We’ve got a TV in the house.  (Yes I said house, not living room.)  It’s not big by today’s standards, just a 40″ LCD.  It probably weighs 45 lbs.  As with most LCD’s or flat screens, there’s a svelte base supporting the TV.  Barring earthquakes (we get them here in SoCal), the chances of our TV falling or toppling over had been less than 1%.  But with a baby that is crawling and pulling himself up on things, that chance has increased 10-fold.

Since we don’t want to see Gavin trying to muscle himself up onto the TV and then have it topple over and injure him (or even worse, kill him), we have installed a child proof TV anti-tip strap.  (After I became a parent, I started hearing these stories about TV’s crushing kids and furniture falling over on babies, etc.  It seemed like every day I read about a freshly pressed baby.  Not good.  So, naturally I freaked out about  all the evil house furnishings that could injure him. Duh, that’s what parents do!)

Our TV is perched on a stand on top of an entertainment center.  Our TV has mounting holes (in the back) to mount said TV onto a wall or other vertical surface.  It is these screw holes that will be used with the KidCo anti-tip TV strap.  The KidCo kit comes with a few different sized machine screws to fit the mounting holes on your TV.  This may be a problem if your TV mounting holes are recessed or odd-sized.

KidCo Anti-Tip TV Strap Kit

Check that your TV has holes in the back before purchasing this KidCo anti-tip TV strap.  Otherwise, it will be difficult to install this kit properly.  Also, you must be willing to drill holes into your entertainment center or into your wall.  Drilling into an antique entertainment center could be a deal breaker for some.  NOTE:  The KidCo kit does not have drywall anchors, so you’d have to purchase these separately to secure the anti-tip straps to a wall.

For our television setup, the KidCo Anti-Tip TV Strap mounted fairly easily.  The package says that it’s a 2-pack.  This is BS because you need both straps from the box to secure one TV.  I also had problems with the quality of screws in the bag.  Since I know more about nuts and bolts than I should, this was disappointing.  Especially if you ruin your TV mounting holes trying to force some cheap screws into your $10000 TV.  The nylon straps in the kit are well, nylon.  They seem ok for general use, so I can’t comment on the strength of them.  But, the thing that still worries me are the plastic mounting brackets.  The nylon strap has loops that sit over a hook portion of the plastic mounting bracket.  When you pull on the nylon strap, the plastic hook tends to deform.  This means that there is a chance that the anti-tip TV strap could break a plastic bracket and still fail.

Hook mounts

Even after mounting my KidCo anti-tip strap, I still worry about those plastic mounts.  I don’t feel like I should have to do that with any child safety item.  It should give you some peace of mind, right?

Bottom line:  This product provides some protection from TV tipping, but not enough for me.  Would I buy this product again?  Probably not.  I’ll be looking for another child proof TV anti-tip strap.

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Overall Rating:  3 Worms   

Ease of Use:  7 Worms  (But others can have problems with mounting to back of TV.) 

Performance:  1 Worm 

Features:  7 Worms 

Durability:  1 Worms 

Manliness:  10 Worms (We know how guys like to put things together with tools!)

Retail Price:  $10

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Pros:

Provides a little peace of mind.

Cons:

Cheap screws, no drywall anchors, flimsy plastic mounts.

Things I would modify:

Closed loop plastic fasteners. Different sized screws.  Add drywall anchors.

Where to find:

http://www.amazon.com/Kidco-Anti-Tip-TV-Strap-Pack/dp/B002SZT35S