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Sunday, May 26, 2013

Latches Board Is Challenging For Adults

I've been searching for a latch box for my daughter, but they're all over $60 each.  It seems a bit expensive for a box with different latches on each side.

So, based on their reputation (and Amazon reviews), I purchased the Melissa & Doug latches board.

And how disappointed I was when it arrived with the following design flaws:


  1. The chain lock on door 5 just falls all over- it doesn't stay in the latch at all.
  2. The bar latch on door 3 is so difficult to pull out and push in that I can't open it without bracing the board with my elbows and pulling/pushing with both hands.  How is a 3 year old going to be able to open that?!
  3. The padlock latch on door 6 should have been put on in the other direction because when you flip it open, the bar part of the latch gets lodged in door 5, so you can't open it.  Again, how is a child supposed to figure out that the bar is lodged in the slot for door 5, pull it out, and then open door 6?
  4. The same problem is true with the classic latch on door 1- it gets lodged in door 4 in a very similar way.
  5. The words and images under the doors are painted such that you have to open the door ALL the way, to see the words.  They could have painted the images centered under the door, but I guess they wanted to challenge kids withe a little game of hide-and-seek as well as the latches.
  6. Doors 1 and 5 door have any door knob or latch that the child and use to OPEN the door- they have cut out a little finger hole because otherwise, opening these doors is impossible.
In addition to these fantastic latch challenges, the the hinges on the doors 3 and 6 are not aligned properly and or perhaps are just too tight because the doors don't shut all the way- they remain buckled and open a bit.

I think that this experience has taught me that it might be time to learn to use a table saw and how to install latches myself- it seems that's the only reasonably priced way my daughter is going to be a latches board OR box.

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