Infrared pet doors are the Star Wars of pet doors. Well, maybe a more appropriate allegory would be the Star Gate of pet doors because the sensor on the collar dials a code to the door and tells it when to open or close. That way, it is programmed to only allow your pet to pass through, not the neighbor’s dog or a stray cat. Don’t worry though. It doesn’t send a swooshing blue blob of time warped substance through it like on the TV show. That would freak out your pet, right?

For families with small children or crawling babies, having an infrared pet door is a must. The kids cannot follow Fido out when your back is turned. That is an added safety feature. The locking mechanism is secure and draft proof. Because the door can only be opened by a code that is “beamed” from the collar to the door, burglars won’t have easy access either. You would be surprised how many robbers gain access into homes through larger pet doors, thus bypassing the door and window alarms.

The collar itself is powered by a lithium battery and the pet door requires either a nine volt or several AA batteries to operate. the infrared beam range which reads the code is approximately two feet. That gives the door plenty of time to unlock and open. Your pet won’t be standing there wondering what the magic password is or thinking, “When will the darn thing let me out?” Some models actually allow the owner to adjust the amount of time it takes to read the “key” in the collar.

There is a locking device, similar to a door that operates by a buzzer in an apartment complex or other security conscious building. So, when you and your pet are away on vacation or for the weekend, the house remains secure. As with magnetic pet doors, the settings can allow only the pet you want to have access to the outside. So if a pet is ill or recovering from surgery, or you just want to train it to be an inside pet, it cannot gain access through the door unless you reprogram it’s collar. Many infrared pet doors allow you to program up to 6-8 collars at a time. This is perfect for a mother dogs with puppies or households with many pets.

There are different systems available, depending on the breed a weight of your pet. There is one for cats and dogs under 10 lbs. One for medium weight dogs. Most accommodate up to 100 pounds, so unless your spouse is very petite and skinny, you can’t send them to the dog house via the pet door. Sorry.

The most complaints about infrared pet doors we found on blogs were that the batteries ran down a lot. That could be frustrating for your pets and you. Some models come with an AC adapter which seems to help solve that problem. That way the batteries are only used if there is a power surge or failure. A few said the clanking noise made by the key when it came in contact with the plastic spooked their pets or woke them up at night if the pet door was installed near the bedroom.

New! We've just starting a message board and discussion forum over on the Toxic Byte Pets Forum. It's a bit lonely over there at the moment, but feel free to join in and participate!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 18th, 2009 at 5:38 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.