No matter what the item is people always want to buy the best especially when it comes to the safety of their children. But as true as this might be sometimes choosing the best is easier said than done. For example a few weeks before my oldest son was born I decided it was as good a time as any to buy and install some child proof cabinet locks for our kitchen cabinets. Like most people we keep all kinds of chemical cleaners and other unfriendly products under our kitchen sink. We also keep our larger glass baking dishes in a lower cabinet which might not be as obvious a danger as cleaners but these could turn into a real hazard if one were to be pulled from cabinet and broken.
I knew from the very beginning that I didn’t want any of the locks that were used on the outside of the cabinets, for one I just didn’t like the way they made the cabinets look. Secondly I felt there where major disadvantages to the two main types available. One type which is attached with a two sided adhesive tape I felt would eventually pull off the cabinets making them completely ineffective as a safety device. And if you ever read any of the reviews this is actually one of the biggest complaints with this type. Plus if I ever decided to remove them there would always be a sticky residue left on the cabinet.
Then there’s the second type of outside lock which fits around the handles on the cabinet doors. All I can say about these is watch this video.
Beside the fact that the lock quickly pulls off if you will notice the child could easily fit his arm into the cabinet with very little effort. Even extremely young kids are very smart and I am sure just about any child given enough chances could easily figure out how to remove something from a cabinet with this style of lock, even when it is working correctly.
So after eliminating the previous two locks from the list I seriously considered buying the flexible plastic hook design. These are the kind that are installed on the inside of the door or drawer. The way they work is by allowing the door to open just wide enough for you to reach in and push the hook down which unlocks the cabinet. Simple and easy just the way I like it. Plus just about every brand of this design was rated four stars on the reviews at Amazon, so these were obviously very good locks. Ah, but then I saw a video like this one…
Luckily I had not purchased the hook locks yet or I would have returned them. So here I was back to square one.
So now you are probably wondering what type of cabinet lock I ended up buying since it seems that so many “child proof locks” are anything but. Well at this point the decision was pretty easy it was going to have to be the magnet type locks. The brand I ended picking is the Tot Loc by Safety 1st and I can say without a doubt that these are one of if not the best child proof locks on the market. They do not allow the cabinet doors to open in any way shape or form, so there is no way anyone is getting in a cabinet with this lock unless they have the magnetic key or a pry bar. In this next video you can see how they are installed. If you would like to skip the installation and see exactly how good they are you can skip to the 5 minute 51 second mark to see the lock in action.
As you can see the Tot Loc is awesome. But if you didn’t watch all of the video you missed a few good features you should know about like that the magnetic key can be stored on the refrigerator up out of reach of little hands. And that it comes with a built in switch that allows you to disable the lock. This comes in very handing for when you are getting in and out of the same cabinet over and over in a short time like when you are cleaning the house. Or it is also great if you are a grandparent or babysitter that doesn’t always have children around but needs locks for when there are. And for those that are afraid that the lock will scratch the cabinet don’t worry. We have had our locks for more than four years and you can’t see any evidence of scratching.
We purchased our lock set online and even ordered an extra magnetic key just in case we ever lost the original.
Click here to see pricing and reviews on Tot Loc sets and extra magnetic keys.
I have tried to make this article as helpful as possible for those that are looking for the best child proof cabinet locks. With two small children of my own I know first hand how hard it can be to make the few things in this world you do have control over safe for you kids. Thank you for reading and keep those little ones safe.