Customer Reviews

PetSafe Telescoping Aluminum Wall Entry Pet Door, Large

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Pros: Great weather seal. Easy Install. Less Cleaning.
Cons: One dog hesitates going through the double door.

I purchased this dog door when I was fixing up my house. It was highly recommended by a friend who was a contractor.

Previously, I had modified a Petsafe in-door dog door to go through the wall and was having problems with bees and outside air.

This unit did not need any modifications to go through the wall. I did not need to trim the wall hole on the outside or inside. It went in like a dream.

The new door has an inside and an outside seal. I do not have air loss when the door is closed. The plastic doors do not show all the dog drool and slobber like the old door.

The dog door also has an internal lock. I didn't think that this was very useful, until I was reading the paper about kids breaking into to homes through dog doors. I have since used the lock feature.

Our golden retriever uses it without any hesitation. I am not even sure that he can tell the difference. My whippet is a little more cautious when using the new door. It is really two doors in one unit. She does not mind the first door, but is bugged by the second one. But, she still uses the door.

Next on the dog upgrade list is a covering over the kennel.

I bought this to replace a standard, single-flap doggy door. The large size of this product is listed as having a 10"x15" opening, which is the same size as the one I was replacing. This doggy door was slightly larger and required I cut a larger opening in the wall.

The reason I only gave this 2 stars is due to the flimsy black plastic. The black plastic portion is attached to the wall, while the white aluminum frame with flap is attached to the black plastic by 4 small screws. The plastic is so thin that the aluminum frame detached from the black plastic while I was installing it in the wall. The screws just pulled through, stripping the plastic. Without reinforcing these 4 screws, I'm guessing that my 2 large dogs running through this door would rip the frame and flap off in no time.

I do like the double flap to keep the weather out. The magnets resist the wind, but do not inhibit my dogs' ability to go through. Though the black plastic is flimsy, it gives a clean appearance inside the wall.

If I had it to do over again, I probably would have purchased the single-flap doggy door that was in the wall originally. Since I had to make the hole larger, when I have to replace this doggy door because that black plastic falls apart prematurely, I will be forced to purchase the same product or replace my wall. Considering the price of this product as compared to other doggy doors, I would have expected a higher quality product.

Purchased medium unit for four bichons to use. Door is very weatherproof, seals well. We are using in Kansas, very windy, have not noticed significant drafting from door despite being in an insulated three car garage. Installation works well, consists of two halves which slide together in the middle. Fit well in 2x4 stud insulated wall.

My only concern with this unit is that the two pieces (the exterior and interior) slide together in the middle, which leaves a non-sealed joint. Potentially, water or dirt could get into this joint and leak into the wall cavity. I pumped my joint full of silicone sealant to try to minimize or prevent this, but something you will want to consider particularly in a wet climate.

The plastic is very thin. If a small dog walked through it will flex and move around a lot.The add makes it sound like it's all metal. But most of it is thin, soft & flimsy plastic. I found an ALL metal one for almost the same price @ moorepet-petdoors.com.

This is well made and helpful that you don't have to "box in" the wall.
My dog found it to difficult to push throught the 2 flaps, so I took off the outside flap. I live in Buffalo, and it still seals nicely and keeps out cold and wind. A very small dog will have trouble pushing through both doors, but I still recommend it for it's versatility and quality of manufacture.

We have never used a pet door before. After researching all of the doors available, we ordered this one. Wow! What a time-saving tool this is for our King Charles Spaniel. It was easy to install in the wall beside our door. The magnetic flaps really work, and keep out unwanted pests and keep in our air and heat. We tried using the door taped open for a day. But after practicing holding a treat on the other side of the door for about ten minutes, our puppy really went for it! We keep it open until we go to bed at night, but we've left it open some nights. Apparently, our doggie smell keeps away the raccoons and the flaps keep in food odors from the house because we haven't experienced any "intruders". This is a sturdy unit that you will just love. You can lock the door from the inside or the outside with the hard cover that slides and locks in place. Super!

I ordered this door to install myself.

The installation requires some knowledge of carpentry as you have to cut through the wall.
The door itself is perfect and easy to install once you cut the dimensions into the wall. My 2 dogs that previously rang a bell hanging on a rope to be let out, learned very quickly to use it. The double flap keeps the cold air out even in march in new jersey. I would not recommend this sized for a large dog such as a golden retriever or a dog of similar size. get a taller wider door for such a pet. My dogs are 25 pounds and 19 pounds and it is perfect, a beagle and a jack russel terrier.

It comes with a solid slide in stop if you choose to lock the opening either from the outside or inside.

I recommend this product. after much research this was the best value for money.
Here is a little help if you are going to do it yourself.

A-It fits between 2 wall studs that are 16inches apart.
B-use a stud finder to determine where the studs are inside the wall.
C-make sure that there are no wires or pipes in that area. you can cut a small hole and check.
D-Make sure that the bottom of your hole is high enough above the grass, ground or deck so that water or rain will not come in when it accumulates in the area.
E-Mark the hole to be cut with the cut out paper they provide.
F- Cut the sheet rock with a small sheetrock saw make the cut slightly larger that the paper cut out so it will fit easily.
G-Remove the sheetrock and the insulation inside the wall. wear a long sleeve shirt and gloves for this part.
H-Drill holes on the exterior wall plywood corners fron the inside of your house.
I-Connect the holes outside with a marker, pencil.
J-Cut the opening with an electic saw and remove it.
K-Install one side of the doggie door and have someone help on the inside by fitting the other side. Once it is flush with the ouside wall screw it in
L- do the same inside.
M- The flaps have a magnetic catch in the bottom to keep them closed once the pet walks through it.


Good luck with the project, I hope this helps, or at least will help you determine if you can do it, or want to a handyman to do it.

A couple things they should mention in the installation instructions:
make sure it's not installed too close to the doorknob where someone could reach through and unlock the door;
cut a small hole large enough for your arm and reach in and feel for electrical wiring before you cut a huge hole.

If you're going through vinyl siding, do it in the summertime. In the winter it is so brittle it shatters. The instructions don't mention that when you install something into vinyl siding you need something called J frames (?) or something like that. In the end I had to have a contractor come over to install it because I couldn't get through the vinyl siding. I attempted to score it first with a utility blade (ha!), then tried a circular saw, Saw-zawl, tin snips, and a mini-hack saw. The mini-hacksaw worked the best but went very slowly. The circular saw just shattered the siding and sent pieces flying. The saw-zawl would have probably worked had I used a blade with about 24 teeth per inch. I had a blade for wood with about 11 teeth per inch. In the end we got it installed and there were no problems with the actual door--one thing I wish is that the two sides were labeled "A" & "B". Also I think it should have come with a tube of silicon caulk because there's about a 1/2 inch tall gap between the two pieces after they slid together. The gap wasn't that big to begin with, but in the freezing cold weather it seems like it moved up. I found a great installation video on youtube, [...], but in hindsight I can see that they omitted the fact that you have to drill 1/2 inch holes for toggle bolts. If you can, at least get one side of it installed into a stud. This spring/summer I'll do the silicon sealant to keep the rain from going between the two pieces and into the wall.
One other thing. When you go through a door, you almost always step up or down, right? Do all your measurements and placement from the side of the wall that has the lowest floor. My older dog refused to use the door because it's too high because I did my measurements from inside where the floor is higher.
It's still a great door, I just wanted people to have a few hints about installation. Good luck!

The "Up to 12 lbs." rating on this (Small) door is highly misleading. Our PomChi/Yorkie mix wieghs 7 lbs. and getting through this door is nearly impossible for her.

Unfortunately for me, the area where I installed the door has limited space so I am stuck with either installing a larger door elsewhere and repairing a pretty big hole in my wall, or finding a way to deal with the situation as it is.

I think a problemm that PetSafe (and other maufacturers) has is they rate (for animal size) the through wall designs the same as the through door models. An animal, especially smaller ones, needs a little bit more "shoulder" room with the through wall models.

My only other complaint is that there are 8 points in the interior of the "tunnel" where air can infiltrate (4 on each end). A bit of caulk took care of this, but it would not have been obvious had my wife not noticed she could she the ground through one of the corners of the outside door. Once you know where to look there are obvious gaps between the aluminum door frame and the plastic corners of the tunnel. This is a real design defieciency.

I found none of the other deficiencies mentioned in other reviews. I can see that the "tunnel" portion might become flimsy if the plastic is the same thickness on the larger models with their larger openings and surfaces, plus greater pet wieghts.

I bought the through the wall door for my garage kennel to the outdoor run. Inside looks good, outside looks good but it is cheaply made in the middle and I had to reinforce it with duct tape! I will have to figure out a way now to take one side off and build a support to the plastic telescope. The telescope is actually two pieces of what appears to me to be plastic that either meets or overlaps based on the width of your wall. Very expensive and though it is mostly a sturdy pet door, it doesn't do what I want without modifying it. The manufacturer should really supply a kit of some kind to insert for this purpose.