Ideal Pet Products Aluminum Pet Patio Door, Adjustable Height 77-5/8" to 80-3/8", 15" x 20" Flap Size, Mill/Silver

Very happy with this product. I used to have a similar balcony pet door for my cat, made by Petsafe. However, now I have a puppy that will not fit through, and that one also was not adjustable for my new balcony, so I tried this out. It was more expensive, but the quality was also much better. The flap has a magnetic seal, so that it isn't left open after use. Instead of acrylic or plastic for the window portion, it is glass. The aluminum frame appears durable, and was easy to install. Someone complained about the gap when you close the balcony door on it, however, I don't find this to be a big deal... they provide an insulation strip (which isn't great, but hey, it's free), and the gap is tiny if you adjust it properly (like 1-2mm, not enough for bugs to be a problem). As for the complaint about it making the balcony door unlockable, you will have that problem with any of these patio door pet doors, and it's an easy fix.. just get a balcony door stick lock, or cut a small pc of plywood to fit. Also, I got the large size and the opening is high for my basset hound puppy. I took the other reviewer's advice (the one with corgis), and took out the bottom slat, put it above the door opening pc... all you need is a screwdriver and about 20 min time. My puppy is happily using his gate now, with no problems. UPDATE: Been a few months now, and I'm still really satisfied with this product. I am now using it in conjunction with a Regalo extra wide play yard fence / gate (bent in an arc around the balcony door) and the DoggieLawn/Fresh Patch hydroponic grass products (outside on the balcony, so he can pee and poop on his own terms). Add a Petsafe auto feeder and an iPhone app baby monitor, and he's totally got an independent space while I'm away at work. He has his bedding area and full free access to the outside, where the grass products are, and he can pee and poop to his heart's delight, or just go out and look at trees and birds from the balcony. No accidents lately at all, and he uses the balcony door happily on his own (I still reward him if I see him use the grass boxes for elimination). I would not consider him fully housetrained, as he is just a 12 mo old Basset Hound, but he is well on his way.... pretty good for a breed that is very hard to housetrain. These products (and Nature's Miracle) were lifesavers, because he used to have accidents all the time and escape his homemade enclosure. Now, I go to work worry-free and can watch him on my iPhone from anywhere (the app is called the Cloud Baby Monitor). No more 2 and 3AM trips every 2 hrs at night, down 2 flights of stairs in my condo complex; when I'm away or asleep, my puppy can do his business on his own schedule. Eventually, I am hoping to expand and then get rid of the gated area, once I am satisfied he is trustworthy around the house, and I'm hoping he will just use the balcony door or signal me at the front door with the dog potty bells. Attaching photos of the whole setup (the last is a screenshot of what I see on the baby monitor iPhone app). NEW UPDATE: it is now 15 months since I have bought this… My dog is now a full-grown basset hound. He is still not house-trustworthy and must stay in the enclosure when I leave the house. The enclosure is pretty much like a deluxe dog kennel that allows him access to the balcony potty spot. I still love this dog door – best money I ever spent. In fact, I am probably going to buy a second one to install at my boyfriends townhouse for him, since we go there on the weekends. The flap has gotten a tiny bit discolored over time but still has not gotten permanently bent, and the magnetic closure still works well.

Overall, I think this is great. My dog uses it and it allows her to go in and out whenever she pleases. Installation was simple and I, as a young woman, did it by myself. The only downfall is that you cannot lock the door that you're shutting into this extension piece. It would be nice but as an alternative, I have a stick at the other end of the screen door to prevent it from even opening. FYI - I have this piece and then my screen door that closes to it. Then my glass door opens and closes normally. Anyway, it works perfectly fine and the stick helps alleviate any concern of someone trying to rob me. It's pretty sturdy for what it is. Slightly flimsy but overall sturdy. But that's because it's 1 long piece. AND my dog is a 50 english bulldog and the dog flap size is perfect for her. I can't imagine a "real extra large" size dog like a german shepherd, lab or even a retriever fitting through the flap. Maybe they could since they are long hair dogs whose bodies appear to be bigger than they actually because of all that hair. But my dog is a little bowling ball and it fits her comfortably with some extra room to not hit the sides or top/bottom when going in and out. The flap is pretty good quality too. It doesn't dangle and flap open/close with the wind. There's a metal piece that almost acts like a magnet or paper weight to make sure that flap stays down when not used. Lastly, my dog started using this immediately. It took a few rounds of treats to get her in and out but that was it. Simple. She uses it all throughout the day as she pleases. And for reals, lastly, I bought this one instead of the other ones because of lower cost. I think it had fewer reviews but they were decent. Hope this helps.

This type of door is very expensive. However, it is a very necessary and useful item that allows your dog or cat to enter or leave the house as they need to. This reduces the possibility of accidents and eliminates the need for a person to let them in/ out if need. The size of the door will fit well in almost any sliding door is relatively easy to install. This door will require that you buy more insulation. The reason is the insulating ability of the included insulation strip is totally inadequate to work well and is impossible to seal, at least it was in my case. You can easily get more insulation on amazon or at a local hardware store if necessary for about $5.00. I have had this door for a short period of time and it really works well it was a slight challenge to teach the dogs to enter and exit on their own. I just used lots of treats. I put their food and water outside after teaching them how to go in/out and that the swinging door wouldn't hurt them. Training will require SMALL BABY steps for them to learn this task. if they are having trouble break the behavior down into the smallest possible steps. For example, just sticking a head inside gets treats and lots of praise. Make a really big deal out of the smallest thing they do correctly. Then build on that success. Eventually, you will have them going in and out on their own. It just takes a little time and persistence. REMEMBER SSSSSSSLLOWW it down you are not in a race. Short training secessions are more effective than long ones. Don’t train longer than 1/2 hr at a time and always end on something they can do successfully, then quit. I didn’t bother with installing the locking feature. My German Shepherd and Pit Bull take backyard security pretty seriously and the lock wouldn’t have fit anyway. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to write many more reviews simply because I simply can’t afford to buy all the items I would like to review. Therefore, this will require me to limit my writing to just a few items as my finances permit. I will still do honest and forthright reviews, just not as many as I would like. I took off a star because of the fore mentioned insulation issue the door block needs to be more robust so it would prevent breakage and the high price. All of these things are very easy to rectify and the cost for these improvements would negligible.

Surprisingly this gets top rating. I was sure there would be something with an item like this one that would knock it down, but, nope. Easy to install, very functional, in the proper use case, a must have for pet lovers. Has not been taken down since the day it arrived, highest recommendation to others.

I saw pet doors for sliding glass doors and prices up to $1,000. Some advertised dual pane glass as how much cold air comes through these things can be a concern. I chose this door as I wasn't sure the value was there for anything more expensive. It was easy to install with the exception of it being a really tight fit to get it standing upright inside the sliding door track. The house I bought had a lot of things put in it by someone with no construction trades experience. So the challenge getting the door up could be from the previous owner not having installed the door properly in the first place. But, with a little help from a rubber mallet, I got the door up. It does require a lot of additional weather stripping besides what they give you with the door. And some creativity with it. About getting your petsto use the door, I had read one reviewer had cut the door flap in half, removing the bottom half completely. They were going to buy another door later after their pets adapted to it. You don't need to do that because you can just unscrew the door and substitute a more lightweight piece of vinyl or plastic. I chose to use bubble wrap because that was handy. Everything pertaining to the flap gets installed from the outside, so you just take the cover piece off that goes over the screws whose tips end up on that side after you screw the three screws from the side of the door inside your house. The flap goes on the outside of the door. One of my cats learn how to go in and out on day one with the original flap. The second did not trust it so I had to open the flap to let her in and out. My third cat wanted to give it a try but I could see he didn't like getting used to the weight of the flap on his back as he came in and out. So, I just taped the flap up on the door from the outside to keep it up so no one would feel it and let the bubble wrap hang down. If you cut the bubble wrap to serve as a substitute for the hard flap while your pets are getting used to going in and out, if you cut it very slightly larger than the original flap, you won't experience cold air get in getting in. My two other cats are still in training on day two and I think they will adjust to it pretty quickly now that they're just going through bubble wrap. Eventually I'll lower the original flap more over time and I will gradually work towards removing my homemade bubble wrap flap as they get more comfortable with it.

Excellent quality item, except for one issue as noted below. The Ideal door has a simple flap that is either open or shut, which is fine if you only have one cat and you are onsite to insert or remove the panel that prevents entry. However, we have two cats each with different needs. We have an electronic cat door that we can program so that both cats can come in at any time, neither cat can go out when it's dark, and only one cat can go out in the daytime (other cat is inside only). We removed the pet door from the bottom section of the Ideal patio panel. The 6 screws came out easily without damaging the plastic panel. (We removed and installed the panel several times in the course of figuring out how we were going to modify the Ideal door. Then we had a local plastics company create two lexan panels with the cutout and screw holes needed for our electronic cat door. We used clear silicone to bond the clear plastic panels to the outside and inside of the patio panel. Then we inserted the electronic cat door and screwed it in place. The only complaint I have is that the patio panel is slightly bowed along the edge that meets up with the sliding door, making it very difficult to configure the weatherstripping to make a good seal. I didn't take a star off for that, because it was my fault for not checking the fit before altering the door. (The old Ideal Pet Door, which was too narrow for the electronic cat door, does have a straight edge.) So my recommendation to buyers is to carefully check that the edge is straight before doing any customization. Obviously I can't return it now that I've glued the lexan panels to the door. The workaround for the poor fit is to buy some very thick but pliable weatherstripping and to install the provided lock or a separate drop bar, applying a bit of pressure to close the gap. We are renting, so we got permission to install the drop bar (which requires drilling into the sliding door frame).

The door is exactly what I wanted. I didn't want to have to screw things in through my patio door even though I own my home, more esthetic reasons. I love the size of the door and the look of the white perfectly matches my patio door. I have two yorkies and it took one all of 10 minutes with the offering of treats, no problem. The second one, took 2 days. I pushed and prodded with no success. Finally, I left her outside for a while and then went out and pushed her through again. Tried this a few more times, she still didn't get it. Then after the fourth time, she didn't like being put outside, she decided to try it and come in!! Yay!! She still was a little hesitant for a while, but finally figured she could get in the yard by herself and would go out all on her own! Success and no further worries. The door is beautiful as stated, color matches perfectly. However it took some doing to get it into my door. It was extremely tight and we had to tilt it alongside the patio door to squeeze it in, I almost thought it wasn't going to fit. Once we got it in, we slid it up against the side of the and tightened the screws at the top. They don't tighten enough and any little pressure against the door the door slips and we have to readjust it. If these adjuster would make the top secure against the top of the inside of the frame this door would be perfect. I'm not sure how some heavy rain the heavy wind blowing sideways kind and whether this will hold up and not have any leaking. I'll have to update later. As far as daily use, it works as it should and adjusting the door slightly here in California weather is not that bad for me to send it back. I love that there was weather stripping included for the patio door as it sealed against the dog door. Also the clear weather stripping on the back side of the patio door since there is no longer that seal, the weatherstripping was easy to put on and stays very well so far (it's been about a month); only problem is that opening the door this strip does make a little squeaking noise. Nothing I can't live with for the need of the dog door for me. I love the door that seals the flap when I want the dogs to stay outside for a while, or I don't want them going outside. Either way, it's nice to have a way to shut the door for whatever purpose you need. The biggest downside to this door is using the screen door on the patio door. If you want to open your patio door to get some fresh air, you close the screen door, and that will close off the dog access as now your screen blocks it! UGH!!! Biggest headache for me! I get great crosswind from that direction and now if I want air, then the dogs can't get out, if it's cold/winter, then no problem as you won't have the glass door open. Another problem is that I can no longer lock my patio door. There is a lock that comes with in the box, you'll need to screw into the frame of the patio (something I didn't want to do). Regardless, we couldn't figure it out and how it works. So not using it and now looking to cut a piece of wood to stick in the tract to be able to have some sense of security and blocking access to outsiders. Otherwise, I've been looking at other options, a piece of wood to put in the track, or purchasing something else to stop access (more $$). So lots of benefits and a few problems. You'll have to determine if you can live with it. Over time, I'm hoping I can train the dogs to our large dog door through the wall (it's a double flap, so a little challenging for the little ones), then I can take this one down. As I said, it works for its purpose, but the non-access when using my screen door is the biggest thing I'm not happy with. Have to find a solution for that. The tightness of the screws at the top, not sure thats a defect, seems to work, just not to make it tight enough. The lack of super tightness I can live with, using my screen door is not. So eventually as I said, hoping for success with the other door eventually.

Working from home it’s never cool to interrupt a business meeting because your puppy is crying to go out. It’s even less cool to not interrupt the business meeting and have the puppy go on your floor instead. (Ask me how I know!) Right out of the box I was impressed that it was such a hefty well made piece. Honestly thought it would be light and flimsy but it’s definitely not! Took me longer to open the box than it did to pop it into the door frame and adjust it for a snug fit. Once in place I confirmed the bottom sill was too high for my small puppy BUT by taking out 10 screws I was able to remove the doggy door, slide up the bottom sill (making it a top sill), screw everything back together, and reinstall the door. Took maybe 10 mins and a long screwdriver. Now it’s the perfect height so my puppy can use it today AND after he’s grown (huge thanks to the other reviewer that noted this method). Included photo of my puppy trying to “help” with this task. You can see I have not added any weather stripping yet. Wanted to show my 3 month old 12 lbs puppy navigating the door for the first time. Considering I had been leaving my slider open about a foot to give the puppy easy access outside, I’m really not worried about a tight seal at the moment! I plan on removing the door when we go out, but if i decide I want to leave it in place I will add a lock. (We do have motion activated spotlights with video cam at this door). In summary, I am very pleased with the quality, ease of installation, & adaptability of this door. I read reviews of some other brands (with other color options) & the challenges people had with installation and feel like I definitely made the right choice. I do feel the quality justifies the price. Hopefully this review is helpful!