Best smart home cat door?

Community Playground General Discussions
1

Not really directly related to Vera but related to smart homes!

I’m interested in a automated cat door.

It seems Sureflap (Sure Petcare | Award Winning Microchip Cat Flaps & Feeders from SureFlap) pops up now and then when searching. Anyone have opinions on this specific brand or can recommend another?

Our cat already has a RFID chip so this seems to be the best technology.

THought I should use a Z-wave door or windows sensor to collect statistics when the cat door is in place.

2

I’m using a PetPorte RFID enabled cat flap for 4 years now and it works as advertised. I haven’t yet tried adding it to Z-Wave, but I think that 2 reed sensors and a Fibaro universal sensor device can be built into the cat flap quite easily (one on the flap which already has a magnet, and one on the solenoid for ingress).

3

I used Sureflap in a previous house. It worked very well with two chipped cats. It just took them a little time to learn that they had to put their heads into the tunnel to release the flap - instead of poking a paw in as they had been used to.

I did find that it was necessary to remove cat-fur and other debris from the light sensor aperture periodically. If the beam gets blocked, it doesn’t activate the RFID reader when the cat tries to enter. Result: Hungry cat. :smiley:

4

Hmm… The RFID reader in the PetPorte is always on, and the thing is pretty much maintenance free. I only clean the clear plastic door from time to time, but a dirty door doesn’t break it.

The Petporte is mains powered, by the way (using an adapter). It has a 9V battery backup in case the power goes out and the cat wants in.

5

We use a Hitech pet door for our dogs. Pairs with a collar which triggers the open. It’s work perfectly for us for several years. Only downside is that the batteries in the collar are a weird size and need to be changed every so often. That and our cat has somehow figured out how to get the dogs to open the door for her…

We have it linked to an appliance module to turn on/off, though only do so when we’re home–I’m afraid of accidentally turning it off as they’re going through it. If that happens with the door on, it just bumps up again, but if the door is shut off it tries to keep going down.