Evenflo SimpleStep Pressure Gate Taupe
by Evenflo
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List Price: Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of Evenflo SimpleStep Pressure Gate Taupe
Customer Review: Sturdy, but not always easy to open!
Summary: 3 Stars
After much research and reading many reviews, my husband and I bought 2 of these gates (for our kitchen doorway and the bottom of our stairs), and we are a bit disappointed. Yes, the gate is easy to install, and it works beautifully with our old-fashioned carved wookwork because it adjusts in all four corners. Yes, it is sturdy as can be, and I never worry when my 9 month old crawls over to it, pulls on it to stand and starts rattling it like a gorilla trying to escape its cage. However, opening the gate isn't always easy. You have to press 2 buttons (one on each side of the handle), and slide it back before the gate will swing (and you can swing it in or out). Many times I have pressed the buttons and struggled with sliding it while holding my daughter. I then have to bend down and use both hands to slide it. When it does open, it's a bit noisy. It makes a metal ping when you release the buttons/handle upon opening and closing it. I also don't like how thick the bottom bar is. It sits on the floor, but sticks up 1 1/2 inches. I'm always afraid I'm going to trip over it, or worse yet, that my mother-in-law will trip, especially with the gate at the bottom of my stairs (it is awkward footing). I wish they had a flatter bottom bar, or at least a curved one, or a rubber curved piece that fit over the bar... just something that didn't catch my foot so easily.
We also have 2 dogs -- one is part husky and shepherd (about 55 lbs.), and the other is a beagle mix (about 20 lbs.). The gate works well for them too, even when the larger dog stands up with her front paws on it. They both used to climb the cheap gate we got for them (before having the baby).
Customer Review: Very good baby/pet gate.
Summary: 4 Stars
Evenflo SimpleStep Pressure Gate Taupe
Excellent gate particularly for the price. Much more convenient than stepping over non-swing open type. You should remove 1/4 round trim at floor to mount this gate as low to floor as possible because there is a 1 inch high bottom bar across opening. Study install instructions BEFORE attempting and it will be easy. When you first take gate out of box, it will look bent--read directions. Comes with width extension. There is a 1/4 inch width in the midrange covered where it will be tricky to mount this gate--I used a soft mallet to bump one of mine into place before adjusting tension. Use an ordinary carpenter's level to get mounted gate vertical if you like the swing gate to stay open where you leave it. Gate will work regardless. Use very light silicone spray on latch pin and internal release mechanism and gate will latch/unlatch very easy. If tension pads begin to cup into wallboard/plaster you will need to attach 1 X 3 X 30 inch boards to walls to mount gate against. One of mine was mounted against a vertical iron bannister rail by making adapter from short piece of 1 X 3 wood and 2 saddle clamps for $2 from hardware store. (To get ideas look at Evenflo mounting kit.) My 11 month-old granddaughter is already pushing on one release button but I cannot imagine her being able to squeeze both simultaneously as well as slide handle against spring tension for 3--4 years?
She can, however, open the dog's cage now.
Customer Review: We love this gate
Summary: 5 Stars
We have had this gate for 2 months now since our daughter started crawling. We have one posted at the entry way to the kitchen and another at a little hallway before turning to go down stairs. It has worked very well for us and fits the doorway perfectly. At first it was a little hard to open, but then I unscrewed the pressure screws a teeny bit and that made a huge difference. Now, the gate will close if you just gently swing it shut. The bad news is now my daughter swings the gate close all the time and starts having a crying fit when it closes because she is trapped in the kitchen and can't get back into the living room. I was worried about the bar on the bottom of the gate. I was afraid that my daughter wouldn't be able to crawl over it, but it took her all but a few hours to figure it out and now she just crawls right over it with no problem. I did trip over it once, but then I just remembered from there on in. I love that it came with an extension for a reasonable price. You can't beat that. Other gates you have to buy the extra extension for about $15 on top of the price of the gate. I did notice with the current shipment of these gates, there is a little note attached to the gate stating that the gate is wider on top when you take it out of the box and is not damaged, I already knew this from reading other reviews. One other note for cat owners, we have a couple of cats. One is really skinny and walks right through the bars and then we have our chunky cats that will just jump right over the gate.Customer Review: Terrible design, terrible customer service
Summary: 1 Stars
As mentioned by another reviewer, the box to this gate advertises that it will fit a range of 29" to 37.5", but there's actually a 1.5" range (33.5" to 35") that it won't work for. Since this is nowhere advertised, I bought the gate for my 34" doorway between the kitchen and the dining room, only to discover that I had acquired useless equipment. In order to discover this, however, I had to remove all the packing materials, and now I can't even return the thing. This is like buying food prominently labeled on the front, "Contains Absolutely No Peanuts!" but buried in its ingredients list on the back, in small print, reads "peanuts." False advertising.
So, being a reasonable person, I called Evenflo's customer service line. I thought that perhaps someone there would have recognized that false advertising is bad for business. Instead, a surly, condescending, and wholly unhelpful person told me, amazingly, that since the 1.5" gap in the range was not a design flaw, Evenflo would not do anything to help me. When I protested that the box clearly states it will fit the whole range of 29" to 37.5" she replied that what the box said didn't matter, since the instructions (actually, just the parts list) INSIDE THE BOX accurately indicate what doorway sizes the gate will and will not fit. Then, when I asked if any gates *would* fit my 34" doorway, she told me I had to go back to the store and talk to a sales representative there.
I will never buy another Evenflo product again.
Customer Review: Works well, even with slightly offset walls
Summary: 4 Stars
The entry to our kitchen is about 35 inches wide and each wall is about five inches thick. Each side is slightly offset about one inch so we had to find something that would work at a very slight angle. This fit the bill. We have small corner-round at the base of the walls, so our gate is also about 1 inch off the ground. It has worked very well and stayed in place since we installed it over a month ago. If our 14 month old son wants to walk into the kitchen while the gate is open, he has no problem remembering to step up over the bar. His 9-month old playmate who just started walking would sort of trip over it during a visit, but that was expected and we assisted her. It is supposed to open with one hand, and it does, but the torque on my almost middle-aged wrist was mildly uncomfortable, so I use two hands - one for squeezing the buttons on either side at the same time, and the other to slide the lock. After the first couple of weeks the locking mechanism loosened to a more comfortable level. Closing is A LOT easier -it only takes one finger because while the gate is open you just get the hang of pushing in the little locking mechanism while pulling the gate shut... hard for me to explain, but trust me. No problem for my older children to open the gate.
At least one previous reviewer is using this at the top of the steps. Do not use pressure mounted gates at the top of steps, it is a safety hazard.