I deduct a point for the damage you have to do to your wall to install this correctly and how you have to give people tutorials on how to use it before leaving your kids in their care - otherwise - great investment! We purchased two of these - one for the top of the stairs and one for the bottom. They have lasted through two dogs and two kids! They can take abuse for sure - (my son hangs from them like a monkey and they have never let go.) Very sturdy and look better than plastic. Durability We have purchased two our selves and had them for about 4 years now - still holding strong and we were given one by a friend who had hers for about 6 years before handing it down and it works great. Ease of Use Easy to use if you know what your doing - I can do it one handed with baby in the other and have time to grab my toddlers hand to go down or up, but it takes some getting use to. Babysitters and family members tend to have a really hard time with them. Easy to install if your husband/partner/you are handy. Safety If installed correctly, they won't go anywhere. We used studs/anchors to make sure they were secure and my kids shake them like they are in jail sometimes to get our attention if they want to be on one side or another and they hold up well.

DesireeElizabeth

USA

We have two of these baby gates, one on the top of the stairs, the other on the bottom of the stairs. We lost the attachment pieces for one gate so we have had to be creative and make up our own. The gates attach securely to the wall. Our daughter and every other kid that comes over love to yank and pull on the baby gate so I am very glad that the latch is strong. The gates are a wood design which makes them more appealing to look at than white plastic. Durability These gates were originally in my parents vacation rental house and then we took them. The gates have had a lot of use and still work great. Ease of Use Sometimes the latch doesn't quite stick and the gate can be opened. As long as we are careful and not mindless when we close the gate it works fine. Safety These gates are very secure and do not have any parts or sharp edges that can hurt a child. The pieces don't slide when locked so no fingers can get pinched. When the gate is open, my daughter could care less about playing with it.

swimneday

USA

We bought the Evenflo Top-of-Stair Gate to protect our children from falling down the stairs!  This gate is 30" high and expands from 28" to 42" wide.  (There is also the Top of Stair Plus gate that is 32" high and 30" to 48" wide; we decided on the narrower one.)  The gate is made of a nice solid wood that is fairly light in color and blends with any decor.  It is very sturdy and ours has been in use for over 3 years and shows no damage.  The installation process was a bit tricky for us as we had to install it around a bannister (my husband crafted an ingenious solution from 2x4s to mount around the bannister and then screw the gate into) and then when we crossed that hurdle, realized that we couldn't install the other side properly because where the bottom screws needed to be, one was in the wall and one was in the baseboard.  Anyway, my wonderful husband designed a solution to that too, but it was a huge pain to install.  If you're just installing it in a normal stair, I think it would be a lot easier. The release mechanism is very simple to use with one hand, but too complicated for a young child to figure out (my 4-year-old is just now figuring it out).  And it has a feature that doesn't allow it to swing out over the stairs, which is great.  I love the security that this gate gives us.  When the kids and I are upstairs, I don't have to worry about them falling down the stairs when the gate is closed.

mitch0714

Lewisberry, PA

I just love this gate. When we bought our house the owner had left one installed. We quickly feel in love iwth the gate. And we were not using it for children, but rather our dogs. In our last house they "marked" their territory on the carpet andthere was nothing we could do to get them to stop. So in this house they were not allowed to go on the carpet. This gate worked perfectly. And looked great in the process. The wood is of good quality. And light wood color. You could stain it to a color of your choice if you so desired. It screws into the frame of the hallway/door (we do not actually use ours at the stairs) and then you click open the handle. The entire gate opens so you do not have to deal with "squeezing" by. We have since purchased 3 more gates. They look great. They do not look like a baby gate. I highly recommend this if you do not want your house to feel over taken by the children, but still be child protected. We now have two little ones and wouldn;t have any other baby gates.

chinkums

Lawrenceville, GA

We recently moved to a house with stairs, and this was the first thing I bought. I bought it after reading all the positive reviews about it. We have a two year old and a 8 month old, and this gate has been a lifesaver. I don't worry about the kids accidentally falling down the stairs, or tripping as they run down the hall and then crashing down the stairs. It was very easy to install, and it is very simple to detach or put in place. Despite the simplicity of attaching and detaching it, it is a slightly complicated hand manuever for children, and my toddler has not figured it out yet, even though she watches me do it all the time. Another thing I love about this gate is that it can be pulled off from the wall without detaching the hardware, which is great for moving furniture, or when you have an adult party, and don't want the hassle of the gate. I like the neutral color as well, although it could easily be painted to blend in with the decor of the house.

reader1755

Apache Junction, AZ

This swing top of stairs gate by Evenflo has been terrific.  I can't give it five stars for a few reasons.  So, here's the down stuff:  The wood is unfinished (makes sense for teething purposes but is slightly rough).  Although the wood slats are strong enough to stop crawling babies, my dog scratched on a slat and a small piece chipped off.  Now, there definitely is a splinter hazard (but my husband sanded it down).  The other issue is that I'm not sure that you can buy the fixed hinged part that secures to the wall (the gate then secures to these two hinges).  We moved to another two-story home and had to make sure we had all the pieces so we could use the gate again at our new home.  My husband was unable to confirm replacement parts were available.  Now, the great news:  This gate is very sturdy and swings to get out of the way when not in use.  It is very reasonably priced and worth its weight in gold as a safety precaution.  Although not needed for bottom of stairs, they work great as swing gates there so older guests don't have to step over the fixed cheaper expandable gates. 

JoseLankits

Valrico, FL

We have a very long and steep staircase which has landed both my husband and I in the ER several times, so finding a secure and safe stair gate was very important to us. After searching around for a bit, we settled on the Enenflo Secure Solutions Top of Stairs Wood Swing Gate. We've found it to be a great gate!It's a hardware-mount gate - which is what you want for a top of stair gate anyway as pressure-mounted gates can be dislodged if enough force is applied to them - and it's amazing the amount of force a determined toddler can exert!  It was easy to intall - it only took us a few minutes. The hinges allow it to open in either direction and it will lay flat against the wall and out of the way when we're not using it. The latch mechanism is simple enough for an adult to open one-handed, but too difficult for a toddler to open.  My 15 month old knows where the latch is, but he can't get it open.  It's sturdy - our toddler bangs and shakes it and it doesn't budge. He also can't climb up or through it - something we were very concerned about. And the wood even looks nice!

GMRsMom

Oakland Gardens, NY

This gate has been great for our older child (3 1/2 yrs).  We have had it since he was an infant and we still have it.  We still use it daily and he still hasn't figured out how to open it.  We use it at night time so that if he wakes in the middle of the night he can't get into trouble and so the dog can't get into his room.  He has occassionaly climbed out of it but not enough to stop using it.  We have a second one at the end of the hall.  We use it primarily to keep the dog our of teh living room incase we have company or we have the infant lying in the living room floor or something.  We love it so much that we have recently purchased a third one for the opening of our infant's room.

hendricks8771

Aylett, VA