not have to align 100% on thicker doors as each half independently screws in with wood screws instead of some extremely long bolt that has to go fully through the door and align with the holes in each side * As quiet as a magnetic door can probably be. I had a door in my last house that always made a loud snapping/clacking sound. This door is much, much quieter. * Door is smoked so the cat can see through it instead of a solid white door. White would probably match your typical white door color better, but the smoked seems like a good design feature. * Even includes little screw hole covers to finish the install cleanly. I don't personally have a need for the locks, nor the weather seal on the exterior portion of the door. But it includes both of those features. If using on an exterior door I would personally caulk the top and side edges of the exterior cat door just to be certain no water gets in there. For my personal use I ended up modifying the door to remove the magnet and weather stripping as it caused the door to be too difficult for my cat to learn to open, the weather stripping being the main cause of a stiff door. Without the weather stripping and magnet the door now swings totally effortlessly, and still weights down to shut after flapping back-and-forth a few times. Note the cat door also flaps open when you open and close your human door, too, which is a non-issue for me. Great product, would buy it again.

worked fine for exterior door correct thickness

This is not a 5-star review because the original order did not arrive as scheduled, apparently lost somewhere in transit by the USPS. And there were a few problems with the door itself, noted below. It is a 4-star review because, when I contacted Seacorals to report that I still had not received the shipment several days after it was supposed to arrive (and was not able to find out anything about its current whereabouts using the tracking number supplied by the USPS), they promptly sent me a new door and expressed considerable concern over the shipping failure. Also, the problems with the door did not prove to be serious. The cat door itself appears to be of good quality, and is not difficult to install, though installation in a 1.75 inch thick solid-core door between our house and garage presented some challenges. First, the liner that fits inside the cut-out is not nearly long enough to cover the entire thickness of a door this wide, leaving an unappealing brown strip visible through the middle of the opening. I solved that problem simply by lining the cut-out with white plastic duct tape. This matched the white paint of the door and the white plastic of the cat door liner closely enough to be unnoticeable, at least to a casual inspection. Second, although the cat door apparently is supposed to assemble using 8 short #6 screws to independently attach each side of the frame to opposite sides of the door (4 screws per side), I didn't like this "non-aligning" assembly feature. So I decided to get 4 long screws to "self-align" the two sides, cinching them together by passing the screws through the room door around the cut-out. For my 1.75" door, my first guess was that 2.0" #6 screws (the longest #6 screws I could find at the local hardware), would do the trick, but these proved a bit too short to go through the door when widened by the 2 frames on each side of it. I then moved on to 2.5" #8 screws, which were long enough. The extra thickness of the #8 screws was not a problem (I just drilled the pilot holes through the door a little bigger). So that was all good. The installation bonus was that, to position the cat door low enough for the cats to use, I had to install it across 2 raised panels of the room door. This meant there was a "V"-shaped depression in the middle of the opening on each side that, when I first cut it, I thought I would have to fill in with some type of sealer under the frames, to make the opening air-tight. However, when the frames were fitted to the opening--although the inside liner was not long enough to reach all the way through the door--it did prove long enough to completely cover these depressions, providing a good tight fitting seal all the way around the opening on each side, with no additional effort. (If you don't want to settle for the pretty good natural seal provided by the frame liners, you could easily caulk around the outside of the frames to ensure a perfect seal.) As for the cat door itself, once installed, it seems perfectly functional. Although our 2 cats are both still kittens, the door appears to be the perfect "Goldilocks" size -- not too big, but not too small either for an adult cat, just right. Due to the magnetic closure feature, the flap operation of this door is stiffer than the free-swinging flaps I've had in the past -- the flap stops abruptly in the down position and has to be "broken" free when opened -- but that fact didn't seem to bother either kitten, both of whom learned to pass through it freely in less than a day. The 4-way closure feature is logically complete, covering all possibilities (which I appreciate abstractly, as a former teacher of logic), though we only need 3 of the 4 settings. (Open both ways, so the cats can pass back and forth at will; open out only, so the cats can't come back in the house when they are banished to the garage for some reason, e.g., cat-allergic guests; & open in only, so the cats can't go out into the garage when some activity is in process better done without a curious cat in attendance, e.g., working with power tools. I guess the fourth setting, open neither way, might be useful if you had two incompatible sets of animals needing temporary separation.) My only small concern is the plastic locking tab has to be pushed up to slide it back and forth, and I don't know how durable this plastic tab will prove to be over time in daily use (I've had a lot of plastic tabs break off over the years). But, so far, so good.

Many years I had PetSafe cat door installed for door from garage to house (it was replaced twice due to wear out). The problem was that my door is hollow and slightly less than 2" and the look from garage was to say mildly 'ugly'. Then my cats learnt how to open the lock on this cat door - they claw it until it will slide open and recently they just ripped the slider off completely. So in search for a new door replacement I found this one with door liner (at first I found liner and was thinking to buy liner and PetSafe door again - because the hole already there). I was hesitant because given measurements for 'Cat Mate 4 Way Locking Cat Flap with Door Liner' were slightly larger than PetSafe 2-way lock door, but decided to risk and mentally was preparing myself to sawing project for the larger hole. To my surprise (and joy) this door fit exactly to existing hole from PetSafe. Installation was easy and the door liner looks amazing. The other good feature that this door has dark gray transparent flap and cats can see through it if somebody is waiting to jump on them from the other side. Not all cats accepted it equally easy - some were very cautious to go through the new door, but after couple day they using it without any problems. In addition, I have huge 18.4 pounds cat - he can go through this door also without problems - just slowly sliding through it. Locking mechanism works great, but right now it is difficult to say how long it will hold (the locks are from garage side). Overall I am very happy and very satisfied with quality and features of this product.

Installed the cat door on a 2 inch exterior insulated garage door. Overall the installation went pretty well (make sure the sabre saw blade is long enough on the up stroke otherwise you will get a lot of bouncing). The previous cat door we had allowed water to infiltrate the door and it eventually rusted out. This door has a better design and has a ridge line across most (but not all) of the bottom so most water should run out, and not in. Our previous cat (a smart Calico) saw me push the flap open once and instantly knew how to use it. Our Ferrell cat we have adopted will walk through the opening if the door is propped open, but so far will not push it open, so she will need some training, The attached picture shows the door propped open with some painters tape. I also made a U frame around the cat door with some 1 inch aluminum channel from one of the big box stores. When we want to lock the cat in the garage at night, we slide a piece of half inch board in the U channel to lock her in. The board also has an aluminum L handle at the top to make lifting it easy. Works really well and better than having to flip the red and green locks. We only use those when we want an in-only door. for when we are away, I'm also thinking about making a remotely lockable flap that would slide into the U frame and be activated with a Kasa HS103 remote control device, a 12V wall wart supply, and a 12V actuator but also need to fix a security camera on the door so I can monitor what is happening in the garage. What we won't do for out pets.

First, this unit didnt' even come with a template. Instead, they tell you to hold the unit against the door, and trace inside of it. So, one hand is trying to hold the unit in place, while your other hand is trying to trace inside of it. That's almost impossible to do, without the unit moving while you are tracing inside of it, so your tracing is a mess. Second, once you are ready to cut, you would assume you cut along the lines of your tracing, right? Well, no, you are told NOT to cut along your tracing. Rather, you are told to cut 4mm outside the line of your tracing. I don't know about you, but I don't visually know how to cut exactly 4mm outside of a tracing on an imaginary line. So, guess what happens? The hole is not the right fit, and so you have to spend time making all kinds of corrective cuts, hoping to get the unit to finally fit inside correctly. It looks like crap, fits like crap, and is crap. Oh, and to top it off, it says it will fit a 2" door, but the screws they send you are too short to fit through a 2" door and reach the other side. I had to go buy 2.5" screws. Genius. This was a terrible installation and a terrible unit. Avoid it at all costs.

The installation was easy. I also ordered two extension pieces to go through a standard-thickness wall. I would only use the tinted door if you’re going from a bright room to another bright area. Otherwise, I think a fully transparent door may make it easier for the animals to understand that they can go through. My cat was moving from a bright room to a dark space. Going into the dark space he only saw his reflection in the door. He would not push the door open. When he went from the dark space to the bright room he could see what was on the other side and went thru the door with no issue. Regardless, my cat learned what to do within 24 hours.