Disposing of used car seats

[GovernorMarley]

I have a Britax two way elite and a BeSafe Izi Kid which our youngest two have outgrown and am really torn/confused as to what to do with them. On the one hand it seems really wasteful to take them to the skip, but on the other I know that second hand seats are not recommended. To compound this the seats WERE involved in an accident earlier this year. As it was a sub 5mph shunt from stationary with no damage to the car we have continued to use them (the ROSPA website has some documentation which implies no airbag activation/no external damage is not likely to affect the safety of the seats).

Should I freecycle them with a clear note about the accident or just take them to the skip and be done with it? It seems massively unlikely to me that the seats are not perfectly safe and I hate waste. (BTW of course there would be no question of me letting anyone take them without all the information and if I do skip them I'll cut the straps/visibly damage....)

Your local fire station may take them for training scenarios.

Freecycle them with a note. It is unlikely that they are unsafe, but let the recipient decide. I have exactly the same situation with my car seat. I wouldn't sell it but would give it with full information about the (minor) accident it was in (and after which I continued to use it for a year).

I would take the car seats to the dump - sorry.

The plastic degrades with time. I realise it seems wasteful, but some risks just aren't worth taking. I don't understand how a morally decent person can consider selling or free cycling a car seat that has been in an accident. If those seats were in another accident it could result in loss of life.

I actually wouldn't consider the situation that the OP describes to warrant the description of 'accident' at least in relation to the car seat.

Mine was more so - was not at speed but there was considerable damage to the car (no one was hurt and my child was in the car seat at the time).

Those of you who buy car seats second hand, have you ever been in an accident with them? As in of course they are fine keeping a child strapped in for car journeys but will they fail in the event of an accident?
IMO I wouldn't wait to find out how they would perform in an accident.
I know it's wasteful but I'd get rid.

"The plastic degrades with time "

How much time? Is there any actual evidence for this? So are you saying a seat should be replaces every year or 2 years ? Even if in same car and no accidents ?

Sounds like marketing to me

That's the thing - it really was a very minor bump/shunt so it seems vanishingly unlikely to have damaged the seats. I think they'd have been more affected by bumps/jostles in transit before we bought them tbh. WRT the plastic degradation overtime - the older seat is 4 years old (Britax), the Be safe is only 2.5 years old. For the original cost it just seems so wasteful to dump them if someone else is potentially unable to afford ERF.

I might see if any family/friends could use them as spares etc. Of course there is no question of me letting anyone take them without all the info and I wouldn't ask anyone for money for them. Neither would I consider anything other than dumping them if I hadn't been prepared to carry on using for my own kids!!

Hmm. Thanks for the opinions.

The advice is not to use car seats that are over five years old.
It's regularly reported by which.
Seats that have been in cars during accidents should be discarded.

Britax seats do not have an expiry date - they specifically told me that in an email when I asked their advice about using one of their First Class seats that I had bought in 2006. This was in 2012, so the seat was 6 years old at that point, and I am still using it occasionally (still rear facing as DD2 has not yet reached 13kgs despite being over 3 1/2 years old now!).

On the one hand I would not buy a second hand car seat, but that's because we are fortunate enough to be able to afford new ones. On the other hand DD2 has a Britax Multi Tech II rear facing seat that we bought in 2013 when she was 11 months old and I fully intend to sell it if she ever grows out of it (it has a weight limit for RF of 25kgs, goodness only knows when DD2 will ever weigh that much!).

I would rather somebody had my perfectly good rear facing seat than spend £50 on a brand new but low-quality forward facing seat. Obviously I will take the seat straight to the tip if we ever have an accident, and I would hope that people will see that if I've been obsessed enough with car safety to keep my DD rear facing until she's 7 then I'm not going to be selling a dodgy seat.

I'm going to sell mine on ebay. As long as you are honest I really don't see the problem. I actually want a 2 way elite as a spare seat so you can sell it to me if you like!