Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Has defective hinge base, August 11, 2006
The hinge base is defective. The hinge bases and hinge caps are made of plastic. It seems silly to have a sturdy wooden gate would have plastic hinge parts.
The gates hinge base has broken 3 times within a 1 1/2 years. All 3 times in the exact place on the hinge base.
The first time it broke I called evenflo. They sent me a replacement part. It took over 2 weeks to get. They seemed to not care that this was a safty device and that I needed the part ASAP. I use my gate at the top of my staircase. During this time my daughter was 15 months.
The gates hinge base broke again about 6 months later. Again, I called Evenflo. They told me there was never a problem reported with the hinge base. I find that hard to believe. This time I asked them to send me several replacement parts. Especially since it takes a couple of weeks for the parts to arrive. I'm glad I did because it broke a third time. At least I did not have to wait for replacement parts.
I wanted to update my review. I alerted the CPSC regarding the issues with the hinge base. They came out to my home and and did a study. I am still waiting for the results. The person who was in charge of my case informed me that the gate was recalled several years before. Several children had been injured. The company who makes the gate was supposed to fix the problem. Apparently they did not fix the problem, and continued to sell the gate anyway. Check for yourselves on CPSC.gov .
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great gate, but installation was "screwed up", June 5, 2006
We just bought this gate in preparation for the arrival of our first child. We originally looked at the Eddie Bauer line of baby gates, however the bannister of the stairs where we plan on using the gate is dark cherry and we've had a hard time finding a gate to match.
Finally, we stumbled upon the Evenflo Home Decor gate in dark auburn and decided to try it out even though we only saw it in pictures online.
Of course, the installation process was a bit frustrating. The instructions are not extremely detailed at times and they are hard to follow because steps blend together due to the use of columns to separate instructions in English, French, and Spanish. The biggest problem, though, was that the heads of six of the eight #6x1/2" pan head wood screws broke off as I was tightening them BY HAND. I'd like to think I'm Superman...but really, six of the eight screws?!? I ended up removing the remaining two, drilling new pilot holes to attach the spacer brackets, and I used my own screws that I knew would not break. I highly recommend avoiding the included #6x1/2" screws to avoid the possible frustration.
I was pleasantly surprised at how well the gate matched our existing stair railing and we love the gate now that it is installed. It seems to be sturdy and well-built, with a "child-proof" latch mechanism that involves pushing in and then lifting up a plastic "lever". Time will tell if it handles life with our new arrival.
Price paid: $79.88
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
difficult install, March 19, 2007
The istallation instructions were absurdly vague. Luckily, I'm an experienced DIY'er, so I was able to customize a few things to get it to fit.
The spacer brackets are ill-concieved. For starters, installing them the way they were meant actually DECREASED the stability of the gate, so I flipped them over and used them as joining plates instead of spacers(The two halves of the gate are milled to fit together perfectly, the spacers don't allow this to happen) Also, they are attatched with three screws; I re-drilled one side and attatched them with four.
Furthermore, the pre-drilled holes on the underside of the rails didn't allow for the gate to be assembled to it's fullest length. More drilling.
That's it for the problems with the installation. The only truly useful part of the instuctions was the hinge mount template. Make sure you hang on to that one.
My only other issue with this gate is that, due to the fact that the two halves of the gate are screwed together, the width of your door determines how far the gate swings into the room. They don't slide together like the less expensive evenflow gates. This wouldn't be a problem if the opening was stair or door width, but the doorway I installed it in is 52", so now the gate sticks out four feet into the room. I cosidered making some U brackets so it operated like the simple stair gates, but that would have rendered the latch useless. If you are willing to seek out new latch hardware and make some custom brackets, this gate could be used like those simple, reliable and ugly hardware mounted evenflow swing gates.
That being siad(whew), the gate is beautiful. And when it is closed, the lock-up is rock solid. My son stands(jumps) on the bottom rail and it doesn't budge.
If you don't mind an excrutiating install for a lovely gate, this one is for you
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