SureFlap Microchip Pet Door Connect Review: A Microchip Door That Checks One Way

The door keeps its clear flap locked from the outside until it reads a registered microchip or the RFID collar tag in the box. The manual says the locks close again once the pet has passed through the tunnel, so an intruder cannot follow it in. That is the door's main job, and it is the part of the design Sure Petcare explains most carefully.

The reader sits only on the outside, so the door has no idea which pet is leaving. In the standard mode every animal inside can push its way out, including a cat you would rather keep in after surgery or a visiting pet. The manual's own advice is to register every pet in the household for that reason. The only way to stop a pet leaving is to lock the door for exit, which stops all of them.

The door stores up to 32 pets. Programming one means putting the door into "Add a pet" mode and coaxing the animal to push its head into the tunnel, which the manual suggests doing with a treat before the door is fitted. Sure Petcare says the door works with all common implanted microchips and offers a compatibility checker on its product page. The manual's disclaimer adds that the selective entry is designed to minimize intrusions and cannot guarantee that no other animal ever gets in.

There are five modes, chosen with the lock button under the front cover or from the app. Mode 1 lets registered pets in and every pet out. Keep inside lets registered pets in and nobody out. Keep out lets everyone leave and nobody back in. Lock both ways shuts the door entirely, and Curfew mode locks and unlocks at set times. The LCD shows the current mode as arrows with a line through them, so you can check it at the door.

Curfew is less flexible than the app screens suggest. The Sure Petcare app listing states one curfew per day for the Microchip Pet Door Connect against up to four for the Microchip Cat Flap Connect, and lists per-pet entry and exit permissions as a cat flap feature only. At the lock time the door switches to Keep inside, so a pet still outside can come home but cannot go out again.

One behavior catches people out. The manual warns that pressing the lock mode button on the door overrides any curfew set in the app, so someone at home changing the mode by hand can cancel your schedule without knowing it.

Everything connected about this door runs through the Sure Petcare Hub, a small mains-powered unit with light-up ears that plugs into your router with the supplied Ethernet cable and can serve up to 10 Sure Petcare products. The door talks to the Hub by radio, and the Hub talks to the app over your internet connection. The door is sold with or without a Hub, so check which listing you are buying.

Placement is the part to plan before you cut a hole. The manual advises keeping the Hub within 10 meters of the door, about a meter off the ground, in line of sight where possible and away from large metal objects, and it tells you to confirm the connection with the door held in its final position first. If your router is at the far end of the house, the manual's fixes are a longer Ethernet cable or a powerline adapter.

The app shows entries and exits, time spent outside and longer-term patterns, lets you lock or unlock the door remotely and change the curfew, and lets family members or a pet sitter join the household with their own accounts. Neither Sure Petcare's product page nor the app listing mentions a subscription. If the Hub loses its internet connection, the manual says the door keeps working as a normal microchip door, so an outage costs you notifications, not the lock. The manual's disclaimer also warns that a pet poking its head out without going through can produce a wrong in or out record. Our guide to what smart pet devices do when the internet drops covers the same question for feeders and litter boxes.

Sure Petcare lists four ways to fit the door, and only one of them is a straightforward weekend job. In a wooden or plastic door you mark the outline with the frame as a template, cut it with a jigsaw and screw the external frame on with one of the three screw lengths supplied (30, 50 or 75 mm), choosing one about 15 mm longer than the door is thick.

The other three need extra parts or a professional. Glass needs a 300 mm circular hole cut by a glazier and the SureFlap mounting adaptor, and double or triple glazing means ordering a new pre-cut pane with a non-metallic spacer, because a metal spacer can stop the door reading chips. A door with metal in it needs a hole cut 20 to 30 mm clear of the tunnel plus the adaptor. A wall needs a builder and tunnel extenders, since the built-in tunnel is 70 mm deep and each extender adds 50 mm. The manual rules out fire doors.

Two details from the manual are worth planning around. Both sides of the door hold batteries, so the frame must leave both compartments reachable once fitted. And the height is set by your pet's tummy height from the floor, which is where the bottom of the hole goes.

The door runs on four 1.5 V alkaline C cells, two in each side, and Sure Petcare quotes up to 6 months of battery life. Batteries are not in the box. A red light next to the LCD flashes when they run low.

The manual links battery life to cleaning. The sensors that detect a pet sit in the tunnel ceiling and rely on a reflective tunnel floor, and Sure Petcare says dirt or hair on them can cause abnormal locking, unreliable notifications and battery drain. It asks for the sensors and tunnel to be wiped every two to three months, and the draught excluders round the flap cleared of hair. A constant clicking sound, according to the troubleshooting page, usually means weak or poorly seated batteries.

In a home with a shedding dog or a muddy garden, plan on that cleaning, and on batteries lasting less than the six-month figure if the door is busy. The manual in this edition gives a three-year warranty covering defective parts.

Sure Petcare designs this door for large cats and small dogs. The product page gives the flap opening as 7.5 inches wide by 6 11/16 inches high and calls it the smallest area your pet has to pass through, while the Amazon listing gives 6 11/16 inches wide by 7 inches high. Either way it is about 17 to 19 cm across, so measure your pet's shoulder width and height before buying rather than relying on a breed label.

For a dog, the one-way reader matters more than for a cat, because a small dog can push the flap outward whenever the door is not locked for exit. Sure Petcare's own photos show a dachshund using it, which gives a fair idea of the upper size.