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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 39 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 found the following review helpful:
 pain in the cat flap Sep 26, 2007
By J. Mcdonald
"logers"
For the money you pay, you get two pieces of plastic door molding, a thin plastic door, and 2 plastic strips...oh and a fun hour or two of trying to do with 2 hands what you should have 6 for. There goes 1 star.
The instructions are actually wrong, which will cause you an extra hour of frustration. That's another star. The plastic strips are what line the hole that you just cut in your door. Most interior doors are hollow, and made of a pressed paperboard, basically stiff cardboard. So the plastic strips line the hollow middle of the door. The instructions tell you to cut the strips to the thickness of the door. However, the plastic inserts that they go into have a thickness of their own which go into the door by about 1/8 inch each.
You won't find this out until you perform the juggling act of putting one side door on, balancing the plastic insert in the side, putting the plastic strips into the insert, then putting the other side's insert and door in place, then finally trying to thread the screw into the loose nut that recesses into the hole. Once you get all 4 screws tight, only then will you realize that not only is there a 1/8" gap on each side of the door, but the door itself won't open because the plastic is bowed. There goes another star!
Once you have it cut *just* perfect (if you cut it a hair too short then it won't fit inside the inserts and the whole door will be useless), and tightened just right (rather like tuning a piano), then the door will swing open and shut without getting pinched. Then you can worry about the mundane things like how to fill the decorative recesses in the door that the cat-door isn't flush to.
The bottom line is that this should be 1/3 of the price for what you get...and don't get. It's cheap construction with too little thought having gone into the assembly, and it looks like a cheap white cat door screwed into the door when you're all done.
13 of 13 found the following review helpful:
poor quality Feb 02, 2006
By Travis
"Travis"
a couple mos ago, we bought this cat door as an answer to the problem of our cats bringing in critters. it is a four way locking door and our intention was, as we live in the country and have coyotes, owls, wild dogs etc., to lock the door so the cats could come in and be locked from going back out at night and to keep them out during the day and to prevent them from bringing mice and various other snacks in.
the door worked well for a little while, however they quickly learned to press on the plastic door hard enough to pop the hinges off and we would come home and find bloody mouse bits on our floor. i tried the secure the hinges more, but the other night one of them pressed hard enough to actually break the door right in half.
this door should be strong enough to prevent this, knowing that cats are going to try to force their way in. not to mention it has a poor insulating value, and is drafty and blows open alot
overall i was very unhappy with this door. unless if you live in the city, prefer the non locking door, live in a warm climate or have wimpy cats i would not recommend this product.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
 Not a good product - start to finish Mar 28, 2008
By Sheldon Zimmerman
This was extremely difficult to install and our dog is constantly locking the cats wherever they happen to be at the time. The magnet broke off the bottom of the door, and two of the four plugs used to cover the screw holes are gone. I have had this door for 6 months and am looking for a replacement already (after some procrastination). I will be replacing this item unless I simply cannot find a different door that fits this one's hole or a slightly larger door hole.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
cheap, useless crap Jul 26, 2009
By Jean Metcalfe
I wish we had read these reviews first. My husband is AC contractor, very competent with assembly, and this thing is pathetic to install. Now we have a hole cut in our door for a product that we will return tomorrow to the home improvement store. My next attempt at purchase will be to do my homework with Amazon customer reviews and purchase online. Totally unacceptable. I really want to give it zero star.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Do NOT buy this product! Jun 27, 2010
By WDShreeves
I will NEVER buy another PetSafe product and only wish I'd seen these reviews before purchasing, at a local retailer, or attempting the installation. This is the first and last PetSafe product I will ever purchase. Any company that would design, manufacture and sell such a piece of S##T is one that will never get another dollar of my hard earned money!
I did manage to install it successfully with my wife's help holding the inserts together and using krazy glue to build, as another refered to as, a subassembly. Even so, after building the subassembly, I had to force it to fit on the two exterior flanges because they don't fit together properly. Basically, they're too small. Do not attempt any of this installation with the door hung. Take the door off and put it on horses. Make sure you cut the inserts that cover between the two halves about 3/16" - 1/4" narrower than the thickness of the door so the plastic won't buckle from being too wide or be too narrow to stay in place then build the subassemply. The length of the bolts, measured from the bottom of the bolt head to the end, i.e. the amount of exposed threads, needs to be exactly 1/4" longer than the thickenss of the door. Otherwise, the bolts will be too short or too long to install the caps. Ideally, cut them to length with a fine bladed hacksaw and file the end so you can thread the nut on or cut with a dremmel. If you cut the bolt as the instructions show you will get two things. A nice new plastic door with nice new scratches AND caps that will not fit because the bolt will be too long. Oh, by the way, the bottom of the door winds up about a half-inch higher than where you think based on the instructions so, deduct at least a 1/2" from the measurement you take from your cat to locate the bottom of the hole.
In the end, it is installed properly with great difficulty by a former carpenter and it looks like a plastic piece of junk on my typical raised panel hollow core door. Oh well, it will serve my purpose. I should've built my own from scratch as I was going to. My greatest pleasure was after suffering through the installation was then reading the reviews and understanding every comment. I must say, I've now had several laughs.
I would only recommend this to an individual I want to inflict great frustration on. I would also tell this person that it was quite easy as long as you follow the instructions to a tee. If you buy this, good luck!
See all 39 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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