"My review is a little long, so grab a drink and sit back. I know that this gate is mainly for children BUT it is also listed under pet products when you go to the Amazon pet category. My main reason for purchasing this gate is because my wife is tired of setting up our existing gate system for our two small dogs (10 lbs each) every time we leave the house. The gates we own are an older model of the Evenflo Memory Fit II Gate , which work VERY well (the pressure is strong enough to where they don't/can't push the gate down). However, setting them up is a real pain and because my wife's mother purchased North States Supergate Easy Close Metal Gate, Bronze for their home, my wife suggested we get one as well because she really liked how you can walk through those without complete disassembly. After using that gate at my mother-in-law's house, I decided I didn't like the North States Supergate Easy Close Metal Gate, Bronze . The locking mechanism required you had to manually twist it back to lock it. Whether it was set up wrong or if it was an actual defect I'm not sure. But because of that AND the price of $50, I knew it wasn't an option for us. So after looking around for baby gates, I found this one. My main reason for selecting this is because (as of June 2013) it's ranked the #1 best seller for indoor baby gates, as listed here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/pet-supplies/166868011/ . Plus the price point of $22.97 at the time of purchase means that it was really affordable. Before I purchased this gate, I compared dozens of different types and trust me I really read the Amazon reviews. For this particular gate, I took notice of the many 1 to 3 star reviews (many which complained of the fitment to doors). Most of the warnings come from doors that are greater than 33 inches and when I measured my door, mine was exactly 32 inches... so I thought I would be OK. However upon installation, I'm kind of indifferent about it but I'm keeping it because it works. The following are my thoughts about this product. ## DOOR MECHANISM ## Although the door only opens in one direction, I really like how easy it is to open. You really can open this gate with one hand. Your thumb pushes the locking slider out and the rest of your fingers grip and pull up on the handle to open. To lock it (after the gate is closed), you push down on the handle and with enough pressure, it automatically slides the locking slider over the handle. That "click" sound assures you that the door is locked and that there is no way to open without going through the opening routine. ## GATE FITMENT ## The fitment is done by extra long bolts that slide in horizontally into the frames of the gate. As you turn the dials on them, they basically "unscrew" from the frame and go outward. As it goes outward, it will eventually touch the wall/door frame you are trying to secure. By continually turning, you will cause enough pressure where the gate will mount itself and stand upright. However not every door frame/hall are the same width and the bolts are only so long. Meaning they can only extend out so far until they either become too flimsy to hold the gate up OR are not wide enough. That's where the extensions come into play. You get a 6 inch extension with the gate but as with other reviewers mention, it's too wide for most applications. Since my door frame is 32 inches wide (and the gate is around 28 inches), I couldn't use the extension. I'm barely at the threshold of where this gate is too flimsy to be mounted at the door (I had to use the gate anchors) to secure it. ## GATE PRESSURE ## The way this gate is secured to the wall or door frame is by pressure. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, you turn the dials on them to tighten the gate to secure it. However, I have a few issues with this. The bottom part of the gate can be tightened as much as you want. Obviously the tighter you turn the knobs, the more pressure there is between the gate and with that, there is more resistance from movement. I'm not sure how it is with other products of the same type, but for this product, there is NO WAY you can tighten the TOP of the gate tight enough AND MAKE IT SECURE WITHOUT the use of the anchors. Let me explain why. If you look at pictures, the bottom frame of the gate is one piece and extends the entire length of the gate. When the gate is open, you step over that part. Structurally that makes this gate sturdy. However on the TOP PART, there is no such one-piece frame(that's how you walk through the gate). Because of this, as you tighten, you run into the issue that if you tighten too much, it puts pressure on the actual gate door and it won't open. If I've confused you, think about it this way... say you stuck a metal rod between a clamp where the ends of the rod are touching each side of the clamp... effectively turning the clamp's "C" shape into a "D" shape (the rod in this diagram is the straight line of the letter D). That straight line is the door while the ends of the clamp are the gate itself. As the clamp stays loose, removal of that rod (aka, the act of openning the door) is easy to move from the clamp. As you tighten the clamp (to secure the gate between the hall/door frame), the harder it is to remove the metal bar. It gets to the point where if you want it really secure between the door, you won't be able to open the gate because there's so much pressure between the door, the gate, and the wall. So then you have to ask yourself, how tight is good enough? Well, personally I was able to "push" the top part of the gate to where it slid out with relative ease. That in itself can be DISASTROUS, especially if you're buying this for the top of stairs. Now, I know a full grown adult male is considerably stronger than a baby, but still that causes some concern. A baby that can walk or toddler with sufficient strength can walk over and likely push/bang on this gate until it moves. BECAUSE OF THIS, YOU NEED TO USE THE ANCHORS. The anchors (supplied) are actually screwed into the wall and then the ends of the bolts fit into the anchors. By doing this, you prevent any movement of the gate. Because my dogs are pretty strong (and known to push on my other gates), I HAD to use the anchors. If my dog can push a gate down over time, then I can imagine a baby can do the same. ## USAGE W/ DOGS ## As I mentioned, my dogs are both 10 lbs each. One is really skinny/slender and long. I did read a review where someone complained and docked a star because their dog could squeeze through the gate, but that's not the case with my dogs. The spacing of the gate's bars are close enough where they can't go through and I made sure the gate was mounted center between my door frame so that there was no way they could escape on the sides either. All in all, I'm satisfied with this gate enough to where I'm going to keep it. I'm sure that when I do have a child I'll move this over to the stairs and have a better fitment than I do now with my dogs. Overall I give this product 4 stars. The removal of a star is from the "GATE PRESSURE" category, where the fact that you cannot SECURE the gate FIRMLY without the use of the anchors. Hopefully this reviews helps with your purchasing decision."
Regalo Easy Step Walk Thru Gate, White (Compare Deals from $32.00)
"UPDATE: PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS PRODUCT HAS CHANGED MODELS SINCE I WROTE THE FOLLOWING REVIEW. PLEASE SEE UPDATE 2013 COMMENTS ON THE NEW MODEL AT THE END.... We needed a baby gate that was wide enough to put at the bottom of our stairs (about 41 inches), but other extra wide gates were expensive once you had to get the extensions to make them wide enough or you had to hardware mount them to the wall and who wants to screw things into their wall? Or, in our case, the banisters on one side of the stairs. (the gate DOES come with hardware mounts though if you prefer) This gate is great and we feel it's a good value. It operates easily,couldn't have been easier to assemble and attaches securely. Our 5 month old daughter pulls herself up on it and it doesn't budge and just the other day we had a very large 18mo old boy at our house and he was pulling on it and it still didn't move. I think there had been a previous version of this gate where a child had gotten their finger injured in it, but after inspecting the latching system thoroughly and even letting it slam shut on my own finger (it couldn't) I really can't see how anyone child or adult could be injured. So I'd say this version seems to have corrected whatever problem the older model had. A tip for attaching it to a banister on one side, just velcro strap a board to the flat part of the banister so the pressure mounts have something to press against. A note.... the gate will look like it's broken and won't close properly if you hold it up straight out of the box. It's the pressure put on the gate when it's mounted that ensures it closes properly. And, a note for the surprising number of people who have gotten worked up thinking this is a "fake" manufacturer generated review..... it's not. While it's been very entertaining over the years to see people who have the time to get worked up over my review of a baby gate, I have no affiliation with the Regalo company other than as a satisfied customer. :) UPDATE 2013: We're kind of annoyed that Amazon has kept all of the old reviews after Regalo changed product models and now probably most of the reviews you seee here which now no longer apply to this new model. It appears that the "Regalo Easy Open 52 Inch Super Wide Walk Thru Gate" now fits the description of the gate we have that I wrote the original review for and that's the one we're getting after we send this "new model" back. We wanted to get a second one of these gates because they're so great and we got what we thought was the same gate we bought in 2010 when I first wrote the review, but opened the box and nope! Not exactly the same, a newer model (the one pictured) which does NOT have the same operating mechanism and does NOT come with the same number of extensions and thus does not expand as far! The old mechanism was very easy to use one-handed. It was simply a spring loaded thumb lever. Check out the closeup of the latch for the "Regalo Easy Open 52 Inch Super Wide Walk Thru Gate" which appears to still have the old latch mechanism and compare it to the closeup of the "EasyStep Walk Thru" mechanism. This new model, after you slide back the thumb lever, you have to use your other hand to lift up another latch to be able to open the gate. Any parent knows you're going to be carrying kid+stuff a lot of the time and a gate you have to use two hands to open is a deal breaker for us! I should note that my husband has large hands and is technically able to open it one handed by pushing the lever with his thumb (instead of pulling it back as intended) and then using his other fingers on the same hand to kind of nudge the other latch up out of the way but he thinks it's ridiculous and I definitely can't physically do it."
" This gate works as designed to keep our two toddlers out of restricted areas of our home except for the update noted below. Unpacking and installation took about 15 minutes because we are familiar with the tension mount design. Unpacking took the bulk of that time. Our boy has tried to dislodge the gate several times by crashing into it and our girl has assisted him while doing that by trying to climb on top and pull it down. So far it has withstood their barrage. But note that it is installed in a door jamb where the molding prevents it from moving into the room. It is possible that the two of them combined could pull, rather than push, on it and dislodge it. But that is addressed by our supervising our children and discouraging them from doing so. If we were to install this in a location other than a doorway such as the hall entrance, or in a safety critical application such as the top of the stairs, we would not rely on tension and rubber feet alone, we would use the supplied plastic cups and screws. See the video for and explanation of the two mounting options. Other reviewers dislike the fact that the latch mechanism cannot be undone with one hand. Dad is able to do it with no great effort, but Mom finds it a challenge. Dad believes that hand size and strength plays a small role in her difficulty, but hand coordination plays a larger role. Also the mechanism is new and sticky. He believes that with time and use, it will become easier to operate. Closing the latch mechanism is easily accomplished by both Mom and Dad - simply push down the latch until it catches beneath the red safety catch. As an aside, you may not want to let your toddler see you do this. Ours will persist in trying to open the gate until they are successful. Hopefully that will not happen until they are of an age whereby we no longer need the gate. Update: 04/24/2014. Our boy now has the strength to slide the red catch over and lift the latch. He is 22 months. While he operates the mechanism, she pulls the gate open. He can't simultaneously operate the latch and open the door - yet. They team up to operate it. So it is no longer useful in safety critical areas like the top of stairs. We withheld a star for one reason (see update below), the lower rail is tall enough to catch our feet as we pass through, not fun with a babe in arms. Installed the top of the rail is approximately 1 35/64" (a little more than 1 1/2") above the floor, high enough apparently to catch a foot as you stride across it. Trying to be mindful of that while distracted in umpteen other ways will prove challenging. Update: 04/24/2014. The issue described above has not been the problem we foresaw. We gave the star back. There are any number of tripping hazards in our house (toys strewn about the floor mostly), this is not one of them. The gate does not self close or self lock, which is fine in our opinion because we needed two of them and the one's that do self close and lock would cost a good deal more. The gate comes in left hand open only, which means that is swings to your left when you pull it open it towards you. Coincidentally this fits our needs. If, however, we wanted it to swing to the right as we pull it, we would have to select another gate. We had not considered that fact before purchase. We had also not considered that we might want to leave the gates installed while closing the bedroom door. Fortunately there is no interference with the door's knob or function. Other potential purchasers might want to think through configuration before buying this product."
"1. The gate door is simply not as easy to open & close as described. With some practice you can unlock it one-handed, but the latch nearly always catches on the gate requiring two hands to pull the edges away from each other to get clearance. We tried tightening the spindle rods at either end to counteract this problem, but that just makes the gate less stable. 2. The gate opening is extremely narrow. I bump my hip on it every time I walk through, even turning sideways. I thought it was just because I'm a big person, but even my two-year-old hits his shoulder on it every time he goes through. I have several other safety gates in my house & none are this narrow. 3. Finally, the gate was very difficult to install, which is usually the least of my concerns when ordering a product. As long as one can install it, you should only have to do it once, so I don't worry much about that part. I mention it, though, because, for some, it may be impossible to install if you don't have the right extension. The opening where we installed this gate is precisely 35 inches wide. The instructions indicate that there are 4 possible extensions included with the gate. It happens that our gate came with the 6-inch extension. According to the instructions this should fit an opening anywhere from 29 inches wide to 38 inches wide, so we thought we were fine. However, with the extension, & the spindle wheels tightened all the way, we could barely fit the gate into that opening & then only if we installed it using the pressure mount. If we screwed the wall cups into the wall for further stability, we could not get the wheel spindles into them. We looked at taking out the extension, but then it would be necessary to extend the spindle wheels as far as they would go & that made the gate very unstable. Having purchased & used so many other safety gates, I find this one is simply not worth the hassle. It was the least expensive gate I looked at & thought it would be sufficient based on the reviews I read. However, I just don't like using this gate, therefore, I'm willing to spend twice as much money to get a gate that I know will meet my needs. I will say that I do like the fact that it can be either pressure-mounted or hardware-mounted. I just think the manufacturer needs to reconsider a few things about the design of the latch, the width of the opening, & the installation instructions before this gate will be acceptable."
"I originally bought two of the taller version of this gate from BB&B to block off the kitchen for our new puppy, unfortunately they were too tall to use next to our breakfast bar so I bought a shorter one to replace the box we were using in that opening. This one is the perfect size for the opening by the breakfast bar so we didn't need any extensions and the only way she can get through the bars is by where the door latches (her head is still super small since she's only about 7 pounds) and if she really tries she can squeeze through the other bars (but that's only happened once so far). This causes us to use the boxes the gates shipped in to also block the openings, but it's still a lot easier to get around and we should be able to take the boxes down soon if she keeps growing the way she is. So far I've only used the pressure mounts without screwing the cups into the walls and I haven't had any qualms about the gates falling down, even the one at the top of a set of stairs. When I use the gates for children I'll probably install the cups when they start pulling up on things, but for now they seem very sturdy. The only issues I have with the gates are that they come with one 6" extension and I wish they came with two 3" extensions to better close off the sides. No matter what one of our gates will need a box in front of it for a while because the opening is barely too small for the extension and she can very easily slip between the gate and the wall. I'm also not a crazy fan of the opening system, I'm sure it's great if you've got a two or three year old since it'll be hard for them to open it on their own, but it's hard to do on your own with one hand. I've just not closed the handle all of the way so all you have to do is pull it up and open, not pull back the red part with the heavy spring and pull up on the handle all in one motion. It's possible to do, it's just not the easiest thing in the world, but it's something I'll have to master before I'm carting a little one around the house who has opposable thumbs."
"We got this gate for housebreaking puppies. Let me start by saying that again - our primary focus with this gate was to keep puppies in a small area to reduce housebreaking time. With that being said, the only reason it's not 5 stars is because the bar spacing is such that the puppies can get through it. Now that the one negative is out of the way, let's move on! I love this gate. In a month or two when the puppies are bigger, they won't be able to squeeze their heads through, and this gate will shine. We currently have it mounted between our kitchen and mudroom. Pretty much every door frame in our house is uneven, so tension-mounted gates have always been an issue. With the unique ability to adjust EACH post - every corner is adjusted independently - this no longer matters. That being said, I thought installation would be a challenge (we chose NOT to use the cups since we know eventually the gate will move to another doorway, and eventually, just to the hall to block off the bedrooms). It took me all of 8 minutes... by myself. No one had to hold the other end, or keep anything steady. When I say installing this was easy, I mean it was friggin' cake walk. The directions were crystal clear and I didn't have to backtrack once. Once the gate was in the doorway, my kids were shown how to open the door, and VOILA! We have not had a single instance of ramming through the gate (hello brickhouse 3 year old!), or forcing the handle to get the gate open. During the day when we're frequently coming and going, I leave it unlocked and the kids can get from the playroom to the bathroom and the rest of the house without assistance. I can keep doing the puzzle with the 5 year old while the 3 year old makes her umpteenth trip to the bathroom in 20 minutes. It's great! I am pretty sure we are going to order a second gate as soon as the puppies can't fit through any more - we're using a standard tension gate for the playroom (which is off the other side of the mudroom), and now that we've been spoiled with the ability to leave the gate in place, it seems like a much bigger hassle to constantly have to take that gate down and put it back up. I would highly recommend this gate and even though we bought it for puppies, I think it would be wonderful for baby and toddler safety, too!"
"The puppy was getting into everything and needed to be stopped from entering certain rooms. The first effort was to acquire three Evenflo wooden gates, which are light, fast, inexpensive and easy, but don't have pass-through doors. They're low enough to step over, which also means they're low enough for a determined puppy to climb over. One more thing: they are made of unfinished wood -- the perfect material for puppies to chew on. So, for the price of three of the Evenflos, I got this Regalo. Excellent! Definitely worth it. It is all metal and is 30-1/2" from bottom to top of the rail. Having vertical stiles, the dog cannot get a grip and cannot climb over. Best part is the door. The top-mounted latch works easily with one hand and is very secure. It does take some time to assemble, but needs no tools unless you want to attach the pad cups. The gate attaches by friction to the door jamb. If you mount the cups to the jamb with their small (1" long number 6 flathead screws), the gate's four friction pads are held securely to the jamb and greatly increase the security of the gate. Using the cups, no reasonable amount of pushing can cause the gate to pop out of the jamb. You will have four small holes in your door jamb, however, should you remove the gate in the future. The instructions state that these cups MUST be installed if the gate is at the top of a stairway. (You would not want the gate falling down the stairs with a kid behind it.) I have not installed the cups yet as it's working for my application just fine. My model says the gate adapts to doors 29" to 40" wide. The way this is done is to include an extra metal expansion section that adds 6-1/2" of width. As I was putting the gate into a 32" doorway, I didn't need the expansion section and just put it away. 32" is toward the outer limits of the tightening system, but the door is holding great so far. This is a very durable door. I have had no shoes chewed since installing it -- as long as I remember to close and latch the gate. Best part is not having to step over the gate, which really got old in a hurry. Definitely worth it. The only downside is that once you get it installed you can't quickly remove and reinstall like you can the Evenflo style. You install and leave it. But the Regalo's hinged door makes it such a joy to use, you won't want to take it down."
Regalo Easy Step Walk Thru Gate, White (Compare Deals from $32.00)
