Evenflo Top of Stair Gate
by Evenflo
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List Price: Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of Evenflo Top of Stair Gate
Customer Review: VERY GOOD gate! Excellent VALUE!
Summary: 4 Stars
This gate could have easily been 5 stars, but there are a few points that need mention, where the gate needs some improvement. If 'Evenflo' addresses these, this gate will easily merit a top score. Let me start with the positives. The gate itself is made of sturdy and aesthetically appealing wood. It works well and looks great, IF the install goes well, and as EXACTLY specified (included paper template is great). The mechanical 'lock latch' inspires confidence in that you can actually feel and hear it 'click into place', which gives one peace of mind. Of course, one hopes that 'Evenflo' has determined this type of latch to be one that is not 'easily defeated' by the age group that it was manufactured/intended for (6 months to 2 years)! Thankfully, it does seem like it is up to the task. I also like the fact that the bottom latch receptacle allows for the gate to slide into, thus adding reinforcement to BOTH the top and bottom portions of this gate. Way to go 'Evenflo'! The negatives about the gate are as follows. In many typical installations, there will be baseboard molding/trim that may get in the way of installing the bottom-most latch receptacle. It did in my case, even after carefully measuring the proper clearance from the floor, as specified in the assembly directions. Thus, I wasn't able to get the latch receptacle to clear the molding in order to screw in the bottom screw. I had to thus cut (with a hacksaw) that portion of the latch receptacle, and 'modify' it for my installation. I then was only able to use 1 screw (although a larger and longer one than provided), instead of 2, to install the bottom latch receptacle. Thankfully, even just the modified 1 screw installation was very tight and secure going into the door jam wood. 'Evenflo' should provide the consumer with at least another type of bottom latch receptacle that allows for better clearance of molding near the floor. Besides, MOST typical homes DO have some kind of baseboard molding, and mine was only 1/1/2" high, hardly anything large. Lastly, the assembly directions did not make clear which latch receptacle to use on the top, and which on the bottom. They are NOT the same dimensions, as one is thicker than the other (top latch receptacle is thinner than the thicker bottom one). Of course, the aforementioned 'latch receptacle' install challenge may not even apply to you for your installation, especially if you don't have floor baseboard molding. In summation, this gate is STURDY and EXCELLENT, and a good value. PLEASE, just make sure you do install it correctly (as per the instructions), and NEVER leave your baby alone unsupervised. These gates are meant to be used WITH proper supervision, and never as a replacement for.Customer Review: Dangerous - Pinches skin badly!!
Summary: 1 Stars
Update: 6-months later - the sliding mechanism has loosened up considerably with use. It now slides smoothly without pinching our hands. I've found the gate to be strong and secure - it has never weakened or popped out when my son tries to stand on it. So, if you buy it, try rubbing some wax, or something, on it to help in the beginning, because it was pretty dangerous at first. And also be aware that little hands can still get pinched in between the actual rungs when you're opening it. That will happen with any slotted, sliding gate. Some further negatives I found is that the latch is loud, and it's also difficult for grandma to open and close because she has arthritis in her hands. And with it being difficult for her to do, she tries repeatedly and the noise is very loud and annoying. I'm always afraid she's going to wake the kids. So, if you have your mom at your house a lot, get something easier. It will save a lot of frustration - for both of you!
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I've had this installed for a little over a week and have seriously pinched my skin twice on it. What happens is when you unlatch it, you first have to slide the gate in, then swing it out. There are metal brackets that hold the two halves of the gate together, and in which the horizontal wooden bars slide along to extend and contract (look at the photo - you'll see what I mean). The sliding movement is quite stiff and hard to do. I'm sure with use it will loosen, or perhaps I can put some wax on there. But when you're opening the gate in a rush, as I did today when we were hit with a sudden downpour and I needed to run upstairs to shut the windows, I put too much muscle into getting the darn thing to slide, and the outside of my hand got pinched beneath the metal bracket. The first time I did this last week my older son woke up yelling for me and I wanted to get upstairs quickly before he woke the baby. My hand got pinched under that metal part and I thought to myself that I need to be more careful. But busy parents like us don't have the time to stop and think about being careful when opening a gate. When we've got screaming kids and rain coming through the windows, the last thing we should have to worry about is hurting ourselves on a SAFETY gate!! I dont' mean to beat a dead horse, but seriously, that's not good. The pinch I got today was major painful - I've got a blood blister that's almost half an inch long!
Customer Review: Great deal for the buck!
Summary: 5 Stars
We got this gate for the top of the stairs from our outdoor patio down into the garden. It was hard to find a gate for a 42" opening, we didn't want to buy yet another expensive gate (we own the North States Auto-Close Metal Gate - Pressure Mount, they are very nice and work great), but this one was a great deal!
Even though one side of the opening were raw bricks, the installation was easy with the measurement paper strip. The hinges have enough wiggle room to cope with the slightly uneven surface, though thy are sturdy enought to withstand a rough play of our 26 pound toddler.
The gate is made out of unfinished wood. Though it is great to the touch, obviously it's not that great for outdoors - but fortunately it's easy to paint with a gel stain. One drawback: the metal clamps on the top and bottom to allow adjustment are a little bit hard to paint around...
This gate is not an easy open-close gate for constant use, but we knew that from the description. You need to wiggle it into the upper and lower sturdy metal bracket to close it, and you need to wiggle it open after releasing the metal buckle. Nice detail: for patio parties we can completely remove the gate out of the hinges without tools, so no hazard to trip down the stairs.
We are very satisfied, as we were looking for something less expensive that is easy to mount on the uneven surface with a wide opening. The unfinished wood surface is great for colorful paintings.
UPDATE 2009-01-06: We moved and I mounted this gate on a wooden U-frame as I didn't want to screw it into the side shingles of the house (it now prevents the kids running into the alley between the houses and onto the street). I really didn't do a good job with the frame, it's a bit warped, too, so I'm really happy that this gate even installs easily when you didn't do a meticulous measuring job. As it is exposed in full weather now, it does expand and shrink a bit with the moisture, but no problem again. It really served us well, and being out of wood made it very versatile for painting (currently it's green).
Customer Review: Poor quality control
Summary: 3 Stars
If you buy this gate, do not buy it online unless you can return it to a store (which you can do with Babies r Us). I have three of these gates, and the first one I tried to install was terrible. The gate has two slatted panels and in order to close the gate, you have to slide one panel and latch it. But the panels would not slide - they were so stiff I would have had to use my foot as well as my hand to close the gate! Obviously unacceptable. But I checked another of the gates and it was fine, and worked like a charm. I don't know if it's relevant or not, but the first gate was made in Mexico, and the second in China. Maybe there's a bad batch of Mexican-made gates out there, or maybe it was just a one-off. I don't know, but it may be something for you to be aware of if you purchase this gate.
Also, I attached the gate to a relatively narrow doorway, so the two panels were mostly overlapping. So the gate is nice and sturdy, and I think it would be good even at the top of stairs, if the stairway is narrow. However, I DO NOT recommend this gate for use anywhere - especially the top of stairs - if you need to use it towards its widest range. The two panels are then stretched out and the gate becomes flimsy. It's my suspicion that those who have complained about the gate being flimsy and the bottom rail popping out have used the gate in a wider opening than those who think its a sturdy gate. So don't buy this gate if you need it for a wide opening.
Finally, the third gate also slides well (made in China) but it will not fit where I wanted to put it. I suspect it is common to many gates that they work only in quite specific situations, and you can't really tell if it's going to work in your situation until you get it home and really take a good look at it. So, once again, do be sure you can return this (and probably any other) gate before buying.
All in all, I recommend this gate - but ONLY IF you will be using it in a narrow opening. It is sturdy and not too difficult to install. It also looks reasonably nice if that matters to you.
Customer Review: Luv this gate
Summary: 5 Stars
We purchased this gate almost 2 years ago when my daughter started crawling. She's now 2 1/2 years old. I've been meaning to write a review on this gate since it is one of the best gates for the stairs. We have mounted it at the top of the stair. My husband used small pieces of 2x4's for extra security to mount it on the side of the stairs that has plaster (as opposed to a wooden post). This gate is very strong and is holding up very well (minus the fingerprints :). A few times, I have caught my daughter standing at it shaking it or trying to stand on it, which I make her stop. Fortunately, there are no vertical bars, just horizontal, so climbing it would be a little difficult. I'd done quite a bit of research on baby gates before purchasing this one at Babies R Us, but in trying to save a few dollars, I first went to Wal-Mart and bought a metal top-of-the-stairs gate, but I decided to take it back since it had a raised "platform" (for lack of a better word) piece at the bottom. I think that platform was meant for extra sturdiness, but I saw it as an accident waiting to happen. I returned that gate before we even installed it. This gate doesn't have that "platform" and it is still very sturdy. Another nice feature about this is that you can just slip the gate out of its brackets to remove it if you are having a party or have to run up and down the stairs without needing to swing the gate out of your way. And when you are ready to put it back, just line the gate up with the brackets and slide it in place. Really nice feature for us when we were moving our daughter's furniture from one room to the other and downstairs, we didn't have the gate in our way since we removed the swing arm. Overall, we are very pleased and would buy this gate again if we had to.