apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have these and love them. The set comes with magnet extenders for thicker cabinets. The directions have a specific depth to drill to and a guide to put on your drill so you don't go through the cabinet completely. *be careful...if you press to hard the guide can move and the drill will go all the way through your cabinet door. (I speak from experience)

Unless you're cabinet doors are an inch thick...you should be in business.

One other note...don't lose the magnet that unlocks the doors or you're pretty much boned. Also...the magnet will be your kids favorite toy so good luck with not losing it.

We have the tot locks (and by the way, we LOVE them... they are the only type of locks we have had that don't break after a few months). Our cabinets were not too thick, but when installing the locks I think I remember that the package contained little metal cylinders that could be used to push further into the cabinet if the cabinet was too thick for the standard lock. The cylinders acted as an extension of the metal on the inside portion of the lock and therefore the magnet would be able to "grab" and open the lock. Does that make sense? So has your contractor read completely through the tot lock instructions?
Also, I would recommend buying an extra lock to keep hidden somewhere in case the first one gets lost or (hopefully not!) your kid decides it would be funny to take the lock and go inside the cabinet.

Another thing you might want to check before you install all of the locks is how well they work once installed. The miter joints on my cabinets are joined with metal biscuits. The metal interfered with the magnets, so I had to move the locks to the center. I still love the Tot Loks, though.

I really like these: http://www.safety1st.com/product/detail.asp?ID=902 (ones in the picture are for the oven. but they make them for cabinets too, just could not find a link) They fit any size/style cabinet doors and are not as painful [for adults] to use.

We stick the magnets up high on the fridge.

I would say install one yourself (it really isn't that difficult) and see how it does. There is a little switch you can flip to disable the locking mechanism, so there shouldn't be any harm in trying one.

I don't remember if the magnetic locks I use is that brand, but mine did not require drilling. I put all the cleaners in the under-sink cabinet, and the magnetic key goes up on a cabinet side (hidden on the side). I love love love this system.

I don't think the other types work that well, as kids learn to figure out the mechanism. The other system I would do is a combo lock.

We love ours. Some drilling required to install the locks but they are easy to use. I flip the switch to keep them unlocked when I am cooking and need to get into a cabinet repeatedly. These are so much easier than the other options. We needed more than one package to do the kitchen so we have a back up key should we lose the main one.

I like the Kidco magnetic locks because you DON'T need to drill your cabinets and are very easy to install!

Thanks everyone. I think the contractor was being lazy. We got a stronger magnet and got one to work, we'll just have to install the rest ourselves.