Update: 2015.02.28 - Comparison to Retract-A-Gate So the Dreambaby gate is now broke. Either my dog is too much for this gate or there was some sort of defect in the retracting mechanism on the one I got. I took the mechanism apart and found it to be mostly made of plastic. The part that broke is the retract locking mechanism that is a spring loaded plastic ratchet that locks into a plastic gear that runs around the inside of the locking mechanism. There is also a torsion spring that runs from top to bottom and provides the energy to retract the gate. I tried to glue it with epoxy and reinforce it with a nail that I drilled through the ratchet into the base but that only lasted a couple weeks. We have since taken this gate down and moved it to another location where the lock isn't needed as much and doesn't cause a safety hazard if it is closed and unlocked. In it's place we installed a Retract-A-Gate. It's a bit more expensive and it doesn't look as nice when mounted but we haven't had any problems with it like we had with the Dreambaby gate. When mounting the Retract-A-Gate, you run into the same issue as the Dreambaby gate and need to account for the thickness of the baseboard when installing. I prefer Dreambaby's spacers as they seamlessly blend into the other mounting hardware that is provided. With Retract-A-Gate, you can purchase spacers separately but they are clear plastic shims that do not look as nice. Forgoing the shims, I ended up using small pieces of baseboard for the spacer at the top. The Retract-A-Gate also operates very similar to the Dreambaby except, with the Retract-A-Gate, the lock is either on or off and not temporarily disengaged like the Dreambaby gate. As mentioned in my original review, with the Dreambaby gate you have to unlock the gate to open it but also unlock it to close it. If you don't latch the Dreambaby gate to the wall on the first try you have to start over, unlock it and try again putting more stress on that ratchet mechanism. That's not an issue with the Retract-a-Gate, but you have to remember to lock it. Locking and unlocking is easier to do with the Retract-a-Gate. To lock and unlock the Retract-A-Gate you need to depress the knob and turn it, just like the Dreambaby. However, the force needed to depress the Retract-A-Gate knob is much less than what is needed with the Dreambaby gate. Locking and unlocking on the Retract-A-Gate is also made easier with the much larger knob than what provided on the Dreambaby gate. The Retract-A-Gate has similar build quality but there are differences in gate materials. I haven't taken the Retract-A-Gate locking mechanism apart but it looks to be made of similar plastic as the Dreambaby. However, instead of a soft-touch rubber coated fabric the Dreambaby uses, the Retract-A-Gate uses a plastic coating on the gate material that doesn't attract as much dirt and easily wipes clean. We chose the white color Retract-A-Gate and noticed that it doesn't get dirty as easily as the Dreambaby's off-white material. Under normal use, without a crazy dog this gate would perform great. However, for my family that wasn't the case with the Dreambaby gates. I really like the way the Dreambaby gate mounts and the build quality is very good. I think though they should design a better locking mechanism since the part that broke on ours is used every time you open and close the gate, multiple times if you don't latch the first time when closing. The Retract-A-Gate costs a bit more, you can't get it on Amazon, you pay for shipping, and the mounting method isn't as nice but it functions much better than the Dreambaby gate. In the end we have to use this thing multiple time a day and the Retrat-A-Gate is just easier to live with. ========================================= Original Review: We use this gate at the top of a stairway between our kitchen and family room. It's installed at the top to keep our 1 year old from falling down and our dog from coming up. The install is pretty straight forward. I love how they include plastic templates to use when drilling the holes for the mounting brackets. Everything fit together very well and looks nice once installed. We like how unobtrusive the flexible gate is, unlike the other type of gate with the swinging door. The fabric of gate feels strong but collects dirt easily as it has a rubbery coating. I'd recommend the black one over white or beige. Using the gate is nice, but very finicky to open and close. It's nearly impossible for us to open with one hand as the bottom is more difficult than the top to unlatch. To unlatch you have to press and turn a control knob on the roll side that releases the ratchet mechanism and allows the fabric to unwind. Then you can pull the other end and unlatch it, but if you let it recoil at all the ratchet mechanism is engaged again stopping it from unwinding. You then have to go back to the control knob and turn it again and try to unlatch. This wouldn't be such a big deal but the gate is material is very flexible and the top stretches and unlatches first while the bottom one stays in the latch. We normally need to use two hands to open it, one hand at the top of the handle and one under it towards the center. I think though, this is a problem with the option we used to install because the hooks come straight out from the wall. We have to pull the gate against the wall before we can latch or unlatch it which is less than an inch. If we were able to pull it out a few inches it would compensate for the flex of the fabric. Another issue we've ran into is the bottom of the fabric seems to flex more than I'd like. The instructions say to not install it more than a couple inches from the floor, which we have. Also the distance the gate extends at the top and bottom is nearly the same with the top only about 1/8 inch more than the bottom. The flex at the bottom isn't an issue with our one year old, but the dog, a 65+ pound pit is able to wriggle under it. I'm going to remount it so that it's nearly touching the floor to see if that is enough to stop the dog. All said though, this is a pretty nice gate. We couldn't have used one of the rigid swinging gates in the same location so our options were limited. There is another flexible gate we are going to try that uses a timer instead to re-engage the ratchet mechanism. Maybe this one can be relocated to a better spot to allow easier opening.
