I’m starting this post even though I don’t know the outcome of my search for a dog door yet.

We have a traditional dog door in place that our dogs have to push open. Louie has no problem with it, but Bobby has never figured it out in over a year. If he really wants to go out, he’ll push it open without thinking about it. But he has never gotten the hang of pushing it to come back in. This may be because it’s at the top of stairs on the outside, so he would have to come onto the top most stair before pushing.

One time I forgot he was out and it started raining. He stood for about 20 minutes getting soaked waiting for me to lift the door open for him.

So I decided to invest in what I call a George Jetson door, an electronic dog door that raises up when the dog approaches. I’m *pretty* sure Bobby will come inside if he sees an open space like that.

I had investigated this type of door a decade ago and there was only one company that made it for around $600. Now I’ve found three that keep coming up:
Solo Pet Door for $485
High Tech Power Pet Door $334.00
Plexidor Electronic Door for $1249.00

At first glance, these three doors seem very similar. But I dug a little deeper to find some differences:

High Tech Power Pet Door

This is the brand that seems to have the best marketing department. It is sold at lots of places such as Amazon, pet stores, Walmart, and Home Depot. It has a YouTube videos and was mentioned on HGTV (which doesn’t necessarily mean it is the better product). The Better Business Bureau had 55 complaints in the last 3 years, but they have all been closed and the bbb still ranks them with an A+. It looks like the company made an effort to address/solve all the complaints.

Pros:

1. It’s the only one that has four different settings for in/out: in only, out only, both, and neither.
2. It’s the only one that has battery as well as AC; I believe the battery kicks in if the power ever goes out.

Cons:

1. The transmitter worn on the dog’s collar is ‘sonic’ and can malfunction if it gets wet, even though they advertise it as waterproof.
2. Transmitter falls apart with rough play. It just snaps together; no screw holding it closed. If it falls apart, the button battery can fall out. You don’t want your dog to eat this.
3. The door can malfunction (not go up) in cold temps.
4. Known problem: sometime the door will just go up and down on its own. The only solution is to disable to obstruction sensor safety feature.
5. Made in China, which from my experience in general tends to mean a cheaply-made product.
6. Proprietary transmitter.

[Update: They’ve come out with a better transmitter. They still claim it is waterproof even though it isn’t (one guy dunked it in water and then opened it up to see if it was wet inside. It was, but still seemed to work.)

But the biggest problem is still that the door goes up on its own randomly. Originally they said disabling the safety sensor will fix this. But now they say something else. I called them myself to ask if this problem has been fixed. They claim now that the fix is to—get this—you have to loosen the screws which mount the door whenever there is a drastic change in the outside temperature.

I asked how long ago this particular model came out and was told 6 years.

So that means that this problem has been occuring for 6 years and they still haven’t fixed it. It sounds like they have no plans to either.]

Solo Pet Door

I was all set to go with this one. A friend of mine has it and it has worked fine for her for years. BUT then I found a webpage that has a lot of negative reviews. The motor tends to fail after a year. One guy said he took it apart and it was cheaply made (it has worked fine for my friend, but it could be that the motors have gotten cheaper over time). They all say that the Australian guy who answers the phone (owner?) is extremely rude and hangs up on you unless you are a potential customer. The Better Business Bureau only had 6 complaints in the last 3 years, but still gave them an F ranking. The owner never even responded to the bbb inquiries.

PROs:

1. The only one operated by magnet worn on the dog’s collar. The should mean that any magnet will open it. I do dog boarding sometimes, so I could just put an ordinary magnet on the house guest’s tag without having to invest in another proprietary transmitter. Also magnets are 100% waterproof.
2. Made in the U.S.

Cons:

1. Very poor customer service. Rude owner (http://www.xomreviews.com/solopetdoors.com), and a Better Business Bureau ranking of F. Sounds like you’ll never get help if the product fails.
2. Motor seems to be cheaply made and fails after 8 months to 1 year.
3. No obstruction sensor to stop the door from closing. They say it goes down by gravity, so it won’t hurt your pet. That may be true, but if the door closes on my dog, it will spook him to the point of him never wanting to go through it.
4. Common problem: if your dog lingers midway to look outside and the door comes down, stopping on him, the motor keeps turning and the string comes off the pulley.

Plexidor Electronic Pet Door

Over $1200!!! Seriously? Holy Cow! This door is about 3x more expensive than the other two. What’s up with that? But bbb gave this company (Pet Doors USA) an A+ ranking and had 0 complaints. Zero.

Pros:

1. It has a sensor so that the door stops going down if it senses an obstruction. (Edit: it does NOT have this feature. They used to, but removed it and never updated their website and documentation.)
2. Great customer service–A+ ranking by Better Business Bureau. I talked to them on the phone and they were really nice.
3. Great guarantee. The only one that offers money back if not completely satisfied in 90 days (Solo says you can return it only if it hasn’t been installed.)
4. They claim the collar transmitter is 100% waterproof
5. 5-year warranty.

Cons:

1. Pricey.
2. Proprietary transmitter
3. Your dog has to be about 9 inches from the door for it to open. For a wall mount, this was a problem for us. Since the door mounts to the inside wall, the sensor is already at least 5 inches away if you consider the width of the drywall, stud, and plywood. (This isn’t as important for a door mounted unit since a door isn’t as thick.)

So…what to do. It sounds like the Plexidor is the best quality. But can I really justify spending that much? I’m leaning towards the Solo with the understanding that I may just have to buy a new $85 motor every year.

Hmmm….stay tuned.

Update: I ended up buying the absurdly expensive Plexidor, but decided to return it. (I’ll post a separate review at some point).

Then decided to go with the Solo until I saw Amazon reviews. Only 5 reviews, but all of them bad.

So I think I’ll go with the cheaply-made High Tech door and know that I may have to disable the obstruction sensor and find a way to keep the collar tags from falling apart.

If anyone out there is an inventor or mechanically inclined, what we need is a door that has the best parts of all three of these:

1. The nice control panel of the High Tech that is outside the unit so you don’t have to unscrew anything to change a setting.
2. An obstruction sensor of the High Tech
3. A good-quality motor and plastic of the Plexidor
4. A piece of metal attached to the sliding door of the Plexidor instead of a string so that there is nothing to come off a pulley.
5. Adjustable sensor distance of the Solo.
6. Collar of the Solo and Plexidor that are waterproof and tough.

[EDIT: I didn’t return it after all. Have had it for about a year so far…]