Frozen Cat flap

[alanc]

No end of cat flap trouble Sunday evening. My Sureflap pet door was working fine during the day, but come curfew time, it failed and the catches preventing exit remained down. Fortunately, I discovered this before Tilly did and blocked the flap with a bag of Cat litter. After a lot of fiddling, it seems the lock mechanism had frozen! With the catches being on the bottom of the flap, water got in from Tilly's wet paws as she came in and it was rather cold outside. Anyway, having thawed it out it works again (what a relief).
Mind you, this is not the first time I have suffered from a frozen catflap. Happened with the old Catmate back in December 2010 when Badger and Tilly were young and playing in the snow. Soggy fur soaked the flap liner and it froze solid overnight. Took me about half an hour to unfreeze it and let Badger and Tilly out. Picture below shows what they thought of the delay.

[MarySkater]

Not a problem I've had, but the only thing that might have frozen on my cat flap was the draught excluder. That started to peel away a few months after I installed the flap, so I took it all off, in case the loose bit jammed the flap. It's only held shut by the magnet now.

Just as well; Ria shoots through it at full gallop. If the flap ever locked up, she'd give herself concussion! I never use the locking catches. If I briefly don't want the cats using the flap, I put something in front of it. When I had to keep Ria in for 4 days after she was spayed, I taped a sheet of cardboard over the flap. (Rocky was still allowed in and out, but he'd have to wait for me to open the door for him.)

I find a hairdryer works well for defrosting things. A few weeks ago, I had to use it on the lid of my wheelie bin, which froze shut overnight. Fortunately, no neighbours overlook my back door where I was giving the bin a blow-dry.

Mary

[Ruth B]

We still rely on the old open to anyone cat flap not a microchip one, so fortunately never had a problem with it freezing.

We decided against the microchip type as we tend to go through flaps. The back door is South facing so the cat flap is in full sun (whenever it is out), this means that the plastic tends to perish quicker than normal. Add to that that the cat flap gets used as an offensive weapon against intruders and it explains why we frequently end up with a cracked flap. Tiggy will sit on the chair beside the door and if an intruder tries to come in she will reach down and using her paw, hit the flap into the face of the incoming cat. The other day another cat chased all three of mine back in, Freyja was last in line, and having come down to see what the fuss was, I was just in time to see her hurtle through the flap, spin on her back paws, rear up and hit the flap with both front paws straight at the oncoming intruder. I think she must have been watching Tiggy and taking notes.

[alanc]

Mary, i've had that trouble with wheelie bin lids as well! Maybe I had better buy a hairdrier. Might also be useful for Tilly's fur!
Ruth, my back door (and catflap) is north facing in a dark alley and hardly ever gets sun in the winter so freezing up is a common problem. I've never had trouble with plastic getting brittle through sunshine, though! It was freezing of the liner of the old Catmate resulting in the liner getting pulled off and allowing freezing draughts to come in that led to me getting a new cat flap. Tilly once did the Tiggy act and clouted an intruder cat chasing Badger. Trouble is, she is far to friendly with the cats next door to do that to either of them!

[MarySkater]

Alan, re wheelie bins: if I notice that a frost is predicted, I put bits of stick under the corners of the lid, so it doesn't close properly and can't get frozen shut. The hairdryer is for when I didn't think of it the night before.

Ruth, I am very impressed by your cats slamming the flap in the face of intruders! Very inventive of them. I don't have that situation as my cat flap only opens into my garden enclosure, and no intruder can get into that.

More than 20 years ago, I was lodger in a house with a landlady who had a rather timid cat. She'd had bother with strange cats coming into the house, not only stealing the resident cat's food, but terrorising her into hiding under furniture and messing on the floor. Microchip cat flaps weren't around at the time, but when my landlady had her kitchen modernised, she put in a locking flap that was released by a coded magnetic tab which the cat wore on a collar. If a strange cat pushed on it, the flap would move a quarter of an inch off the magnet, but would then thump against the catch. The cat flap was an expensive bit of kit, and my landlady moaned a bit about the price. But she told me with satisfaction one day that it had been worth it. She had spent several minutes watching from the window as a troublesome local tom practically stunned himself repeatedly banging the flap, not understanding why it wouldn't open.

Mary