We bought a new elec range last year and I finally got around to installing it. Included with it is an anti tip bracket. It’s supposed to mount to the wall or floor, and then the adjustable feet willl slide under it.
If it matters, it’s a Maytag Gemini model with the dual ovens and not one of the big upright models. I did try and see if it would tip by opening both doors and adding weight to the fully extended racks. It’s not going anywhere.
Is this just another example of the manufactor limiting it’s liability or is it a valid concern?
thanks
Replies
The ones I have seen @ work that are installed by the GE guys mount to the floor. As long as you get it to hit something solid I don't think it matters.
Good safety feature especially if there our kids in the household.
No young kids here. I installed a floating floor so X that location out. If I really should use the brkt, it'll have to be on the wall. Hopefully a stud is in the area.
Thanks
BTW, commercial work I can understand why, but is this something new for residential installation or has it been around for a while?
Is it a "valid concern"? Not to most people with common sense, but we don't live in a world full of common-sense people.
Let's put it this way- when I lived in Las Vegas, my wife worked for a company that did destructive testing and repairs for construction defects lawsuits. Of the 15-20 repair projects they did a year (averaging 100 or so units each), what was the item that was common to every one? "Install anti-tip bracket on range".
Builders never seem to put them in, yet the defect lawyers always find them missing. I can see it in court- "if the builder was unwilling to take 2 minutes to install the anti-tip bracket on your stove, imagine all the other ways he probably cut corners during construction".
Are they "needed"? Not for most people. But for the little effort required to install it, why not? It may save some kid's life some day (or a stupid adult who decides to use the oven door as a stepstool.....).
Bob
>Builders never seem to put them inI just reviewed an inspection report for a 3-yo house, and guess what was identified as missing? Yup, the anti-tilt bracket.Rest of house graded out good, though.
Thank you guys. All the comments that were made are indeed valid. Guess I need to think 'outside the box' a little more often ;)
While I've bought a few new units over the years, I've never gotten one with the anti tip bracket. I awsumed it might have something to do with the double oven set up. The manual said nothing about why to install it--just install it. Now that I see the logic...no, make that common sense... behind it, I'll install it.
I was helping my daughter babysafe their place and noticed it was missing. Expected to find one taped to back or in drawer but had to go buy one at an appliance parts house for about $10. Well worth the piece of mind. Some of the low end stoves do tip with very little effort!
It is a valid concern. Years ago no one thought it would be -- we were all thinking like you, pushing on it and finding it pretty solid. But people have actually tipped stoves over. Sometimes a child will open the door and use it as a step, or someone will set a heavy turkey on the door, or even an adult will step on it to reach something in a cabinet over the stove.
We would all ball out my grandmother for pulling out the bottom drawer of the china cabinet and stepping on it to reach the higher shelves. She wan't a very tall woman. She made it to her mid 90's and passed away without ever falling off.
In the book "100 Most Dangerous Things in Everyday Life", the author cites statistics from the US Consumer Products Safety Commission that between 1978 and 1995 there were 37 deaths and 113 injuries from people who tipped vending machines onto themselves.
In the United States each year, about 7,477 people are injured by dishwashers. Occasionally they are fatal, usually adults or children falling over the open door and landing on a knife incorrectly placed point up in the rack.
Step stool? I would have never even thought of doing that. Big diff between a 25# turkey and a 225# one! <G> Way to anal besides!
Very valid point and I appreciate the info
thanx
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, paid for and distributed, 80,000 buttons that read, "Think Toy Safety." The buttons were recalled...they were dangeously sharp, coated with lead paint, and were a choking/swallow hazard.
You wouldn't think it is a hazard, would you?
That is why they get paid to do the thinking for you!
;)
think about a kid openning the oven door to use to climb up to "help" mom cook dinner, only to tilt the range forward and slosh hot liquid all over himself.
BTW, I have no memory of this, but apparantly, I reached up when I was a little over two YO and grabbed the handle of the frying pan and got hot grease all over my chest.
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You want your kid opening the oven door and standing on it so they can see what's cooking in the big pot on one of the burners? If it's a gas range, the gas line could break when it tips, too. Now how senseless does it sound?
Some lighter weight stoves, usually the electric ones are a little lighter than the gas ones, can tip forward if a large roaster pan, full of course, is rested on the open stove door. The open door presents a significant amount of leverage. Not uncommon for people to grab a large pan, slide it off the rack and then place it on the door so they can get a better grip.
In this case both the hot pan on the open door and any pans on the stove top are at risk of sliding off and spilling their hot contents if the stove tips forward. A major burn risk. And having a hot stove roll over on you might ruin your day.
Of course kids climbing on the door are also a risk. Both falling and burns.
The anti-tip brackets are, IMHO, a good idea. Most I have worked on are relatively simple to install so the added trouble is minimal. IMO it is a favorable tradeoff and a reasonable requirement.
On the ones I have installed for others, I always put the chain on. On my own I put the chain on, no telling who will live here in the future. A couple of screws on the stove and a lag into a stud or joist, not that big a deal!
Is this just another example of the manufactor limiting it's liability or is it a valid concern?
With some of the drop-through-the-counter and slide in (over/into counter) models, the wall mount bracket is the only way to get the range properly oriented to the countertop. Otherwise, an unlevel floor will be just caterwhumpus enough to not adjust to the countertop. Balancing the range on the counter top will get client-happy gapless installs, but will not then properly support the range i nuse. Ergo, a bracket is needed.
Now, are there installers out there leaving them off. Yeah, sadly. About the same number (if not the same people) who think that a 4 wire 220 dryer or oven connection are "dumb" and just ignore the difference. Besides, the house is one of the $175K "starters," no worry about fancy folk with lawyers living there--right?
Just for the few that have never installed one. Installed this one about an hr. ago, for the GE brand stove. Took all of 1 min.
does that count moving the stove...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
Thats why we hiired the kid with the funny looking hair. He does all my Heavy Work!
I see he got a hair cut and his hair still looks funny...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
yep...that's what I got.
Funny thing...when I first unwrapped it, I said to myself
what the he!! is this thing??
welcome back...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
howdy Santa!
GD&R....................>
I'm never gonna live that down...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
LOL
yeah you will
bsides...it's better to be known as a jolly ol' Santa
then as a grumpy ol' Scrooge
Scrooge and the Grinch are my heroes..
well they were till they turnrd traitor..Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
I'm yur hero??
what an honor
I'm blessed!!
you Grinch or Scrooge????Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
yur choice...
call it as you see it
probably either one at one time or another ;)
the real art in it all is to be both at the same time...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
FWIW...
yur tool time tune @ 61971.1
is what caught my eye...interesting, REAL interesting!!
Caveman: Your post made me think - after I stopped laughing at the ridiculousness of the concept. I guess I haven't seen any modern electric ranges. We have a 1984 Jenair that weighs nearly a ton - well anyway, about 75 lb. I calculated that it would take at least a 75 lb turkey on the center of the door to even begin to tilt it. Other than the fact that the largest turkey you can get into the oven is about 25 lb, it's pretty tough to tip it over that way.
Now - kids stepping on the door is more realistic than I care to think. Sometimes you have to protect people against their own stupidity. You've made me a bit aprehensive about it now. Guess I'll go get a clip.
Don
The Glass Masterworks
"If it scratches, I etch it!"
Just would add, we put the bracket on all Ranges. Electric or gas, it does not matter it gets one!
Makes even more sense when gas is used. In fact it should be mandatory!
Well, I doubt if your Jenn-air only weighs 75# but if it did it would take more like 37# on the door to tip it. A little less than half of it's weight would be on the front levelers, the weight of the door would offset some of the rear weight.
It would be a good idea to have something holding it down. I do not think it is something that happens that often but one pot of boiling water on a kid is too much if you can prevent it with a little bracket or strap/cable or whatever.
Hate to be contentious, but the 37.5 lb turkey would have to be right at the front edge of the door to tip a 75 lb range. Center of mass of turkey would be at about the center of the door. Door is square. Door is nowhewre near even a quarter the weight of the total range. It's not the weight on the front legs that counts; it's how much the whole range weighs & how far back the center of gravity is from the front legs.I'm not sure how real this problem is. I'm nearly 70 yrs old, and have never heard of a range tipping over. I've been doing stuffed turkeys, Yankee style, all my married life. That's two a year for nearly 46 yrs; a lot of them more than 20 lb. Never had a range start to tip from the turkey being at the forward reach of an oven shelf. Have had four range fires, however. Three on top & one in the oven - w/ a turkey, no less. Top fires are far more dangerous than oven. The oven at least is designed to contain a lot of heat, & w/ the door closed will inhibit a fire from lack of oxygen. I caught my daughter just as she was about to discharge fire extinguisher into oven. Closed the door & it went out in a matter of seconds. Stove top is a nother matter. Two took a fistful of baking soda. Third was a grease fire that had flames to ten foot ceiling. That took a fire extinguisher & three hours of cleanup to fix.I still guess we have to protect people from their own stupidity, hence the range clip.How the Heck did we ever survive to be so old w/o the CPSC to protect us?DonDon Reinhard
The Glass Masterworks
"If it scratches, I etch it!"
My point was that the dam* turkey did not have to weigh more than you said the range weighed to cause the problem. I basically agree with what you are saying though. People don't seem to be able to look at the common sense stuff like us older folks seem to have grown up doing. {:-)
I thought you'd make some kind of comment about my plethora of fires in the kitchen. At the time I had my grease fire, kitchen fires were a major safety topic in the Army because of the losses Army-wide due to such fires. We probably had major damage to a set of quarters every month due to kitchen fires. We had kept a fire extinguisher in the kitchen for about ten yrs when this happened. My younger (9th grade) daughter & I were making supper & I was going to make some french fries. I read the directions on the package of frozen fries & followed them to the letter. Elaine warned me that I had the oil too hot; that it would boil over & we might have a fire. I pooh-poohed it, & proceded to lower the frozen fries into the boiling oil. Man, I hate it when a 9th grader is right! Flames went to ceiling, w/ thick, black smoke. Fire extinguisher was on other side of fire. Just then wife walked in & tossed the extinguisher to me through the flames. Fire out in about 2 seconds. Had that purple stuff all over the range area. Real pain to clean the ceiling. Still keep one in kitchen.DonDon Reinhard
The Glass Masterworks
"If it scratches, I etch it!"
A good fire extinguisher well and properly used in a timely manner can do more than a couple of engine companies just a few minutes later. Keep those fire extinguishers handy, inspected and charged. Not a bad idea to take ones which are a couple of years old and use those to kill a demonstration fire. In a safe location obviously. Some fire departments can arrange for a practice session for groups at their training area. With proper instruction and trained people standing by in case it gets out of control it can be safe and actually quite fun. Saw one where they made it a cookout. Taking down a blazing oil practice fire can improve performance and confidence when the real thing comes along. You have been there but most cannot overestimate the confusion and panic that can overtake an emergency.There is a joke about the guy who can't remember the phone number for reaching 911. Funny part is that it has actually happened. People get rushed and flustered. A fireman once related a story about going to a fire where a guy claimed none of the three available extinguishers worked. The firemen found the extinguishers with the pins still in place and still charged. He forget to remove the pins from the fire extinguishers.Some apartment owners and those renting out their house have taken to retrofitting brackets or a length of light chain that keeps the stove from tipping. The human costs of an accident, fires and liability all make the time and expense justified.