Pet Sense, or nonsense?

2A2Dend · Sep 3, 2017

In theory and concept of an "already existing" sliding patio door.

Sliding door (walk through) opening is 34"
Add into (essentially take away) the opening, a 16" wide panel, top to bottom.
The walk-through area decreased to 18" wide.
Analyze the concept from every possible aspect. Share your thoughts.

MasterChief · Sep 3, 2017

I'm not sure what I just watched....like I get the concept but thrown together in an odd way

Alexx1401 · Sep 3, 2017

2A2Dend said:
In theory and concept of an "already existing" sliding patio door.

Sliding door (walk through) opening is 34"
Add into (essentially take away) the opening, a 16" wide panel, top to bottom.
The walk-through area decreased to 18" wide.
Analyze the concept from every possible aspect. Share your thoughts.

The original one they show looks pretty flimsy. That link did show some others on youtube that did look better made. One big down side is as mentioned the opening is not very big after. We used to have a glass slider in the back. I put a pet door for the dogs into the screen door so we could let them come and go. In winter we had to go back to letting them out and of course remembering to let them in. When door wore out I changed it out and put in a standard wood door. On that one I built in a pet door. All of us like it a lot better.

No_Regerts · Sep 3, 2017

It would be okay while you are home.

RVTECH · Sep 3, 2017

Too many potential problems - #1 being the reduction of entrance size. Also the possibility of it failing in the OPEN position while you are not around but I suspect it can be turned off when you are gone. Pretty spendy for what it is.

Alexx1401 · Sep 3, 2017

No_Regerts said:
It would be okay while you are home.

I was thinking the same thing. Looks like it would only be safe while you were home. Before I changed out the back door to a wood one I had often thought of trying to make something like that. Something that I could just close into the door while home to leave a dog door. If I had seen one of these back then I probably would have bought one just for use while home. The dogs and us love having them able to just come and go as they want.

Boboclown · Sep 3, 2017

Not worth it. Cuts entrance opening down, and electronics eventually fail.

Caveman Jim · Sep 3, 2017

No_Regerts said:
It would be okay while you are home.

True that, It would not last 2 seconds with my 100# lab (think Bull in a China shop). As for the decrease in the actual opening, I doubt that I would fit through 18" opening, sideways even...

We don't have a sliding back door in this cave but our front door got this year I added a storm door with a doggie butt flap door & it works really well but they abuse it like the kids did, coming in and out every minuet or so.... frustrating to say the least...

cookie · Feb 13, 2018

Skunk door.

Alexx1401 · Feb 13, 2018

We had our old sliding door replaced finally. I did order one of the inserts from Amazon to put in a dog door. Works great. Of course our dogs are only 10#'s so the medium one was fine. The insert has a way to make it permanent so someone can't just break in if you wish. I did not do that yet since someone is always home. The way it is now I can just take it out if I need to bring something in. Dogs and us love it. It does limit the opening but the one son who is 6'3 and 300#'s can still come in and out when he's here. <edit>
Checked mine when I got home. The original new door was 31.5" opening. With the dog door insert it's now 21.5". So far working fine for us. The one I bought has a top that is spring loaded. So to put it in or take it out you push down on the top and set it in the track. It stays there quite well. Has pilot holes to put a couple screws in it so it would be permanent if desired. I did not put them in on ours so I can move it if needed. Beats hell out of having to open and close the door for the dogs. Also comes with a plastic insert to keep them in if I don't want them outside.