Boerboel Gate Solutions 73002218 Heavy-Duty Gate Latch, Black

For the price, this is a fantastic gate door latch. Much heavier duty than what you would find at the major box stores. Powder coating is top notch as well. I liked it so much I bought it again for a second gate door, and now I'm in the process of buying it a third time for a gate door for our garden (which may be a bit overkill, but for the quality to price ration, I'd rather keep everything the same.Currently, I have this latch on left and right side opening doors without an issue without any modification of the latch (I don't quite follow the issues other folks were having).FWIW, I was in no way compensated for this review, or even asked to write one. I'm just a happy product owner.

Looks very classy and mechanism functions smoothly. Opens and closes with light finger tip pressure. Feels like nice heavy duty/weight metal construction. Screws do not require pre drilling, which is a great invention and worth every penny.

This is more expensive than run-of-the-mill gate latches, but it is much, much sturdier. I'm not sure what they were thinking with the included 1" screws though - that's just asking for trouble. I ended up using my own 2" deck screws instead, which worked out perfectly.

Take the "heavy duty" claim with a grain of salt. Your local hardware store probably has a sturdier latch assembly for about the same price. This one is definitely in the sturdier half of the spectrum, however, and does have a more finished look, with a nice glossy black coating, and it is made from metal. It took a little work, though, to get it operating somewhat correctly.The problems are two-fold: 1) the fulcrum rivet of the latch lever is imprecisely placed, and 2) the small spring that holds the latch lever closed is too weak. If you gently push the gate closed (as you probably will with your nice, new gate), the bolt will slip very nicely into the opening of the latch, with a very assuring "clink," and you'll think the gate is securely latched. But because the fulcrum is too close to that opening, about 1/8" of metal from the lever also overlaps and occupies the same opening. If slight pressure is applied to push the bolt against that overlap, e.g. a small gust of wind, this pushes the latch partly open, and stretches the spring so the bolt rebounds, and because the spring is too weak, it doesn't close the opening quickly enough to keep the bolt confined. The result is an open gate swinging in the wind. Fortunately, a partial fix is fairly simple, if you happen to have a round file. It took me about a dozen strokes to remove the excess metal overlapping the bolt opening. This solves problem #1, but not the weak spring. So, if the gate closes very quickly, the spring still responds too slowly to grab the bolt before it bounces back out of the latch. I figured we could deal with that, since slamming the gate is not a good idea, anyway.

Update (914/18):Apparently the picture showing the latch bar plate as only needing 4 screws is incorrect. I ordered more of these latches because I really liked the one I have, and was disappointed to get the bar with an "L" shaped plate wrapping around the edge of the gate (requiring 6 screws). Barrette customer service said what I received is how it should be and they'll request Amazon take down the image showing the product a different way. Which is unfortunate because it shows the way I wanted it with no "L" shaped bar plate (see my original review below about my modification to avoid a large gap).There have also been several reviews saying this latch can't be reversed for left or right gates because of the rivet. I think when they updated the model to the rivet style, some of the old latch arms were still used. The most recent ones I have the new latch arms, and I easily switched mine in about 10 seconds. It's a mirror image of itself and can easily be switched by quickly moving the spring to the opposite mirroring holes. The company suggests doing it with needle nose pliers but I did it with just my fingers. Others have complained of the spring being flimsy but all 3 of mine are very sturdy for their size.Lastly, after two years I can report that the powder coating on my first latch and bar have scraped off to shiny metal where they make contact. I guess this is inevitable with friction.Update (9/22/17):From the new pictures, it looks like they changed the design of the latch bar plate. It is totally flat now and can go anywhere on the face of the gate (similar to mine after I had to cut the L-shaped side off). I also carved out a bit of wood in the post to the depth of the latch thickness, so that the latch itself is now flush with the edge of the post. This allowed a cleaner, tighter fit for the gate with a smaller gap.------------Love the idea of this latch. It looks so much better than the standard latch and doesn't require a string or wire going through the post to open from the other side. There are a couple design issues I don't like and I wish they would advertise the minimum gap/space required (I couldn't find the info here on amazon, on their website, or even in the documentation that came with it).The worst part about the design is that it requires a large gap between the post and the gate upright. This is for two reasons. First, the handle mechanism takes up room against the post and the gate needs maybe at least 3/8 (8mm) to be clear when closed. Secondly, the catch bar has a 90 degree edge to it that I didn't notice, which requires additional clearance space. It forces you to put the catch bar right against the gate upright, which means it has to be a huge gap to fit, and if you don't have a large gap then the bar sticks way too far over. This latch is probably great for some metal or vinyl type fences which use large gaps, but I didn't want a huge gap in my wood privacy fence gate.I liked the latch enough to try to modify it and my fence to make it work. I used a reciprocating saw and file to cut the catch bar off at the 90 degree edge, which allowed me to place which allowed me to put it anywhere on the gate face. I also carved out a part of the post so the latch itself is recessed into the post. Together this lets the gate close to a very small gap.I love the look and function, but there are some major fit issues if you don't plan to have a large gap between the gate and the post.

Latch is still going strong after a year of use on my heavy duty wood fence gate. Easy to install. Have to manually close gate latch each time due to wood warping a little over time which is to be expected. If not for warping it would latch just by swinging gate shut, but pleased with results.

These latches operate very smoothly. As always, it's wise to pre-drill for the stainless screws. Easy to change for left or right.

I have been building gates for five years now and the heavy duty latch I used to use isn't available anymore. So I bought this so called heavy duty latch it's not! Regular duty maybe but never heavy duty! If it looked as heavy duty in person as in the pictures this thing could have been great.