Carseats & Freecycle

[Emprexia]

Anyone got opinions on this?

My Freecycle group has just banned offers or requests for childrens carseats.. wondering what people thought.

It's a nuisance because we were going to ask for one (our old one is buggered).

I can see why - I just don't think that anyone would be ditzy enough to freecycle a damaged one. I've previously used 2nd hand ones from friends - especially with the back facing first ones, it's not like one baby wears them out.

They should be banned from freecycle.

You can't tell if a car-seat has been in a crash if the shell isn't actually cracked.
In a crash the seatbelts are loaded and will stretch (they are designed to), if this has already happened, and you won't be able to tell by looking, if they are loaded again they may fail and snap.

The same goes for the polystyrene, it can have been loaded without any visible signs, however on a second loading it will not behave as it was designed to do.

the other issue is that the seat covers (integral part of the design) and the belts can degrade over time, so it's not advisable to use older car seats as the fabric parts may have started to degrade.