pet porte catflap

loulou1971_3

Jumping in at the end of the thread but just wanted to add I have the original Petporte and really recommend it. It totally saved us from the sweet but permanently hungry cat next door coming in all the time and eating our cat's food - and then joining him in bed! (Ours doesn't really mind but we got worried he'd never have any food left in the bowl for when he got peckish and it cost a fortune in Purina!!)

We did have a problem after it had been in about 14 months and seemed to stop scanning intermittently. I was convinced our cat's chip had migrated but my partner wanted to be sure it wasn't the flap before going through the trauma of vet and rechipping. Even though I'd bought the flap elsewhere I phoned Petporte who sent me a new scanning coil, new power supply and new board free (or said we could send it to them for checking but that meant taking it out/putting a cheap one in for a week) and after some investigations it turned out the old coil wasn't working properly and has been fine ever since we put the new one in. (We bought a chip from the vet for a tenner, ejected it from the plunger onto a plastic spoon as it won't scan properly though the metal plunger, programmed it in then tried it with various combinations of new/old coils and boards til we worked out it was the old coil.)

It is a little bit draughty but I think they've addressed that with the new version. And also I originally checked with Petporte who say the best chip is a Bayer Tracer scanning-wise - our vet doesn't usually use these but ordered one in for us when we got our (stray who never left!) cat chipped ready for the Petporte.

pianoshazza

:beer:Thank you all for your really helpful replies.......have loads of useful information to go on. Will let you know the outcome and also whether or not my little ones decide to be good cats and use it straight offf!.....I wonder?!:D

shelly

pianoshazza wrote: »

:beer:Thank you all for your really helpful replies.......have loads of useful information to go on. Will let you know the outcome and also whether or not my little ones decide to be good cats and use it straight offf!.....I wonder?!:D

Lily is a naturally nervous cat of anything new and it took us a few days to get her used to the petporte even though cat flaps aren't new to her. She especially didn't like the 'clunk' and bleep noises the flap makes. We could turn the bleep off but she had to live with the clunk but she soon got used to it.

We put her through it manually a couple of times just to show her it was ok and then to get her to use it on her own we had to tempt her through it with lots of treats and fussing

Hope your little ones love it as much as Lily does

loulou1971_3

Similar to Shelly's Lily our cat Rocky is very nervous (was a stray so not sure how he was treated before he came to us) but unbelievably was straight through it - didn't seem to mind the beep (and we love it as we hear him beeping and know he's on his way in!) but did jump the first few times with the clunk click lock as he was halfway across the kitchen but doesn't bat an eyelid now.

Having said that it's no surprise he'd go to any length to get in really, since he arrived out of nowhere through an open window a couple of years ago unchipped and with no collar he was adopted by us and has a life of utter luxury. He's in bed now on a soft fleece and my other half just nipped up to put the electric blanket on for him so he's nice and warm!

Just as it should be!:rotfl:

Peter_from_Holland

Hello everyone,

since the Pet Porte Smartflap is probably sold for a longer time in the U.K. then here in Holland I'm hoping that there are some experienced users of the catflap that might want to help me.
I have the Smartflap for a week now and I'm under the impression that it stops scanning when it's cold outside, below zero degrees Celsius.
If the afternoon it workes perfectly but when the temperature drops below zero degrees in the evening it doesn't scan anymore. It starting to become a real problem now as our 5 cats refuse to leave the house now. Worried as they are on getting back into the house again. When I returned from work late last night I found them all in the backyard as they couldn't get in any more, heavily irritated and not willing to go out again today..:question:

Is there anyone with similar problems and (hopefully) some solutions?

Thank you already
Peter

loulou1971_3

Ah Peter I feel your pain, it's a nightmare if it doesn't work - when ours seemed to stop scanning intermittently it was also when we had bad weather here but as you'll see from my post with us it turned out to be the scanning coil which when replaced worked fine. Don't know if that was linked to the bad weather or not as it was during day and night.

Probably difficult to say but do you know if it's scanning ok but not clicking open? I know from other Petporte forums that some users had trouble with the green button clicking across during very cold weather, as if it had got a bit of water in and frozen. At least then you could isolate the problem as to whether it's the coil/board or the green button....if you can't get your cats near it you could try and get a chip from your vet to check as we did (again explained in my post above). Petporte can give advice if it's the green button solenoid - think there's something you do with a cotton bud to clean it.

It's worth giving Petporte a call for advice - I found their customer service to be excellent. Warranty is for 18 months - they asked me how long I'd had mine as I didn't buy it from them and it was enough for me to tell them over the phone I'd had it less than that, they didn't ask for any paperwork, and then sent me a selection of new replacement parts to try.

Our cat Rocky also seemed to be annoyed and wouldn't go near the flap for a day after a couple of unsuccessful attempts but we left it in open mode and opened it calling him through it and after a couple of times through he was back to normal.

Hope you get sorted.

pusscat

I live in the North of England and we recently had about 3-4 weeks where it was below zero the whole time.

I had no problems with the Pet Porte due to the weather (that I am aware of!) but my chaps did not really go out much when the snow and ice were lying on the ground.

My cat flap is in an external door but it is protected from the weather by being set in an alcove - so maybe it does not get below zero at the door?

I did have an intermittent problem, but it was in the summer and was due to the power supply having a fault - it turned out it was my electrics, not the pet porte.

Not a definitive answer, sorry, but I can't say I noticed any problems so worth checking with Pet Porte I guess.

Puss
xx

pusscat

Peter,

I have just had a brainwave - does not happen very often!!!

Check that you have not go the flap set on the daylight/nightlight settings - if the flap is locking when it goes dark, it may be that you have got the settings for not allowing cats in or out at night?

I think that you can alter the "darkness/lightness level" where it locks and unlocks, but I have never used it as my lot scream and charge the door if they are locked in at night - it is the best time for mousing!!!

Just a thought!

Puss

Peter_from_Holland

Wish I had a brainwave that useful every once and a while..
Thanks for the both of you as you helped us and our 5 house tigers a lot already.
Turned out that the green button was completely loosened and after I reattached it it worked smoothly again.

The daylight/nightlight settings brainwave explained to me how our 4 month old kitten Iwan was able to get outside very early yesterdaymorning as the flap probably opened with the coming of daylight. He wasn't able to get in though and that shouldn't be possible in night mode. The porch should have scanned him and let him in again. But that was also caused by the green button being loose of course. Still it didn't beep as to show that the scan function was working properly. With the temperature getting higher in the afternoon it did scan again.

I think putting it in an alcove is a brilliant idea which I'm surely going to use when Petport doesn't come up with a proper solution before next winter.

Other dutch users contacted them over their cold weather problems and it does seem to be a known problem which their working on. Was glad to hear that as I almost was afraid that I was imagining my problems..

It workes perfectly well now (temperature has gone up) and all our 5 heroes just got in and are parading through the house now as if they invented the flap themselves.. (of course I had to turn off the beep first, when the scanner suddenly beeped they were all on the fence again..)

Petportes customer service in the U.K. is excellent indeed, I mailed them about my problems and Martyn from the Guernesy office directly sent me a new reader board. He reponded to my mail within the hour (twice). The dutch branch kept me waiting for a week and didn't come up with anything usefull sofar so I decided to mail Martyn whenever I need advice again.. Hope it is not necessary because my girlfriend and I are very glad with the Petporte now it's working. No more stressed out cats caused by a not welcome visitor, no more ceaning up after that spraying visitor.. and no more buying expensive diet food for 10 instead of 5 cats...

Kind regards.
Peter & Marloes
Iwan
Mo
Mouse
Doctor
Captain Invisible (Cap)

Peter_from_Holland

P.S.: In all honesty I have to confess that I haven't installed the reader board Martyn sent me yet. Was worried that I had to scan in the cats again and I just didn't want to do that yet.

Now it turnes out that the reader board he sent me is the newest version which cannot be affected by the weather anymore.

So problem solved. :j Great service from Petporte I think!

:T