I have both - French doors that open into my sunroom, then sliders that open from my sunroom onto my deck on one side, the patio on the other side. I have double sliders that open from our walkout basement to the screened-in porch. I prefer the sliders to the french doors because they don't take up any clearance space and they seal tighter in the winter. I had all french doors in my former house and they were drafty. I used them in this house in places where they wouldn't be exposed to the outside (great room to sunroom, main hallway to office)and because they gave me the same effect as a Nana wall at about 1/3 the price.

No it will not dekeoboe. We were building our cat's room in the garage and I wanted to be able to clean in from the garage with a window or large dog door and it wouldn't pass code. So if you do have one installed you need to know it might have to be removed upon sale of your house (ie door replaced with fire rated door). I used to crawl through the dog door in a rental we had whenever we lost the keys. It was a medium size and I was limber and skinny :) It did teach me about the issues of having a door anyone can skinny through easily. We were never robbed, but I'd not put one on my home now knowing how easy they are to get in. I do like the idea of the electronic one though...much safer. I've installed a gazillion cat doors myself OP. You need a kit (hd has them) a drill and a jig saw. It comes with a pattern and you drill in the corners then just cut the holes in a solid wood door. Easy stuff really. The kit hides your jiggly jig saw cuts if that's an issue. If you can't do that you can easily hire a handy man or woman to do it I would think...It's really not rocket science. I only suggest this because it sounds like you're not finding what you want and it's a pretty easy solution. Ours are always then painted to match the door so they blend in better. I'm going to add one to our hall to laundry in the next few weeks so I can keep the litter box out there (it's in our closet room now...I prefer it not be LOL). I miss our kitty room!

I was never a fan of slider doors and agree that going back with a swinging door is best. Two 36" doors would be my first choice. If swinging at either end won't work,one can be swung from center. Alternatly,you can install two fixed plus one swinging door. You can choose single pane glass with or without deviders in 1-2 or all three positions. Two 24" slabs fixed at each end plus one pre-hung 32" hinged at center position equal's 80" of door,leaving 16" for jambs and trim. The configurations are endless if you hire a good carpenter.

You are welcome. I'd use WoW if they were here (same area) for my own house LOL. Anyway, the sliding door is under-serviced no doubt. And it's been replaced a few times as well in the last 20 years. Basically, there is something going on where a lot of debris and water get into the track. I think the exposure directly to the outside and a lot of yard debris (leaves, dirt from the ditch that blows up in windy weather, etc). And that starts the downward decline. Perhaps the last install was bad. But we really want to do away with a slider completely this time and simply avoid having to keep cleaning the track and servicing it. Even with a new sliding door, the shoulder surgeries have left their arms weak and I think it's best to avoid that type of door going forward