A look at consumer demand for new tip restraints aimed at preventing tip-over incidents

Alliance4Safety issued just over 3,000 units last year to replace recalled tip restraints that are prone to breaking

HIGH POINT — In the year since the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall of millions of plastic tip restraints aimed at reducing tip-overs of clothing storage units, the response from the public has been relatively low compared with the number of units reportedly recalled.

As of late December, the American Home Furnishings Alliance through the Alliance4Safety issued 3,051 replacement units to consumers that have requested them. Another 33 companies have participated in the recall, but it was unknown at the time of this article how many units they have sent to retailers that are then passing along the replacement units to their customers.

At issue was a plastic tip-over restraint produced by New Age Industries Co. that can become brittle and break over time. This would potentially cause the unit to fail and result in a tip-over of a clothing storage unit that could injure or kill a child.

“We are still filling the requests, but they are very sporadic now,” said Pat Bowling, AHFA’s vice president of communications. “Early on, there were dozens of requests every week. The requests are still coming in, but there are just not that many.”

AHFA actually did not know what type of response to expect from the public, so the fact that more than 3,000 new tip restraints have been shipped to consumers means that many parents have paid attention to the issue and are taking corrective action.

“Honestly, we had no idea what the response would be,” Bowling said, noting that her expectations were that the AHFA would only get requests for a couple of dozen replacement units. “Then we had a couple of hundred after the first few weeks. So I was surprised at how many people actually responded and requested a replacement kit.”

As the recall dates back to units purchased in 2019, some children also have since grown and are no longer likely to climb on furniture.

“The time frame was such that unless you have small children in the household you are probably going to ignore it to start with,” Bowling added. “Even if it was relevant when you bought the unit, it may no longer be relevant now. … You probably are not as concerned about anchoring furniture as you once were.”

However, she noted that the hazards of tip-over incidents involving clothing storage units remains, particularly in households with small children.

New safety regulations in place since 2023 also have helped create safer products that meet more rigorous testing requirements aimed at ensuring they are built to withstand the force of a child climbing on a unit to reach something in the top drawers or surface of the clothing storage unit. Parents or caregivers also are encouraged to anchor units to the wall with newer and more stable tip restraints that companies provide with clothing storage units.

Bowling noted that retailers that have had units in inventory with the recalled tip restraints were asked to contact their supplier for a replacement kit.

“We were not filling those — we were only filling consumer requests, and we got a hefty number of those,” Bowling said, adding that for every retailer request the AHFA received the organization instructed them to reach out to their supplier. “So there was a fair amount of that going on.”

Home News Now has reached out to the CPSC for additional information about the results of the recall in the first year and is still awaiting a response.

Thomas Russell

Home News Now Editor-in-Chief Thomas Russell has covered the furniture industry for 25 years at various daily and weekly consumer and trade publications. He can be reached at tom@homenewsnow.com and at 336-508-4616.

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