IKEA Is Discontinuing Some Malm Dressers, Recalling 27 Million Units

IKEA Is Discontinuing Some Malm Dressers, Recalling 27 Million Units

Tomorrow IKEA will reportedly announce a recall of over 27 million Malm dressers. And shockingly, the Swedish furniture company is doing away with the piece of furniture altogether. Many versions of the Malm dresser were officially removed from the IKEA website today.

Malm dresser (IKEA)

Update: IKEA Australia has an official response to the Malm dresser situation:

Please see below a statement from IKEA Australia: 
 
At IKEA, the safety of our products is our highest priority. 
 
IKEA chest of drawers are safe when attached to the wall, as directed in the assembly instructions. 
 
IKEA provides anti tip restraints and instructions for wall anchoring with all chest of drawers. We spread awareness of the importance of securing furniture on our products and product instructions, on the website and in-store. 
 
IKEA Australia offers customers who have misplaced the tip over restraints included with their chest of drawers additional free replacements which can be picked up in any store or can be ordered by contacting https://www.ordersafetykit.com/. 
 
IKEA Australia is not undertaking a recall.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, three American children have died since 2014 from Malm dressers crushing them. The pieces are so top-heavy that they pose a serious tipping risk. Neither the US Consumer Product Safety Commission nor IKEA are commenting on the recall yet, telling the Inquirer that they will be releasing statements tomorrow. But a US government source told the Inquirer that this recall was “unprecedented”.

It’s not clear if all sizes of the Malm dresser will be affected by the recall. But 27 million is quite a few units. That’s roughly the population of Texas. Or, to put it another way, that’s 4 million more than the population of Australia.

The Malm will be remembered as an affordable and utilitarian piece of pulp wood that kept so many Millennial socks in their little sock drawer and so many Millennial T-shirts in their little T-shirt drawer. The Malm will also be remembered for feeling like it was perpetually on the verge of just falling apart in your hands if you closed a drawer even a little too hard.

[Philadelphia Inquirer via the Consumerist]


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