I'm 27 years old and I live in the Birmingham area with my husband and 10 month old son. I love to s...
I'm 27 years old and I live in the Birmingham area with my husband and 10 month old son. I love to share what I have learned with other people in the hope that it can make other peoples lives easier!
Member since:26.05.2009
Reviews:23
When my baby started to crawl, I started to research into safety gates so that I knew I was getting the best thing for my money and the most suitable for what I needed. I settled on one of these Lindam Easy Fit Plus Gates for the bottom of my stairs, and I chose a different one for the top. I was rather restricted in choice of safety gates due to the width of my staircase being rather larger than average. I chose this gate because it fitted within my price range, was wide enough for the gap and looked like it was going to be simple to use, combined with it being the winner of various baby safety awards, I decided that it was the right gate for me.
Price - I purchased two gates together from Toys R Us, this one was £21.99 and the other a few pounds cheaper. Toys R Us have been running a special offer for some time that gives you a discount of £5 if you purchase two safety gates, so I was able to get
a discount on that price.
The gate comes pretty much assembled, you just have to place the pressure pads on threaded metal in the four corners of the gate, then pop it in place and adjust and tighten the screws until the gate fits and is held in place tightly. The gate is supposed to be pressure fit, and recommended as it does not require fixing, which was what I wanted, however the gate comes with 4 small 'cups' which you are supposed to screw into the wall/stairs etc where you want the gate to go, to hold the gate securely in place, which to me seems a bit silly when you have purchased a gate as pressure fit. I did not screw the cups to the wall, just placed the gate pressure pads straight onto the wall, and the gate feels very secure, so I am happy with its safety as it is. I found it simple to put up by myself, although having a second person just holding the gate upright whilst the other tightens the pads would probably help but I would not say is neccesary.
Now comes my first isse with my choice of gate. I chose this gate to go at the bottom of the stairs, and thought that it would be the best option as the opening section is fairly narrow in comparison to others, and this would be next to the front door and I didnt want the safety gate to get in the way of opening the front door etc. My stairs however have a solid wall on the left hand side and a wooden bannister on the right, but the wooden bannister doesnt start until the second step and is not solid past the newel post, so I have only one place which I can fit this stair gate, meaning that the gate (and its trip bar) are on the front edge of the second stair up the staircase. This means that walking up and down the stairs are now impeeded by the trip bar. I would say though, that this would be the same with any other pressure fit gate, and a wall mount gate is just not suitable for this space, so I am rather stuck with it. On the plus side it was a cheap gate and it does the job of keeping my little one safe, so I can't complain.
Opening and closing this gate can be a one handed operation, but I find that I can only open it with my left hand when going up the stairs and right hand when coming down the stairs, so I have to remember to carry my son on the correct side going up and down the stairs! This gate is much easier to open when you have two hands free, but when does that ever happen!!!
Lastly this gate comes with a leaflet inside enabling you to order the extension pieces for it, which is handy, but not helpful when you want to put the gate up now and end up having to wait I don't know how long for the extension pieces to arrive. On the plus side, for the first extension piece you only have to pay P&P of £3.50 and each one thereafter is £7 I think. You can use up to 4 extension pieces on each gate (2 each side). Although I am not certain how wide you can make the gate in total, the gate itself has a maximum width of 81cm and each extension I think is about 7cm, so you should be able to get a maximum of 109cm width out of this gate.
I would recommend this product to other people, but I would explain the problems that I have had with my choice of this gate for the space that I have for it. I have chosen a wall fix gate for the top of the stairs and to be honest its easier to use, though loads harder to fit.
Good all round gate, some down points, but I think that they are far more to do with the space that I have fitted the gate in than the gate itself.
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Winner of Mother and Baby Best Value award Nov 2003, Prima Baby Best Buy Reader award ... more
2003, Prima Baby Best Value Reader award 2004 and 2005. Pressure fit. Permanent-fix wall cups included. 2-way opening. Triple locking, with self-centring mechanism. S...
Postage & Packaging: £4.99 Availability: Usually dispatched within 4-5 business days...
Winner of Mother and Baby Best Value award Nov 2003, Prima Baby Best Buy Reader award ... more
2003, Prima Baby Best Value Reader award 2004 and 2005. Pressure fit. Permanent-fix wall cups included. 2-way opening. Triple locking, with self-centring mechanism. S...
Postage & Packaging: £4.99 Availability: Usually dispatched within 4-5 business days...
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