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Car seats

Confused about car seat regulations? Find baby car seat advice here. For Mumsnetter-approved essentials, sign up for Mumsnet Swears By emails here.

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Original poster

What do you do with your outgrown carseats?

48 replies

pepperrabbit · 23/07/2011 12:48

We've never had an accident so they're quite safe, and I don't particularly want any money for them, the local community store don't need them and it seems a real waste just to take them to the dump.
We have lots as my family used to help ferry the kids around while I was at work and it was more convenient just to buy one for everyone - now the boys are bigger we have about 3/4 spares....

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

BuckBuckMcFate · 29/07/2011 11:59

Keep having more babies to put in them. I like getting my money's worth I do

Macaroona · 29/07/2011 12:04

I need a car seat for my unborn child - would be willing to trust a MNer and a

wheresthepimms · 29/07/2011 12:07

we have a recarro start, but ours is obviously slightly older than this one The speakers in the head rest are not that useful as they don't go loud enough for the child to hear above the noise of the car My DD10 was very upset when she grew out of hers, she loved it as she could sleep comfortably in it, now she is 148cm tall (yes we have a tall 10 year old who is putting my shortness to shame) and complains about not fitting in any car seats as she likes her head rests

wheresthepimms · 29/07/2011 12:10

we got it as DD was an escape artist and in Germany it came with an impact cushion that went over their lap when they were little, the seat belt went round the impact cushion and because they were trapped in the car seat she couldn't reach down and unplug herself

malinois · 29/07/2011 12:18

aswellasyou: many modern cars use a plastic or composite seat chassis for weight saving - particulary sports cars and high performance cars. Similarly, all racecar seats are plastic/composite - Recaro is actually much better known for making racecar seats than child seats.

And of course the seatbelts are exactly the same material.

Interestingly, he FIA, which regulates every aspect of motorsports to MUCH higher standards than any road cars, does actually set a seat life of 7 years from date of manufacture.

wheresthepimms · 29/07/2011 12:25

malinois I think if you go look at your car you will find a seatbelt DOB on the orange tag, also your car is MOT'd every year once it is over 3 years old and the MOT does include seatbelt checks. The seatbelt issue was not what was being discussed it was the plastic molded seats, obviously not made of carbon Kevlar like race car seats, that can degrade in heat and sunlight that was the issue. If you look at your car seat instructions it does say to periodically check for signs of stress fatigue and damage to the plastic and the straps. What people are concerned with is that in other countries there is a shelf life of cars seats due to these issues so why do we not have it in the EU?

Yes Recaro are known for race car seats, car interiors etc but they manufacture a lot of baby car seats and in other EU companies are well known for the fact that they have adapted their race car technology to child seats, especially in Germany where every baby shop sells the Recaro seats and most will tell you they are the best.

teacherwith2kids · 29/07/2011 12:32

I passed baby seat on to a relative.

Freecycled next stage seat as it was only 3 years old

Will junk booster seats - cushion only ones I stopped using because too dangerous, hi-back booster will have been used for 6+ years so wouldn't feel comfortable passing those on anyway.

greycircles · 29/07/2011 12:34

I phoned Britax and they advised tipping them (I was referring to one that was under 5 years old without having been in an accident).

However, another of my carseats, one which has been in heavy daily use for 3 1/2 years has actually just broken (Britax). I would not use a 5+ year old carseat for this reason - sometimes, the plastic just does fail. What happened was that the seat has never been in an accident, still fits DS. One morning, I unlocked the car to find that the seat had collapsed. It had just literally had enough overnight! That one has gone to the tip as Britax have no recycling facilities whatsoever whether carseats are broken or in perfect condition.

aswellasyou · 29/07/2011 12:38

pimms, that seat sounds really good with the impact cushion. Is it a group 1 seat with the cushion attached?
mallinois, so most people with non high performance cars have metal framed seats and the others have non-degrading seats? So they're in no way comparable to child car seats that are made from degrading plastic.

On another note, I read an eBay listing for a carseat last week that said the polystyrene had a crack in it but this 'in no way affects the saftey of the seat'! I tried to report it to eBay but my computer crashed as I did and I couldn't find it again. How can people think that a damaged seat is safe?

LawrieMarlow · 29/07/2011 12:39

Am trying to think how old our stage 123 seats are. Got them when DD went into a Stage 1 seat as DS needed a stage 12 one as he wasn't heavy enough for stage 2 and I wanted him to have a harness. That would have been nearly 5 years ago.

DS on a booster cushion now but I do sometimes wonder if he should have a HBB. Although would feel bad about DD in a getting rather older HBB.

NewlyConvertedFordLover · 29/07/2011 12:43

I have the opposite problem. I am looking for a Maxi Cosi first stage car seat. We usually buy things second hand locally or ask on Freecycle first. (That probably makes us sound really tight, but we don't have loads of money and don't like to waste what little we DO have! )

However, I have had no joy in my search. I wonder if there is a charity that receives second hand baby/toddler products and sells them on for a profit?

wheresthepimms · 29/07/2011 12:46

aswell yes I think it is, sure the recaro website has more info. My DCs love the seat, I sold one to a friend who was a childminder a couple of years ago as we moved to the states for 2 years and it was too heavy to carry on the plane with 12 suitcases 4DCs etc etc Now only have the 2 newer ones (about 6 years old) but they are still working fine, one has a slight issue with the rubber around the seat belt holder (which you can buy new ones of) so I just make sure the seat is on the other side of the car to the side that is slightly worn.

greycircles · 29/07/2011 12:54

NewlyConvertedFordLover - the NCT is a charity and sells 2nd hand baby and toddler goods. However, no company would sell on 2nd hand carseats.

malinois · 29/07/2011 17:09

pimms: agree with you on Recaro child seats - we have a Young Profi Plus and it's fantastic. So rather than just setting an automatic EOL for child car seats, would it not be better to have a system of simple checks and recertification for seats?

I just think the idea of throwing something out at 5 years, simply because it might have been degraded a bit wasteful. Especially as the plastic in carseats is unlikely to suffer from UV-degradation unless you drive everywhere in a convertible with the roof down!

Actually - that's exactly what the FIA specify - car seats need to be checked by the manufacturer at 5 years to get the 7 year life.

wheresthepimms · 29/07/2011 18:26

malinois yes it is sensible to let you check car seats, I think the reason why other countries have EOL is as they know that the majority of people will not check them then sue the manufacturer if they crash and the seat breaks. Think something similar caused the EU to outlaw lap belts in middle seats for cars manufactured after 02, parents were sued by their own child and they then sued the manufacturer if I recall correctly.

As for UV degradation our US ones did suffer from it in the 2 years we were there as we lived in a very hot, sunny part of the country. Do agree EOL date is a waste of what could be a good seat.

TruthSweet · 29/07/2011 19:34

The trouble with retesting and certifying a seat as safe is how do you test it? If you crash test it, you then can't use the seat again even if it 'passed' as it will then have been in a crash and so unable to be used again.

Plastic can degrade even if it's not exposed to sunlight, as if you store your car seats in a garage or loft the temperature range the plastic is exposed to is quite wide (our garage got so cold last winter our freezer's compressor broke). This can make the plastic brittle and not able to withstand the crash forces in an accident.

In the US each car seat model has it's own expiry date based on testing, so one seat from a particular brand may have a 6 year expiry date but another seat within the same brand may have a 9 year expiry date. Generally though, if you are going to pass on a seat it's not so much how old is it now but how old it will be when the child grows out of it. So you could pass on a 4y/o baby bucket and be fine but not a 4y/o group 1/2/3 as the child might well end up using a very old seat by the time they grow out of it (could be another 9 years).

BertieBotts · 05/08/2011 20:08

Newly, you could check ebay, though as someone said earlier some seats on ebay are quite dodgy and some sellers seem to have no idea what constitutes a safe car seat. This is clearly ancient for example dodgy and has plastic missing very well used Picture is from 2006 and carseat still hasn't sold! And these are just the ones being honest or semi-honest (and I could list a lot more!) - you have no way of knowing if they've kicked the seat around, had it lying around in a garage for years or dropped it without realising these things can damage the seat. So if you're buying on ebay do your research first, look for a seat which has only been released in the last year or so, and choose one which has lots of info on the listing who looks like they'd be willing to answer questions about handling and storage.

BertieBotts · 05/08/2011 20:21

And this one is taking the piss: "You can use it from a baby to about 8 or 9 years old." It's a booster seat! Also "about 5 years old" my arse. That seat fabric looks distinctly 90s to me.

How does this protect against anything? (And wonder what the harness holes were originally for? Was this a car seat for younger children or is it some kind of bastardised high chair insert?)

This one is metal framed - pretty sure that went out around ten years ago

Sorry ebay car seat judging is fun!

BertieBotts · 05/08/2011 20:24

There's no way this meets UK standards either.

(I'll stop now)

TruthSweet · 05/08/2011 21:12

Bertie - How about this one? The listing says it is for babies from 9kg using the lap and shoulder belt! Who the F puts a 9kg baby ffing and in a booster?

Plus they copied the blurb from here.

Nice review of the seat here though why you would keep using a seat you are warning others off because it's unsafe is beyond me!

BertieBotts · 05/08/2011 22:01

That review is 7 years old

TruthSweet · 05/08/2011 23:17

Yes, I know it's old, I just couldn't believe someone would take the time to detail how dangerous a car seat when they are still using it for their child and then post an update 8m or so later to say it is still dangerous and list more ways your child is unsafe as you have kept using the blinking thing.

Why, for the love of all that's holy, would you do that?

I wonder if they ever got rid of it or it's been passed done to younger siblings, with mum still banging on about how unsafe it is

Perhaps I should have used 'nice' or nice to make the sarcasm clear. Difficult to judge tone on fora etc etc. Non P/A

BertieBotts · 05/08/2011 23:54

Oh yes I got that Some people are barking! I just meant that seat must be at least 7 years old so why is it still being sold on ebay.

Then again I go on about how things are annoying me and I really ought to sort them out and it would be quite feasible that I hadn't done it 8 months later. But with something that's a safety issue you'd think they would be quicker off the mark

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