Customer Reviews

Evenflo Soft And Wide Gate Taupe & Chocolate

5 star:		(147)
4 star:		(54)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I bought this gate for a large entryway between my kitchen and family room. I liked that it did not require the installation of special hardware, which most of the other large-space gates did. When it arrived, I found it easy to assemble, and once I got the hang of the tension rods, it was very easy to put up. I also didn't have any problem taking it down at night when the baby was asleep; there are clear markings on the knobs indicating how to expand or contract the rods; a few twists and the gate came down.

The gate is about 27.5" high. As some other reviewers have mentioned, you do have to climb over this gate while it is in place. It does not have the open/close gate option of some of the newer systems out there. However, my husband and I are tall enough that this isn't a problem.

I like that the gate is versatile enough to move to any room in the house; when my son was old enough to venture around the house more, we took it out of the kitchen doorway and now use it to block our office, so that I can be in here writing this review while my son plays in the living room outside, and I don't have to worry about him climbing under my desk. I also love that the gate is easy to disassemble and travel with; we flew to see family in New Jersey in July and we brought the gate along, tucked into the same bag as the playpen.

The gate expands to 5 feet, but it can only retract to about 38 inches. However, you can adjust the top and bottom tension bars to different widths, which I liked because the bottom rests against my trim and the top on the wall, so there is some variation in width there.

I have found that if you set the gate up with too much tension, it will pull the paint off of your walls, so this is the biggest problem in my opinion. However, we resolved this by buying some $2 wall guards, usually used for walls where doorknobs hit, and sticking them in the place where the gate is most often set up. Another problem was that our cat, who is somewhat skittish, was afraid to jump over it; she got the hang of it eventually.

In all, this is a good gate for temporary use in places where you want to keep kids out until they're a little older. It's not permanent, and it should not be used atop stairs. There is some minor wall damage if you set it too tight, but the ease of travel and storage makes this a good gate to have for a backup or at Grandma's house.

This gate is a pressure-mounted gate designed specifically for "light traffic" (that's what it says on the box!). It's not meant for the top of stairs. It doesn't have a latch or door that you can open and close. But it's a great gate to block off an area that has a wide opening. There are no other pressure mounted gates on the market that fit this wide of a space (up to 60 inches). The next widest pressure mounted gate covers just under 48 inches and that one was difficult to install. This one I had installed in less than 5 minutes, and it's quite secure. The gate is low enough that an average height Mom or Dad can step right over it, so the lack of a door doesn't bother me at all. (I'm 5'4" and have no problems swinging my leg over it). And to top it off, the price is reasonable.

If you have a narrower space and want a pressure-mounted gate with a door/latch, I recommend the Hands-Free Gate for The First Years. I've had it for over 3 years now and use it mulitple times a day without any problems. It's maximum width is 34 inches.

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

the walk way between my kitchen and living room is exactly 60". This gate fits it perfectly. Be warned, I fully extended the gate to fit, if the opening was 1 inch larger, it would not have worked. And make sure you understand this gate seals off the doorway. You can only step over it.
For my needs (closing off a 5 foot doorway) the product is 100% perfect.

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.

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.

After purchasing 2 plastic safety gates and finding that they did not fit in our doorways - which turned out to be quite uneven! We came across this gate and LOVED it!

It is sucure enough to handle a 3 year old practicing her "back-bends" on (she's a dare-devil! but has yet to pull it down, thank god!) and yet simple enough for adults to remove from the door way.

This gate has also been great for the wide doorways from the kitchen to the living room. I wouldn't recommend it for use at the top of stairs, but definitely a great gate to buy!

we use this in the wide opening between dining and living room. keeps the dogs out, and baby in. it was easy to put up, and isn't doing damage to our woodwork.

baby hasn't tried to pull on it yet; that's when the gate will prove its worth. but so far, it's been absolutely perfect. plus, it's not expensive.

We have an odd staircase - about 45", flat railing on the wall side, right at mounting height, and on the other side there's a wooden rail banister. We're getting ready to sell our house, and didn't want to damage the wood rails with holes, not to mention the 3" difference on the wall side between the top and bottom mounting locations due to the railing and baseboards. This gate easily overcame the obstacles! It is able to mount on uneven surfaces, and it is so secure. My 6'-4" 215 pound husband could barely push it over! It took me about 5 minutes to assembly and install! Just follow the easy instructions, twist the knobs to adjust the width to 1/2" bigger than your opening and compress the springs to install. I wish this gate opened, but for the price and it's flexibility, this gate is perfect! This gate looks great too - the mesh blends away and is not obtrusive like some of the gates, and the tan color blends with the wood in our house nicely. A great gate!

I'm pleased with this gate for what we needed it for. I have a large space that I wanted to keep my child out of, this works well for that. I will say though that it is not the strongest if you have a child that tries to push through it or a large dog. I would not use it at the top of a staircase.

If you just need to deter your child then this is great!