Customer Reviews

Northstate Superyard Playgate White

5 star:		(165)
4 star:		(56)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

We purchased the Supergate about 6 months ago for our daughter who is now one year old. She loves the fact that she can see through the gate and it is big enough for mom and dad to sit inside and play with her. Because the gate is large (its best attribute) it is also a little clumsy to fold up - but this seems to be a small price to pay for your child to be safe (and much happier than in a small play yard).

As far as some of the other reviews, I can understand their points, but find it hard to believe that people aren't using a little more common sense. For instance, given that you clearly don't bolt the gate to your floor or walls (another great feature) - it is common sense that if an adult pushes on it hard enough it is going to slide across the floor (particularly on hardwood) or collapse under the weight of an adult falling on it - such as was indicated in several other reviews. If it was rigid enough for an adult to be able to put their full weight on it, there would be no way for it to fold up. (I would challenge some of the other reviewers to stand in/fall on a standard play yard and see how quickly it breaks.) That said, this gate is clearly sturdy enough for any child who is too small to climb over it (it stands about 26" tall). As indicated on the box, this gate is not intended for the top of stairs - so don't get one for that reason. As far as another review that says you should read the instructions - again this is common sense.

In conclusion, you should buy a Supergate primarily to keep your child safe from outside temptations - and provide adequate adult supervision - such as when you are cooking or on the phone and need a place to locate your child. The gate is waterproof, sturdy, easy for the child to see through, pretty easy to fold, and very easy to set up. It fits easily in the trunk of your car for picnics, etc. and can be hosed off. After 6 months of everyday use, our gate has not shown any signs of wear or weakening.

Our child's grandparents just purchased one for in their home during visits - and are equally happy with the gate.

It is a convenient and very safe product when you follow the directions.

We bought this play yard to keep our 7 month old who is now starting to crawl and stand up out of trouble. We also bought the extension kit to give him some extra room. Set up was unbelievably easy (including extension). We set it up in the family room which has various wires and sharp edges and it allows us to bring him in with us without having to constantly monitor his whereabouts. He has plenty of toys in there! We used to use the playpen but that proved too small and he became easily bored in the confined space. This gives him a little more crawling room. We have not tried it outside, but I would imagine that it would work well outdoors on a flat surface. The pen is rather sturdy and he often uses it to pick himself up and hang on. The walls are high enough where he cannot climb over.
I would recommend this to parents who want to keep an eye on their tiny ones but would also like to have a chance to sit down and relax.

When my twin boys were 6 months old, they outgrew the baby bouncers and wanted down. The conventional "playpens" were dangerous...they could roll under the net & get stuck between the net & particle board floor. The "play yards" were too small for two. Then I thought of the superyard... my sister had triplets and had used one for them with great success. My twins loved it! They had plenty of room to play and learned to crawl & walk in it by holding on to the sides. I credit their walking so early (9 mos.) to their ability to move around alot in the play yard. It kept them very contained, yet they could see out and be part of the family, too. Unfortunately, by the time they were 12 months old, they had learned to climb out or push hard and tip it over. I now use it to divide my family room in half by running it straight across the room like a fence. We tuck it between the couch and the table behind it, and run it against the side wall. We couldn't find a "gate" to cross such a large room, but now the superyard does the trick! I only wish they would make one taller for my toddlers (with a "walk through" gate for us parents.) This is a wonderful alternative to the tiny play yards being made today.

We purchased the Superyard when my daughter was 7 months old because we have a dog that sheds and thinks he owns the house and everything in it. We wanted a clean, safe place where our daughter could play and keep her toys. At 9 months, we purchased the extension so she'd have more room to crawl around.

It has been excellent for the purpose we purchased it for, and has proven itself to have several other significant +'s. Her toys are all in one place instead of all over my house. And I can go to the bathroom or run upstairs for something and not worry she'll be in a different room when I get back. I think it's also helped with her development in standing because it was easy to pull herself up using the holes in the wall, and at 10 months, she can now walk along the entire length of the wall, holding on.

As long as you keep each joint bent as instructed, it is a very sturdy structure. My daughter has put it through some rigorous testing like shaking the walls and pulling or pushing with all of her weight, and it has yet to topple over. And because you can change the configuration, we push one end in when guests come so there is more room in the living room.

I agree with one of the previous reviewers that it can be tough climbing over the wall with a baby in your hands, especially since I'm short, but I just put her in first and then climb in myself.

I think the Superyard is a great thing to have.

This is an excellent product for young ones - not really large toddlers who may be able push it around, but for those kids like mine who are 6-12 months (older kids are probably ok too, we'll see...) and need a safe place to play. It's perfect.

Other reviews may complain about it being difficult to collapse and move - Well??!! - do you want your child collapsing it and taking it for a stroll around the house? Setting it up and taking it down is a job for an adult - and it does NOT take a bodybuilder to do the job, I can assure you. It is "sturdy", which is what you would want. It is also free-standing, which is not suitable for a huge baby or a normal 4-year-old. And it is definitely not meant to be set up along a straight line, such as at a doorway or stairway entrance ... the instructions make that very clear. Its stability is derived from its more or less circular outline.

It is what it is: a wonderful play yard/pen for younger children! For the correct age group, it just doesn't get any better! (And at such a bargain price, too) We got one extra extension and can now fit two adults and the child inside with no struggle. Highly recommended!!! We love it and our child could not possibly be happier in there.

My hubby noticed this product when we were at Babies"R"Us. I really wasnt crazy about it and tried to talk him out of buying it. I finally gave in and we even purchased the extention for it. I LOVE IT!! I cant believe I almost passed it up. My son is 19 months old now and he still enjoys it. He has yet to try to climb out of it. Once I put him in he sits and plays with his toys. Did I mention how HUGE it is. I can climb in and play with him. My hubby even climbs and is able to play with our son without a problem. You cant do that with other playpens.
We have 2 dogs so this comes in handy when I dont want the puppies to disturb his playtime.
We have a portable play pen and its just to small. we really didnt care for any other play pens we look at as they were not any bigger.
I wanted my son to have enough room to walk and play without having to worry about him getting into something if the doorbell rang or phone rang.
If your considering a playpen I certainly recommend this one. I'd get the extention as well. Your child will really enjoy the the HUGE space to play in.
I GIVE IT 5 STARS!! WORTH EVERY PENNY!

Welcome to the toddling/scootching/crawling years, where you can't ever get a break unless you have some way of keeping junior from getting away.

The SuperYard is a foldable rigid-plastic fencing system for creating what we called back in the day a play pen. It's designed to be reconfigurable for a given area, so that the enclosure can be made to fit odd spaces. It works for indoor and outdoor areas, and the optional extensions can be used to make rather large enclosures quite easily.

We bought this as a replacement for the Pack-N-Play type portable play yard. Our son, at 10 months or so, had clearly outgrown this smaller type yard, and was quite unhappy at the limiting horizons of its opaque blue walls. The SuperYard has been a very good, albeit not completely perfect, solution for providing some portable play space that requires somewhat lighter supervision than a freeplay in an open room. Our son's now closing in on 14 months and this has been useful for that purpose.

It's not 100% easy to set up and reconfigure, and there's a reason for that. The extra difficulty with piecing the "end" sections together means it's nearly impossible for a tot to open or close this by their lonesomes. It takes some strength and adult wile to open the sections and bend the connectors at various angles to thus reconfigure the overall shape. There's a slight trick to negotiating the opening mechanism in a panel, but once you "get it", it's easy enough. I suspect many of the comments about difficulty of set-up were written by those who had just set the thing up for the first time or who don't move it around a lot and who have forgotten "the trick". We're on our fourth month of using ours, and it's very easy now to open and close the corral, as we call it (perhaps in part because we do it frequently).

One of the big advantages of this type of arrangement is the shape of the enclosure can be changed. I think some of the comments about this being unstable are either from those who are unrealistically expecting a completely rigid structure, or those who may have assembled it in a way that the shape is unstable. If you put a 120 degree angle at each of "joints" and form at least a hexagon (with the basic model) or an octagon (with the model plus one extension), you get an incredibly stable structure. I can demonstrate this by putting my full 200+ lb weight on the edge when it's open, in which case there's considerable flex, versus when it's closed in an octagon shape, in which case it barely gives and I can practically do a push-up on it.

Of course the whole thing can slide -- it's made out of plastic and it's not attached to anything! Your little bruiser may be able to push it around a bit, but your average baby isn't going to get very far. If the structure is set up in a way that it's got some sort of limiter (a wall, for instance) keeping it from moving too far, this really ought not be a problem. The idea is for creating a play yard you can set up easily an in a variety of places, and anything that's fixed permanently is not going to serve that purpose. That's your trade-off with this type of yard versus a smaller crib or similar yard.

The expectation for this should be as a semi-temporary safe play area. I would recommend it for creating a "safe" play zone in an otherwise unsafe area -- an unchild-proofed room or outside (where we use it from time to time). It is not to create an undersupervised area, except perhaps for a quick deposit of your tot while you go to the bathroom or answer the door, etcetera. We use this in the room that has our computer -- despite our attempts to childproof this area, it's pretty impossible given the requirements of computer cabling. The SuperYard has at least made a part of this room safe enough.

As for being able to climb over it -- there may be some prodigious children who can scale this using the lattice work as foot-rests, but I strongly suspect they can scale other things as well. Our little guy can pull up on the frame, and it occasionally slips a few inches, but I don't know a lot of toddlers coordinated enough to know how to climb a fence AND who have small enough feet to use the rather small lattice openings. (If you want to be extra sure, just put the kid in some shoes, which will make it impossible to use his toes to grab the lattice holes.)

I do recommend getting at least one extension, as the extra two panels nearly double the available surface area options, and if you don't need them you can literally just fold them over without having to detach them.

The portability has been excellent -- once you get the knack of how much pressure you need to collapse the sections, it folds up like an accordion, and there's a carrying strap that doubles as a restraining strap to keep the folds together while under transport. Folded up, it takes up about as much space as the smaller Pack N Play but at about half the weight.

Where this has been less than ideal has more to do with our kid than the product. He doesn't like being left alone in it, but neither does he like being left alone in any of his other confinements (e.g. crib). The fact that he can see out the SuperYard is a big help; with the old Graco PackNPlay, the opaque sides meant he couldn't see a parent even if quite close. So while he objects to being set down alone, a little distraction with a forgotten toy and the reassurance of being able to see the parent through the "wall" usually suffices to make us both happy.

I bought this when my son was 6.5 months old and just loved it. He could crawl around in it and had plenty of room to play with his toys. I thought we'd be using it until he was at least 2 years old. But at 8.5 months he started trying to climb out of it. By nine months he could climb all the way to the top and then hang over the top. If this was made with bars he wouldn't be able to climb. We are dissapointed that we could only use this for such a short time.

My Mom used the superyard with my twin niece and nephew when they were visiting Grandma's house. She passed it to me, to use with my baby nephew, who spends his days with me while Mom and Dad work, and I find it to be fantastic!!!

The child is now 10 months old and crawls at the speed of light, investigating every object he finds with the thoroughness of a Nobel Prize winning Scientist at a rate that sometimes causes a sonic boom in our house. Soon he will be walking upright fulltime and I will have to save his life every half second rather than every second!

The superyard enables me to breathe, think, eat, and ocasionally use the bathroom by containing the child safely in a generous play area filled with age appropriate toys.

***I find it easy to set up and take down if I do it one panel at a time
***The yard is study when assembled in a hexagon, but the child is VERY active, so I attach the yard to a piece of heavy furniture with a cable tie.
Often, I arrange the yard to have a bend in each joint for stability and attach each end by cable tie to opposite ends of a daybed (way too high for the little monkey to climb on and soft on the side facing the play area). This enlarges the playspace and puts an adult friendly seating space within the area.

I feel it is important to state that I (or another adult) am in visual range whenever this child (Tornado!) is in the Superyard.

I would happily recommend the Superyard as a very handy, sanity supporting piece of baby equipment.

I bought this for my son who is 15 months old. This Superyard is just that a superyard! I have many stairs in my home and was nervous to let my son down to play. I didn't feel safe with just regular baby gates. They are way too easy to climb. My son is very strong and active. I've read in some reviews that this superyard is easy to knock over. I have had no trouble with my rough little guy tipping it over or lifting it. His walking skills have increased. Having a safe place to walk and a fence to hold onto has helped his balance. He walks great now! no more wobbling about. It's great because all his toys are in the superyard and not all over the livingroom. He finally has a spacious and safe place to play. I tell all my friends to get this for their children, regular play yards are to small. They are good for just a nap or traveling. Superyard folds up nice and would be great to take on outdoor picnics, camping, Etc. It don't take up much space at all. Buy it!