Little Giant recalls 3.66 million ladders after reports of locks failing and causing falls

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on November 5 announced the recall of roughly 3.66 million ladders made by Little Giant Ladder Systems, after the company and the agency received dozens of reports that a height-adjustment mechanism called the Rapid Lock can disengage mid-use, allowing the ladder to collapse beneath the person standing on it. The recall notice, filed as CPSC recall number 27-067, covers eleven separate ladder lines sold under the Little Giant name across more than a decade.

The agency said the locks, which are inserted into the ladder's rungs to let a user adjust its height and are visible as black or orange fittings on each leg, do not always seat fully. When that happens, the ladder section can retract suddenly while weight-bearing. The CPSC's ladder recall listing and the company's own notice, posted through a dedicated recall site reached from Little Giant's website, both describe the same defect and the same remedy, giving the public two independent, matching accounts of the hazard from the regulator and the manufacturer.

What the numbers show

The recall is unusually large by CPSC standards, covering ladders manufactured in the United States, China, Mexico and Malaysia and sold nationwide at Lowe's, Costco and other retailers, as well as online at Lowes.com, Amazon.com, Costco.com and LittleGiantLadders.com, from December 2015 through October 2026. Prices ranged from about $100 to $1,000.

• Roughly 3,662,000 ladders are covered in the United States.
• The CPSC has received 25 reports of ladders retracting unexpectedly.
• Nineteen of those incidents resulted in injury: three described as head injuries, including traumatic brain injury, skull fracture, concussion, vision loss, hearing loss or cognitive impairment, and sixteen described as other injuries such as joint or bone fractures, lacerations and bruising.
• A further 39 reports describe Rapid Locks that simply failed to work properly, without a resulting fall.

In its notice, the commission stated plainly:

"The ladders can suddenly retract if the Rapid Locks are not fully engaged, posing a fall hazard to consumers."

A familiar failure point on adjustable ladders

This is not the first time a locking mechanism on a multi-purpose, height-adjustable ladder has triggered a large recall. In August 2025, Werner recalled more than 122,000 of its 20-foot and 24-foot Multi-Max Pro ladders after the CPSC reported that the locking mechanism could jam and fail to fully lock, a defect tied to 18 falls and 14 injuries. That recall, like the current one, involved ladders designed to telescope or hinge into multiple configurations, a design category that depends on spring-loaded or cam-style locks engaging correctly at each rung before a person climbs.

Little Giant's own history includes a smaller, earlier episode: in 2017, the company, then operating as Wing Enterprises, recalled about 37,000 Velocity, LT and Liberty ladders after locking pins and rung fasteners were found to fail, though no injuries were reported in that case. The current recall is both far larger in scale and tied to a substantially higher number of documented injuries, underscoring that the underlying engineering challenge of adjustable locking ladders has persisted across model generations.

Who owns one of the recalled ladders

The recall covers eleven product lines: the Adjustable Fortress 2.0, Conquest 2.0, Dark Horse 2.0, Epic, King Kombo XT, Leveler, MegaLite, MegaLite+, Multi, Quantum and Vector. The brand and model name appear on the side rail of the ladder. Critically, the commission said ladders that already carry an orange rectangular "QC" sticker on the rail directly above a Rapid Lock are not part of the recall, meaning owners need to physically inspect their ladder rather than rely on memory of when or where it was purchased.

Given the roughly decade-long sales window and the range of big-box and online retailers involved, the pool of affected households is large and includes both homeowners who bought a single ladder for occasional use and tradespeople who may own several units for daily work. Little Giant ladders are a mainstay of the U.S. home-improvement and professional-trade market, and the Rapid Lock models were marketed as premium, multi-configuration ladders that could convert between stepladder, extension and scaffolding setups.

What the company and regulators are telling owners to do

The CPSC and Little Giant are telling consumers to stop using any affected ladder immediately. Owners should check the model name against the recalled list, confirm the ladder lacks the orange "QC" sticker, and then contact Little Giant, either online or through its recall hotline, to request a free repair kit. That kit includes new warning labels and instructions directing owners to verify that Rapid Locks are fully engaged before every use and to lubricate the locks as part of normal maintenance. If a lock continues to malfunction after lubrication, the company says it will evaluate the ladder and, if the defect is confirmed, offer either a replacement of the same or an equivalent model or a refund; refunds for ladders purchased within the past year are prorated based on purchase date.

Little Giant can be reached toll-free at 866-201-9069 between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. Mountain time, Monday through Friday, or through the recall portal linked from littlegiantladders.com. The CPSC directs consumers with questions about the recall process generally, or who wish to report a separate incident, to its consumer hotline at 800-638-2772 or to file a report at SaferProducts.gov, the federal database the agency uses to track emerging hazards across consumer products.

What happens next

Federal law bars retailers from continuing to sell a product once the CPSC has ordered or accepted a recall, so the agency's notice functions as an instruction to Lowe's, Costco, Amazon and any other sellers to pull remaining Rapid Lock inventory immediately. For existing owners, the practical next step is inspection rather than disposal: the remedy track begins with a free repair kit, and only escalates to a replacement or refund if the lock still fails after the fix is applied and evaluated. The recall arrives heading into a period of heavy ladder use, as households take down exterior holiday lighting and perform other seasonal maintenance, which increases the odds that a defective lock will be exercised under load before owners have had a chance to register for a repair kit.