How long car seats last

Is the lap part of the belt sitting across the child's hip bone and the diagonal part across the chest? It is preferable to use a highback booster until they are cms, just to be safe. Do not hesitate to get in touch with a member of our team if you have any more questions. Book a consultation with one of our expert car seat specialists today. We strive to provide comprehensive and authoritative advice, coupled with practical demonstration, in order to guide our customers in their selection of a child car seat, for both the child and vehicle s.

Subscribe to our newsletter if you want to stay up to date with any car seat updates, offers, new releases and brand new content we have. Advanced Search. Search Icon Created with Sketch. View Seat Range. By Type Extended Rear Facing.

Forward Facing. High Back Boosters. Instead, manufacturers have a recommended service life see below for each car seat model. All car seats must show an ECE approval sticker see example above to show that the seat has been tested and complies with the basic safety legal requirements. The sticker will also show you what Group the seat is tested for and the maximum weight it can be used up to.

Note that is not the date of purchase; it could have sat on the store shelf for months or longer. RideSafer vests currently have a year expiration date. All car seats must have a date of manufacturer on them. Most of the time this is on a sticker, often on the back of the shell. Sometimes the date is actually embossed on the shell of the car seat. Some car seat manufacturers also add a date of expiration on the sticker.

Others just have a length of time from the date of manufacture. If you are buying a car seat secondhand, which we do not recommend, be sure to look for the expiration date. It depends. That would technically be illegal. This is when car seat best practice and reality may not fit. In some situations the reality is a parent simply cannot afford a new car seat.

In this case is using an expired seat better than not using a car seat at all? Quite possibly. A car seat or booster seat that has expired should be permanently disposed of so it cannot be reused by any one else. This means cutting the harness straps and removing the padding prior to recycling the car seat or putting it in the trash. Copyright Safe Ride 4 Kids. All rights reserved. You may not publish, broadcast, rewrite or redistribute this material without permission.

You are welcome to link to Safe Ride 4 Kids or share on social media. Call any car seat manufacturer and ask them to provide you with any data or conducted study that supports why their expiration date is set to what it is. Or, show me any independent study, with actual, empirical data, that has provided any evidence that car seats are no longer effective beyond 6 years. Have you ever seen one? I have not. On the contrary, studies have been performed that show there is no noticeable difference in the effectiveness of a well maintained car seat beyond its expiration date.

Look at Sweden, for example, where car seats are used for many, many years, and they have one of the lowest child car accident death rates in the world. Their equivalent of the DOT has conducted studies showing no degradation of materials after 20 or even 30 years. Hi Ryan, As I mentioned in the article, if they have completed testing, car seat manufacturers have not and likely will not share those results as it would be considered proprietary information.

There is a link to a study that showed sunlight degrades the type of plastic often used in the article above. Often Sweden is credited for having such a low child car accident death rate because all parents keep their children rear-facing for an extended period. Their car seat manufacturers also have expiration dates on car seats. After all, your baby is the most precious cargo your vehicle will ever transport.

Is your child big enough for a booster seat? When deciding if your child is ready for a booster seat, height is more important than weight.

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