Great Design

Disclaimer: Ms. Garven won this pet door in a drawing conducted by Jon Eakes (https://www.joneakes.com/) and was specifically asked for her honest review.

Last week, in temperatures at the freezing level, we installed the RANGER (Previously Freedom Pet Pass) extra-large dog door, manufactured by Access Magnetics in Bay City, Michigan.  The company was very attentive to providing shipping details, and followed up to confirm receipt.  The packaging was very good, and the courier delivery was exactly on time.  The door assembly is very solid and substantial compared to others on the market, and very professionally manufactured.  The instructions were clear and easy to follow, and the correct bit was included with the six colour-matched securing screws.

Installation was remarkably easy, especially as we chose a wall is not insulated.  We needed to remove a length of a 2×6 framing stud (it was between two others on standard spacing) and nail in a header, then cut the opening to size through the board and batten exterior. The door assembly slipped into place easily, and securing it to the frame with the screws is a quick job.

We’ve had large guardian dogs on the farm for 20 years and have used several approaches to dog doors, with varying degrees of failure. Pre-fab commercial storm doors with built-in plastic pet doors are too flimsy for large dogs, not large enough, and not thermally efficient. Our DIY efforts have been sturdy but even less efficient, and they certainly have a home-made appearance.  We think the Freedom Pet Pass is the best solution we’ve seen.  The double-action design is brilliantly simple and made possible by robust flap material secured with a magnetic closure system that creates a good seal; no drafts detected in strong (and cold!) gusting winds this week.  And it looks great: the dark green colour we specified complements the wall colour very well.

We did the installation the day before the first real snowfall of the season and much colder temperatures, and we’ll wait until spring to do exterior custom trim (and a fresh coat of paint on the wall). We’re looking forward to getting the dogs installed in their winter quarters when it warms up in a few days.  We think they’ll like it as much as we do.  We’ll get some photos if they don’t come bounding out too quickly.

We are very grateful to have won this door in the draw. We have never before seen such a well-designed and constructed pet door. It’s a great solution to a frustrating problem.