Extra Tall Double Wide Media Storage Tower in Black Finish

This is self-assemble furniture at its worst. The shelves are incredibly flimsy and do not withstand the weight of CDs. The shelves sagged immediately upon loading. The shelves are also so unstable that I can nearly topple the entire contents with one finger. The decorative front slats are attached with three dowels and school glue, too, which means I expect them to pop off at any moment. I own other pieces of cheap furniture, from IKEA etc, and this is far less stable. I don't imagine being able to move this to another room in my house without it falling apart much less to my next home or apartment. At $250, save your money.

This CD storage rack will hold one's HUGE CD/DVD collection, and in most cases, with room to spare. Though pricey, the unit is likely more than sufficient to allow storage of most everything in your collection, and avoid you having to spend about the same amount of money for extra smaller storage racks as your collection grows. The assembly instructions are on the sparse side, so some previous experience in putting together such units will be helpful.

When I assembled my unit, I deviated a bit at a couple of places in the instructions to assure that the unit would be sturdily put together and stable, once fully loaded with CDs. Here is what I did:

1) When I glued the three front molding strips onto the front of the unit, the instructions advise you to use only small drops of the "school glue" provided, on the wood dowel pegs. That raised a red flag for me and told me that use of that particular glue would be inadequate, too sparse, and not provide a strong bond with the three vertical shelf support units, thus most probably causing the unit to eventually come apart under load stress. Instead, if you have access to a set of furniture/cabinet glue clamps, use those, plus a good strong bonding glue, such as "Gorilla" glue to bond and clamp the three molding strips to the three vertical shelf support units, following the instructions for the glue you use. Apply glue not only on the wood dowel pegs; apply glue also on the front face of the vertical shelf supports as well. Thus, you can be assured of a sturdy bond and improbability of the unit coming apart.

2) The rack comes with what the manufacturer calls an "Anti-toppling" device, intended for installation on the unit if the user lives in an earthquake zone. This consists of two woven nylon ribbon straps and screw hardware to fasten to the unit and against the wall where the unit will be located. I strongly advise installation of this particular hardware, even if you don't live in an earthquake zone it will assure that the unit will not topple in any other situations, especially where small children are involved. If you install this hardware, make sure that it is installed on the unit EXACTLY where 2 x 4 wall studs behind a sheet rock wall are located. In my case, instead of using the hardware provided, I drilled small holes at appropriate locations on the back of the top at the exact locations where the unit would be positioned at 2 x 4 wall studs and used medium-sized screw eyelets at those positions on the unit as well as on the wall. I then installed a couple of heavy-duty nylon securing straps (both the eyelets and nylon straps can be had at a hardware store) through the installed wall/rack eyelets to hold the unit safely in place.

For the practicality of the unit, I would give it five stars, but in the case of the assembly of the unit where I deviated in the locations I describe, I reduce it to four stars.

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