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Car seat dilemma

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Comments

  • LilacPixie
    LilacPixie Posts: 8,052 Forumite
    edited 14 September 2010 at 8:26PM
    Nottslass - I had read this before and my kids are in britax evolva 123 for 9 months to 12 years. Local police car seat fitting people, sorry I can't remember their official title told me that the hot/cold thing may be accurate for warmer climates than ours/other countries but for ours there is no evidence to suggest this is the case so they do not issue such guidance.

    ETA apparently carseat plastic and plastics within the car itself including parts of a seatbelt plus have you seen how long plastic little tyke type toys last actually outside
    MF aim 10th December 2020 :j:eek:
    MFW 2012 no86 OP 0/2000 :D
  • RLH33
    RLH33 Posts: 371 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Thanks everyone for your replies. I think I will look into it a bit further by ringing Maxi Cosi but I strongly suspect we will end up using the seat we already have but give the seat cover a wash in the machine.

    I hadn't thought of the 9 month to 12 year seats issue and it is very true, they are sold on the promise that they will last over 11 years so I strongly suspect there is an aspect of safety gone mad.
  • Lara44
    Lara44 Posts: 2,961 Forumite
    Or profiteering gone mad!
    :A :heartpuls June 2014 / £2014 in 2014 / £735.97 / 36.5%
  • loracan1
    loracan1 Posts: 2,287 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Heather Wootton Corley is the woman who wrote:
    ''While I can understand the frustration of throwing away something that still looks good, it's important to understand that the breakdown of a car seat is not something that can always be seen with the naked eye. Car seats are made of plastics. Consider what happens to a plastic toy if it is left outside for some time. The plastic becomes brittle and can develop cracks when stressed. Car seats are subjected to extreme heat and extreme cold while sitting in your vehicle, so the plastics eventually react just like that toy left in the sun. You may not be able to see that the plastic is breaking down, or is more brittle, but that change could be dangerous in a crash when the car seat shell is stressed. It's far safer for parents to buy a new car seat than to take a chance on a car seat that may be too old to function properly in a crash.''
    and the article is here

    She's a bachelor of science degree in agricultural journalism and horticulture you know!

    And some of the comments beneath her article are hilarious...


    For what it's worth, there are plastic bits in my car that are still in one piece, and that's 13 years old. And ancient (14 years +) tikes toys in my backyard that'll last another 14 by the looks of them. I'm fairly sure that if you ring the manufacturers they'll tell you a new one would be best ;)
  • tiamai_d
    tiamai_d Posts: 11,987 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I was lead to beleive it's only if it has been used by a child for a prolonged length of time, how to explain it at this time of night...

    Say, you buy a carseat, 9months-4years and your eldest uses it from 9 months to 4 years, then it should be discarded as the weight of the 4 year old has put certain parts of the car seat under strain and they could potentially fail during an accident. The car seat has had 3 years 3 month of use.

    We used one for DS1 for about a year then used it for DS2 though. It came down to it being a safer car seat than what we could afford to buy new.
  • And how long do plastics last on landfill?!
    Please do not confuse me with other gratefulsforhelp. x
  • tiamai_d
    tiamai_d Posts: 11,987 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Plastic does degrade even if it doesn't decompose that quickly. It becomes brittle and can shatter under pressure. All it takes is a little clip that is holding another part in place to become brittle and snap and then the car seat would be useless in an accident.

    Plus, car seats are not made entirely of plastic.

    I don't think 5 years or 7 years of storage is going to necessarily degrade a good car seat, but to say that it doesn't have a 'shelf life' is wrong.
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