do car seats expire that weren't left in a car

WastingTime

Fri, Nov 04 2011, 4:44 am

am I totally crazy if I buy a used car seat that was never left in a car, but is already 4 yrs old (and im not sure when manufactured). the person selling it doesn't have a car and therefore it was in the house and not exposed to the extreme heat of a car.
its either buying a good quality second hand, or a cheap brand new. part of me feels that in terms of safety it may not be any different. (please do not respond how im a terrible mother and you're going to call social services bc im thinking of buying an old car seat, I know its not the "safest", but thats not what im asking!)
do car seats expire slower if they are not left in a car????

IloveHashem613

Fri, Nov 04 2011, 8:03 am

racz wrote:

the car seat lady also has a website you can e-mail them. She always told me 5 years, the plastic doesn't hold up past 5 years sometimes 6 years.

yes that is true, the reason car seats expire is because the stuff they are made of (don't know what its called but the frame that protects the child) rots after about 6 years and renders the carseat useless in a crash. I dont think it has anything to do with sitting in a car or not but worth asking.

chatouli

Fri, Nov 04 2011, 9:31 am

The straps fly out of the seat. The plastic that holds them in becomes brittle and weak and isn't effective in a car accident. No one said it would decompose like a paper cup. But if you think it's a marketing ploy to get people to spend more money unnecessarily, by all means use car seats past their expiration date. Also, feed your toddler hot dogs without cutting them up into small pieces, leave him unattended in a shopping cart or sitting on your kitchen counter, etc. It'll probably be fine. I will be replacing car seats when they expire. Babies R Us has trade-ins regularly when you can get a discount on a new car seat by bringing in an old one.

Ema of 5

Fri, Nov 04 2011, 9:38 am

chatouli wrote:

speaking of that, do you ny any chance know when the next one will be? the last one was in sept.....

chatouli

Fri, Nov 04 2011, 9:42 am

akivachaya wrote:

chatouli wrote:

speaking of that, do you ny any chance know when the next one will be? the last one was in sept.....

Last year there was one in January/February too so hopefully this year it will be the same...but I'm just guessing. I couldn't find a definite answer either.

Ema of 5

Fri, Nov 04 2011, 9:48 am

chatouli wrote:

akivachaya wrote:

chatouli wrote:

speaking of that, do you ny any chance know when the next one will be? the last one was in sept.....

Last year there was one in January/February too so hopefully this year it will be the same...but I'm just guessing. I couldn't find a definite answer either.

thanks!! thats what im hoping Smile

SplitPea

Fri, Nov 04 2011, 10:00 am

akivachaya wrote:

chatouli wrote:

speaking of that, do you ny any chance know when the next one will be? the last one was in sept.....

543

thse sales are good but if you shop online you can get the same thing on amazon when its on sale for sooo much cheaper. we just a britaz b ready shipped from amazon for 128 total! Smile

seeker

Fri, Nov 04 2011, 12:58 pm

1. Car seats generally have an expiration date stamped onto the back or bottom of the plastic shell (on the outside). Check it out to find out how much time you have left. If it's an infant seat that your kid will grow out of in a year or so, it might not matter to you whether it will expire in 3 or 5 years. The date is typically around 7 years after the manufacture date.

2. While it does make sense that a stored seat might not degrade as fast as one kept in a car, there's no real way to measure that so better just follow the manufacturer's recommendation.

3. All car seats sold in the US need to meet the same safety criteria. The differences in price will be due to comfort and other features that may make it easier to use. Bear in mind that the easier it is to use correctly, the safer it is. But there's no evidence that paying more achieves this. I find that the $100 car seats have more padding and features than the $50 ones, but beyond that it levels out a bit.

4. BRU tends to be overpriced so much that the 25% off from trade in won't even help that much - you can only use it on regular price. From now until the end of the year you can find a lot of great deals on clearance online, they're clearing out this year's seats before next year's stock comes out - notice I say THIS year's, not last year's, they still have plenty of life left!

5. For those who are making fun of the degrading plastic, bear in mind that the seats have to be able to withstand tremendous impacts. I'm no physicist but imagine the force of a car crash at highway speed and consider that this piece of plastic and foam is the only thing between your baby and that amount of force. You want it as strong as they come!

WastingTime

Sat, Nov 05 2011, 2:38 pm

chatouli wrote:

OP here. maybe you didn't read my post, but I wasn't looking for comments about how ppl like to kill their kids with whole hot dogs (although unfortunately the cut up hot dogs contain the same amount of nitrates and junk) or whatever else. nor was my intention to be completely negligent. or I wouldnt bother with the post (or maybe with a car seat etiher, you could always just lie them down on the seat I guess?) and by the way, where I live ppl often leave kids alone in a shopping cart for a minute or two to get something. which brings me to my next point, that not everyone lives near a babyr us, or can have things shipped to them bc they dont live in the US (how could that be!???) but in a little tiny country called Israel. so I would leave my kid in a shopping cart, and I would consider buying a used car seat that sat in someone's house for 4 yrs. ALL I was wondering is the manufacturer's expiration date make a difference if teh carseat is sitting in the car or in the house, bc to me it seems like it would make a difference and aditionally if a better quality car seat is safer than a cheap one. hey, if you wanna sponsor me with a good car seat then be my guest, I would love to get one!
on a last note, no matter if we buy a rolls royce car seat that still has a good date on it, it may be a hishtadlus, but nothing's up to us. Im not saying you should have bitachon without any hishtadlus, but davening's probably just as important as trading in your car seat. hashem should just keep us and all our kids safe!

anuta

Sat, Nov 05 2011, 9:54 pm

I am an engineer.
Plastic degrades, it becomes weaker with time. It is just the property of the material.
It doesn't matter if a carseat was used or not, or how it was stored. Plastic ages. This is not the marketing spin of carseat manufacturers; it is a fact. It is confirmed by testing.

I had to buy a new carseat for my baby, she is 6 years younger than my first, and I couldn't use my old infant carseat because of its age, even though it looked to be in a perfect condition.

Marion

Sun, Nov 06 2011, 1:30 am

According to Graco (who I called because I had a borderline seat with exactly this question), the way it's stored DOES make a difference. When we bought the infant seat/stroller for DS#1 (almost 6 years ago) we did NOT own a car. We did not have a car for another 2.3 years after that, and even then we bought a base so we could take the seat in and out easily. It was used for 9 months in such a fashion. When I was due with DS#3 I had about 9 months left before the seat expired and I wanted to know if the seat was safe to use. Graco told me YES, I could safely use the seat, until he outgrew it, even if it went slightly past the expiry date. They explained that the plastic does decompose, but the storage conditions DO affect how quickly that happens.