Customer Reviews

PetSafe Deluxe Pet Panel Panels for Sliding Glass Doors 76-3/4 to 81 Tall, Small, Bronze

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This dog door is a good solution to the issue of letting your dogs in and out through a glass door. The dog entrance/exit panel works fine and the door fits conveniently against the side of the house. However, it is only single-pane glass, and the sealing hardware that ships with it is not of good quality, so expect to make a trip or two to the hardware store if you live in a very cold climate and don't want your house leaking heat like a sieve in the winter. The single-pane glass also gets very cold and collects condensation. The installation instructions are acceptable but not great, and I also had to buy better screws than provided to get the door installed. If you want this panel to be secure (i.e. you want to be able to lock the door) you will need to drill *at least* four screw holes into the frame of your sliding glass door, to attach the pet panel. Most people will probably want to do six: two to secure the top, two on bottom, and two on the door itself to attach the locking mechanism.

I have an older home (built in '73) with a large sliding door that goes out to a Florida Room. I purchased the medium for the cats, my door measured about 78" high, and it works great. Installation was pretty simple. I was a little worried this might be set up for newer sliders, although I'm not sure if the set up for sliders has changed in the last 30 years. But you never know.

The top of the panel is spring loaded which is nice. You just tilt the panel at an angle, and place it into the upper track, lift up up gently and place move the bottom into the lower portion of the track. Using your hands and feet, just kinda bump it up against the wall portion of where the slider opens to ensure a snug fit against the wall, and presto.

I used the provided drill bit to drill the holes to secure the spring loaded portion as the directions state. This would prevent any one from lifting it out of the track and entering the home if your sliders lead directly outside rather than a porch, lanai, etc...

Placed the door sweep on the back of the slider that butts up against the panel, and the weather stripping to the front of the slider that meets the panel and good to go. Installation took maybe 45 mins. The longest part was putting on the door sweep and weather stripping. Making sure to put it on straight.

Some installation tips:

The door may tend to "wobble" slightly forward and back in the upper track. I used the cardboard spacers of which you should find two on either side of the upper spring loaded portion of the panel for packing. I just folded it over, placed it between the upper part of the panel and the lip of the track and it worked fine. Sorta like a shim. Cant see it from the front or back, and no need to drill any extra holes.

When applying the door sweep to the back of the slider that butts up against the panel, give yourself plenty of rubber to lay up-against the other door to provide a good seal. I took a wooden ruler and measured from the outside of the slider frame where the sweep will stick, and found that about 1/4" to 5/16" works pretty well. My sliders are single pane, not sure if newer ones are double pane. I measured off tick marks about every 1.5 feet down the frame. That way it was easy to make sure the sweep went on nice and straight and provides a good seal.

The foam weather stripping that goes down the front of the same slider that will meet up against the panel was fairly easy, I just ran it straight down using the indoor edge as a guide as my slider and pet panel met up flush on the front. Adjust as needed for your installation.

Works great and I'm no longer attempting to air condition an uninsulated portion of the house!

You may have to tape the flap up for a little bit for your pets to get used to going in and out (assuming again it's going out to a lanai, porch, etc...). I put my cats on the other side, taped it up, and coaxed them through with some treats. They are currently going back and forth with it up, at the end of the week I'll let the door down and see how they do.

You can also view the installation directions (PDF) on the PetSafe website for more info.

I INVESTED in this panel, it is expensive. I have had it for over 6 months, now. I have 3 cats that use it several times every day. I definately recommend it, dispite the cost, it has been worth every penny. My husband tapped in a couple pieces of thin wood(shims) to create a tight fit, and we put a piece of stick on velcro at the top edge where there was a small gap between the panel and the sliding glass door, and no bugs get in, the seal is tight. We use the patio door a zillion times a day, so the pet door panel has to be sturdy and it is.

I had a few issues with this door that I'll be taking up with the manufacturer.

1. The materials - specifically the flap that is supposed to block any drafts from the sliding glass door being open, doesn't stick very well. Ours fell down shortly after installation - despite following the directions. The adhesive strip actually stuck to the door, but fell off of the rubber strip. The result is that there is a giant draft - not so good, especially in cold weather.

2. The sizes are a bit misleading. I bought the small door because it said it was good up to 12lbs. My heaviest dog is 10lbs and I have a smaller dog who is maybe 8lbs. Well, our larger dog has to really struggle going through and usually hits her back when coming back in, and the 8lb dog just barely fits through as well. Neither looks very comfortable coming in and out.

3. You really end up doing a lot of drilling to make the door secure, and depending on how your current door is set up with it's locks, molding, etc., you will probably have to do a fair bit of jerryrigging to get things to work.

In the end, you get what you pay for, and I'm guessing this is why there are doors out there for $300 and up. I would recommend considering moving a size up if your dog is anywhere close to the maximum weight limit.

We needed a dog door that:

1. Allows 2 very differently-sized dogs access to our courtyard.

2. Could be removed easily if needed, without damaging the sliding doors.

3. Is sturdy.

4. Doesn't look out of place with our other exterior doors.

The PetSafe door definitely fit the bill. My wife, at first, was skeptical of the whole thing, but has given her complete approval of the door. The 50-pound and 100-pound dogs go through the door easily and comfortably. They have discovered the hard way that only one of them at a time will fit in the door...

PetSafe Deluxe Pet Panel Panels for Sliding Glass Doors 76-3/4 to 81" Tall, Medium, White I am sure this door is great and works great, however, if you have a retrofit slider, this door will not work. The retrofit doors have much deeper tracks on the upper part of the door which makes it impossible to get the door into place. Also, the retrofit door has a much wider track which will make the door teeter in place and it will not work with any locking mechanism. Petsafe needs to put "NOT FOR RETROFIT DOORS" in their details so that people aren't stuck with the inconvenience of having to return their product. I was really hoping this would be our solution, as the "retrofit" pet doors are close to $400, which is just criminal. Don't buy this door if you have a dual pane retrofit slider.

I received this item for my Manchester Terrier. Tommy understood it the second day and only took four food bribes to have him use the door freely. It fits perfectly and looks great! I have already recommended it to my friend that purchased another Manchester Terrier and he liked it so much he bought a large size to fit his Doberman Pinscher as well. In Las Vegas the sun is very hot and the slight tinting on the pane matches my doors perfectly. I also found that the seals are tight enough to keep my home energy efficient yet allow for easy opening and closing of the slider.

This was the best product I could have purchased. I have 3 dogs, well 2 now, (lost one). My back yard is fenced off and I only have a slider on the back side of the house to get to the backyard. I didn't want to install a "doggy door" in the structure of the house, so I bought this type of door and it worked "great". My dogs love it. I can't keep them in the house. This door was a bit hard to istall in my slider, but I overcame, and am very happy to have done so. I work late some times and now I don't have to worry about Sukkie and Smokey getting out to peeeee!

We have only sliding glass windows to our back yard and this PetSafe deluxe panel is perfect. We opened the slider inserted the panel and closed the sliding door up to it snug. Next a cut piece of wood keeps the window from opening up and everything is sandwiched in and won't move. They provide some weather stripping to stop the drafts.

Training is a breeze; lift the door and call your dog through a few times. Let the door down and repeat with a little lifting the door. Ours got it in about 2 minutes.

The quality of this thing is excellent. It's much better made than I would have expected. No more getting up to let the dog in or out, we both love it!

I really like the cat door. Its very convenient. However, it doesn't lock with your existing door. You have to install a diff lock that would require you to remove the existing handle.