IKEA Offers Free Repair Kit for Products That Killed 2 Children

By MARC TORRENCE (Patch National Staff)

IKEA is offering free repair kits for millions of dressers, after the company received reports two children were killed when the dressers collapsed.

The Swedish furniture company announced a program that includes a repair kit to secure dressers walls to prevent collapse.

IKEA’s MALM three- and four-drawer chests and two styles of MALM six- drawer chests (all pictured above), along with any children’s chests over 23.5 inches and adult chests and dressers taller than 29.5 inches, are eligible for the kits.

In February 2014, a 2-year-old boy from West Chester, Pa., died when a MALM six-drawer chest collapsed on him, pinning him to his bed. And later that June, a 23-month old child from Snohomish, WA, died trapped underneath a 3-drawer MALM chest.

IKEA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission also say they have had 14 other reports of tip-over accidents involving their MALM chests.

Seven million MALM chests and 20 million other IKEA chests and dressers are part of the nationwide repair program.

The kit will include “replacement tip-over restraints for use by any consumer who has not secured their IKEA chest or dresser to the wall” and “complete wall anchoring hardware, instructions and warning labels to be affixed to the furniture.”

To get a free wall-anchoring kit, customers can visit the local IKEA store at 10100 Baltimore Ave. in College Park, click here, or call (888) 966-4532.

In the meantime, IKEA and the product commission encourage customers to “inspect their IKEA chests and dressers to ensure that they are securely anchored to the wall” and, if not, to move the furniture to a closet or other area inaccessible to children until the proper repairs can be made.