We hope you have heard about the 2016 recall of 29 million dressers from IKEA.  And that you have removed those dressers from your home and received a refund from IKEA.

Unfortunately, we know from a death made public last month that not everyone has received news of the recall.  A 2 year old California boy was killed in May when a 3 drawer IKEA dresser tipped on him.  Our hearts go out to those who knew him and loved him.

This family had not heard of the recall.  That should not be.  IKEA should be doing vastly more to communicate the recall to its customers and the CPSC should be working with IKEA to communicate the recall effectively. It took Ted McGee, a 2 year old from Minnesota, dying to get the CPSC and IKEA to conduct the recall. Since the recall, which followed a yearlong education campaign, another death was reported. The most recent death in May brings the total to eight.

We are writing this blog post now in the hopes of both reaching more families with news of the recall and conveying the extreme danger these dressers  pose to those who have them in their homes.  These are far more dangerous than most other dressers.

KID and Shane’s Foundation conducted research on furniture stability in 2016. Our testing shows that IKEA dressers are extremely unstable and should immediately be removed from use and returned for a refund.

For Furniture Stability: A Review of Data and Testing Results, we tested 19 dressers and chests. About half of the products (including three IKEA products) failed the current industry standard testing we performed.  You can read the full report and methodology here.  For today, let’s look at the IKEA results separately.

When analyzing the results, we can see the following shortcomings of the tested IKEA products:

  • All of the three IKEA products failed the testing following ASTM 2057 section 7.2. In this test, one drawer is opened at a time and a 50-pound weight is hung on the drawer. Dressers that tip fail the test. The table below shows the weight at which they did tip – well before the 50 pound test weight.
  • While the three units passed the ASTM 2057 section 7.1 testing, two out of three of the IKEA products tested failed the ASTM 2057 section 7.1 test when conducted on carpeting, which is likely to be found in a child’s room. In this test, each unit was tested for tip-over when placed on a carpeted floor, with all drawers opened without weight added.

Despite the industry standard calling for no tipping with 50 pounds of weight on an open drawer, these three IKEA dressers tipped well before that weight was reached – one at just 21 pounds.  Anchoring your furniture will prevent tip-over and is an important childproofing step to take.  But delaying removing these dangerous dressers from homes now will only delay the inevitable – at some point, it will be unanchored, given away or sold – and will likely tip.

Help save lives and take action:

  • Have an IKEA dresser that was recalled? Most of them prior to this year were recalled. Return it for a refund – or set up a time for IKEA to come and retrieve it and receive the refund in the mail.
  • Share this link with your network: don’t assume people know about the recall or the danger of these dressers.
  • Help us monitor the recall – it is virtually impossible to get information from IKEA or CPSC on how the recall is proceeding. Do you have an IKEA dresser or did you participate, or attempt to participate in the recall?  Share your experience with us through this short form.

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