Review: Lychee Things SmartSlyder Pet Door

Today I will review the SmartSlyder Pet Door by Lychee Things.

Full Disclaimer: this was sent to me free of charge.

When you have a pet going outside to use the “toilet” is very important versus going all over the inside of your house. But you only have a few options. You can get a traditional dog door that requires you to cut a hole in the wall. This isn’t very secure as someone could possibly just go through the dog door and get in your house; plus, it is not really energy efficient as flaps are not airtight, so heat and cool air can get in. There are motorized versions where the dog wears a tag and opens only for them again, though not really energy efficient.

There is also a sliding glass door insert that goes into your sliding glass door track, but with this option, you can’t really use the door yourself to go in and out because it takes up a good amount of the space you would usually walk through. Also, like the traditional dog door, they generally have flimsy plastic flaps that are not secure or energy efficient.

The SmartSlyder is a nice motorized device that attaches to your existing sliding glass door and opens it for your pet. When not in use, your door is fully closed like normal, keeping out the elements and keeping your home secure. You can also use the mobile app to open and close the door.

They also offer an optional pet pass, which is a little tag attached to your dog’s collar. With the pet pass, once your pet gets near, the door opens for them and closes.

You can configure many attributes for this device. You can set how far you want the door to open for the pet: 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%. You can then set how long you want it to remain open before automatically closing, and you can set the sensitivity based on your dog’s size and the distance you want the dog to be away from the door before it opens.

It wasn’t all sunshine and roses, though. The bad news is there have been a couple of issues during my months of using/testing. First, the power cord is not very long, so it doesn’t reach from the top of the door frame where the motor is to where a standard electric outlet is, and I have one right next to the door. So, I have to use a power strip between the two. I would also like to see a hard-wired version so you could get an electrician and wire it so there is no visible cord.

Second, every once in a while, the device will go offline, lose WiFi, and not function. Very rarely, but it does happen, and unfortunately, the app doesn’t give you any type of notification, no email or anything saying the device is offline. The result is that I was unaware that twice my dog couldn’t go outside at night while I was sleeping and ended up peeing and pooping in the house. Also once the pet pass totally stopped working. It still showed up in app with pretty much a full battery, but I ended up having to remove the tag from the app and set it up againto get it to work again.

Other than that, I love this thing and would highly recommend it over any of the other available solutions. I give a 8.75 out of 10.