I read the other reviews before purchase and thought this would be great. The door might be raccoon proof, but it is not angry cat proof. My husband installed the door yesterday after we read the instructions. The cats have to be right up on the door before it works. They havent figured it out yet. This evening, my husband went to check the door and found the top inside panel pulled off the door and the wires inside pulled it. One of the cats managed to claw it off and pull the wires. It's not fixable, so I am out 173.00 (I ordered 4 extra tags also) On the plus side, it kept out the stray that comes inside my house to eat the cat food and spray. The collar tags are large, hang down and bother my cats. The cats will notice the tags and try to attack them. It would not be a good fit for smaller cats or kittens.

The Cat Mate Elite is so awesome! I used to have a non electric door and i woke up to a raccoon in my kitchen one morning! With the Cat Mate Elite door no other animals except Jinx (my kitty) can use the door also its so nice to know if he is inside or not plus it has a really cool timer to set so he cant go outside and get hurt by other animals at night!! So worth the money!!

This door is so cool. I really like being able to program when they can go in and out because I don't like my cats being out at night when the raccoons are more active.

The flap makes a loud buzz when it unlocks. My cat is timid so I was afraid the buzz might scare him. So before installing the flap, I put batteries in it, held it near kitty, and locked and unlocked it several times until kitty was used to the buzzing. Then I installed it into my door. My cat had no problems learning to use it and the buzz doesn't bother him. I had opened the frame of the flap to see how it works. It has a motor which turns some gears and moves a bolt up and down, locking and unlocking the flap. The gears are plastic and fit loosely. If the gears were tighter and/or the motor were run slower I think the flap would be quieter. Programming the flap is not intuitive. I need to review the manual when I need to reprogram the flap. We have been using the flap for 9 months and have had no other problems so far. Overall we're very satisfied with it.

We have used this door for a year now. The original batteries are still working fine. Our 2 cats learned to operate the door in one day. It seals out the cold a lot better than the door we got at Lowe's. We allow our cars to use the door anytime they want. Each cat must use it at least 10 times a day. I would recommend it to everyone.