Tool
Tip-Over Check
Four questions about a tall rack over a toilet, 36 possible combinations, and a count of how many of the known tip-over factors apply to the way yours is set up.
Read the result as a count, not as a measurement. It has never seen your rack, it knows nothing about how the frame is braced or how wide the feet are, and it cannot tell you that anything is safe. What it can do is put the changes worth making in order.
How tall is the rack
What goes on the top shelf
Children or animals in the home
Does the listing state wall-attachment hardware
Risk factors counted
3 of 7
Some of these factors present
More than one of the factors below applies to your arrangement. Each one you can remove is worth removing, starting with what is on the top shelf.
| Factor | Points |
|---|---|
| A stated height of 64 in or more | 2 |
| Only light bulky things on the top shelf | 0 |
| No children or animals in the household | 0 |
| No wall-attachment hardware stated on the listing | 1 |
The total counts factors that turn up in tip-over incidents. It is not a stability measurement, it is not a rating of your rack, and it cannot tell you that anything is safe. The lowest total this tool can produce is 1, because every rack height stated in this catalog is tall enough to score on height alone.
What to do, in this order
- Move the heaviest things off the top shelf and put them on the bottom one. This is the only change on this list that costs nothing and takes a minute.
- Attach the unit to the wall wherever the manufacturer supplies the hardware to do it. If no hardware came in the box, there is nothing to fit and the unit stands on its feet alone.
- Your listing states no wall-attachment hardware, so anchoring is not an option this unit gives you. That makes where the weight sits the only lever you have.
- Check that all four feet are actually touching the floor. A rack rocking on three of them is a rack waiting for a nudge.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission runs a public campaign on furniture tip-overs: CPSC Anchor It! — furniture and TV tip-over campaign.
The arithmetic, written out
- Height: a stated 63 in or more scores 2, a height the listing does not state scores 1, and a stated height below 63 in scores 0. The 63 in figure is taken from the shortest stated height in this catalog, not chosen by hand.
- Top shelf: heavy scores 2, moderate scores 1, light and bulky scores 0.
- Household: children or animals in the home scores 2, neither scores 0.
- Hardware: a listing that states no wall-attachment hardware scores 1, one that states it scores 0.
- The four scores are added. Across every combination this tool can produce, the total runs from 1 to 7, and that range is counted from the options themselves rather than typed in. It does not start at zero, because every rack height stated in this catalog is above the 63 in threshold and so scores at least one point on height alone.
- The range is split into four equal bands at 2.5, 4.0, 5.5. A total at or below the first edge falls in the first band, and so on up.
What this count does not take into account
- Whether your rack is stable. This is a count of known risk factors, not a measurement, and nothing here can tell you that a rack will stay upright.
- The construction of the unit itself: how wide its feet are, how it is braced, how heavy the frame is. None of the listings state those things.
- Your floor. A rack standing on three of its four feet on an uneven tile floor is a different object from the same rack on a flat one.
- What a stated capacity means. A listing that states 150 lb is telling you a number the seller chose to print, with no stated split between shelves and no stated test.
- Whether you can actually attach the unit to your wall, which depends on what that wall is made of and what runs behind it.