Installing an Anti-Tip Bracket for Your Oven
I hate to break up the holiday glamour-fest, but it is time to put on my tool belt and share with you an important safety device. As some of you may remember, we had an oven fire this past September. We ended up replacing our oven and when the new one was delivered it came with an anti-tip device. All new free-standing and slide-in ovens should come with one. Be aware that most stores that deliver your stove WILL NOT install the anti-tip device when they deliver (shame on them!)
If you don’t know what an anti-tip device is, let me show you:
That’s it! Just a bracket and a few screws. But, that little device can prevent this:
The whole oven can and will tip very easily with very little weight on the open oven door. Stop reading RIGHT NOW and go open your oven door. Then press down to see if you can tip your oven!
If you can tip it, you can call the manufacturer of your oven and they should send you a device for free or just a shipping charge. To find an anti-tip device for your stove, contact the manufacturer.
Installation is super simple. The hardest part is pulling the stove out and cleaning all the goodies that have fallen beneath the stove for years. Apparently our stove doubles as a matchbox car garage!
Safety Alert: If you notice in the picture above, there is a metal box lying loose on the floor with black and grey wires entering it. This is the junction box where our wiring for the stove is hardwired into the house. The fact that this junction box is lying loose on the floor is dangerous! Should we (or the firemen) had pulled hard enough when removing the stove, the connections could have come loose and there would be 240 volts of live (or should I say life-ending) power exposed! Therefore we hired an electrician to wire an outlet into the wall before we installed our new stove.
One more safety tip, if your oven catches on fire (specifically the heating element is burning) you will need to stop the oven from receiving any power. Be sure to turn off the circuit at your circuit breaker! This probably would have saved me from having to call the fire department, I thought just turning the oven off would stop the element from continuing to ignite and burn, BUT NO IT DID NOT!
Anti-Tip Bracket for Your Oven Installation:
If your oven is hardwired, before installing the bracket be sure to shut off the power to the appliance. Even if you have an outlet, be extra safe and turn off the power to that outlet. Once you have removed all foreign objects from under the stove and cleaned the floor. Layout your template lining up the corner of the sheet to the corner of your cabinet and the wall.
Drill through the crosshairs marking the location of the screws (remember to use a drill bit slightly smaller than your screws.)
If you are having trouble lining up your stove with the bracket, you may need to remove the storage drawer and look underneath your oven. You also might need to adjust the feet on your oven up or down to give enough clearance for the whole foot to slide into the bracket. (You do this by screwing or unscrewing the feet.) Be sure to adjust the foot on the opposite side to level your oven.
And you are done, this installation is relatively easy as long as you don’t encounter things like electrical code violations (aka improperly hard-wired appliances.) Feel free to email me with any questions and I will try to assist you. Again, I have one extra anti-tip device for a GE stove if you would like it.
Now it is time to bake some cookies! YUM!
Can you install the anti tip bracket on a floating floor?
Joyce, do you have a plywood subfloor underneath your floating floor? Is it laminate flooring? If you do have a plywood subfloor, I’d use longer screws to attach through the floor and into the subfloor. If you have concrete underneath, I’d use the screws provided and recognize that having the anti-tip device attached to the floor is better than nothing. For more advice, I’d double check with your oven manufacturer.
The inspector said I need to have this device installed. But it seems most places don’t have one that fits my model number for my range. Does one bracket fit all or do you have to have it for a specific model number.?
Jackson, you need to contact your oven manufacturer to get the correct bracket for your appliance.
The management in my apartment building installed the anti-tip bracket on my GE range, and now there’s two inches of space between the wall and the back of the range. Is this correct, and if not, how is it fixed so that the range can be moved flush with the wall? I asked the maintenance guys to fix it, and they said it can’t be fixed, but that seems crazy to me.
BlindMoose, can you pull out the bottom drawer and look at the bracket? If it’s installed flush with the wall, (and the leg of your oven is seated completely into the bracket) there probably isn’t anything you can do. If you see that the bracket wasn’t installed against the wall, you could point that out to them.
I just tried to order an anti-tip bracket for my GE oven, and they wanted to charge me $31.50 for it — not exactly free of charge.
Get these cheaper on ebay… though I saw one for $32. Just ordered one for a Whirlpool for $7. Most are $7-10.
Hi PHG ~
Love your site and this article! Thanks so much for simplifying these instructions.
Bought brand new GE appliances from Home Depot a couple of years ago and had delivered and installed. Just learned during recent home inspection, that this device was not installed. 🙁
Do you still happen to have that spare anti-tip device?
Thanks again,
Americangirl
I don’t still have the extra one, but GE will likely send you one for free or less than $10. Easy fix, you can do this!
You are much smarter than a Home Depot Traineed Techs.
Thank you, this device also almost cost a deal from going through. I checked with Home Depot/Lowes for a device. Home Depot had me go to another smaller store, Ace Hardware. Lowes salesperson had an extra one in his drawer and let me have it at no charge. Still was confused as to how install, but then I found your article! Great Job! Commendation Pending!
Thank you for the information. Curious though as to why you didn’t fix the wall behind the stove since you were back there?
BJ, thanks for your comment. I probably didn’t because I was trying to get this done, then get dinner read and keep an eye on the boys. Our kitchen is in the process of a major renovation, so the drywall is completely new, fixed and I’m sure you’d approve 😉
Great instruction manual for installing an anti-tip device. One of these almost cost me a closing a few years ago. Many FHA or Down Payment Assistant Programs will have an inspector check specifically for these. Thanks again Pretty Handy Girl!
You truly are a pretty handy girl! You'll be happy to know that my stove did not tip! YAY!
I did have to wait until a certain little four year old was out of the room before I could check. Didn't want to give him any ideas 🙂
Great tip! Isn't it crazy the things you find along the way.
Oh WOW you are good ! never thought of that ! love your house ! GREAT blog !
Following you back !
Bisous
First of all: hi! I love your blog! Just found it a few days ago, and can't put it down – I'm a fairly handy gal myself, and I adore reading your posts about your projects, and your how-tos. Awesome job 🙂
Secondly: holy capsizing sauté pans, Batman! My oven doesn't have one of these, though it's only a few years old (honestly, I think I may have found it loose on the floor back there when I moved into my house and threw it away thinking it was just [more] junk the builders left lying around). I would assume a hardware/appliance store would sells these little clips, tho – I'll check this weekend.
Wow, thanks so much for sharing this valuable information. I didn't even know that there was such a thing as an anti-tip device, but it sounds like it is definitely essential for anyone with a freestanding oven.