Is Your Stove Anchored? Anti-Tip Brackets and Why They Matter With Toddlers

Do you really need an anti-tip bracket for a stove? CPSC says yes. Its childproofing guide (Publication 252) states that freestanding ranges and stoves should be installed with anti-tip brackets to help prevent scalding and crushing injuries.

Do You Need an Anti-Tip Bracket for a Stove?

Publication 252 lists ranges alongside furniture and TVs as items that "can tip over and crush young children." The guide that covers anchoring the TV and dressers puts the stove on the same list. CPSC says deaths and injuries occur when children climb onto, fall against or pull themselves up on these items.

CPSC’s Range Tipover Safety Alert says a range anti-tip bracket can save you or your child from serious injury or death. Its advice comes in three parts:

• Check whether your range has a bracket.
• Install one if it does not.
• Properly engage the range in it.

That third part is easy to miss. CPSC says that if a bracket has been installed, you should make sure the range is held securely by it.

Whether you call it a stove anti-tip bracket or an oven anti-tip bracket, it is the same range hardware. The sections below show what happened in the incidents where it was missing or not engaged.

What Happens If a Stove Anti-Tip Bracket Is Not Installed

CPSC staff reviewed 33 range-tipover incident reports between 1980 and 2006. They found two main things in common. The ranges were not secured to an adjacent wall, floor or cabinet, and enough weight was applied to the open oven door to tip the range forward (CPSC staff report, May 2011).

The victims fell into two distinct groups: children between 15 months and 5 years old, and older adults. In the range tip over child incidents, the child was typically trapped under the tipped range. The children were unsupervised in the kitchen or near the range.

A second set of findings is narrower. CPSC staff investigated nine range-tipover incidents between January 2000 and September 2008, involving 13 deaths and one injury. All nine involved a range whose anti-tip hardware was not installed or was not properly installed or engaged.

These are older reports, and they describe what staff found in those years. They do not describe every kitchen today. What they show is the pattern: the bracket was either absent or not doing its job.

A range is one heavy item among several in a home. Anchoring furniture against tip-overs follows the same logic of weight, a climbing child and no anchor.

Why an Open Oven Door Matters With a Toddler

Picture this: you turn to grab a towel while the oven cools, and the door is still folded down. A toddler sees a ledge at exactly the right height. A flat, sturdy-looking door can look like a step.

CPSC staff measured the forces made by 13 children between 15 months and 5 years old. The children climbed and stood on a test platform built to simulate a range with an open oven door. Staff compared those forces against UL’s 75-pound requirement for an open oven door.

Staff estimated that 26 percent of the events involving up to two children climbing onto the open door of an unsecured range would have tipped it. They also found that the weight of two older children (around 5 years old), or more than two children, could still tip an unsecured range.

It is a 2011 CPSC staff estimate from a simulated door in a lab setup. It is not a tipping rate for real homes. What it tells you is that children climbing onto the open door of an unsecured range can be enough to tip it.

The Oven & Appliance Safety Lock: A Door Lock, Not a Bracket

BabyProofMe sells no anti-tip bracket. The Oven & Appliance Safety Lock is not one.

Per the product page, the lock attaches to the front oven door with the strong adhesive tape provided, with no tools or drilling. It carries a clear warning: it is not a substitute for adult supervision, and you should stop using it immediately if it becomes faulty.

So the two products do different jobs. The lock addresses the door, keeping it closed. The bracket addresses the range, helping hold it in place if weight lands on the door. The lock is not a tip-over measure, and it does not replace the bracket.

Kitchen gear, like oven door locks and stove guards, adds a layer. Layers help reduce the risk, and none of them replaces watching a toddler.

How to Check if a Stove Anti-Tip Bracket Is Installed

CPSC’s check is short. Look at three things:

• Whether your range has an anti-tip bracket.
• Whether the bracket is attached securely to the wall or floor.
• Whether the range is held securely in the bracket.

For anything beyond that look, go to the range maker’s own installation instructions. They are written for your specific model, and they are the right source for how the bracket and range fit together.

The bracket normally comes with the range. CPSC says the voluntary safety standards for gas and electric ranges require manufacturers to supply anti-tip brackets with new ranges. It tells you to make sure you install that safety hardware.

If a bracket was not provided or was never installed, CPSC says to check with the range manufacturer about whether your model should be equipped with one. Some manufacturers will send a replacement bracket at no charge. That is worth a phone call before you buy anything.

Daily Kitchen Habits CPSC Lists

CPSC lists these habits:

• Do not leave children unsupervised in the kitchen.
• Turn pot handles inward when cooking.
• Move tempting items, like cookie jars, away from the range so children do not use an open oven door as a step.
• Do not place heavy food or other items on an open oven door.
• Do not push down on an open oven door or use it as a support to stand up.

The last two apply to adults too. Picture this: you are pulling out a roasting pan, and the door is the nearest flat surface for a heavy dish. CPSC’s guidance says to find another spot, because weight on an open door is one of the two things the staff found in the incident reports.

After the kitchen, check the living room. Anchoring IKEA furniture and other flat-pack shelving belongs on the same to-do list.

Scald Injuries and Medical Care After a Tip-Over

A tipped range is a crushing hazard and a scalding hazard. Scalding can happen when a child reaches cookware on a stove, or when the range tips forward and cookware slides off and spills onto the child.

Publication 252 names scalding alongside crushing as the injuries anti-tip brackets are meant to help prevent.

The AAP notes that when a piece of furniture or an appliance falls on a small child, it can crush or suffocate them under its weight. The AAP says a child who has had furniture fall on them should be taken to their pediatrician or the emergency room right away, because even if they seem fine there could be internal bleeding or organ damage. In an emergency, call 911.

What CPSC’s 2023 Tip-Over Report Counts

The numbers below come from CPSC staff’s 2023 annual tip-over report. They are counts and estimates for specific periods. They are not the whole picture of range and appliance incidents.

• Deaths: 15 tip-over fatalities reported to CPSC between January 1, 2013 and July 31, 2023 involved only an appliance. Nine of those 15 involved a stove or oven.
• Injuries: The report estimates an annual average of 600 emergency-department-treated tip-over injuries involving only an appliance for 2020 through 2022. That is about 3 percent of all tip-over injuries.

Appliances are a small slice of the tip-over total, and furniture and TVs make up the rest. That is why the nursery matters as much as the kitchen, and why anchoring is the fix for dressers and bookshelves.

Tonight, pull out the range maker’s installation instructions, or look up the model’s manual online. Confirm the bracket is attached to the wall or floor and that the range is held in it. If you find no bracket, contact the manufacturer and ask whether your model should have one.