Securing Cabinet to wall: better to use two anchors to drywall or one screw into stud?

Question

I am aiming to babyproof this unit to the wall. It is three separate, vertical pieces. For the rightmost and leftmost piece, for where they are, there is one stud behind each of them.

I can secure them to the wall by either using the default drywall anchors they came with or I also have these and can secure them to either the drywall (two on each corner) or the stud in the center.

Which is more secure / recommended?

Is there a better, more safe way to go about this?

Thank you

Answer 1

I would not rely on either drywall anchors or the Amazon thingies. I would attempt to find the wall studs behind the units, then drive decent wood screws through the unit into the studs.

If the back of the unit is thin masonite or paperboard, I have used L brackets driven in to the top of the cabinet, aligned with the studs, then driven screws through the brackets to the studs:

Answer 2

Screw into studs, and screw the center section to the side pieces.

Answer 3

Studs are always recommended over drywall anchors.

Drywall anchors just might hold for a baby, but wait three or four years and they will not hold.

Answer 4

Although your question asks for something 'more safe', the engineer in me wants to point out that the risk such anchors mitigate is from someone climbing up the unit, so is a moment acting around the fulcrum of the corner at the bottom, and as such the unit acts as a lever reducing the force acting on the anchor by the ratio of its height to the distance of baby's centre of gravity from the unit, about ten to one.

So pretty any type of anchor into the plasterboard will work for preventing the unit toppling if an infant tries to climb it, the cheap ones which come with flatpack furniture will suffice (I don't worry about it if I have to climb up some shelves so secured), but use a better one if that means you don't worry about it. A good screw into studding will hold for 50kgf/100lbf, which means a whole football team could climb on it without it toppling over.

Answer 5

I find steel-cable + brackets Something like this (Amazon) the most flexible option for anti-tip protection.

Pros:

• The bracket can be fixed to the wall and the furniture, even if the furniture doesn't sit flush to the wall
• Steel cable is far stronger and far less likely to succumb to fatigue before your children are grown than plastic straps.
• If you have a basic understanding of the angles involved, this system frees you from requiring a direct perpendicular anchor point. For instance, if your furniture sits between two studs, you can brace into the studs and diagonally out from the furniture and still have a quite robust hold .
• If you're moderately handy, you can buy a spool of wire and the brackets individually and make these yourself to whatever length you require. (Honestly, you probably don't even really need the fancy brackets and cotter pins. Simple cable clamps to put loops in the wire, and a protruding screw head or a sturdy hook bolt as anchor points is probably fine, but use your best judgment)
• They're reusable, and can be temporarily disconnected

Answer 6

It occurred to me you could place something like carpeting foot protectors under the legs far from the wall, but not under the legs next to the wall. In this manner, the cabinet would always be leaning back into the wall.

This can be visualized with Pete Kirkham's drawing, with the little circle at the lower right imagined as being one of the foot protectors which raise the front of the cabinet, but not the rear next to the wall. The larger arrow at the top then shows the force direction of lean.

I used this technique to stabilize bookshelves that sat on carpeting with thick padding, though in that case, instead of foot protectors, I used a strip of wood that was as long as the bookshelves were wide.