Sure Petcare SureFlap Microchip Pet Door Connect, RFID Collar Tag & Microchip Compatible, Mobile App Control - Installation Accessories Sold Separately - Install in Doors, Windows & Walls, White

I’ve been using Sureflap microchip catflaps and pet doors for over 11 years and install one whenever I move house as neighbouring cats always seem to find their way in to bully my little cat and eat all the nibbles. As I’ve just moved into my 5th house I think I’m fairly well qualified to comment on them now! Over the years I’ve moved from the cat flap to the pet door and upgraded to the hub version in December 2018. In my opinion, it’s worth every penny for the peace of mind it brings. Fitting & Trouble Shooting Metal Door I do always get a handyman to fit the flap initially but Sure PetCare have made the process as easy as possible and the only issues we’ve encountered are when one of our doors had an inner metal panel invisible from the outside. Cutting through it to make the hole was a bit of a mare apparently and the range of the catflap needed to be adjusted as metal impedes the signal from the cats’ microchips to the unit. (The smaller of the cats was fine getting in and out but the microchip on the large cat was only picked up if he put his head in one particular position - he’s not the brightest of animals and spent ages miaowing away smacking it with his paw until he randomly got his head in the right place!) Sure PetCare Customer Services are absolutely amazing: they talked though the various steps to make sure the unit wasn’t faulty, diagnosed an issue with the metal door plate, sent me a Range Tester to work out the distance a microchip would work at and explained how to select different frequencies and which was best for metal. (The Range Tester has it’s own microchip and shows up as an extra pet on the app if you have the hub version.) The best tip I can give for fitting is to do EXACTLY as the manual suggests and make sure your pets’ microchips are being picked up by the door by gently coaxing them through it :-) BEFORE you fit the unit to the door. That way if there’s a problem with the door itself, you or your handyman won’t have wasted an hour fitting it. By the way... none of the cat flaps/pet doors I’ve ever had have been faulty - it’s just been a case of reading the manual properly, checking Sure’s on-line advice and videos or speaking direct to their Customer Services to trouble-shoot. Problem with flap shutting? One very persistent neighbour’s cat still managed to get through the pet door and it took me a while to work out why... Only the latches on the inside of the unit are fully extended when it’s in normal, unlocked mode so the outside latches remain retracted. In windy conditions I discovered that the door wasn’t shutting fully and a cunning cat was clearly clawing it open from the outside. I then realised that my large cat was coming through so slowly that the door didn’t swing shut fast enough to close properly which was having the same effect as the wind! I contacted Customer Services and within two days they’d sent me a heavier door along with full instructions on how to fit it. Problem solved. Again, I cannot rate this company highly enough - they really care about their customers and nothing is too much trouble. Poor Battery Life? I do find that the flaps are relatively heavy on batteries - 4 normal C batteries will last a few months - so we’ve now invested in rechargeable batteries. At one point we were only getting 2-3 weeks life from batteries but it turned out the flap sensors were dirty (very furry cat) so the flap thought there was a cat constantly there and kept clicking away madly. As soon as we cleaned the flap thoroughly and kept it free from fur and gunk the battery life improved dramatically. I think if your cats aren’t super fluffy and don’t traipse in every bit of the outdoors on their paws then you’ll find batteries last a lot longer. Lost the fittings? We’ve just moved house again (sigh) and, before we went, swopped our old non-hub linked pet door back in for the new owners who have 17 cats in their household! Got hole cut in back door of new house then realised we’d lost all the fixings. One panicky email to Customer Services and two days later a Jiffy bag with all new fixings arrived. All completely free. The only other company I’ve ever dealt with that approaches this level of service is Ikea. Problems connecting the Hub and App? I’ll admit I’ve cursed the set up a few times but the problem’s been our patchy wi-fi and dodgy internet provision rather than the Sure PetCare system itself. As the pet door connects to the hub via wi-fi, if you don’t have a strong, stable signal you’ll experience constant dropouts and mounting frustration. The hub’s hated red flashing ears will haunt your dreams! As other reviewers have pointed out, the hub itself needs to be physically connected to your router or wi-fi extender and won’t work just on wi-fi. I solved the issue by investing in a couple of BT’s Whole Home hub discs - wi-fi connection is now perfectly stable and I just love seeing those beautiful solid green ears (they flash green when a cat goes in or out). If we lose the internet completely the hub can throw a wobbly. If this happens just unplug it, wait a couple of minutes and plug back in. It can take a few minutes but the hub has always connected to the pet door again. I was also really worried that if the connection failed then the cats would be locked out but this certainly isn’t the case if the flap isn’t on curfew mode. I haven’t tested it to see what happens if it is on curfew mode so if you need your cats shut in or out at specific times you might want to do a bit more research... Not APPy? No, the app is not perfect - I’d like to use it in landscape format for a start! However, it is relatively new technology, updates are regularly released and I think it’s pretty good. I love the fact that I can see how much time each of my cats has spent in and out of the house each day and at what times of the day. It gives extra insights into their characters! You do need to appreciate that if a cat sneaks out of the house through a door or window then the system will still think it’s in the house as it hasn’t read the cat’s microchip going out - this means that the app is of limited use when you’re on holiday and want to check on your beloved cats. Unless the cat minder conscientiously checks and updates the cats’ status for you on the app (you can manually toggle it from Inside to Outside) you will never be certain if the information shown is correct. I don’t think this will matter to most people most of the time. Is it worth the cost? The basic pet door without hub capability is, without question, a great buy. As for the door and hub set-up... well I personally think it’s worth the high price (especially when you factor in Sure PetCare’s impeccable after-service) but it will depend on how soppy you are about your pets - I imagine it’s more satisfying to cat owners than dog owners. All cat lovers want to know what their poppets get up to when they’re not around. I definitely sleep more soundly at night knowing no neighbourhood cats can harass my cats in their own home any more - and it’s so much fun the next morning looking at where they were all night!

This is a replacement for connected pet flap bought a couple of years ago. Why? Because the original one had become so unreliable as to be useless. You buy a very expensive cat door so you have peace of mind, knowing whether your cats are in or out, seen recently or missing for a long time. When it works it works brilliantly. When it loses power (from fresh batteries) dozens of times a day there's something badly wrong. But this new one has been fine so far and it will continue to be reliable, right? Right?

I don't often write reviews, but thought I would for this. It is an excellent device. My original catflap from another manufacturer (PetPorte) stopped recognising my cat's chip a couple of years ago, and I've been waiting for a 'internet enabled' cat flap for a while. This one fits the bill. In addition to the cat flap, you need to buy the hub (currently about £50) to enable the cat flap to work with the mobile app. The hub needs to be connected by a wired ethernet lead to your router - that part is not wireless. The hub needs to be relatively close (manufacturer recommends no more than 10m) and ideally direct line-of-sight to the cat flap - that's the wireless bit. That may prove a limitation for some installations. Installation of the cat flap itself is relatively easy, although the hole required is larger than a 'standard' cat flap as it's designed to work for dogs as well. A top tip is to program your animals before you install the cat flap. A key benefit over my previous catflap (PetPorte) is that there is no 'porch' which sticks out and risks being broken. The app is a little basic currently and gives the occasional error (e.g. 'object reference not set') but it does work. I'm sure it will be improved in time. You receive notifications when your cat enters and leaves the house and can remotely lock and unlock the door and set a 'curfew' time whereby the cat can enter but cannot leave. In addition, you get an interesting page of 'stats' showing your cat's activity over the past week. Useful to monitor any change of behaviour. As others have mentioned, it would be good to have IFTTT and Alexa support, but that's a real 'nice to have' rather than an essential in my view. I'm looking forward to further SureFlap products that connect to the hub - a cat feeder would be great! After one week's use, I'd certainly recommend the SureFlap. My cat adapted to using it immediately and it's reassuring to get notifications on his comings and goings during the day. Recommended.

I have a bigger breed if cat that were starting to avoid the flap. The bigger size and ability (with a hub) to track whether your cats are outside or inside. However, from daily use and even daily rare usage, batteries go from full green to red in about 10 days. These are 4 c cell batteries. I have two flaps, one is used as a primary catflap and it is used throughout the day and night. The other flap is on an outbuilding, and is used probably only 5% of the time. Despite massive usage differences both flap went to RED low battery at same time. This indicates to be the issue with these flaps isn't usage, but idle power usage. They are very hungry devices even not being used on idle. Therefore i would budget for 8 C Cell batteries per month, which Amazon do for approx £10-£12. If it wasn't for the power drain as a design flaws I would give it 4-5 star.

The functionality is great, but these cat flaps chew through batteries at an alarming rate. This is a replacement, I bought it because I thought there was something wrong with my previous one, as that used to go through batteries really quickly, but this one is exactly the same. As you'll see from the attached graph (monitored using Home Assistant) new batteries (high quality alkalines) are down to 70% within a week. From experience, the slope of the graph will start to level out now, but I've never had a set of batteries last more than 6-8 weeks. The sensor on the flap is clean, and the hub is only 1m away in direct line-of-sight. I've tried different brands of battery but they all run down really quickly. What's even more annoying is that you can't power the flap from the mains. I've tried, and even with the electrically 'cleanest' power supply it still causes the ultra-sensitive electronics in the flap to misbehave. I'd highly recommend this flap if it wasn't for the battery issues, but given that it's a) not economical and b) extremely environment unfriendly to keep replacing batteries like this I'm afraid I can't recommend it at all.

This cat flap has been fitted for 8 months now so I thought I'd update my previous review which I wrote after only having it for 1 week. I wanted a flap which my cats couldn't escape out of when it was locked, and this has hit the brief. Looking at a couple of reviews on the non-Connect version of this product I wasn't sure if it would be escape proof but if you use it with the microchip scanning enabled, it is (at least it has been for us) - there are 2 catches on both sides of the flap which are up when the lock is enabled, so in order for a cat to break out when it's locked, they would have to press down both the inside catches and hook the door towards them at the same time, which seems a big ask. One of my cats does try and bite the catches sometimes but he gives up after a few minutes. Curfew mode has worked well, automatically locking at 9.45pm whilst letting them come back in and opening again at 8.00am. My cats don't mind the noise of the catches unlocking, it's a louder click than the first flap we had but they've learned to wait for the click before they push the door open. I bought a different product before this one which wouldn't pick up one of my cat's microchips properly and he couldn't get in, but this one works great and there's no issues with him being detected. I also bought a Connect hub separately and I do find it reassuring to be able to see whether the cats are in or out while we're not at home, and unlock/lock the flap remotely. Battery life isn't too bad, we're on our third set in nearly 8 months and it does vary with the brand (Energiser lasted longest at 3 months, Duracell less than 2!). Occasionally the cat flap doesn't close fully if a cat comes through it slowly but I've had that issue with every one I've owned. Overall I've been impressed with it and if I were to need another in future I would get the same again.

This is our second SureFlap item. Really pleased with the first (standard sized chip reading cat flap) product. We bought this one to include a small dog. Unfortunately none of the allowed animals can use it for entry. They all know how it works because of the smaller one. This one though? I think the chip reader is positioned too far to the inside of the door. The mechanism does not release normally. I had to shove even the cat firmly against the locked swinging door to trigger the locking mechanism release (because the chip reader didn't recognise the cat until I'd shoved 3/4ths of her into the unextended tunnel). We have had to tape down the locking mechanism, which really isn't the point of spending this much money on an intelligent cat flap. So for us this item is a very expensive flop.

We have a small dog who we needed to allow to go in & out without us opening the back door. This door size was the recommendation for her size & the fact it works from the dog's chip is very reassuring. It was not easy to install. Cutting the whole was straight forward but then assembling the various bits was not. We have a plastic door that has quite thick panels so when you drill the holes on one side it then does not align on the other. I wanted the final assembly to not have any external screws or that the assembly could not be removed. To achieve this I have to take the main moulding of the body that allowed this. Setting it up with the dog's chip was very easy. In the end it took me 4 -5 hours to install. A concern is that only the "in door" direction is on a catch, the "out door" is effectively open which can be pulled from the outside. Now it is fitted, it looks good & works well & the dog is using it. So all good