Child-proof lock for fridge-freezers

Some autistic children have a compulsion to raid the fridge, which gives rise to a need for a child-proof lock that is easily controlled by the parents.

Fridge-freezers usually have provision to mount the doors on either side, so there will be a pair of unused tapped holes between the doors on the open side. These can be used to mount a base plate carrying a sliding hook that, when in the closed position, traps the corners of both doors. The sliding component is fitted with a short cap-head screw, the lower section of which is filed to a rectangular shape. This runs in a slot in the base plate and, in the ‘locked’ position, coincides with a hole of the same diameter as the screw.

With both doors closed, the hook is slid until it traps the doors, and the cap-head screw is given a quarter turn by means of an Allen key inserted through the gap between the doors. This prevents the screw, and the slider, from moving until the screw is rotated back to its free position.

This lock has proved child-proof with different children over a number of years, and has been found easy to use by the parents.