Patio Pacific Pet Door Installation Guide

Installation Guide - Thermo Panel and Quick Panel Models

Patio Pacific sliding glass dog doors under 80 ¼” do not require tools, however everything above this height generally will require some tools for installation. What we call a sectional panel will be shipped in two pieces because it is so tall. Breaking the pet door for sliding door down saves the customers on shipping costs, because we are able to ship in a smaller package. The sectionals will need to be assembled with 4 hex screws and a hex wrench, all of which are provided.

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Thermo Sash Pet Door for Sash Windows

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COMMON PET DOOR INSTALLATION PROBLEMS AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

	You've got a hollow-core or steel door Best bet is to purchase a self-framing pet door. Then you may skip the framing part below. If you've already got a pet door that isn't self-framing, you'll need to frame the hole as shown. To do that you're going to need a table saw to rip the pieces to the correct thickness. Glue in place, clamp and let dry. Then mount the pet door. The only difference in a steel door is that you use a different saw for cutting the hole. Jig saw with a metal cutting blade works best.
	Your door has an irregular surface Every pet door wants to be installed on a flat surface so you'll need to make it flat. It's probably a good idea to choose a sturdy metal-framed pet door for this application. The plastic-framed ones are easier to distort if the surface isn't perfectly flat and any distortion may cause the flap to bind and not swing freely. The best, neatest way to handle this situation is shown: cut furring strips just thick enough to bring the thinner areas up to the same thickness as the thicker areas. Cheater method: Get a self-framing pet door and make each of the four corners the same thickness. Then caulk in the spaces between the corners.
	You've got a screen door You could have chosen a simple pet door from the screen mount page and installed it directly through the screen. However, this method--which uses a door mount type pet door--is much sturdier. Of course, you can also cut down into the base of the door to reduce the step-over for a shorter pet. Don't cut so far that you weaken the door frame though! Note that this same approach may be used for a screened-in porch: add framing members to support a door mount pet door.
	You want your pet door in a wall Easiest is to purchase a 'self-framing' manual wall mount or electronic wall mount pet door. But if the particular pet door you want is designed for installation in a door you probably still can install it in your wall if you have the skills to frame the wall yourself. We think it best to hire this job out to a contractor. It's a big problem if you cut into electrical or fail to seal the wall properly against weather.

Adjusting the Magnet Strength on a Patio Pacific Endura Flap

USER ADJUSTABLE "STEP-OVER"

This is one of the biggest advances in the panel pet door since they were invented in the 1970's!

Here's the explanation

Rise is a term invented by Patio Pacific many years ago and generally adopted by the industry. It refers to the height of the flap above the base of the pet door. We at Patio Pacific now think that "step-over" more accurately conveys the meaning to the consumer.

"Step-Over" is very important to the comfort of your pet. A higher step-over gets the flap up higher for a taller dog which avoids him having to stoop to get through.

On the other hand, a lower step-over is less to 'step over'.

In the past, a consumer that wanted a different step-over for any reason had to buy another patio pet door. If you misjudged and got a door with too tall a step-over you were in trouble. Likewise, if you replaced a short pet with a tall pet or vice-versa, you had a problem.

The adjustable step-over concept greatly increases your flexibility with the pet door. By simply removing the bottom flap assembly and cross pieces with a Phillips head screwdriver, you can rearrange the order of the cross pieces to get the step-over higher or lower.

This patented feature is only available on pet doors manufactured by Patio Pacific Inc and its licensees.

These parts were removed from the panel at top with the Phillips head screwdriver shown.

This dimension is extremely important!

The top of the flap is ideally placed at least as tall as the pet at the withers (top of the shoulder). Usually, you'll need to add step-over height to get the flap up high enough. For example: Your dog is 22" at the withers and you buy a pet door with a 15" flap. You'd need a 7" step-over to get the top of the flap up high enough. If you had purchased a 19" flap, then you'd only need a 3" step-over.

Generally, the shorter the step-over the better. As dogs age or become arthritic, it becomes more difficult to manage a higher step-over.

When installing a pet door in a door or wall, you can choose the step-over dimension. However, for most patio panels the step-over is fixed. The exceptions are the Quick Panel III™ and the Thermo Panel IIIe™ which have a patented user-adjustable step-over.

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Patio Pacific Pet Door Installation Guide