Customer Reviews

Stairway Gate Installation Kit (K12) by KidCo

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

(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.

What a find. We really wanted to securely fasten gates at the top and bottom of our stairs but couldn't find anything that would work properly until we found these. They really did the trick. They are perfectly secure around the posts as both square and with the round post inserts. Note: mine were sold through Target but not available from target.com.

This is like the best invention ever invented. Well besides Pizza and maybe the cartoon Smurfs. Kidding aside, We have at the top of our stairs an opening where the rails dont quite match up so a typical baby gate like the ones with the pressure points would not work. Next choice was installing a gate and screwing into our nice oak post stair railings. Not an option. Then i stumbled across these things. Worked perfectly and so easy to install. Most importantly they are easy to remove and when you decide to remove them, no screw holes in the nice oak to fill or cover up. Very very thankfull for these. Highly Recommended.

The irony of this product is that it is made to enhance a SAFTEY gate. It is the least safe product I have ever seen. I have to imagine that if any safety agency knew about this product it would instantly be pulled off the market. There are so many issues - let me describe them all to you.

First, describes itself as a safety installation kit. If you actually buy this product (which I cannot make a strong enough emphasis not to) you will find that ONE kit is good for one post. So if you have a staircase that has two posts - you will need two kits. No problem. I opened the box and was a little disappointed to discover that I would need to order a second kit to get my gate hung, but I figured I would install the first kit, be sure I liked it and then order the second kit on Amazon and it would be here in three days. Well, instead I will return the first one because of the rest of the issues I discovered.

Second, no drilling. This phrase is seriously written ALL OVER the box. As soon as you have installed your mounts, the next thing you do is drill on the piece of wood that is included, I wouldn't exactly call that NO DRILLING. But fine, I have a drill, I want a permanently installed gate, no problem (just false advertising.) The real problem is that the screws that are included are longer than the mount so unless you are comfortable switching out the screws or adding your own washers, you will indeed drill right into your staircase. Hmmmm, seems like that completely defeats the purpose.

So you are thinking, fine a little false advertising, all I need to do is buy two kits for both posts, switch out the screws and maybe add some washers and I will be able to use this kit - the one that is going to cost an additional $60 when all is said and done. Maybe it is still worth it? That is where you would be wrong.

Third and most importantly. If you look very closely at the image, you can see that the pressure mount is two pieces of plastic that surround the post. Well, the pieces are kept together by long screws, they do not have any type of washer or anything that holds the screw in from the other end. So, after painfully tightening the pressure mount, two turns at a time, per side, as instructed, the mount finally appears to be tight. I then give a slight pull the backside and the whole thing collapses in my hand. Awesome. This is because the screw isn't actually threading through the plastic, because the predrilled hole is too big. So the main reason for purchase, the "pressure-mount" system completely failed. And that was when I simply returned the product to Amazon and looked for something that isn't going to cause my gate to fall over and possibly have my baby tumble down the stairs.

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.

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.

I found I had to have two of these for my bannister dimensions. Also nice for eliminating the holes in your wood or easy removal for dressing up the house. Excellent quality and rugged.

This set seems really good, although i cannot rate that because we did not get to use it-
This piece is not good for an iron banister. The attachment is made for a thick wooden banister, or just something thick in general.

I almost never review products, but this product is exceptional. I was very skeptical that it would be sturdy and secure enough to trust my kid's health/life to but I'm pleasantly surprised. After installing it I gave it a pretty violent, adult strength thrashing and it didn't budge a fraction of an inch.

Installation was pretty straight forward. The instructions were lacking a bit but there are few parts and installation seemed common sense enough.

We got this because we didn't want to make holes in the nice wood banister at the top of our staircase. It works great. We will buy another for the bottom of the stairs.