Customer Reviews

Dream Baby Swing Closed Security Gate Combo

5 star:		(128)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Very happy with this purchase. Very sturdy, high-quality construction. Gate closes nicely and tightly with a nice click reminiscent of the way a well designed car door thunks shut. Gate swings open either way, which is nice. Happy with the way the wall is protected with the cups that are provided. No problems after having been up the last few months. Would definitely buy again - we have two of them and are very pleased.

When we were looking for a bottom of the stairs gate we had quite a long list of what exactly we needed. This gate had it all!! The bottom of the wall by our stairs has a large molding so we needed a pressure mount gate that did not need the top width and the bottom width to be the same. We needed something strong enough to keep our soon to be 1 year old from going up the stairs but easy enough for our 3 and 5 year old to open by themselves. We also needed something that closed and locked by itself so we wouldn't have to worry if the older 2 kids remembered to lock the gate behind them. And last, but not least, we needed something affordable.

Our banister is wrought iron and fairly thin so we also ended up getting a plank of wood and some zip ties to make the gate more sturdy. We also needed to use both extensions which came with it. It was extremely easy to install and took a matter of minutes.

I could not be happier. This gate is everything we asked for and more... It's very easy to open, even with 1 hand, the older kids can use it easily and yet it closes and locks behind them like we wanted. The price as perfect, and best of all, the baby can't budge it even when he pushes and shoves his hardest.

We bought this gate for our 1 year old boy and installed it as a kitchen door. Even though our baby wasn't very much happy about this "present", we feel he is much in safe than it was before (he used to rush into the kitchen and push all "push"able buttons and turn all "turn"able things he could see).

This gate is great because:
- It looks good
- Made of metal and looks like will last for a long time
- Easy and clean (no screws, no hammer, pressure mounted) installation
- Clever childproof locking mechanism that doesn't annoy adults to open it frequently (you have to use both button on the top of the gate and pull the door UP to open it, my kid tried to open it lots of time with no luck)
- Door has a mechanism that closes right after you release it (so, just open it, walk in/out and don't worry about if the door was locked after you, it will)

It comes with two extensions, which I didn't use.

The only thing I'd ask for is it would be nice to have a feature that prevents locking the door automatically. When baby is not at home, it doesn't need to be locked.

Don't know how the other products do, but this one I'd recommend for sure.

I really like the look of this gate. At first I would have rated it a 5, but with only 4 months use, our two year old was able to break the latch device on the bottom. Now one gate swings freely, and the other we have swings freely in one direction. Also, even though I tightened the gate as tight as humanly possible, the upper latch never really catches with all of the work being done by the now worthless lower latch. When it worked, it was nice, but no longer.

This particular baby security gate is ideal for many areas where one would want a safety gate. It's quite strong as it's shipping weight of 15 pounds indicates. This is super-easy to install on "some" areas because it's pressure mounting style is intuitive and doesn't require many parts. I am currently using three of them (and two other different types as well).

2 Words of Caution:

1) This is probably not the best gate to install at top of stairs simply because you'd have to use screws and there aren't enough screw holes (just one for top and one for bottom on each side, and you'd really need twice that).

2) The pressure mount is not designed for most situations where there is molding. For example, if you've got molding along the wall such that the little round parts that touch the wall cannot be flush, or if you've got molding on your bannister such that the round parts that attach there cannot be flush. Whereas the instructions say you have to have this gate touching the floor, there are places where you can get away with having it slightly above the floor. But decorative molding may make this gate too difficult to install without getting creative with well-cut pieces of wood or some other creative method.

The included extentions:

Dreambaby sells this product on Amazon with the extensions included, one for each side (you're not supposed to use two on one side although some people have done so with success). Whereas you're paying for the extension (nothing is free), it is a convenience especially when you see what all the gate marketers charge for an extension separately. As I mentioned, I have 3 of these particular gates installed. I used one extension on two of them and two on one of them. I cannot imagine what a pain it would have been to order the extensions separately. Of course, that means I have two extra extensions that I don't need.

The operation of this gate:

I love it. It's better than my other gates. The door closes shut automatically when you open it even halfway and let go. Very convenient. After all, you have to go through the gate over and over again everyday, and you don't want to make this event an ordeal.

Top of stairs:

Oh, how I hated installing a gate for top of stairs. This is the most sensitive place to install a gate. That's because a baby can push on it and go down the stairs with it if it fails, God forbid. Here's my recommendation for top of stairs: KidCo Safeway Gate - White. Just as I found the Dreambaby gate the simplest and best for most uses, I found this one simplest for top of stairs. But installing it was more difficult and time-consuming that it would be to install many pressure mounted gates. It has two screws for each of the 4 contact points. Guess what? - You really have to throw away those screws because they're too short and insufficient. So you have to get your own appropriate screws. Moreover, this one doesn't close and "lock" automatically like the Dreambaby gate. Please see my review on it for tips regarding installing it (or other reviews that have good tips).

Conclusion:

The pressure mounted Dreambaby gate is near perfect for non-top of stairs uses providing that there is not decorative molding to interfere with installation. Inclusion of the extensions was a good idea even if it drove up the cost a little. Operation of the gate is a dream.

We know that the range (28"-39") listed for this gate (the combo package). However, there are some caveats.

PLEASE READ carefully. The gate itself (when mounted) is about 24.5" wide. The length of the threaded positioners is 3.75" (with plastic end piece). There are two of them. I feel that screwing in at least an .5" of each screw is necessary to provide stability. Okay, now we have 3.25" X 2 (two screws less .5" each). We can now approximate the ACTUAL outer limits of the gate's stability (without extensions) at about 31". Add one of the 3.5" extensions and outer limit where the gate will be stable is around 34.5". Add another 3.5" extension and that limit would be 38".

Yes, your opening can push (my) limits a little bit...no more than 1" perhaps. How much you unscrew the adjustors would be up to you and your own sensibilities. However, if your opening is significantly more than either 31", 34.5" or 38", you can still tweak things a little with some engenuity. One of my openings (a little less than 42") is 3" over the company's upper design limits.... but since I'm a grandma and those gates aren't up all of the time, I just added a paperback book (1" each) to the adjustors at the wall. That 2" was enough to safely secure the gate. It's not a permanent fix. I had ordered a 10.5" extension but it's at my daughter's house.

There will be instances when an extension is either too little or too much to safely fit an opening. The manufacturers cannot design for everything. Just because the company says that the gate (with the two 3.5" extensions) will fit openings of between 28"-39" does not mean that it will fit ALL measurements in between. Your opening may fall in those "gaps" where the gate by itself won't work or any combination of extensions does not make it work. If so, return the gate, give it away, put it in the attic (and kvetch) or have someone cut small pieces of plywood to fit between your gate and the end of the positioner. But PLEASE don't blame the manufacturer for not telling you that the gate may not work for everyone. This should be just plain common sense....something sorely lacking in far too many people these days.

This nice looking swing gate was very easy to install and looks good with any home decor. I use it to keep my dog out of one of my rooms. It is nice to be able to walk thru the gate using one hand to open it then let it go and it swings shut and locks closed on its own. Hassle free....the only way to go.

I'm torn between 3 and 4 stars, and went with 4 because my gates (I have two) haven't failed in any major way yet. We've had them for about six months and my daughter hasn't been able to knock them out of place, even by ramming her wagon into them repeatedly. And they're not as expensive as some gates, which is a big part of why I got them.

The main reason for this review is to share a way to hold the gates open when they're not needed, like after bedtime. I keep a size large binder clip on the vertical bar closest to the door (ie, the latch-side bar below the plastic part with the two screws). When my daughter isn't around, we flip the binder clip's arm out so it prevents the door from closing all the way.

Otherwise, here are my gripes: the instructions make a fuss about how the gates can never be used without the screw-in wall mounting cups. But that's exactly how they're sold to be used, as someone willing to screw holes in the wall has no reason to buy pressure-mounted gates. Also, the pressure-mount pieces have a textured rubber pad that serves no purpose other than to hold them in place in lieu of mounting cups. It would be fine to sell the gates as for use with or without the mounting cups, but the instruction's admonishments to always use them are clearly disingenuous preemptive litigation defense, which I find very annoying.

As for the gates themselves, the top latches pretty much never work, but the gates can be used without them. The bottom latches aren't too dependable either and the gates often swing out one way and then the other before latching. And one of my gates doesn't always automatically swing closed like it should. None of these defects have mattered to me yet, but they could be problematic if you have a more aggressive kid (or a pet) and disaster would result if they got through the gate -- for example, if you put it at the top of stairs. Finally, some of my rubber pressure-mount pads look like they're coming off. If they do, the gates will be much less dependable.

So 4 stars for now because of the relatively low price and lack of major failure. I'll try to update this review if the latter changes.

This is a great gate. I needed a pressure fit gate, but wanted a walk-through. Looking at the reviews, I settled on this one. I'm very happy with it. It set up pretty quickly, and only worked when set up correctly (a plus). Easily opens with one hand, and I also like that it shuts itself -- once you walk through, you can let go and it swings until it catches -- great when you have a wiggly baby in your arms! Good for top of stairs or any doorway. I would definitely recommend this gate.

This gate didn't work for us at all. It never seemed to get balanced perfectly enough to actually latch. At one point we thought it was and our daughter pushed against it, fell through and smacked her head. Having the latching system entirely dependent upon the tension is a poor design.