Staywell Infra-Red Cat Flap

I'm on my second infra red cat flap and have just ordered a microchip one. Collar tags work one minute not the next. Actual flap his unreliable doesn't open then remains unlocked. My Poor cats don't know what is going on! Can't be bothered to go through it all all again despite being still in warranty.

Awful product. I should qualify this review by stating that I bought mine in August 2009, with my first foc replacement (due to faulty operation) in December 2009, so they may have improved it - but the product currently in the shops looks identical.

It is bulky and not very attractive. The parts are ill-fitting. The battery flap is very flimsy and it is difficult to open without the batteries flying out. If you try and reconfigure it (eg change the period it remains open) this does not work in the way described in the instructions. I could go on - it is an awful product, badly designed and ugly.

Operationally, the cat has to get quite close to trigger it, and then the click is very noisy. My adult cat NEVER really got confident with it. He would approach real close and nothing would happen. He would try to enter and it was locked. THEN it would click suddenly and he would retreat at the noise. From inside, you could hear it repeatedly clicking open and closed. The IR sender which fits round the cat's neck is quite bulky and not water-tight. It gets moisture inside, especially when the cat drinks and dunks it in his water bowl ! I had one FOC replacement and had to buy two more myself.

When I tried twice to contact the company at the address on the packaging, my post came back "not at this address" although they are obviously at SOME address because they are still trading.

AVOID. See my review of the Microchip catflap from Sureflap which is superior in every way.

We had one of these for 3 years and it worked 'Ok' (only OK, not great).

The good things about it are that it is quite responsive - so it opens from a good distance so the cat can always get in easily. It also has a good set of options - eg you can have the flap open for, say, 10 seconds, or just 2 seconds - depending upon your cats speed through the flap!

However, the bad points at significant: The cat has to wear a fairly chunky tag round their neck which is necessary to open the flap. We got through so many of them and they weren't cheap. They either broke or were lost by the cat. When they were working they ran out of batteries far too quickly, so a real pain.

Also there was no alarm or anything on the collars, so you might find out weeks later that the cat has been unable to get in easily because the batteries have run out.

So, its an OK cat flap but not great.

We have since bought a Sureflap which works on our cats microchip - and its much better (which is why I would not recommend the Staywell infra red product)

This is potentially a great product. The infra red device on the cat's collar is very light and so not a burden on the pet. It works from a very sensible distance from the door and is very secure.

Unfortunately it is very unreliable. After a few months it starts to behave erratically, sometimes remaining open when it should lock and sometimes not unlocking when it should. Changing the batteries has no effect.

We are now on our third of these and this one is failing occasionally (I know how bad it is but it seems to be the only thing on the market). Pets at Home are no longer honouring the warranty properly - if it is more than 3 months old they make you phone Staywell direct and sort it out youreself. Staywell then put you through to a call centre. The call centre then makes you go away and try various resetting procedures that don't work. This seems to be a means to stem the warranty returns tide that must be overwhelming them.

We are resting before our next attempt to get our money back.