Munchkin® Extending XL™ Tall and Wide Baby Gate, Hardware Mounted Safety Gate for Stairs, Hallways and Doors, Extends 33″ – 56″ Wide, Metal, White

Excellent Gate – We Own Several
We own (3) of these Munchkin extra wide gates and (4) of the matching narrower gates. Yup, we have a total of (7) gates in our house. It allows us to herd and corral four kids and two dogs in just about any location. The first one was a bit hard to install only because anything new can be confusing. But once I had that under my belt, the others were simple.The first one was installed two years ago, so we have a proven track record of using them over the long-haul. We installed more over time as we learned how useful they are. These gates have held up well, but we have learned some things to pass along to other people considering these gates:Although anyone can install one of these gates, it helps to be handy. I recommend using better quality screws. They need to be long enough to go all the way through the drywall and into the wood behind. These gates should never be installed with those cheesy plastic inserts that are supposed to work in drywall.One of our openings was a couple inches wider than the gate is designed to fill. I ordered it anyway because I figured I could rig something to work. I used a 4-foot section of 2X4 on each wall to fill the gap. I used good quality kiln-dried wood, sanded it smooth, then painted it to match our interior paint scheme. It looks like it was designed for the gate and the gate fits the opening perfectly. I have attached pictures to the main page.Some have complained about the difficulty of opening these gates. Although it “can” be an issue, it does not have to be. It all comes down to careful adjustment. Once the fit is properly adjusted, the gates open very easily with one hand. Since we walk through the gates all the time carrying an infant or toddler, ease of one-hand opening is a must for us. We also have an 8-year old who has to be able to get around the house easily and be willing to close the gates behind him. It’s not a problem for him.Mounting height is an important consideration. Although it’s important to get the gates as high as possible, a little too high and a toddler or a small dog can wiggle under the gate. I would err on the side of a bit too low. Due to the fact that there are no horizontal bars on these gates, it’s very hard for even the best climbing child to get over them.One of our main reasons for ordering these gates is that they have no bar or track mounted to the floor. We are as happy today as we were two years ago when we installed the first gate.I was originally concerned about the fact that the hinges are plastic. Fortunately, they are tougher than they look. Our 2-year old has ridden on one of the gates while it swung open. Considering that she is 30-lbs and was hanging on the far end of the gate, the torque on the hinges was significant. It survived without any problem.I recommend these gates without hesitation. 5-stars.

Best solution for the top of our stairs
We have a unique situation where we had a 52″ opening at the top of our stairs to use for a solid mountain surface (didn’t want to mount to wooden newel post on one side). This gate solved that issue and once installed my wife and I both agree it’s a solid gate our toddler will not be able to work his magic on.Pros:- Taller than most gates (again helping us from an avid climbing/curious toddler)- Wide enough to span our large area at the top of our stairs- *Sturdy – *A major caveat is that I had to get higher quality screws as the tiny little #6 screws they provide are too short and thin to be able to mount this into studs as others have mentioned (plus they would snap if using an impact driver). I upgraded to #8 2″ screws and those mounts aren’t going anywhere. The only mount that needed modification was the upper mount on the hinge side, as the #8 screw heads were too big to fit the recessed openings as is. A couple passes with the dremel and a sanding wheel opened them right up.- Plenty of adjustment for installation – It provides enough adjustment where you can install the lower mounts over your baseboard and the upper against the drywall which saves having to install a filler block or some sort to match the baseboard on the uppers.- Easy to use – Once you get used to the one handed opening and closing, it’s a pretty smooth operation and swings freely. The pivoting hinge works nicely to get the gate in and out of the secure latch.- No bottom bar to trip over. When it’s open, it’s open completely.Cons:- While the shipping box looked to be in good shape, I had to bend back one or two of the vertical bars (luckily the welds didn’t snap which actually made me a bit happy knowing it could take some toddler abuse).- Continuing on the above, there were quite a few paint chips and dings in the gate, some pretty noticeable while I was able to hide or work around others. Time will tell if the paint finish will hold up or if the company/shippers were just extremely rough with it.Wish List:- It would be nice if the width of the gate was adjustable without having to manually lock the width in place based off of the bar increments. What I mean is while we want this closed at night so our toddler can’t wander down the stairs, we don’t want to have to open and close it when my wife and I need to go upstairs when he is downstairs (with a gate at the bottom of the stairs as well). So if there was some type of mechanism to lengthen/shorten the gate like a push button or handle to change it as you open/close it if necessary. This would avoid having to remove the gate (which is pretty easy for the most part) and store in the hallway when not in use as then we would be able to just open it up, shorten it up and swing it out of the way.All in all it’s a good solid gate that works for our stairs. We will see what type of punishment it can withstand after a few months of our little guy trying his best to conquer it. I’m feeling confident things will end up in our favor.

Great product, using it for a large kitchen opening. Very sturdy and easy to use.

La medida se ajusto a lo que necesitaba, buena calidad y fácil de instalar

Muy sólido