Hardware Essentials 851838 Stainless Steel Self-Closing Gate Spring, Adjustable Tension, 12 Inch

Very high quality but, unfortunately would not work in my application so I returned it

A little bit of common sense goes a long way with this item, but works great install was pretty easy.

Works well, but pay close attention to the installation diagram. The spring needs to be installed in such a way that the adjustment bolt is on top. Depending on the swing of your gate, it may be counter intuitive to the way you would install support braces (lower corner against hinge side support |/ ). We made this mistake thinking we could install the spring in the same direction as our support braces, but our gate would not close and wanted to stay open. Flipping the spring upside down (bolt down) resulted in the spring flexing awkwardly and the adjuster pin wanting to slip out. In the end, we had to remove to whole thing and reinstall it with the upper corner against the hinge side support ( |\ ).

Works well .. best part is that it’s stainless steel..

Works exactly as it should!

This is one of the worst engineered products I've had the misfortune of having to install. The spring has an adjustable nut at the top end, and a fixed nut at the bottom. After the spring has been screwed into place, the proper tension must be preloaded by tightening the top nut, which is then held in place by small metal plate that slides between the nut and the bracket. But as a previous reviewer noted, there is nothing to stop the "fixed" nut at the bottom from turning -- which it does the first time the gate is opened. The result is that the preloaded tension is lost, and the spring will no longer close the gate. The only solution is to jury-rig something that will keep the lower nut from turning when the spring is further compressed by the opening of the gate. I found that shoving a couple of 5d finish nails between the nut head and the bracket seems to give at least temporary relief. But honestly, what kind of company would release a product that cannot possibly work as sold? Oh, one last thing: although the gate closes nicely when it is released from a fully open, or even half open, position, if it is stopped a few inches short of fully closed and then released, it just sits there. So although most of the time it will do the job, you can't fully rely on it. Bottom line: a big thumbs down for this Hillman product.

Among the most satisfactory purchases I have made in a while, these closers seem to be holding up. Check back in a couple of years.

As many people have written about: It has a major flaw. The flaw is easily correct but it is frustrating when you buy and new relatively inexpensive item that could easily have been made better. The flaw is the bottom bolt sits too far away from the "L" attachment bracket. The lower bolt appears to only glued and will spin loose with even a small amount of pressure. This renders the product useless. An easy fix is to place a small piece of spacer between the bottom bolt and the "l" hanger and glue it in place. This works as a jam and allows you to be tighten the tensioner bolt on top and install the shim stop.