I bought a pet door for my sliding glass door so the cats can go outside whenever they feel like it. Here is what it looks like leaning up against my family room wall:
It will be staying up against my family room wall until I figure out what to do with it, which does not involve actually installing it in my patio door. Hint #1 as to why:
Yes, the sliding door is fully open and that is all the room that is left after installing the pet door. They did some crazy shit in the 1970’s, those home builders. Who makes sliding doors this narrow? Even my mom’s house, which was built in the 50’s, has wider sliding glass doors.
But that is where the problem with my house ends and the problems with the Fast Fit Patio Pet Door begin.
See that white rectangular thing attached to the pet door near my right hand. That is half of a mechanism I had to attach so the sliding door had something to latch onto. The other half attaches to the sliding door and hooks into it.
But it did not come with the $120 Fast Fit Patio Pet Door, that lock. No, I got it from the old patio pet door the former owners left me that I removed when I bought the place because it was way too big (they had a giant dog.)
How is a new owner of the Fast Fit Patio Pet Door to lock their sliding door once they have installed the thing? Why with this, of course:
You are supposed to attached it to the tippy top or very bottom of the other door, or the track frame if that won’t work, and drill a hole in the sliding door frame for the bolt to slide through. See this site for a photo. Too bad my door has bolts that stick out at the tippy top and very bottom of the stationary door and the frame is neither large enough nor flat so this “lock” is useless to me.
They did provide some handy “draft stopper” rubber stuff to attach to the rear of the sliding door so it just touches the glass of the inner door and prevents drafts from getting in through the gap. Here is what mine looked like the next morning after it peeled itself off the door during the night and got half way across the patio before I caught up with it.
The top of the pet door insert is spring-loaded for a “fast fit” with turny-knobs to tighten it up, but it is impossible to get stable. The instructions conveniently mention you may want to attach the Fast Fit Patio Pet Door to your sliding glass door frame to secure it but do not provide actual instruction for doing so nor do they provide any hardware for the job.
As I am a girl with power tools and I don’t need no stinkin’ instructions, I screwed the pet door into the sliding door frame at the top but found no way to attach it at the bottom. Without doing so, the thing wobbles and might as well be called Come Rob Me Patio Pet Door.
I am so pissed because now that I have drilled holes in the damn thing I cannot return it. I am out $120 for a freaking pet door that I cannot use.
My sister had a lovely patio pet door that the sliding door locked directly into with no attachments necessary, so I know they are out there. Stupid me bought the only model available at Lowes, thinking all patio pet door inserts are the same. Learn from my mistake: if you want a patio pet door that locks and is an actual deterrent to thieves, do not buy Fast Fit Patio Pet Doors.
(Oh, and this is Day 067 of my 365 Day Photo Project.)
