Good Idea, Generally Well-Constructed: Mommy’s Helper 0310 Slide-Lok Bi-Fold Door Lock Works!

The Good: Does what it promises, Inexpensive enough
The Bad: Scratches paint, “Guide” handle is breakable
The Basics: The Mommy’s Helper 0310 Slide-Lok Bi-Fold Door Lock solves our basic problems, but one wonders why they are sold singly!


While I am tempted to blame my recent closet issues on our new cat, Elim, the truth is that for the last six months (well before our cat, Gollum, died), our cat Timber had been getting into our downstairs closet. We would hear Timber playing downstairs and we would find our downstairs closet doors – which are a pretty standard, traditional bi-fold door – open. When I heard the usual movement of Timber pulling open the closet doors and went down to find that Elim had climbed up onto the high shelf in the closets, my wife and I realized we needed to stop the problem once and for all. For that, she picked up the Mommy’s Helper 0310 Slide-Lok Bi-Fold Door Lock.

The Mommy’s Helper 0310 Slide-Lok Bi-Fold Door Lock is a device used, ostensibly, for child-proofing one’s house, but it has the added benefit of working for pet-proofing one’s closets as well. The Mommy’s Helper 0310 Slide-Lok Bi-Fold Door Lock is a very simple device. The 2” wide by 7” long by 1” clear plastic device is basically a hard plastic sleeve that fits over the top of a bi-fold door. The 0310 is designed for doors that are 1 5/16” – 1 3/8” thick; ours are 1 3/8” thick and the Mommy’s Helper 0310 Slide-Lok Bi-Fold Door Lock fits perfectly.

Using the Mommy’s Helper 0310 Slide-Lok Bi-Fold Door Lock is easy. Simply remove the plastic sleeve from the card and put it on the top of the bi-fold door. There is a 7” thin plastic dowel that fits through a hole in the lip on the sleeve. This seems to serve only as a guide for the Slide-Lok; it is too thin to use to pull the door lock into or out of place. When applying the Slide-Lok Bi-Fold Door Lock, on places it on one of the two doors in the bi-fold door pair, right near the seam between the doors. Bi-Fold doors work where one pulls a knob and the door folds outward at the center, with two panel doors on tracks that keep them in place. The Slide-Lok Bi-Fold Door Lock works by preventing the doors from folding outward by creating a physical grip on the top section between the two panels, preventing it from having any “give.” Once the Mommy’s Helper 0310 Slide-Lok Bi-Fold Door Lock is applied to the top of a door, one simply has to pull the Slide-Lok into place over the door panel it is not yet on. It is ideally in place when the dowel is hanging between the two doors.

To open one’s bi-fold doors after the lock is applied, simply pull the Mommy’s Helper 0310 Slide-Lok Bi-Fold Door Lock by the lip of the device away from the seam between doors (either direction), until the Slide-Lok clears one of the two doors. After that, the closet can be opened like normal. When you close the doors, simply pull the Slide-Lok back into place over the door seam.

Our bi-fold doors are painted and the Mommy’s Helper 0310 Slide-Lok Bi-Fold Door Lock scratches the paint on the bi-fold doors. Between that, the fact that most of our bi-fold doors are pairs and these only come in single packs and the breakable nature of the guide dowel rob the 0310 of a perfect rating. The fact that the device does exactly what it promises makes it well worth recommending to parents or pet owners!

For other home improvement and safety devices, please visit my reviews of:
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Speedy White Hearth & Glass Cleaner

5/10

For other home product reviews, please check out my Home And Garden Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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