SureFlap Microchip Cat Flap – Brow

I’ve waited four months before reviewing. My opinion is it’s amazing. First one had battery light fault so contacted Sureflap customer service who were excellent & with no quibbles sent a replacement next day with prepaid label/bag to return faulty one. Carpenter brother re-fitted it in door. This is how I taught my young cat to use it. First coaxed her through with door flap taped open and selected mode to log the chip, It then logged her chip. She would then go in and out ignoring the click from the flap door lock. I then taught her to give a paw with Dreamies cat treats so when I untaped the cat flap door, I’d then show her how I pushed the flap open saying out loud ‘ use your paw’ and she’d approach door and I’d touch her paw..and..she’d..do nothing..lol!…so I’d tape it open again, periodically, trying untaping the door flap to try & force her to have to use it before opening back door..groan…I hadn’t been trying that long, but almost given up, then, one day I went into the back garden, shut the back door and she was in the house but suddenly I realised she was sat beside me so she’d managed to understand how to push open the flap. I shrieked ‘good girl!!!!!!!’& gave her a Dreamies treat or two. A few days later, I shut her out and with me knelt down on floor, looking through flap, coaxing her in by shaking the bag of Dreamies..she came in through the flap! From then on-heaven! she’d go in & out on her own. I got the chance to watch her going in & out and she’d use her paw to Initially push the flap then continued with her nose. Every time I initially saw her use it she’d get a Dreamies to encourage her to identify getting a treat by using the cat flap. But it’s made life so much easier..thank you SureFlap!-no more having to go up & down stairs at night letting her in & out and when I’m out, I know she can go in & out on her own. New replacement cat flap is 100% stable, and, so far, no problems, using same batteries as well. I keep it clean as another reviewer recommended. I regularly de-fluff the draft excluder & wipe the sensors. The flap door is also safe with regards to the precious tail, it shuts gently behind her so no danger there. I’m so very pleased I picked this cat flap – it is absolutely brilliant!

Bought this genius product for our five year old cat after reading the reviews…so much cheaper than pets at home and it’s the same product. Our cat hadn’t used a cat flap before.
Purchased item and booked cat in to the vets and got her micro chipped.
Our upvc back door has a fancy square panel in it so husband didn’t fancy messing it up…builder only charged us 10 quid and it took him about 45 mins to fit it. Looks great.
With lots of ham, cheese dreamies and encouragement (me on the floor holding the flap up and waving ham!!) after 2 days she would go out through it. But the noise it made when she goes near it and it unlocks made her flinch back away from it.
Then on day 4, with more ham and yet more dreamies, she came in by herself.
Two weeks later she’s got the hang of it. She still sometimes wants us to let her in but that’s cats for you… we are after all here to serve them!
Brilliant product. Highly recommend.

I chose this cat flap as we live in the city and there are several other cats in the area which I know would come in our house if given the chance. So a microchip cat flap was a necessity – and I can confirm that it definitely works, on multiple occasions we’ve had neighbouring cats battering against it trying to get in, but it holds fast.

As others have said, it’s worth programming it to your cat before fitting, as it’s a lot easier to coax the cat into the flap that way.

It was easy enough to fit, I cut the hole myself in our PVC door, using a drill and an electric jigsaw. Our door is thick PVC multi-locking point door, and I wasn’t actually sure what would be in the middle of it (seemed too thick to be plastic all the way through), I found inside it is foam insulation, fine to cut through as long as you don’t go too near the edges where the metal locking mechanism is.

The hole doesn’t need to be 100% exact as the outer casing will cover up a few millimetres error, although obviously not too much. I marked out the shape, and found that the hole I first cut was a little on the small side, but I was able to shave away in the right places until it just fitted.

It took a while to train our rescue kitten to use it as she had never encountered a cat flap before and is quite timid. The first few days we actually had to tape it open all the time, because she would not have gone through it if she had to push. Once she was happy going through it, and having the freedom to go outside, we gradually lowered it a bit each day, until she had to push it open herself. We weren’t sure at first whether she would understand that she needed to be in the right place for the microchip to registered and unlock, but she seems to have no problem with that part of it.

We’ve been using it for two years now and so far I’ve had to replace the batteries once, when I noticed the light flashing. I do get worried about it running out whilst we’re on holiday, but we only ever leave her unattended for a couple of days (with an automated feeder) and I think she would be okay during that time – if you are very worried, you could change the batteries before you go away.

I have a cat whose now 6: and with winter hitting hard it wasn’t pleasant to have the windows open for him to come in and out even if only during daytime.
I hummed and thought about purchasing this; would it work? Would he use it or would he even be suitable for training on it?
In the end I purchased and I’m hugely pleased! Installation was relatively simple ( if you’re ok with a drill and jigsaw) and setting the unit up for my cats microchip was done in seconds!
The flap itself has several settings: locked, out opening, in opening and both ways. So even if your cat can open the unit with their chip it can be fully locked to halt all in and out progress.
With careful usage of treats I trained merlin (my trusted lord and master) within 4 days and after just two weeks he is now more than happy to come and go as he pleases with no fuss whatsoever. Merl is a very large cat! Not fat! LARGE! He’s 6.7 kilo and long and well built,and though he can get through the flap easily, I doubt a larger cat would have such an easy time! For an average cat though the flap is perfect!
Quality of the product is second to none and I highly recommend it!

UPDATE: after nearly 2 years of daily use the locking knob on this unit snapped its internal clip. mean the unit could still be locked but if forced from outside the knob would just fall out and allow the flap to be opened. no huge problem but a problem none the less! BUT: a quick search of Sureflaps support pages shows the knob can be replaced; and guess what? i put in my detail;s, typed in the serial number and within 2 days had a new replacement locking knob FREE OF CHARGE!! after nearly 2 years of owning the product!! thats quality support!! cant recommend this enough!

Bought this due to a local Tomcat’s arrival on the scene and his smelly habit of swamping everywhere. It was bought to go into a pre-existing hole that was cut into a double glazed French door. The existing hole is 210 mm in diameter and I was told to buy the adapter (by the manufacturer who i emailed) as well so I could install it properly. You’ll see from the photo that it was needed. To put it together was easy as and so was the programming. Just put a cat treat/kibble inside the cat flap whilst your holding it, following the instruction booklet and as the cat reaches in to grab it, the cat flap registers that one cat. Repeat steps for all other cats as needed. Booklet lays it all out and fitting it couldn’t be easier.
Now I just need to find a way to stop the Tom from spraying the outer skin of the house and all will be well.

This does what it promises and it was easy to tempt the cat close enough to programme it. You can see that this is better designed than comparable products and the videos that explain how it works are very good. If only as much thought and work had gone into making it easier to fit as has gone into that video and the cutesy packaging.
1. To mark the hole, you are supposed to draw around the aperture that doesn’t touch the door, resulting in an inaccurate and wobbly line. Then you have to cut 3mm outside that, so the line is a very poor guide. It would be helpful to include a card template the actual size of the hole. It could even be printed on the box.
2. Chucking three sets of different length screws into the pack isn’t an adequate way to make this fit a range of door thicknesses. I made sleeves for the screws by cutting the tops from rawl plugs to achieve a fit. They also haven’t considered what happens when you fit this to a moulded panel door so that the frame isn’t flush to the door all the way around. The area around the screw fixings should be reinforced.
So it’s four out of five. I wouldn’t waste my time here if I didn’t think it was still the best choice and hope that this might lead to further improvement. Sureflap Microchip Cat Flap

I had reservations about this after hearing from some cat owners how it hadn’t worked for them in one way or another.
It seemed to be my only option to stop other cats from terrorising mine in their own home and more upsettingly one strange cat that repeatedly sprayed everywhere in doors. My two cats were getting very distressed.
I have a 10 year old cat and one who is 18 months.
As it was to replace an existing petsafe flap, it was very easy to install. Just a matter of drilling new holes for the screws.
The cat flap is very sensitive and read both my cats microchips straight away. I was happy to find that it activated even though my elder cat prefers to enter paw first as this was a previous concern.
The younger cat took no time in learning how to use it, but the elder cat took a few days before he was confident.
The sureflap is slightly smaller than the petsafe so I nearly considered the petsafe pet door but decided to try this first. My older cat is 6.5kg and manages to get through so I don’t need to change it.

It seems a bit over the top to say it, but it honestly has changed our lives. The cats are a lot happier; the bully cats seem to have moved on to someone else’s territory as I hardly see them and we can leave them to be fed by a neighbour in our home whilst I’m away instead of using a cattery as they are now safe from intruders.

I was slightly apprehensive when thinking about buying a microchip cat flap, some reviews for this style of cat flap were very bad saying that it didn’t pick up the cats microchip or you’d have to plug it in to work (very inconvenient!)
After reading reviews for a few different brands Sureflap seemed to have the most positive reviews, so I decided to try it out. I am really pleased with the product, it is really quick and easy to program your cats chip and it made no difference to the age of the cats microchip. I had one cat recently microchip and the other five years ago, both took around 2 seconds to sync with cat flap. The only difference with the microchip cat flap compared to an average cat flap is the outside has a small tunnel to assist with reading the chip, so it slightly juts out about an inch but nothing unsightly. My cats have been using it, one has taken to it straight away and the other is slowly getting to grips with the longer tunnel entrance; but as soon as they put their heads into the tunnels the lock clicks off straight away to let them enter.
The positives are that no other cats can get inside your home anymore, its easy to use and seems very robust. I highly recommend this product.

After moving house and having problems with a neighbour’s cat coming into the house and bullying ours, we initially bought a Staywell Petporte flap which I have reviewed separately but needless to say it was removed from the door and returned. I replaced it with the Sureflap which is cheaper, more sturdily built, doesn’t need mains power and is very easy to install – less than 10 mins into the existing hole. Once installed, registering the cat’s microchip would have been relatively easy had the cat not have been scared by the previous Petporte and so was reluctant to go near this one. However, a great feature is that you only have to press a button once and the reader will stay active until the cat next comes into range. It will then register and store the chip ID and lock the flap.

It has taken over three weeks for my cat to actually start using it without our involvement and he still tries to avoid it where possible. If you have problems, you will need to perservere and the flap will eventually be used!

So far, the flap has unlocked without fault every time and has successfully kept the neighbourhood bully and other freeloaders out of the house. I’ve put in some decent Duracell batteries and hopefully they will last as long as it says in the manual. Very impressed and would recommend this over the Petporte based on having had experience with both.

Cat and owner bliss!

I was very dubious about spending this amount on a cap flat, but it has transformed our lives.

Our cat loves going out at night and returning very vocally between 5 and 6am. She woke me every morning early and I had to get up and let her in. I am sure that the neighbour’s were also disturbed. There is also a tom cat always trying to get in to eat her food.

Now, our cat can get in and out when she wants and I get a good nights sleep.

The cat flap arrived promptly. If you intend to install it in a wooden door, then it is worth having the right tools handy and buying four long life AA batteries in advance.

Very straightforward to install yourself , but ideally you really need a drill, two drill bits, an electric jigsaw, file and sandpaper. It took under an hour including reading all the instructions and having a cup of tea. There is a very comprehensive instruction guide.

What really impressed me was the fact that it automatically recognised the chip! I thought I would have to mess about trying to type it in, but as soon as the cat goes through, it memorises it for you and keeps out any intruders. Don’t do what I did. I was so pleased to get it fitted that I thought I had to push the cat through the first time, which is a bad idea. Instead read all the instructions, leave it in memory mode and perhaps encourage the cat through, by putting some food on the other side. We used this method to train and encourage our cat to get used to going both ways through the flap and now she is really confident anyway.

In summary, a marvellous device, which is smart, works very well, has changed our lives and is worth every penny.

This flap works well. There is a local Tom who owns the neighbourhood and has got through all my previous attempts to block him, he is the best cat burglar for miles. But so far this flap has defeated him. There is a utube video showing a similar Tom picking the lock of this flap by clawing the flap towards him, a neat and quick trick if you know it, which our local Tom doesn’t (I have figured out a modification that prevents this if he ever does figure it out though). Why don’t Sureflap add a simple catch to stop this? My flap blocks a hole in the wall and can be removed for cleaning etc by releasing a simple catch; it does need occasional cleaning to remove cat hair and accumulated dirt. Training the flap was easy by simply putting each cat’s head in the flap’s entrance-way briefly. So five stars for now anyway, at least until the local Tom discovers how to pick his way in.

6 months on, and the local Tom has figured out how to claw the flap towards him. But aha! .. I have beaten him by reducing the gap around the flap by glueing in a half mm strip in the gap, so the gap is too small to get a claw into. It has worked for several months so far, despite his regular attempts.

Wow, our cat Murphy is using this like it’s always been there, and I only installed it this afternoon. Setting it up with his microchip was a breeze. But why only 4 stars? Because the draught-proofing is virtually non-existent; there is a gap of around 1mm all around the flap. Fortunately ours is on the inner door of the porch, but a draughty porch so we’ll certainly feel it when the north wind blows. I really expected something better from a premier manufacturer, especially when in all other respects it is very well made.

EDIT: Sureflap were quick to respond to my initial review and have sent me a modified flap component with better draught-proofing. Fitting this will require the unit to be taken apart so I’ll report back when it’s fitted.

EDIT 2: Modified flap now added. Yes it’s definitely better down the sides but there are still gaping holes around the hinge. For us it’s not too much of a problem as ours is on an inner door but if you need to use this cat flap on an outside door prepare for serious draughts.

I waited a while before reviewing this so I could really see how this flap panned out. I won’t bore you with a long saga so here’s the key points:

1) The manual lock (often forgotten about given the selling point of the chip-activated lock) is much stronger than eg those red plastic locks on Staywell cat flaps. My cat could easily ‘pop’ those manual locks open, or even knock the whole flap door off its hinges if he was desperate, so this new strong manual lock is an absolute godsend on eg Bonfire night etc when I need to keep him in.

2) My first Sureflap proved to be one of a faulty batch which resulted in grinding noises that got increasingly loud until cat just refused to use it. I contacted Sureflap direct, rather tha Amazon or the actual seller, and they sent me a new flap free of charge with virtually no questions asked. Just fantastically friendly and brilliant customer service!

3) Took the cat a couple of days to get used to the click of the chip-lock opening, but after that there was no stopping him. He frequently gets chased at top speed into my flat by other cats, but with this new flap he learned almost immediately – after one initially alarming but ultimately hilarious incident – to make himself ‘freeze’ for a split-second so that he didn’t just crash into the flap door before it could unlock. I can pretty much guarantee your own cat is only going to make this mistake once (if ever) and after that will be fine! And no cat has ever been quick enough to follow him through. Another godsend!

4) The actual size of the opening is a little smaller than other flaps, but my large-framed 6kg cat gets in and out no bother, although if he also had a fat tummy it might be a different story. The only slight difficulty he has is that the length of the tunnel means he really needs to stretch to get out the flap, although it’s fine for him coming in. I just consider this useful exercise for him, though!

I adore this cat flap. It’s definitely my best and favourite purchase of 2015.

Bought this product as my 3rd cat flap in 6 months. Started off with a normal swing door (came with the house, but obviously useless at keeping neighbourhood kitties away). I then bought a magnetic cat flap which was a huge waste of money and simply didn’t work properly. I bought this flap because of the reviews and by this point I was fed up of chasing away other cats, and seeing my own cat guarding her food bowl with her life.

Its very easy to set up, and took about 10 minutes to install (if you already have a hole in the right-ish size). I was worried that my cat wouldn’t be able to push through it, she is small, about 7 months at the time of purchase, and she seems to have an issue with cat flaps in general. However, 10 minutes after installation and without encouragement, she managed to get out. She realised very quickly it requires a little bit more of a push than previous cat flaps, but if she can get the hang of it I’m sure most cats can.

Also looks neat, is tidier than other cat flaps, and the window is clear so my kitty can enjoy hours staring out of it working up the courage to brave the rain. I feel my cat flap worries are finally behind me…and kitty is happy and relaxed once more.

We’ve had this cat flap now for over a year, so I now feel I can review it fairly. It is absolutely brilliant!

We previously had another manufacturers magnetic cat flap which proved to be complete rubbish that was unfit for purpose; the neighbours aggressive Tom figured out that if he simply pushed the flap hard enough, it would pop open. Bit of a design flaw there. 100’s of pounds worth of vets bills later and the admittedly somewhat more expensive Sureflap Microchip Cat Flap was starting to look very attractive!

Using the cat’s microchip as the ID also solved other problems that the magnetic cat flap had; no more picking up bits of rusty wire and nails on the collar. Plus no chance of the cat getting locked out if she’s forced to slip the collar due to a snag.

Since fitting the Sureflap Cat Flap, we have had no unwanted visitors and I’m pretty sure our now somewhat elderly and blind cat has never been locked out. She can come and go in the garden, safe in the knowledge that if the aggressive Tom comes along, she can safely retreat.

We had the vet check the microchip was in place and working prior to purchasing just in case. We’ve not had to replace the batteries yet after a year. I have been careful as instructed in the manual to ensure the proximity detector is clear of dirt or fluff, but I might change the batteries soon to pre-empt it anyway.

Overall, this unit solved a major problem for us and allowed our Cat (and us!) to be much more stress free. Would recommend!

Excellent product. Easy to programme to read cats microchip, battery lasts a long time (9 months and counting) and easy to change the settings for in/out etc. Even though our kitten had never used a cat flap before she soon got the hang of it and wasn’t put off by the slight clicking sound caused by the lock opening/relocking. We have had no problems with other people’s cats getting in. Even when our cat runs for home being hotly pursued by other cats she is able to gain entry and the door relocks behind her before the other animal can follow her in.

Only two things worth mentioning:-
. flap is quite small so if you have a very large cat this may not be the product for you
. this flap does fit just fine into a thin surface like a UPVC door panel but as you are unable to cut the tunnel piece (this is where the microchip reader is) you are left with a longer piece of the tunnel sticking out on the outside of the door which you may not like the look of however I have found that it does actually provide additional protection from adverse weather and have grown that I no longer notice it.

Update: My flap developed a slight fault after 18 months in that the flexible butterfly piece on the back of the 4 way locking knob cracked. This meant the knob kept falling out and I could no longer control the locking function. I contacted Sureflap by email and within a couple of days received a new 4 way locking knob through the post. No fuss or hassle. Their customer service was perfect and from my experience not only do I recommend the product but the company as well. Excellent.

I love this cat flap.

I didn’t want other cats coming in, and this uses the cat’s chip to know who’s allowed in and who is not. It’s the perfect feature and it works really, really well. It’s easy to set up and the cat learned to use this flap (his first) very quickly.

Here’s the bit that SureFlap had to help me with:

There are multiple options on what the cat can do, with a little dial to change that option. I use the dial so that during the day he can come and go, but at night he can come back in but then not get back out again. This worked fine, until he worked out how to cheat the dial and get out again. I have to say, he’s a pretty bright cat, since cheating the dial meant getting himself in a position while inside the house so that his chip triggered the ‘let me in’ function (when he was already in…). He then pushed down the indoor clip with his paw while using his claws to drag the door inward. Then he did a pincer movement of dropping his paw and pushing his head under so he could get out. Sometimes it took him more than one go, but after a couple of weeks he could get out even when locked in. But bright or not, he could get out when he wasn’t supposed to be able to do so.

I contacted SureFlap on Facebook and they sent me a modified indoor part, quickly and at no cost. It was a fiddly job to change the parts and I hope they might, in future, simply supply others with the complete ‘inside’ bit rather than the replacement parts. However, I can’t complain about their response: they acted quickly and it was only a few nights before I could lock him in again.

That said, we did have a 200 vets bill from an early morning escapade that resulted in a cat bite.

At last! Our cat had never got the hang of using our old cat flap and we had to have it permanently propped open. The house was full of other neighbourhood cats taking her food and spraying on every surface they could find. For some reason she seemed to be able to use this one with only a relatively short period of coaxing and encouragement. I don’t know why, perhaps the little click as the latch opens made her understand that she would be able to get in. Now the house is her territory and you can easily notice how much more relaxed and confident she is.

The Sureflap customer service is excellent. Our flap stopped working after a short time and it was very easy to get in touch with them. They suggested that the likely reason was that the own brand alkaline batteries I was using weren’t good enough and that I should try Energizer or Duracell – they even offered to send me a pack of Energizer! I put in a pack of Duracell Super and the flap works perfectly.

One general tip. You can use a collar with a chip with this product, but don’t. Get your cat micro chipped. A lot of cats die when they get their collars caught in trees and hedges.

The Sureflap Microchip Cat Flap must be one of the best things I’ve ever purchased and I wish I’d ordered it long before I did. My younger cat sometimes goes away for long spells, with me waiting up half the night for him to come home. I don’t need to do that now, as he can let himself in and I’ve also noticed he doesn’t stay away as long. He was using the cat flap the next day after it was installed. His mother never goes away and I didn’t expect she would use the cat flap but she is now letting herself in, as she knows she is coming into a safe place, though still a bit scared to go out the flap into the unknown!
I had a new panel installed in my upvc back door to take the cat flap, as the original panel wasn’t suitable. It was worth every penny!
The cat flap is easy to use and has four settings, though I don’t need to change them at the moment. I put it in ‘learn mode’ so that the first time each cat put its head up to the door, it would pick up their microchip numbers. Be careful to do that just before your cat puts its head up to the flap, as my neighbour’s cat got there first.and I had to re-set it!
I have peace of mind knowing if I have to go out and my young cat hasn’t come home before I leave, he can get into the house. As I said, it’s the best thing since sliced bread!

Our first Catflap was a Staywell magnetic flap, which was a royal pain in the arse. The magnet was so strong that the cats would pick up nails, screws, tuna cans, even knives! This was obviously no good as we worried about them stabbing themselves in the neck while we were out at work. Add to that the fact that it worked for about a month before the mechanism broke, which meant that any old cat could come in, steal their food and scent our house. I have more complaints about it, but in short – DO NOT BUY THIS HEAP OF CRAP!

After much research, I decided that a microchip flap would suit ours and the cats needs, having trawled trough countless reviews between the PetPorte and Sureflap, we decided the Sureflap would be the best alternative to try out. The microchips registered very easily, the cats got used to the mechanism very quickly and seem much happier with the way it operates. We have had no intruders, and the cats can come and go as they please with no need for a collar, which is great as they are fluffy cats, which gives us maximum neck ruff enjoyment when they want a cuddle! So far I can’t fault it, the build quality is great, it is user friendly, looks nice and the cats love it, plus there are no wires or cumbersome awnings above the flap like with the PetPorte, plus it’s cheaper!

I have a very small cat, in a neighbourhood of big, aggressive cats. There has always been a problem with cats getting in. I used the infrared type of catflap for years. None of them ever lasted more than a year and spent so much money on collars, which always got water inside and got corroded.

I had given up because of the expense, and hoped my cat would learn to defend herself, which she did for a while. But recently the problem started again, and even worse than before. After I discovered that another cat had pee’d in the house, enough was enough.

The SureFlap microchip catflap was so easy to set up. I thought I might have trouble because even the vet seems to have difficulty scanning the cat’s microchip, but it works perfectly. It is much easier for the cat to use than the infrared flap, which often locked again by the time she was close enough to go through it.

I installed it in a glass door where I had a staywell flap previously – luckily it requires the same size hole cut in the glass, but this one needs a circular adapter to fit into glass. It was very easy to fit with the adapter.

The size of the tunnel is smaller than a staywell catflap, a large cat might struggle to get through, but my cat is small so it’s not a problem.

I cannot comment on whether it would last longer than infra-red types, but it seems more sturdily made so I am hopeful, and there are no collars to go wrong.

Bought as a replacement for our old Staywell flap, which our new boy managed to completely trash in his desperation to seek the great outdoors before we thought it was safe to let him out! Never having had a chipped cat before, we decided to upgrage to this chip controlled flap and are very glad we did. Whilst not cheap, the guarantee of keeping out imposters makes it worth the extra spend.

For chip learning purposes, we found it easier to put the flap near the boy’s head whilst my husband held him, rather than trying to tempt him through the flap having fitted it to the door. He did find the clicking noise a little off putting at first, but soon got used to it and now happily comes and goes without any problems.

A great product, would definitely recommend. 4/5 stars – the 5th star was lost simply due to price.

NB if you have a particularly large/fat cat, they may find the aperture a bit of a squeeze.

We were getting through Staywell Infrared flaps at a rate of one every 18 months and wanted to try something else.

The Sureflap is the same aperture size as the Staywell flaps but the hole alignment for the fixing screws is different, making replacement a bit more fiddly than I had hoped. The overall size is much smaller and I think this makes the flap look nicer. Build quality appears much better.

Configuring the flap was simple, although it does involve getting your cat to go through the flap so a bit of food waiting on the opposite side may help.

Our cat took a couple of goes to get used to the flap. In particular, she found pushing the flap harder as the magnet appears stronger than on previous flaps. However, the design of the flap means that the lock only moves when the cat is in the tunnel. This reduces the amount of random unlocks we used to get when the cat was asleep by the door.

Overall, impressed so far. Reliability will be the key and we won’t know about that for a year or so.

Hooray! Next door’s black Siamese tom has finally been banished from our house along with those lovely smells and stains. All previous collar actuated cat flaps had proved fruitless because our 2 girls had proved to be the Harry Houdinis of the cat world – somewhere in Manchester there must be a cat collar pile of epic proportions! This microchip cat flap is great and both cats worked it out very quickly. Two small teething problems – 1. the Sureflap product was smaller than our previous magnet activated version so we had to purchase the adaptor (which then worked fine). 2. the microchip on one of our cats had “migrated” so that it was closer to her tail than her head. After trying to teach her to reverse through the cat flap, in the end we gave up and had her chipped again – which the vet had no problem doing. All in all – the house is secure and the investment will soon be paid off when compared to what we were spending on carpet cleaner! Would definitely recommend.

I purchased Sureflap about 6 months ago and it’s the best purchase I ever made. I had a Staywell magnetic flap previously and one of my cats (we have 3) would slowly make his way through the flap and it would be left open allowing other cats to follow him in. Also a neighbour’s cat learned how to ram himself against it and sure enough it opened up for him! I’ve lost count of how many magnets I have had to replace over the last couple of years which ended up costing me more than the original purchase of the flap. I saw a couple of cats on our garden who also wore the magnets on their collars so entering my house was a doddle for them! There’s nothing worse than entering your kitchen in the morning to an awful stink of cat pee. It would be all over our worktops and no matter what product we used to clean it up we still couldn’t get rid of the stench, and of course the renegade cats would do it in the same place over and over again. Also other cats entering my house terrorised my youngest cat Tessie and made her a nervous wreck. My daughter had a Sureflap installed at her house and had no such problems so I decided to give it a go. To my surprise there was no extra drilling to do as the Sureflap fitted over the opening made for the Staywell flap. It was very easy to programme the flap having only to set it to record mode as soon as each cat came near it. What a difference it has made! No more dreading the morning cleaning job and Tessie no longer sits looking at the flap in fear of an intruder eating her food and attacking her. Sureflap may be on the expensive side but it’s well worth it considering how much work it has saved me and my cats are happy being able to come and go as they please without looking over their shoulder. I would highly recommend you get yourself a Sureflap – you won’t regret it I promise!

Bought this cat flap due to stray cats coming through existing model, could put up with them eating my cat’s food but when they started coming into the house when we were in bed and spraying around the house something had to be done as the smell was awful! Looked on the internet and found out that they now did cat flaps that worked by using your cat’s microchip. Have used cat flaps that use magnetic mice that attach to their collar in the past, but have found that the cats tend to loose the magnetic mice or collar so that they then can’t get in! The mice being magnetic also mean that the cats often come back with nails etc attached to them! and also replacing the mice is not that cheap.
Decided that this cat flap would be the best to try and don’t regret the money spent. Had to get my cat microchipped then husband fitted new cat flap put battery in it then set the catflap to learn mode. Then when your cat comes back into the house through the cat flap it registers your cat’s microchip and that is it! My cat is happy as there are no other cat’s coming into his house and we are extremely happy as our house is free of the awful smell. Would highly recommend.

I have used Sureflap indoors as our two cats are on different diets. Our Bengal nearly died couple of years ago, so he is not allowed to eat dry cat food. Our Persian mainly eats dry food and eats small amount every few hours. If the food is left unsupervised our Bengal trys to eat as much as he can and its not practical to wait for my Persian to finish her food, as she takes ages to eat and eats irregularly every few hours. After being woken up few Sundays at 6am and than waiting for my Persian to eat her brekfast, I knew this could not carry on as my Persial was losing weight. I have came across Sureflap and I thought that this could sort out our problem. We have installed Sureflap on our kitchen door which allows only our Persian to enter the kitchen whenether she wants to eat her food. I was not aware that Sureflat is only controlled one way so we had to instal the main face of Sureflap inside the kitchen, and the back (tunel area) is facing the hall. It’s fantastic and it works. My Persian can enter the kitchen anytime she wants to eat and our Bengal so far has not managed to get in the kitchen. Our Bengal is a very strong cat and so far managed to break every cat flat, but not Sureflap.
I am sure that there are more cat owners who have cats with different dietary issues. I think that in the future Sureflap could make Microchip cat flap which is controlled both way, as I am sure they are cat owners who have more than one cat, and you not always want all our cats being able to go out of the house. I would love our Persian being able to do in and out of the house when she wants to, but not our Bengal due to his previous health issues, and I am happy to pay for such product. Hopefully Superflat will come up with more advance product soon.

Based on the 300 so positive reviews and the urging of cat-loving friends, I bought this despite the price instead of one of the magnetic kind (my cat is good at removing collars) to stop the neighbourhood cats treating my house as a hotel/restaurant and making bad smells.
First, it works brilliantly, just as described. It’s easy to install, easy to set up, and my curious cat got used to it quickly.
Not all was straightforward, as first of all I discovered my cat wasn’t microchipped – she was a rescue cat and I’m pretty sure that the vet I got her from had said they had chipped as well as neutered her. However we took her the same day to get it done (one-second job plus paperwork) and the flap was programmed the first time she went through. Like magic!
The worst part by far was getting the old cat flap off the door where it was firmly rusted in place! This one has just two screws, very easy. The old cat flap was a different shape and at first I squeezed this one in the too-tall and slightly too-narrow hole. Mistake, even though it went in, as the flap didn’t flap back down properly. Had to trim a bit off the side of the hole. Because this cat flap has a very thick frame it didn’t matter that the old hole was taller – the frame covers it up.
Most comments I get are ‘that’s a very small cat flap’. Maybe because it’s more square than rectangular it does look small, but take the advice of other reviewers on how big cats cope – mine is long and thin.
Highly recommended.

Initially I was hesitant abut spending so much money on a cat flap, and I was also concerned about whether my 11-year old cat’s microchip could be read.

However, the product works perfectly, does exactly what it says it does, and was incredibly easy to set up.

Unfortunately the back door was lined with metal but I fitted the mounting adaptor and haven’t had a single problem. The cat, who has historically had a lot of problems with cat flaps (I previously had magnetic ones and he struggled to operate them properly coming in, and occasionally got stuck after collecting bits of rusty metal on his magnet), did not take to it immediately. He knew what to do but was extremely suspicious – I got the impression he found the whole thing way too easy. But after a couple of days he really got into it and now he loves his new cat flap and no longer only goes out to use the ‘facilities’. For the first time in about 3 years he’s actually spending more time outside than in during the day.

If you’re torn between this cat flap and a magnetic one, let me help you out: had I known how fantastic this flap was, I’d have bought it years ago. I’ll never buy magnetic again.