Ideal Pet Products Cat Flap Door with 4 Way Lock, 6.25″ x 6.25″ Flap Size

A good product at a reasonable price ($14.30/free Prime shipping at the time of this review)……..
Late last fall, a stray cat wandered into our machine shop and refused to leave. After a month and no response to our ads looking for an owner, we took the leap, spent the money on veterinary care he needed, and “Buster” became our official “shop cat”. At night, when we’re gone, he’s confined to the shop since his “indoor manners” haven’t yet fully developed. During the day, when we’re there, he’s allowed to go back and forth between the shop and offices, which meant leaving the door between the two open all day. After 4 months of this and the dust problem that developed in the offices, we realized we needed a way to give Buster free access between the two areas yet not allow the shop dust to roll right into the offices. After doing quite a bit of research, I decided on this one, and it has been the perfect answer to the problem! The door between the shop and offices is hollow, which was no problem due to the fact that the sides of this “cat flap” telescope and cover the open area left by the hole cut in the door. It’s very stable and strong, even with the hollow door. It installed very easily…took about 30 minutes, which included gathering the tools, taking the door off and putting it back on when finished. (The easiest way to install this if you can easily get your door off.) We followed the directions as far as how high off the floor to install the cat flap…measured from the floor to the top of the cat’s shoulders and added 2 inches, which in our case meant the top of the cat flap frame is 14″ off the floor. That’s about a perfect height for Buster, allowing him to go through without crouching but not quite rubbing on his tummy. I wouldn’t go any higher than that, though. I like the magnet at the bottom of the door which holds the door secure, but it did add a little more training time because it takes a bit of a push on the cat’s part to open. I thought about taking the magnet out but am glad I was just a little more patient with training and left it alone since the magnet adds to the door’s ability to close tightly enough to keep the dust out, as do the little “bristles” all the way around the edge of the window part of the cat flap. Buster has a pretty long tail, and it only took one time of getting it pinched in the closing flap for him to figure out how to hold his tail just right when going through so it doesn’t happen again. The “window” itself is made of some kind of heavy plastic that is spotlessly CLEAR; heavy and clear enough to have the benefits of a glass window without the fragility and safety hazard of glass. I think a non-see through window/flap would make training much more difficult. The fact that the cat can see through it to what’s on the other side puts it more at ease when going through, especially in the beginning. It took about a half hour to teach Buster how to go through, using food and having “his people” on the opposite side of the door. Both are very strong motivators for this cat, so training went quickly. One thing we do, though, is, when the cat flap is locked at night, we rigged a “shade” on the office side of the door that gets pulled when the flap gets locked so Buster can’t see through to the other side. We did this initially thinking it would confuse him if sometimes he could push through and sometimes he couldn’t. Shade down, door locked; Shade up, door open. Now, we continue to do it for safety reasons since there are times, when he’s feeling his oats, that Buster goes through that flap at a FULL run! Something about doing that seems to add to the joy of whatever game he’s playing when he does it. Hitting that door with his head, at full speed, and having it locked and solid would HURT to say the least. Since we’re not here at night to see for ourselves, we don’t know for sure, but are hoping that there was enough time before he started running through it for him to learn the shade being down meant the flap was locked and he didn’t try running through it. The flap has a 4-way lock, which I’m sure is useful in many instances, but it would mean memorizing in what position the little red knob has to be in to achieve whatever lock formation you desire. Otherwise, you’d have to get down on your knees to read….a pain for sure! Since the straight down setting locks it from both directions, that’s the only one we use……red knob all the way to the right is fully open in both directions, straight down is fully locked from both directions. We installed the flap so the lock is on the office side (along with the shade we pull at night.) The door is brown, the cat flap is white, and if I installed it at home, I might consider painting it with a Krylon plastic spray paint to blend in better. For the shop, it’s fine, and certainly wouldn’t look bad at home, either, for that matter. It’s very small and neat looking. The door is recommended for cats up to 12 lbs. Buster weighs just over 12 lbs, not a fat cat, just solid and muscular. He fits very well through the door, with no problems, as witnessed if you’d ever see him coming through it like a bat out of……the shop! I definitely recommend this cat flap.

My pet likes it..?
The Ideal Pet Products Cat Flap Door with 4 Way Lock has proven to be a great addition to our home. It works exactly as described, allowing us to easily control our cat’s access with the four-way lock feature. Installation was straightforward for us because we simply mimicked how our previous cat flap was attached. This made the process quick and hassle-free.However, the provided instructions were disappointing and could definitely use improvement. The manual was not very clear or detailed, which could be frustrating for someone installing a cat flap for the first time. Despite this, the product itself is high-quality and functions perfectly, making it a solid choice for pet owners looking for a reliable cat door solution.

I installed this on my basement laundry room door to give my cats access to their litter box while allowing me to keep the door closed to prevent my dogs from occasionally raiding the litter box.If you’re handy at all, the door will be a breeze to install. The instructions are clear, and comes with a template to use on the door that makes it easy to drill four holes at the corner of the opening you need create. From that point, it’s just a matter of drawing guide lines for your jig saw and then cutting.Once installed, the door swings easily. If it’s a bit stiff, you may need to loosen the screws at the top a little. I also really like the magnet feature that prevents the door from swinging too much after it has been used.I also like the telescoping frame which hides the unsightly interior edge of the opening that you cut to install the door. I installed this on a hollow door, so the opening would have looked really ugly otherwise.One of my cats took to using the door instantly. I think the transparent door flap helped with this. The other cat needed more encouragement (a gentle shove with treats on the other side) but still took to it quickly. It proved easier to train the cats to use the door that it has been to remind my family to close the laundry room door after leaving it ajar for so long. Haha

nice little cat flap