What we love
The Lindam Easy Fit Push To Shut Safety Gate is, as the name promises, easy to fit and you can have it in place within minutes of taking it out of the box. While the instructions are diagram only (no written guide), they’re easy to follow.
It might take a bit of fiddling to get the gate in the best position for your doorframe, but you know when you’ve done it right as the gate feels secure and won’t budge. There are plastic cups to screw onto the doorframe for added security, but if you’re going to be moving it from room to room you might not want to bother – I didn’t and the gate still stays in place fine.
For me, the main benefit of this gate is its wide opening. Other products I’ve tried have left me with bruises on my hips from constantly bashing into the corners of the narrow opening when dashing through, but I’m happy to report this one doesn’t.
The door opens two ways but there’s a handy clip on the base that allows you to lock it in either direction (so you couldn’t fly forwards down the stairs if someone had forgotten to shut it properly, for example).
As the name suggest, its USP is that it can be pushed shut in one easy movement, with one hand – and indeed it can. To open it, you need to squeeze buttons on either side of the handle while simultaneously pushing down. Again, this is easy and intuitive to do.
My toddlers, who at just over 2 years have figured out how to open other safety gates, have had no luck with this. The instructions say the Lindam Easy Fit Push To Shut Safety Gate is not suitable for children over 24 months, however I think this might be more to do with the risk of agile toddlers climbing over, rather than being able to open it. I personally feel a child would have to be much older, taller and stronger to be able to exert the downward force required to open the lock and escape. As to the climbing over, if you’re just using it as a deterrent for kids getting into the kitchen/up stairs or to separate children and pets, and you’ll always be there supervising, you may feel it’s ok.
The gate looks and feels sturdy and good quality, and there are various sizes of gate extenders to purchase separately if you need to fit it to wider doorways or openings.
What to watch out for
It’s important to measure any doorways, stairwells or openings where you intend to use this gate as it’s not suitable for slimmer spaces. It wouldn’t fit on a couple of the doorways in my flat (which I thought were fairly standard size) so it wasn’t as versatile as I’d hoped.
Apart from that, my only other minor gripe is the locking mechanism is rather noisy. Yes, you can ‘push to shut’, but there are a loud couple of clicks. This is only a problem for me as I currently have the gate over my twins’ bedroom door, to stop them wandering around the flat at night, as they’re no longer in cots. A couple of times I’ve been trying to settle a wakeful child, leaving the room when convinced they’d nodded off, only to rouse them again with the noise of the gate – argh! Of course this would not be an issue if the gate were in use elsewhere in the home.
Who is the Lindam Easy Fit Push To Shut Safety Gate best for?
Anyone who wants a sturdy, reliable, wide-opening, easy-shut gate that’s going to stay in situ.
The Lindam Easy Fit Push To Shut Safety Gate is a robust, practical safety gate that can be used one-handed. It is easy to fit, and can either swing both directions or be locked to open one way. Just beware the noise as you shut it.
