Delta Children assembly
If the support does not hold the lid at every position, CPSC says take it off. A half-working support is worse than none.
Their instruction is to remove the lid support or replace it with a spring-loaded one that holds the lid open in any position. The reason follows once you picture it: a partial support lets go at some heights, so the lid seems held and is not, and the height it abandons is roughly where a child’s neck is when they reach into the chest.
The hardware everybody calls a hinge is the safety component
A toy chest looks like the simplest thing in a child’s room. It is a box with a lid, and the only moving part is at the back. That part is not a hinge in the sense of a cabinet hinge, it is a lid support, and it is the difference between a piece of storage and a documented cause of child deaths. CPSC has reports of thirty-four deaths since 1996 involving children younger than eighteen, and about twenty-seven companies have acted to correct more than fourteen million toy and storage chests.
There are two mechanisms and they are opposites, which is part of why the subject gets handled badly. In one, a child reaches into the chest and the lid comes down, and CPSC describes children being strangled either because the lid fell onto them or because their necks became entrapped between the chest walls and the lid. In the other, a child climbs inside to hide or to sleep, cannot get out, and suffocates because the space is airtight with no ventilation. One hazard is about the lid falling. The other is about the lid closing and staying closed.
Which brings us to the instruction that makes this page worth writing, because it is not the one people expect from a safety regulator. CPSC advise that if the lid support does not keep the lid open in every position, you should remove the support, or replace it with a spring-loaded support that will keep the lid open in any position. Not upgrade it. Remove it, if you are not going to replace it properly.
That only makes sense once you see what a partial support does. It holds the lid at some heights and releases at others, so the lid appears to be held when it is not, and the heights it is least reliable at are the ones a child is under. A lid with no support at all falls immediately and obviously, and everybody in the house learns to hold it. A lid with an unreliable support has been rehearsing for one particular moment. CPSC name the specific culprit too, advising people to remove or replace an unsafe adjustable lid support.
What it actually takes
The test takes ten seconds. The repair was described in a CPSC recall as a regular screwdriver job.
| Model | Time | People |
|---|---|---|
| The any-position testRaise the lid halfway, let go, watch. | 10 seconds | 1 |
| Checking for an automatic latch or lockIf it can latch shut, it can lock a child in. | 1 minute | 1 |
| Finding the ventilation openingsThen checking they still work where it will sit. | 2 minutes | 1 |
| Checking the hinge ends for finger gapsA separate recall hazard from the lid itself. | 1 minute | 1 |
| Removing an automatic latchCPSC’s remedy where replacements are unavailable. | 15 minutes | 1 |
| Fitting a spring-loaded lid supportDescribed in a recall as a screwdriver repair. | 30 minutes | 1 |
| Removing a support you are not replacingPer CPSC, better than leaving a partial one. | 15 minutes | 1 |
| Rechecking annuallySupports fail with age. That is the recall pattern. | 1 minute | 1 |
| Checking a secondhand chest before it enters the houseRecalls do not reach inherited furniture. | 10 minutes | 1 |
If a chest is old, has an automatic latch, and no ventilation, it is not a project. CPSC’s remedy for the recalled cedar chests is to remove the lock entirely, because replacement hardware is no longer available.
What to get right, specifically
Any position, not fully open, and it is a ten second test
The single most useful thing here, and it is a test rather than a specification to look up. CPSC tell parents to look for a chest whose lid support will hold the lid open in any position in which it is placed, and to check the support provided to make sure it does in fact prevent the lid from falling. So raise the lid to some arbitrary halfway height, let go, and watch what happens. Almost any support will hold a lid fully open, which is why testing it that way tells you nothing. The standard itself was clarified on this exact point: the Federal Register notice mandating ASTM F963-16 records that it clarifies a multi-positional lid requirement when testing for maximum lid drop.
A support that only sometimes works should come off
The instruction that surprises people, and it is CPSC’s own. If the lid support does not keep the lid open in every position, they say to remove it or replace it with a spring-loaded support that will keep the lid open in any position, and specifically to remove or replace an unsafe adjustable lid support. Removal is a legitimate outcome rather than a failure to fix it. The logic is about what each condition teaches a household: an unsupported lid falls every single time, so everybody holds it and nobody trusts it, while a partial support produces a lid that is usually held, which is exactly the condition under which a child reaches in and an adult walks out of the room.
The other hazard is the opposite one, and ventilation is the answer to it
Worth treating as a separate problem because the fixes are different. CPSC describe children climbing into chests to hide or sleep, being unable to get out, and suffocating because the space is airtight with no ventilation. ASTM F963 sets a quantitative requirement: for a toy of impermeable material with a door or lid enclosing more than 1.1 cubic feet where all integral dimensions are six inches or more, either at least two openings of one square inch each placed at least six inches apart, or one equivalent combined opening. And there is a clause that matters more than the numbers, which is that the ventilation openings must be unobstructed when the toy is placed on the floor in any position and adjacent to two vertical plane surfaces. CPSC put it plainly: vents that are not blocked by the floor or against the wall.
A corner is exactly where a toy chest ends up
Following directly from that clause, and worth stating as its own item because it is the failure a compliant product can still suffer in a real room. The standard is written to be tested against two vertical surfaces because a toy chest lives against a wall, usually in a corner, often with the back and one side both blocked. So the check is not whether the chest has ventilation holes, it is whether those holes are still open where you intend to put it, including if it gets shoved back another two inches during a tidy-up. On older or non-compliant chests there may be no openings at all, in which case CPSC’s general advice that all toy chests should have unobstructed ventilation holes is the standard to measure yours against.
An automatic latch is its own hazard, and the remedy may be removal
Distinct from the lid support and arguably worse, because it converts a chest into a container a child cannot open from inside. CPSC advise that for chests which have not been recalled but have an automatic latch or lock, you should disable or remove the lock and check whether the manufacturer offers replacement hardware. For the recalled Lane and Virginia Maid cedar chests, the position is starker: replacement latches are no longer available, and CPSC urge consumers to completely remove the locks to eliminate the hazard. So on an older chest, removing hardware is the published remedy rather than an improvisation.
There is a third hazard, and it is at the ends of the hinge
Easy to miss because the lid gets all the attention. A recall notice describes not only a lid support that can fail and let the lid fall onto a child’s head, neck, fingers or hands, but a separate defect: spaces at the end of the hinge on the lid causing pinch, crush or laceration injuries to children’s fingers. The reported injury in that case was a seven-year-old whose finger was bruised when the lid slammed on it. So when checking a chest, look at what happens at the pivot ends as the lid travels, not just at whether the lid stays up. A gap that opens and closes as the lid moves is a mechanism looking for a finger.
A recall from 1996 does not reach a chest from the 1940s
The most sobering thing in the sourcing, and it should change how anybody thinks about inherited furniture. CPSC reissued this warning in 2014 following the deaths of two children in Massachusetts who suffocated after becoming trapped inside a seventy-five year old Lane cedar chest that had been recalled in 1996. Twelve million chests were covered by that recall. A notice issued eighteen years earlier does not find a piece of furniture that has been in a family since before the recall system existed, which is why the agency began working with thrift shops, Goodwill and the Salvation Army so that resale staff do not accept or sell recalled or dangerous chests. If a chest came from a relative, an estate sale or a secondhand shop, it has almost certainly never been checked against a recall list.
The design that avoids the whole subject, and the repair when it does not
Two practical outs. CPSC note that sliding doors or panels will not present the risk of a falling lid, so choosing storage that does not have a vertically opening lid removes the primary hazard by design rather than by hardware. Where you already own a chest with a lid, the good news is that this is genuinely a fixable thing: the Crate & Barrel remedy in a CPSC recall was a free replacement lid support, and the notice states that consumers can make the repair easily using a regular screwdriver. So a proper spring-loaded support fitted correctly is within reach of anybody, and it is a better outcome than either a partial support or a chest quietly retired to the garage still full of toys.
Before a chest goes in a child’s room
Raise the lid to a halfway position, let go, and confirm it stays.
Check whether the lid can latch or lock shut automatically.
Find the ventilation openings and count them.
Check the openings are still unobstructed where the chest will actually sit.
Watch the hinge ends through the lid’s full travel, looking for gaps that close.
If the chest is old or secondhand, check it against CPSC recall listings.
For an inherited cedar chest with a latch, plan to remove the lock per CPSC advice.
Consider storage with sliding doors or panels instead of a vertically opening lid.
Who this is really for
Anybody with a toy chest, a blanket chest, a cedar chest, a storage bench or a window seat with a lifting lid in a house with young children. CPSC are explicit that the deaths were not confined to products sold as toy boxes, listing trunks, footlockers, decorator cubes and blanket chests among the containers involved.
It matters most for inherited and secondhand furniture, which is the category recalls structurally cannot reach. The 2014 warning was prompted by two children dying in a chest recalled eighteen years earlier that was seventy-five years old, and the agency’s response included asking resale stores to stop accepting them. A chest that came from a grandparent has almost certainly never been checked.
The case for having somebody do it is modest and honest: this is a screwdriver repair, described as such in a CPSC recall notice, and the test that decides whether it is needed takes ten seconds. What is worth paying for is somebody doing the checks at the point of assembly, because a lid support fitted correctly and tested at multiple positions is the whole job, and it is the kind of thing that gets marked complete without being tested. If you are having children’s furniture assembled, this is a reasonable thing to ask to be shown working.
What a correct assembly looks like
- Lid support fitted per the manufacturer’s instructions and tested at multiple heights.
- The any-position test performed and demonstrated, not just a fully-open check.
- A support that fails that test removed or replaced with a spring-loaded one.
- Any automatic latch or lock disabled or removed.
- Ventilation openings identified and confirmed unobstructed in the intended position.
- Hinge-end gaps checked through the lid’s full travel for pinch and crush points.
- Secondhand or inherited chests checked against recall listings before use.
- Owner shown the any-position test so it can be repeated annually.
- Sliding-panel storage suggested where a lifting lid is not required.
Get it built by someone who has built one before.
Tell us your ZIP and what you bought. Installers near you will quote you directly, and you deal with them, not with us.
Questions people ask
How do I know if my toy chest lid support is adequate?
Raise the lid to an arbitrary halfway position, let go and watch. CPSC tell parents to look for a support that will hold the lid open in any position in which it is placed, and to check that it does in fact prevent the lid from falling. Almost any support holds a lid fully open, so testing it that way proves nothing. ASTM F963-16 was clarified on precisely this point, adding a multi-positional lid requirement for lid drop testing.
Should I really remove a support that mostly works?
That is CPSC’s own advice: if the lid support does not keep the lid open in every position, remove it or replace it with a spring-loaded support that will hold the lid open in any position, and specifically remove or replace an unsafe adjustable lid support. The reasoning is about reliance. A lid that always falls is a lid everybody holds. A lid that usually stays up is the one somebody trusts on the occasion it does not.
What about a child climbing inside?
That is the second and separate hazard, and CPSC describe children climbing in to hide or sleep, being unable to get out, and suffocating because the space is airtight with no ventilation. ASTM F963 requires ventilation openings for enclosed volumes above 1.1 cubic feet, either two openings of at least one square inch placed six inches apart or an equivalent single opening, and requires them to remain unobstructed with the item on the floor against two vertical surfaces. Also disable or remove any automatic latch, since a chest a child cannot open from inside is the core of this hazard.
Does it matter where I put the chest?
Yes, and this is why the standard is tested the way it is. Ventilation openings must be unobstructed with the item placed on the floor and adjacent to two vertical plane surfaces, which is to say in a corner, because that is where a toy chest lives. CPSC put it as vents not blocked by the floor or against the wall. So check the openings are still clear in the position the chest will actually occupy, including after it gets pushed back during a tidy-up.
My chest is an antique that came from family. Is it a problem?
It is the case most worth checking, because recalls do not reach inherited furniture. CPSC reissued their warning in 2014 after two children in Massachusetts suffocated in a seventy-five year old Lane cedar chest that had been recalled in 1996, one of twelve million covered. For those chests, replacement latches are no longer available and CPSC urge owners to remove the locks entirely. The agency also worked with thrift shops, Goodwill and the Salvation Army to keep recalled chests out of resale.
Is this a job for a professional?
Not necessarily. A CPSC recall notice describes replacing a lid support as a repair consumers can make easily using a regular screwdriver, and the test that tells you whether it is needed takes ten seconds. What is worth asking for, if you are having children’s furniture assembled, is to be shown the lid holding at several different heights rather than just fully open, since that is the check most likely to be skipped.
Installers.org is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Delta Children, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, ASTM International, or any manufacturer referenced here. All marks belong to their owners and are referred to here only to describe the assembly services that independent providers on this directory offer. THIS PAGE CONCERNS A DOCUMENTED CAUSE OF CHILD DEATHS. CPSC reports thirty-four deaths since 1996 involving children under eighteen in storage and toy chests. The guidance summarized here is theirs: consult cpsc.gov, check any older or secondhand chest against current recall listings, and follow the instructions supplied with your own product, which take precedence. A lid support and ventilation are safety features and are not a substitute for supervision.