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 theEvenflo 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 purchasedNorth 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 theNorth 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.
