Ideal Pet ProductsRuff-Weather Pet Door Wall Installation Kit, Small, 5" x 9.25" Flap Size

I bought this and the Ruff-Weather pet door with telescoping frame. I'm posting the same review for both products because they work together to make this awesome cat door (seriously, it's great for us).This door means no one has to be the doorman to the cats anymore. They always want in, want out, want in, then want out. Now, they can come and go as they please. I had all of them (6) using it within 24 hours.With me on one side and my husband on the other, we gently pushed each cat through the door back and forth a few times so they would understand what it meant. I lifted one of the flaps up and looked in so they could see it was an opening. We tried to make it a fun thing that let them do what they want (like go in, go out, go in, over and over).They each had their own motivation for going through the first time on their own. For one cat, Baley, it was seeing the opportunity for a 2nd breakfast - he saw me set the plate down through the sliding door, I lifted a flap to call him and show him the plate so he'd hopefully smell it, while my husband lifted up the other flap so he could look directly outside. His eyes lit up when he realized it was more food, we both let go of the flaps so they'd fall back down, and next thing we knew Baley pushed through them both on his own - we let him have the food for that! Another cat, Leto, went through on his own for the first time in order to get outside to be with us (he's a social guy).They each have their own way they like to go in/out. One will lift up the first flap with his paw so his head only has to push through the 2nd flap. I don't know why but that's how he does it. Another will stand there and just push on the flap a bunch of times (like maybe he just likes hearing it make a "fwap-fwap-fwap" noise over and over) before he finally goes through. One cat always goes through at a full run with a headstart. Another sort of low crawls through, sort of like he's trying to sneak out (through the door we put there so they could do exactly this!).When we brought home a homeless kitten a few months ago, she learned about the door just by watching the others. We never showed it to her or anything, she just darted through it one day (probably within a day or two of her seeing it, and she was spayed by then, so it was fine). One of our cats, who was found in a busy road during a rainstorm, was always scared to death of the outdoors, and the little girl kitten we brought home was the one who motivated him to finally be brave and use the door! He wanted to play with her soooo badly that one night he followed her out the cat door without us noticing. At first, if he saw us when he was outside he would run back in. Now he's pretty good about it, and he will announce himself whenever he comes back in. You'll hear the flap (it's very quiet, but I recognize the sound now - again, each cat coming through sounds a little different depending on if they run through or quietly push the flaps) then you'll hear him yowling that he's in.We live pretty much in the middle of nowhere, woods all around, and the possums that look for food on the porch pass by this door a lot, they see the cats go in and out this door, and never once has anyone but the cats come in, other than the insects they bring in to gift us with (giant cicadas, moths, catydids, etc. - it's great for the cats b/c now they can bring the gift right to us - yay, sort of).We've had the cat door installed for just over a year now. I'd say any heat loss over winter is minimal (the 2 flaps really seem to work) and now we're hot as hell in summer and it's great. The flaps are more scratched up now, and I've wiped them off a few times to keep them clean.We are clearly cat people. We installed this within a week of buying this house and it was probably THE best purchase we've made since moving in. Oh, and yes, sometimes the cats will still wait at the sliding door, like they're too good for the cat door, and maybe you'll get the slider for them still and let them in the "big door". But when they watch you go in with a fresh steak off the grill, suddenly every cat is through the cat door.Bottom line ---PROS: everything - cat freedom, funny moments, gifts brought right to your feet, no more getting up 50 times a day to let someone in/outCONS: nothing really, but make sure you have the proper tools before trying to install this. Also having the proper understanding of a wall helps, too.

Once installed the door wall door with extension works pretty well (but its not winter yet - we'll see)My only complaints are that my door arrived with no template and I could not find one on line. I suppose I could have waited until a weed day and called the support line, but my tools were already out and so I spent an hour measuring and remeasuring the door to make my own template. After that it went pretty well, but you need to have the right tools for cutting through the exterior wall (big saber saw - a jig saw wont do the job). Also, in order to make sure the screw holes were all parallel I carefully laid my template out over the interior wall (check and recheck for level) and had made my cut out for the door opening I used an extra long 1/4" bit as pilot and using a level and tape I did my very best to drill one hole through both the inner and outer walls to use as a reference point later. Then when I had finished drilling the holes on the inner wall only. I moved the template to the outer wall, made my layout (level and square using the first hole as a reference). I cut the opening and drilled the holes in th outer wall and assembled the door with some help without much hassle. The trick was to very carefully dirlli the first hole and using it as a reference. Otherwise if you drill all the holes from the inside there is a high probability that they will not all be parallel and then you've got trouble.My other complaint is that the night door that comes with the unit has no retention mechanism to keep it open during the day. You have to completely remove it and sit it somewhere. If you simply pull it up it will fall back down and keep Sparky from going through the flaps.

Purchased on Amazon. Hard to recommend but necessary if you are going through a wall with the pet door. The instructions in the box where in Spanish and French (no English in the box I got). Perhaps well written English instructions would have saved me a great deal of pain and headache. I am an avid DIY with plenty of tools. My installation is through a 2x4 rough cut redwood framed wall with plaster and lath on one side and wood siding on the other.FIRST CAUTION: If you do not have a 2x6 framed wall (most are 2x4) then you will have to modify the parts by removing part of the plastic from each piece. The problem is that you can remove from either side of the piece but the two sides are different (hard to tell) so you have to be careful to remove the plastic from the correct side of each piece. My suggestion is to assemble the unit and then mark each piece with a pen which part to remove.SECOND CAUTION: The bolts that are included are too long if you have to remove part of the plastic tunnel (if you have a standard 2x4 framed wall with wood siding). I did not know this until too late. One bolt went through the plastic of the unit and surprisingly did not strip. I did not notice this as I was working from one side. When I stripped the second bolt I knew I had a problem. The bolts were too long. Initially it is hard to tell they are too long given the bulk the pet door frame adds on each side.The manufacturer should really include two sets of bolts. Instead, I did find in Spanish (I know a little) what appears to be a line saying you may have to cut the screws to length. I imagine most folks do not have an easy way to cut down the 4 bolts. Since the unit relies on the bolts to hold it together this is an important piece and step.