Review of Carlson 0930PW Extra-Wide Walk-Thru Gate with Pet Door, White

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List Price: $69.99
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Dear Amazon,

I would like to express a great deal of dissatisfaction with the gate you sent. First of all, you shipped it too quickly. It got here a whole day before it was supposed to. Second, it was way too easy to install. One minute, I could get into all kinds of trouble in the kitchen: eating the kitties' food, drooling on the floor, swarming mommy when she is trying to cook--I had it made! The next minute, this gate stopped me from doing all those fun things. It was that fast. Now mommy just walks through, and I have to sit on the other side, looking sad. But that's not the worst part. The cats can just walk right through the little door in the bottom! Now, if I want to chase them, I have to wait until they come back through. Can you imagine the kind of attitude they've been giving me? I tried getting through the little door, and could only fit my head through the hole. I'm not that big either--my vet says I am only 50 pounds (although I am growing fast, being a German Shepherd puppy and all). But the big fat cat I live with, who has to be at least 400 pounds, just slides right through! It's a strange world we live in, I gotta tell ya. My human baby sister isn't crawling yet, but I will have to give you an update when she has an opinion about it. Anyways, this gate is terrible. Don't buy it unless you want your dog to look at you through the metal bars of this gate with big sad eyes. I didn't want to give it four stars, but my mom made me. I wouldn't even have given it one star. Maybe I would have horked up my food and pushed that into the shape of a star, but I would have just eaten it again, so it wouldn't have had any stars. Stupid gate.

Slobbers,

Otis the Dog

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I received this gate a few days ago. It's the first one I have bought that has the door. All the others are the wooden ones that you have to take down to go by it. With four dogs, and some that do not get along (must be kept separate), that was getting very old. I am using the pressure mounting, even though I am using it on stairs (I don't have any children in the house and the dogs don't jump up on the gate so I'm not worried about it falling down).

Since this review is kind of long, one note up front in case you don't make it all the way through. When you take the gate out of the box and get ready to install, DON'T cut off all the zip ties right away. Leave the one on that holds the door closed. You can thank me later :)

I like having the little door. Where "little" is the important word. I am a pretty small person, and that's a good thing! I am about 5'7" and 130 lbs. I don't think anyone any bigger than me will be able to use this gate without cursing each time they go through the door. I think about the size every time I go through it! This is not a ding about the gate, because I'm sure the measurements for the door are here on the site. Just want to make sure you know.

I wasn't able to put the gate where I wanted to because the gate wasn't the correct width with either of the extender pieces attached (or both). I was somewhat prepared for this because of another review I read for this gate or for another one that has extensions. For the fewest surprises, the best way they could provide the dimensions is to provide four, as follows:

1) range of width with no extensions (it is a range because there are "threaded spindle rods" that you screw in on the sides, and you turn to adjust the tension)

2) range of width with larger extension

3) range of width with smaller extension

4) range of width with both extensions

I've already installed it, so I can't give you exact measurements, but here are the approximate dimensions:

1) The gate itself (no extensions) is about 26" (I can't give you exact because I have one extension on there so I can't see the end of the gate on one side, the extension slides over on top of the main part). So, where you install it must be wider than 26" because there are the "threaded spindle rods" to be inserted on each side for the pressure mounting. I don't remember how long those are, but probably about 4". Each of these has an "adjustable wheel spindle" and the rubber end that is up against the wall. So all together you need at least 1.25" on each side minimum. SOOO, door opening must be at least 28.5".

2) The gate itself, with the larger extension (this is what I used), is 32.5" (without the spindle rods). So you would need a minimum of 34" to use this one.

3) The gate itself, with the smaller extension, is 30.5", so you would need at least a 33" opening to use it.

4) With both extensions, I think the gate will be 38", so you would need at least a 40.5" opening for this configuration.

As far as the maximum for each of these set ups, I am guessing somewhat since I don't know the exact length of the "threaded spindle rods". I am guessing the most you would be able to extend them is about 3" on each side. So the max for each above would be 6" added to the size of the door, i.e.,

1) 32"... (therefore range is 28.5" to 32")

2) 38.5"... (therefore range is 34" to 38.5")

3) 36.5"... (therefore range is 33.5" to 36.5")

4) 44" ... (therefore range is 40.5" to 44")

Unfortunately the opening where I wanted to install this gate is 39.5" so it is just in between the ranges for configurations 2 and 4. So I just put it somewhere else.

I am adding a picture of what the threaded spindle rod, adjustable wheel spindle, and rubber end look like for reference.

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We purchased 2 of these gates in order to allow our cat to pass freely when necessary, yet keep the dog and cat separated at other times. We paid $39.97 at WalMart. That price probably can't be beaten. Installation took all of about 15 minutes from box to finished installation. Yes, the gate opening will close up when you properly tension the unit in the door opening. Follow the instructions, and don't over tighten things, and you will be just fine. Kudos to Carlson for a quality product at a reasonable price. NOTE: This gate is also available as a child-safe gate, without the small door, under the Evenflo SimpleStep Pressure Gate Taupe label, which sells for $39.95 direct from Amazon. If you don't need the small access door to allow certain pets to come and go, that might be the gate for you.

Honest reviews on Carlson 0930PW Extra-Wide Walk-Thru Gate with Pet Door, White

I have a Golden Retriever puppy we got when she was only a couple months old. She sure was cute, but boy could she get into trouble (have you seen "Marley and Me")?? We ended up buying about 10 different gates to close off every area of our large home! This one is my favorite, and here's why:

* Swing-open door is easy to use and means no more stepping over gates!

* Nice looking compared to plastic or collapsible wood gates.

* Good quality construction, sturdy gate, well made.

* "Kitty door" lets my cat get away from the dog during daily high speed chases!

* Metal gate means my puppy can't eat it! (you should see the wood chairs!)

Now that my puppy is a little over a year old, I can see we will need gates for the foreseeable future, and I am going to get rid of some of the others I bought, and pick up several more of these. I do agree with other reviewers that the kitty door is too big, because our puppy would go through it occasionally until she hit about 55 pounds, and then one day she got stuck halfway through the gate! I have since closed the kitty door, but sawed off one of its metal posts as was suggested by another reviewer so that the opening is big enough for the cat, but way too small for the dog. Another thing I did to make the gate more secure was use some small plastic furniture glide cups (the kind made for protecting a wood floor from scratches) and screw the cups into the wall on either side of the gate, so that each of the gate's 4 pressure mounts is held inside a small plastic cup. This ensures the gate will not get knocked down even if someone accidentally runs into it.

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We got this gate to keep our daughter in our living room but to hopefully still allow our pets in and out while still easily swinging the gate open and closed vs. having to put it up and take it down everytime. Unfortunatly whoever decided the size of the opening should probably compare it to your average toddler, it's way too big and our daughter (13 months old at the time)quickly figured out how to crawl thru the pet door, hence defeating the whole point. So we keep the pet door closed now and could have essentially just bought any other gate on the market. The gate works great otherwise, easy to open and close for an adult but definitly toddler proof on the main gate portion.

If you are looking for a gate to allow your small pets in and out there is one that has a hole shaped like a cat that works much better and keeps your kid where you want them, however it doesn't have the swinging door opening so you have to take it down everytime you need to pass thru so that's the trade off.