Advantages: none
Disadvantages: other cats get in - my cat can't

...Firstly: A few weeks ago I purchased a Staywell 400 Series – Magnetic Cat Flap and fitted to all your guidelines – Found within few days that another cat was somehow managing to gain access… Found that one cat was gaining access with just a metal collar – not a magnet and another by forcing the flap (no collar at all). As I am heavily pregnant and did not want continuing stray cats – spraying on, lying on, defacing my furniture and eating all of our own cats food I decided to return the item and purchase the Staywell 500 Infra Red Cat Flap – I have had this fitted around two weeks. I still have the problem of another cat inside the property and my own cat that cannot get in. The stray either (I have observed it) head butts the door or claws its paw under and with a hook drags the cat flap door towards it … On the other hand my cat who... Read review

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Advantages: Easy access for your cat
Disadvantages: Flimsy flap costing me loads !

...What a good idea - a lockable cat flap. We can lock her out when she has caught us a little gift (usually still alive !) or lock her in overnight to ensure an easy capture for a vet visit. However, since moving to a new house and installing one of these, we have had huge grief over the flap breaking off. My cat is small, and timid, yet has broken 6 flaps in the 2 years we have had this cat flap. In our previous house, she never broke a single flap in 5 years. The manufactuers are helpful in that they will happily sell us a replacement flap (at five pounds a time, quite steep I think, as well as charging nearly five pounds postage and packing, extortionate when you know the stamp was just over eighty pence !) but they keep insisting that there is nothing wrong with their design, despite my insistence that my cat would not be able... Read review

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Advantages: Excellent when it works.
Disadvantages: Magnetic collar must touch the base of cat flap.

...I thought I would up grade from the standard cap flap I currently have and bought a staywell 420 magnetised doodah with authentic mouse ball collar, well let me tell you here and now that the magnetic cat flap is not so good for some cats. The reason being is the magnetic collar part must come into contact with the base of the cat flap for it to work otherwise moggie stays out. My cat uses his paws like a boxer to open the cat flap, once his paw gets the thing open then he puts his head through. With the staywell magnetic my cat would have to put his head through first to make sure his magnetic mouse shaped collar bit comes in contact with the base of the tunnel to cause the lever that locks the door to drop so he can open it. There is not a cat in hells chance of that happening so I returned the thing to the shop "Pets at home... Read review

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Advantages: Keeps out other people's cats, attractive magnet for your cat to wear
Disadvantages: Can be tampered with by children, or damaged by cats fighting through it!

...I bought this cat flap to replace a basic Staywell version after my neighbours' cats kept coming into my house, weeing everywhere and attaching my cats. I chose the magnetic version rather than the infra-red cat flap because I was concerned about possible health risks from my cats being constantly exposed to infra-red rays. The cat flap was easy to fit and had a range of width settings for different width doors. You have to draw the shape of the cat flap on the door and saw through it, which I guess some people might have trouble with. It is suitable for wood or PVCu doors, anything you can saw. You have to be careful not to put it too high for your cat to get through, or put a step outside the door for them. The cat flap comes with 2 cute mouse-shaped magnets for my cats to wear on their collars. This was ideal since I had 2 cats... Read review

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Advantages: hole in the door for your cat
Disadvantages: that any other cats can use

...We bought this catflap because we have a big problem with the cat next door. it comes in the house attacks our cat, wakes up the baby and eats our cats food. The evil cats favourite trick is to whack the cat flap with it's paw, this it did so much one night that it broke the old cat flap. So we decided to get one of these flaps to stop it coming in. Our cat (precious and we wonder why she's a wimp!) had considerable trouble getting in the flapat first then sorted it out. For those of you that don't know the mechanism is a small bit of plastic that pokes out in the way of the flap opening inward. The magnet that you attach to your cat's collar releases this to leave the flap unobstructed. Sounds like a great idea or so we thought. However after a couple of weeks next doors cat just whacks the flap until it opens. So a complete waste... Read review

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Advantages: stops other cats getting in???
Disadvantages: other cats can get in with force

...I had the old magnetic cat flap and this appeared to be ineffective from other cats, especially as1 of our got the style of cat flap. The fitting of the infra red flap was a straight swap for the megnetic one, however I had to go out and buy some glue as I had to fit the optional tunnel which should have been fitted as standard. Fitting the catflap took about 20 min, as we already had the hole from the other one. The flap worked perfectly with both of our cats having no problems, however there does seem to be a very determined Tom cat that seems to force his way in and spends the night on our dining room chairs and has our cats supper, our 2 stupid cats never chase him off, He has even come in one day and sprayed over 1 of the cats beding, and boy did it stink to high heaven(why do people want un nautered toms???)this bedding we threw... Read review

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Advantages: Funny different
Disadvantages: None!

...This advert certainly fills it's purpose of sticking in people's mind to be associated with their product. Shame there isn't latin spirit in every cat though! The typical tom cat sneaks into town through his cat flap, has a drink, has a laugh and can't half jiggle! Reminds me of most people whether it takes them to have a drink to be like that or not! Adding humour to the advert is what really makes it work. The cat dances all night then returns home to that lovely old dear who just wonderes if maybe he's "been out chasing birds" again! What a different vibrant advert the latin tunes in the background just fit so well -in that case it matches the drink. It comes in enough flavours for everyone to be able to say they love the stuff, and why not?! The advert is really trying to say "this too could be you if only you drank... Read review

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Advantages: Magnetic door opening system
Disadvantages: If you was on holiday and your cat lost its magnet it couldn't get in

...I bought the staywell magnetic catflap, recently to prevent unwanted cats coming in our house and stealing our cats food and leaving us unwanted presents on the carpet. ***Features*** This state of the art cat flap comes with all the usual security features you would expect on a cat flap, No Traffic, Outgoing Traffic only, Incoming traffic only and 2-Way traffic. All you have to do is twist the little red dial to your desired position. As well as this it is has a magnetic base that will not open unless another magnet touches it. It comes supplied with 2 magnetic mice that attach to your cats collar, so when your cat comes up to the door and looks through the magnet touches the base of the flap demagnetizing it allow them to enter. ***Installation*** It is easy to install. You just cut a hole in your door, pop it in and screw in tight... Read review

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Advantages: Compact collar magnet, sensitive detector, fairly robust design, works with rechargable batteries
Disadvantages: Can be opened by other cats with collar magnets

...This is the second instalment in the quest to find the purr-fect catflap for young Fluffy! Having tried several different types, I've encountered two basic problems: Some models (CatMate Lockable, Staywell Magnetic) are not able to prevent intruders from gaining access, while others (Staywell Infrared) do not always let my own cat in! After selling or giving away the above failed models to friends, I decided to give the CatMate Electromagnetic version a try, which I bought from petplanet.co.uk for £32.99. This one came with a compact collar magnet, which slipped neatly over Fluffy's collar, and also doubled up as an identity tag, with space to write down her name and telephone number. It also has a 4-way locking device, which can either lock the door completely, allow it to open inwards or outwards only, or both ways... Read review

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Advantages: Keeps the neighbour's cats out
Disadvantages: Doesn't always work, so my cat wrecked it

...I got totally fed up with the neighbour's extremely large, pure muscle cat coming and stealing my two cats' food, so I finally decided to get a key-entry cat flap. I chose this one, which is operated by a magnetic catch. A magnet on the cat's collar triggers the catch allowing them access through the door. Installation was relatively simple. Just a case of drawing the outline of the hole needed on the door and using a jig-saw to cut the hole out, and then screwing the flap in place. All very easy if you're handy with power tools. You can turn a dial to one of four settings which restrict access: In only, Out only, Both In and Out, and Locked. This is quite useful if your cats are outside and want them to come in, and not go out again (such as when you need to take them to the vet, the cattery etc). The magnetic flap is cheaper... Read review

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