Stairway Gate Installation Kit (K12) by KidCo
by KidCo, Inc
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List Price: Our Price: $32.00 You Save: $19.00 (37%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of Stairway Gate Installation Kit (K12) by KidCo
Customer Review: Functions Well, But Instructions Are In Small Print, Do Not Depict Parts, Fail to Mention Tools Needed, and Have Swapped Figures
Summary: 4 Stars
(This item is not to be confused with KidCo Safety Gate Installation Kit or Kidco Gate Installation Kit or The KidCo Gate Installation Kit model K10 which has hardware such as screws and plastic tie straps, but no clamps.)
I wanted to put a pressure-mounted baby safety gate at the bottom of stairs that have a banister (i.e., handrail and balusters) on one side, but I didn't want to drill holes into the newel (i.e., the thick post typically at the end of a bannister). Also, the newel was about 3" wide, which looked too large for Y Spindle for Gate Installation (2 Pack) from KidCo or Safety Innovations GM6 Baluster Mounting Kit by Safety Innovations.
This product worked great after installation on the square and round parts of the newel. The pressure-mounted gate is secure against it (and the manufacturer claims that it also works with gates that would otherwise be screwed into a wall).
However, installation took about 30 minutes, which could have been shorter if the trilingual (English, Spanish, French) instructions had been better. You can see the instructions (aka "user guide") at the Kidco Web site. It has the following problems: (1) The font is quite small. (2) It has no diagrams of the 10 types of parts (clamp fronts, clamp backs, bolts, wood blocks, shims, round post adapters, finish washers, 1-1/2" screws, 1-3/4" screws, and a 36"x1"x2" wood piece). These would have been especially helpful for people who are not mechanically inclined, or for people whose first language is not English, español, or français. (3) It does not specify what tools are needed for installation: a Phillips screwdriver (to attach the clamps to the baluster), a level (to make the 36" wood piece perpendicular to the floor), a drill with 5/32" bit (to connect the 36" wood piece to the wood blocks inside the clamps), and a saw and sandpaper (if the 36" wood piece needs to be cut shorter). (4) The pictures for Figure 2 and Figure 4 are swapped. Figure 2 is supposed to show the round post adapters and Figure 4 is supposed to show the installed gate.
So I'm giving the product 5 stars and the instructions 3 stars, for an average of 4 stars.
Customer Review: Works great but hard to install
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this installation kit so I could avoid having to drill into our stair railings. We used it with a safety first top of the stair gate.
Each kit comes with a piece of wood that runs vertically, perpendicular to the floor, and you install your gate's hardware into the piece of wood instead of into your railings/walls. To attach the wood, the kit comes with two brackets - one of the top of the rail and one for the bottom. They have inserts in case your post is rounded, so that's great. Ours is square on the bottom and rounded on the top and the brackets fit snugly either way.
You need to actually drill through the included wood, through the plastic casing which contains a small wooden block. This is how the wood gets attached to your brackets. It was very difficult to actually install this wood to the brackets. There are no pre-drilled or marked holes. It does come with a paper diagram that you can use to mark where you need to drill but it is hard to work with. On the upside, no pre-drilling means it is customizable to your rails so you don't need to worry about it not fitting exactly like you need it.
Be careful to mark where your gate hardware will need to be attached to the wood too. At first, I wasn't paying attention and the gate's bracket ended up needing to be screwed into the wood right where I had already screwed the wood to the kit bracket. So that was annoying...but was my fault for not checking up front.
The kits are fairly expensive and you will need a kit for each rail. It would be nice if a "kit" included two sides instead of just one. We had to buy two of these kits, but at least we didn't have to ruin our posts by drilling them, so overall it was a good buy.
We've had our gate installed with this kit now for about 2 months and we're very pleased with it, now that it is actually done! The worst thing about it was the difficult installation, but otherwise it is sturdy, and saves your railings. I'd say it is definitely worth the purchase overall.
Customer Review: Easy to use; No damage to railing
Summary: 4 Stars
We love this kit. We have used it on two staircases. We purchased it for one and were so pleased we bought a second one for upstairs. It is easy to assemble, although YOU WILL NEED A DRILL. The good thing is you drill into the kit, not the banister. The kit essentially allows you to mount a flat piece of wood parallel to your banister. You can then attach whatever gate you want to the flat wood, leaving the banister untouched. Two clamps seal around your banister so that you never drill into it. I am no expert handyman and it took me about 45 minutes to assemble, with most of that time spent reading the instructions and checking ten times before I drilled anything. One downside: the instructions could be better. I was able to figure out what to do (it's sort of obvious from looking at the parts), but the company would do well to improve on the instruction writing. This was not a deal breaker for me, though.Customer Review: Horrible Installtions
Summary: 1 Stars
Strike 1!
First off, this is supposed to prevent drilling into your banister. However, the screws provided are longer than their hardware so without a washer or a shim, you WILL DRILL INTO YOUR BANISTER.
Strike 2!
Intallation is in tiny print with no images provided. You are better off looking at the images they put on Amazon to know how to install this thing.
Strike 3!
It says no drilling required and doesn't list that you will need several tools including your own washers, smaller screws, a FREAKING drill, a 5/32 inch drill bit, and another human being present to help. There is virtually no way to do this project by yourself and you will in fact drill over 10 times.
It also looks as ghetto as the images imply. Although at least they aren't trying to sugar coat that!
Customer Review: horrible service at amazon.com got the wrong item!!!
Summary: 1 Stars
Oh my goodness. I cannot tell you how horrible my service was from amazon.com. I would totally order this item but from a reliable place like target.com or somewhere else that sells it. I received the wrong item and amazon.com would do nothing about it. Their answer to the problem was for me to rebuy the item at another 34.00 charge afte I already was charged on my card for 34.00 and never received the item (I got some pain gel). I then was told I could get a refund but funds would not be available for 3 business days. This means I would be out 34.00 for 3 days and they did nothing else to compensate me. Horrible customer service if you don't get the right item. Not to mention that I was hung up 3 times and on the phone for 2 hours to get a refund when I didn't even get my item!! I still cannot believe it....will never order from here again!!!