Evenflo Soft And Wide Gate Taupe & Chocolate
by Evenflo
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List Price: Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of Evenflo Soft And Wide Gate Taupe & Chocolate
Customer Review: A review from a person who has had this get for two years!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been reading the reviews on this gate and I have noticed the people, that say they don't like the gaste, apparently seem to have missed the mark. So I will talk about the simple fixes to some of the problems.
1. One reviewer said that it was hard to turn the bars! Huh? I think I know what she was doing...puting the gate in place and then turning the bars--that is difficult! But this is what I do, and I say it works well. I turn the bars until they are about 3\4 inch longer that the wall, and then compress the gate with my hands (okay this may take some muscle) and install the gate. With that much tension my nine year old has a hard time moving it. My three year can't at all! He has even ran into and not knocked it over. I do have one installed at the top and the bottom of my stairs--because no one can move it!
2. Another popular complaint is having to step over it. My fourteen year old, and 5 foot wife have no problem stepping over it. My nine year-when that is a bonus that he can't get over it! It is not tall and easy to step over. I can't see that as being a problem at all! And don't wory cats and athletics dogs can clear the gates--sometimes to our dismay though--no dogs in the kitchen please!
3. Leaving marks on the wall! Yeah that does happen and it sucks, but check this out! Try baby powder for gloss paint or tissue paper (like the tissue papaer for gift boxes) for flat paint--no sticking paint then! Plastic wrap also works.
Okay so those are the gripes that I read about. Now let me tell you about the ways that I use it. I have two four way intersections in my house (at the kitchen/laundry room/hallway/diningroom hallway, and dining roomhallway. dinning room/backyard door areas/breakfast nook)--I wish I could draw it. I mounted the gates at an angle so that the kids could only go in two directions, My kids can only go in the hallway to the living room and into the dinning room! With these gates strategically located throughout the house I effective blocked off my small children from dangerous areas and that makes me very very happy.
Oh the one bad thing! It get dirty, but you can disassemble it and wash it in the washing machine.
--Signed Jessica's Husband
Customer Review: Great GREAT for walls that are not even or have molding
Summary: 4 Stars
I live in an apartment, the walls are not straight up/down so all those other expansion gates would never get tight at all 4 points. My daughter, 9 months at the time of purchase had mastered up stairs. I needed something for the bottom of the stairwell. This gate was the best solution for everything out there. I wanted one I could use pressurized at the bottom so when I didnt need the gate (like during naps/nightime) I could go about my way without having to open the gate and then close it behind me (so it didnt slam and wake her up!) if it had been a permanent gate.
PROS: This gate can extend at the top bar and the bottom bar separately. SUPER! solution to walls that arent perfectly straight! It does have the nice rubber ends that are supposed to be easy on your walls and not leave any marks (they are certainly more forgiving than many of the other pressurized gates I checked out). The gate also expands much, much wider than many other gates for comparably the same price. It is made of a soft mesh that has padding around the bars, albeit very light padding.
******** Also, since it can expand at the top and the bottom separately, it makes for a grand gate to use where you have moldings- mine stick out nearly 2 inches from the wall and the gate still fits so flush with the wall that when my 90 lb lab jumps up on it with her front legs she cant knock it down.
CONS Although the gate is not supposed to leave marks on your walls from the rubber pads, it has on mine. It made it chip but that very well may be because apartments use very cheap paints! The way you avoid this and the way the gate is intended to be removed is by unscrewing thus making the gate shorter and releases itself from the wall. This is very, VERY difficult. I get the gate so tight against the wall that its nearly impossible. What I now do, I keep the bottom of the gate always screwed at the lenght the gate needs to be, push it in at an angle then follow the other bottom side until both bottoms are straight across from one another, I then screw the top bar the length I need it to be and push it into the wall the way I did the bottom.
Customer Review: Not made for climbers
Summary: 1 Stars
It's ironic that my son would break his arm over something I bought to help protect him. He was 2 years old. I wanted a gate that was wide, could expand to a wider width on top than on bottom to accommodate the baseboards. I didn't want anything with footholds that he could use for climbing. This gate fit the bill nicely.
What happened? My son tried to climb the gate anyway. He was able to get his leg over the top bar and when he did, the material on the top bar slid over and around the bar. He couldn't grip the bar and slid right over the top, breaking his arm. Try gripping a metal bar with a loose padded nylon sleeve and you will see how difficult it is to grip the bar. Is this just a freak accident? Probably, but I can't see myself giving 5 stars for a safety product that my child defeated.
Pros:
+expands to a wide width up to 60 inches
+can make the top and bottom different widths to accommodate baseboards
+easy to expand via a twisting motion
+does not mar doorways
+pressure mounted, is portable
+mesh panel has no footholds
Cons:
-no door
-cannot be used at top of the stairs because it is pressure mounted
-if the kid gets over the top, he will fall right over!
UPDATE:
So it's been a few years and I'm no longer afraid my son would fall over the gate. I have a dog and was trying to prevent the dog from going into the dining room from the kitchen. Out comes this gate. My son was 7 and my daughter 4. The kids never went through that door per my instructions. Well, you know kids. This time, it was my daughter who tried to climb the gate. She also had the problem of not being able to get a grip on the top bar. She slid over the top and fell smack right on her face.
Thought it was a fluke the first time. This gate really isn't made for climbers.
Customer Review: Does not work well for 60" openings!
Summary: 1 Stars
I thought this gate was the answer to my problem - I needed a barrier for a 5' opening between the living room and dining room and didn't want to drill into the 1930's gum wood trim. A wide pressure-mounted gate seemed like the perfect solution.
Unfortunately, this gate does not live up to its claim of working in an opening up to 5 feet wide. I could hardly get the top and bottom bars to expand far enough. I wrestled with them for a long time - probably 30 minutes. I had to sit on the floor and pin the bars down with my legs to keep the gate from warping and popping up all over the place. I finally got them to open up to the full 60", but the gate was not straight at all. It was all bent out of shape and twisted. I then attempted to install it, but it just didn't happen. I nearly threw out my back trying to twist it back to the proper shape, but it kept springing back before I could secure it in the opening. I almost had it a couple of times, but I just couldn't muscle it in. Maybe if I had help I might have been able to get it in place. But even if I did manage to install it, I would be afraid that it would spring loose sometime and launch my little 11-month old across the living room or knock out one of those cute little teeth she has recently cut.
I am terribly disappointed that this gate did not work as promised and have not yet decided on another gate. Maybe I will go back to pushing the coffee table in front of the opening and squeezing a toy box or chair or something into the remaining space. I doubt that will contain my active little one for much longer, though.
Customer Review: This gate is just OK
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm not really sure what I expected from this gate, but I can tell you this - it's just ok. Maybe mine is defective or something, because everyone else seems to love it. Who knows. But just in case you care, here are the reasons why I'm not madly in love with it:
-It falls down. Yes, sometimes we will be sitting in the living room and nobody is near it, and it just falls down on it's own. We returned the first one we had because it did this and we thought something was wrong with it. We've checked and double checked and it's adjusted and mounted properly. I think it's because the wall we have it on is brick and it just doesn't stick to it properly, but what do I know?
-After it falls down a few times, it needs to be readjusted, which takes forever. The directions claim it only needs to be adjusted the first time. Whatever!
-The little protector knobby things fall off when you take it down.
But then again, the manufacturer says it's for a light traffic area, and we take it down at night and put it back up every morning (not counting the two or three times a day it falls down), so maybe that doesn't fit the definition of light traffic?
But like someone else said, this is the only gate this size that is pressure mounted, and it's relatively inexpensive in comparison, plus it serves it's purpose well enough for us so I guess it was worth the money.