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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

car seats from the US

26 replies

thisisyesterday · 17/08/2011 22:05

I am (prematurely) looking up car seats for when ds2 is out of the britax 2 way elite, and wandered onto the US britax site

why do they not sell seats like this over here????
or this- harnessed to 38.5 kg!

if i were to import one, or something like it, would it be legal to use?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

aswellasyou · 17/08/2011 22:11

You can't legally use them here unfortunately. They seem to have a lot more choice in the US. I wonder if their saftey testing system is cheaper than ours.

Original poster

thisisyesterday · 17/08/2011 22:13

hmph.
although, likelihood of anyone ever noticing it wasn't a uk seat?? low

realise it may invalidate my insurance tho. hmm

OP posts:

aswellasyou · 17/08/2011 22:19

It is unlikely anyone would notice but you need to be prepared for the possibility that someone may check one day.

Original poster

thisisyesterday · 17/08/2011 22:30

just in case anyone like me is feeling a little naughty... jane's tote seems to be claiming that shipping to the UK is free on this lovely sunshine kids radian (truthsweet I'm looking at you!)

they also sell the britax seats.

hmmmmmmm

OP posts:

whenIgetto3 · 18/08/2011 16:32

thisisyesterday we have just lived in the US for 2 years and when we nipped home (bringing our illegally imported US seat) it was very hard to fit in the car we hired as they are wider in the base than UK ones and appear to be designed for the larger American car seats

aswellasyou · 18/08/2011 17:01

whenI, you're allowed to bring seats with you when you're visiting from another country.
thisis, could you pretend your child is foreign?

Original poster

thisisyesterday · 18/08/2011 18:07

ahh but the sunshine kids radian is really narrow... you can fit 3 across the back of a car!

OP posts:

Original poster

thisisyesterday · 18/08/2011 18:07

i will practice my american accent.

apparently it's ok if you're in the military too and travel regularly between countries
looks like dp needs a career change

OP posts:

aswellasyou · 18/08/2011 18:10

Perhaps one of your children could become a US Air Force pilot.

whenIgetto3 · 18/08/2011 18:16

Thisis no it isn't OK we couldn't bring our seats from America over here as they are not kite marked, my DH is military. I also know that the US service personnel are also told they have to get new car seats when coming to Europe and that they should leave their US ones in storage (as we did with the UK ones when in the US).

Aswell yes I know was joking, although we could have been done apparently as we do have UK car seats they were just with all our household goods in storage

If you are needing to fit 3 across the back of a car we could do this with our Recaro starts.

Original poster

thisisyesterday · 18/08/2011 18:25

no, i have 3 across the back already. that isn't the problem. i want something that harnesses higher than 18kg (but not another 2 way elite)

OP posts:

SnapesOnAPlane · 18/08/2011 18:31

that seat linked to in your OP is actually sold at halfords if I'm not much mistaken?
I've seen it somewhere... let me look

SnapesOnAPlane · 18/08/2011 18:34

Yy, was mistaken, I think it's a different seat.
Same cow print though :o
www.kiddicare.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/productdisplayA_51_10751_-1_14569_119317_10001_14568

EldonAve · 18/08/2011 18:37

Not legal as they don't have the EU approval marks
However we have used our US Brtiax roundabout for almost 6 years without any issues

BertieBotts · 18/08/2011 18:37

It's the regulations that UK seats have to fit into specific categories, isn't it. US seats don't - manufacturers can set whatever limits they care to test to, if they want.

EldonAve · 18/08/2011 18:38

Latch is the same as isofix so the fitting is universal

EldonAve · 18/08/2011 18:39

Do the Swedish not have a seat that harnesses above 18 kg?

TruthSweet · 18/08/2011 22:44

I like the look of the Radians but the SuperLatch has some issues including a few coming undone without warning (latch is the US version of ISOFix and normally goes to 40lbs - SL goes to 80lbs).

So if they were legal (and they were belt installed) I would chose this in Primrose for DD3, this in Petal for DD1 and this in Flora for DD2 (she's not so girly-girly). Though I would only use them ffing once DD2 & DD3 have out grown rfing as their current seats go to 55lbs/25kg.

I do quite like the Livia option TBH as well.

whenIgetto3 · 19/08/2011 09:30

To be honest I didn't think the US latch system was as good as the UK ISOFix, the seats we had the latch was on a webbing belt (don't think the fixed latch more like the UK had come out) and they were really hard to tighten up properly once you had latched them. I always used them in conjunction with the seat belt and was proved that this was safer after DH in a hurry quickly just latched DDs seat into his car to take her to ER as she had cut her face, when he went round the corner into the ER carpark, obviously he was in a hurry with his baby princess screaming etc, the car seat slid on the latch system and toppled over and off the seat, poor DD was left strapped in seat but lying sideways on the floor. Way to make bad situation worse. Did make him realise that he needed to use the belt as well though

Original poster

thisisyesterday · 19/08/2011 11:11

eldon only the britax 2 way elite, but even that only goes up to 25kg.

it's kind of wide so i don't think we'd fit 2 in side by side and ds2 will need it once he outgrows his besafe! argh!

OP posts:

TruthSweet · 19/08/2011 17:08

I thought Latch/seat belt installation was an either/or situation as if you can't get a good install with Latch you should use seat belt installation and vise versa.

Using both can put strain on the car seat in ways that it hasn't been designed for or to quote this:-

"Using lower LATCH anchors plus the vehicle seatbelt to install the child restraint is either untested by the manufacturer and thus not recommended (who wants their child to be the test case, KWIM?), or it has been tested and caused the child restraint to transfer more crash forces to the child and adversely affect the protective performance. Use one or the other allowed installation method (seatbelt in center, or LATCH or seatbelt outboard in the case of your vehicles which don't allow center lower LATCH installations) in accordance with both the vehicle and child restraint manuals, and you're assured to have done the utmost to protect your child in a crash."

Did you mean the top tether rather than the seat belt? That is recommended for ffing seats in conjunction with Latch to stabilise the seat.

whenIgetto3 · 19/08/2011 18:52

no our britax stated in the manual that for a more secure fix you should use the seat belt as well as the latch system, was even one of the several sets of diagrams down the side of the seat. To be honest I did not like the seat at all but we had no choice in the one we brought as they were brought for us ready for when we arrived and with 4DC I couldn't complain. The top tether was on but as he had thrown it in quickly I don't think he did it up too tight so as the seat slipped sideways the tension of the seat made the tether belt go longer hence the seat slipping off. Very bad design coupled with an emergency situation where seat was thrown in car quickly, the ER was only a block away from our house, and a panicking DH who had a 3year old with blood pouring out of face having been tasked with looking after her for 10 mins whilst I ran the others to their friends house.

TruthSweet · 19/08/2011 19:27

Ah, in that case it had been tested and approved (as it was in the manual). It's car seats that say not to use sb/latch installs that could be dangerous if you do both.

Hope your DD was okay - it sounds like a scary situation.

whenIgetto3 · 19/08/2011 19:38

truthsweet she was fine, although DH didn't want to admit the entire story straight away (think he thought I would be cross with him). It did however make me realise that our ISOFix are better than latch ;)

moonbells · 01/09/2011 09:48

OK just did some digging, with interesting results.

Safety Standards : ECE R44.03 and ECE R44.04

Child restraints (baby seats, child seats, booster seats and booster cushions) sold in the UK must conform to the United Nations ECE Regulation R44.03 or later standard (R44.04).

(Child restraints that conform to a British Standard or to an earlier version of R44, may continue to be used, although as these will now be several years old, parents should consider replacing them with a seat that conforms to R44.03 or R44.04).

The standard, ECE R44.04, was introduced at the end of June 2005, and all new child car seats had to meet this standard from the end of June 2006.

All Radians meet this United Nations standard, and I therefore (as a non-legal person!!) read this as they are legal in the EU. If any legal bod would like to comment, that would be useful!

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