Essential Guide for Fitting Your Sliding Glass Door with a Pet Door Panel
Ensuring the correct measurements when selecting a pet door panel for your sliding glass door is crucial for the comfort and safety of your pet. This detailed guide provides step-by-step instructions on measuring your sliding glass door to find the perfect pet door panel fit.
Check Your Track Style
Before measuring, identify if your sliding door track is a standard channel style or a monorail system.
For monorail systems, a monorail adapter is advised for panels like Dragon, Endura Flap, or Whiskers & Windows. These adapters fit tracks at least 3/4" thick and 1" tall.
What Measurements Do You Need For a Patio Pet Door Panel?
The perfect fit for your pet door panel depends on two critical dimensions: the height and width of your sliding door track.
The Liberty Pet Door Panel can be adjusted to fit your sliding glass door’s track, which is why your sliding glass door’s height should fall somewhere in your panel’s height adjustment range. Panels that are too tall can’t be inserted into the frame while panels that are too short cannot expand high enough to be secure.
Equally crucial is your track width. If your track is too narrow, your panel will not be able to sit securely inside it.
While the spring-loaded design gives you a little leeway, having precise measurements of your track is still vital for making sure you order correctly. Luckily, you can measure your sliding door track in a few easy steps.
Step-by-Step Measurement Guide
1) Identify the Lowest Point of Your Track
- Open the sliding door and place the measuring tape at the bottom corner inside the track.
- Ensure the tape is flat and clear of any debris or obstructions.
2) Measure the Track's Height:
- Extend the tape measure from the bottom to the very top corner of the track. This measurement is your sliding glass door track height.
- Choose a pet door panel with a height adjustment range that encompasses your measurements. Custom sizes are available if standard options do not match.
3) Determine the Track's Width:
- Measure across the bottom track that your slider glides on.
- Aluminum pet door panels typically require at least a 1" wide track, while vinyl panels often need a width of 1.5" or more.
Additional Tips For Picking the Correct Panel Pet Door
- Make sure you pick your pet door flap size based on your pet’s height.
- If you have a monorail slider, you will need a monorail adapter for your panel, or else your panel will not fit into your sliding glass door track.
- If your slider is too big or small for the standard panel sizes, you can order a custom pet door panel that will fit your slider.
- If the panel is slightly short, options for height extension pieces are available to give your panel an additional few inches of height.
- Remember, our goal is to help you get it right the first time. If you have any questions, our customer service team is here to assist.
A Note of Caution When Measuring Your Track Height:
Even if your measurement falls within the adjustment range of the patio panel doggie door you have chosen, you may still experience issues if you are at the shorter end of that range. If your panel has no room to shrink, you may have trouble squeezing it into your sliding glass door track— especially if your bottom track has a wall that it needs to go over and into.
Make sure that the panel height adjustment range will allow the panel to be small enough to install. Please call our customer service department if you have any questions about this. .
Some Liberty Pet Door models have special provisions for decreasing or increasing the adjustment range a small amount (about 3/4"). This feature can help you install your panel and have you the cost of needing to return your pet door due to a measurement error.