New Dressers Pass CR's Tip-Over Tests, but Riskier Ones Are Still for Sale

CR bought 19 popular dressers and contacted manufacturers to confirm when they were made, testing those we could confirm were made after September 2023. 

The test involved pulling out the dresser drawers and hanging 60-pound weights from the top one for at least 10 seconds. We didn’t anchor the dressers to a wall. If they tipped over, they failed; if they didn’t, they passed. The test—similar to one we conducted in 2021 and which many dressers then failed—is based on the premise that young children may pull drawers out and climb on or hang off them. According to the new safety standard, dressers should stay upright despite the pull from this kind of weight.

The new standard for safer dressers is the culmination of years of work from parent advocates, many of whom learned about the dangers of furniture tip-overs in the worst possible way. 

It was 2004 when Kimberly Amato’s daughter was killed by a falling dresser, and soon after she began meeting with regulators, legislators, and the furniture industry, as well as raising public awareness about this little-known risk. Tragically, other parents joined her in the years that followed. 

In 2018, Amato and a group of affected parents formed Parents Against Tip-Overs to push for a strong mandatory safety standard for furniture manufacturers. Congress passed the Stop Tip-overs of Unstable, Risky Dressers on Youth (STURDY) Act in 2022, requiring the Consumer Product Safety Commission to establish one. 

“The parents of PAT worked tirelessly, some for nearly two decades, to ensure strong, effective, and mandatory safety and stability tests became a reality,” Amato says. “Yet it was extending the olive branch across the table to the manufacturers, and for all the stakeholders to come together and realize the power of persistence and collaboration that ultimately got STURDY over the finish line.” 

Janet McGee, whose 22-month-old son Ted was killed in 2016 by a falling Ikea’s Malm six-drawer dresser, also applauded the hard-won results. “For my son, Ted, and the many other children who were killed by furniture tip-overs, may their short but mighty lives be remembered for how they improved the future of product safety for generations to come,” she says. 

Ikea’s Malm six-drawer dresser now comes with interlocks and passed CR’s tests.

Because all the dressers manufactured after the new safety standard went into effect passed CR’s tests, it would make sense to just look for newer pieces when you shop. But it’s not that simple, because the date of manufacture isn’t necessarily included in a web listing or even clearly marked on the dresser or its packaging. 

CR bought 19 dressers online in early 2024, without knowing whether old or new ones would be delivered to our testing facility. When they arrived, we set about trying to confirm the manufacture date by reading the labels and contacting the companies, with varying degrees of success. 

Some dressers had multiple dates listed on their labels. Others didn’t have any dates on the labels at all, so we had to reach out to the companies to ask them to look up the dresser’s lot, batch, or UPC codes and tell us when they were made. When we contacted companies to try to confirm the manufacture dates, some responded and some did not.

Eventually, we determined through this outreach that 10 of the dressers we had bought were new and would be tested, and seven were old and would be returned. But for two—Ashley Furniture’s Boston 5-Drawer Dresser and Bassett’s Modern Rivoli Dresser—we could not confirm the date of manufacture by looking at the information on the box or packaging. And, at the time of our testing, neither company responded to repeated outreach efforts. We tested both, and both failed. 

After testing, we reached out again to both companies with our test results and did get responses. Both confirmed that their dressers had been built before the new standard went into effect. Jeb Bassett, senior vice president of Bassett Furniture, told CR that 10 to 20 percent of its dressers now being sold were built before September 2023.

“Consumers shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to get the information they need to make safe, informed decisions,” says Gabe Knight, a policy analyst at Consumer Reports. “Manufacturers should make it as simple as possible for families to protect their children and understand which dressers meet strong safety standards, and which ones don’t.”

Pat Bowling at the American Home Furnishings Alliance, a trade group, recommends shopping for dressers in a brick-and-mortar store where a salesperson can confirm that a dresser was made after the new rules went into effect. “Those who prefer to shop online may not find this level of detail in the product description,” Bowling says. 

Consider shopping in person. That way you can ask someone who works in the store when the dresser was made and whether it is compliant with the new STURDY Act requirements. Look for a manufacture date after Sept. 1, 2023, on a label, the box, or the dresser itself.

Research online purchases carefully and read the listings for the date of manufacture or other indicators that the dresser you’re looking at was made after Sept. 1, 2023, or the retailer confirms that it passes the new tip-over tests. If you can’t find it, try contacting the retailer or manufacturer.

Make sure the dresser comes with an anchor kit. And use it. The STURDY Act requires that all dressers covered under the rule be sold with one. If you have an older dresser, make sure it’s anchored as well. CR’s video tutorial can teach you how.

Take care with other furniture, too. The new rules apply only to dressers and other clothing storage units, not to bookshelves, entertainment centers, televisions, or tables, all of which could potentially pose tip-over risks to kids. So for anyone with young kids in the house, the good advice remains that when in doubt, anchor it.