Ikea chest of drawers falling apart after only 1 year - can I do anything?

[sybilfaulty]

I bought a Hemnes chest of drawers this time last year for my DD's bedroom. It's been rubbish. The front of the top drawer has fallen off and the wood is cracking, and now the runner has fallen off the bottom drawer so it won't open properly. Admittedly the drawers are fairly full but only with kids' clothes which don't weigh tonnes.

What can I do? I would not be able to find the receipt, nor the bank statement showing my purchase, though I am hardly likely to have stolen a flatpack as it was quite heavy. What is Ikea's policy on returns or repairs after so long? Or am I just going to have to put up with it as one of the downsides of buying cheap(ish) furniture?

Any experience gratefully received. Many thanks

I suspect they will say it's your fault for putting it together badly (and to be honest they may well be right)

Thanks Mrs B.

I bought ano one at the same time and that one has held together perfectly. There weren't any bits left over so I assume it was assembled OK - DH did it and is usually quite good at that sort of thing.

Hey ho, I suppose that will teach me to buy Ikea. Will have to save up for something better.

Thanks again.

you could at least try to complain, take some photos and show them, nothing ventured etc

IME the drawers of Ikea furniture are the least long-lasting thing they make - however carefully you put them together. The bases are too thin & flexible (only hardboard, plywood would be much sturdier), the little triangular peg support things at the back are not nearly big enough, & the metal bits that you turn to hold the fronts on - cams? - have a tendency to unscrew themselves & let the fronts fall off.

I don't think you'd get any joy after a year though...

Your children don't climb on furniture, do they?...I know mine are at least partly responsible for some of the failings of ours! (eg large boy leaving drawers open to rest his feet on )

Exactly ponders, the fronts fell off, then the side pieces split, then the runner thing broke on the big drawer at the bottom.... My kids don't climb on the furniture but have opened the drawers fairly heavy handedly. I would have thought they should have stood up to this but sadly not.

I would give a complaint a go SEA (am usually spoiling for a fight ) but I don't find our IKEA colleagues always incredibly helpful and I just wonder if I am onto a loser before I have put the offending drawers in my car and driven over there. All this would have to be done with a baby in tow as well.

I don't think they'll do anything. I think with Ikea, a lot of their stuff is great and hardwearing, but there are a significant number of items that are not. You have to be careful which ones you buy. Usually I am lucky with ikea stuff, but I have a klobo sofa which after under 1 year is wrecked (bottom bits coming out, long metal bits etc). It was only a £69 sofa, but I did expect it to last a bit longer! I have another sofa from ikea which is 4 years old and still in perfect condition (ektorp) so I think it is just some of their products being crap.

I had some success running PVA glue along the joints and the dowelling, although DH and I have long since sworn a pact that we will never buy anything from Ikea ever again.

...of the last set of Ikea drawers I bought.

Oh I always glue all the joints & dowels too, trellism - the fabric of the drawers just isn't up to the job. Ready-made solid pine furniture might be boring but it lasts forever

You can buy something better next time, that is about all you can do, I suspect.

We moved last October and bought Malm chest of drawers for the DC and our rooms. Biggest load of shite ever.

Our one is ok but the DC are not quite as careful when opening and shutting drawers and the drawers are falling to bits. We have glued them back together several times.

We recently went to a antique/junk/second hand shop and picked up a really nice solid wood chest of drawers for DS's room. We will replace DD's chest of drawers as soon as they get something decent in.

Helpful to suggest she just should have bought something more expensive in the first place.

The hemnes is rubbish. I am brilliant at assembling furniture, including Ikea, and two of the drawers on DS's hemnes are broken. As someone more helpful said, the bottoms of the drawers are really flimsy, and once they pop out of the minute lip they sit in and bend, nothing will fix that drawer, even if you glue it.

I'm going to give ours a stay of execution for a year and then buy something else - it will be three years old by then.

All that said most Ikea furniture is fine. It's just any self assembly furniture with cheapo drawer carcasses that's the problem.

GM
If you read the rest of my post, you will see that we made the exact same mistake as the OP did, bought cheap IKEA furniture and regretted it. It was not a dig at the OP, more of a commiseration. Sorry if it appeared otherwise.

MmeLindt, my large boy's large chest of drawers is Malm too

Malm does look nice, & his 2-drawer bedside table (with very small bit of hardboard in base) is still going strong, but the big chest of drawers isn't - partly from the footrest habit, partly because he will pick up a pile of clean laundry, cram it all into one drawer (often already full ) & force it shut.

I have tried rearranging & rotating his drawers, which buys a bit more time, but solid wood is the way to go.

Ponders
I suspect that my mountaineerer DD has been scaling the drawers to reach the top so that is my next top tip. Don't buy a "tall boy" (as my mother calls them, is that a proper name for a tall chest of drawers?) buy a unit that the DC can reach the top of without climbing.

There is a product availalble,a bracket that spans the bottom of drawers to support the base of the drawer, but unfortunately I don't know what there're called or where available.