Car Seat Mega Thread! Please post all your car seat questions here!

As an alternative you could try a Kiddy car seat:



http://www.kiddy.de/en/childrens-car-seats/9months-12years/kiddy-guardian-pro-2.html

These are suitable up to 36kg/12 years of age & use an alternative system to the 5 point harness.

I have one I picked up new on Ebay for €180 (the same can be almost €1oo more in the shops here :eek:) & have been using it since my daughter was 18 months.

Edit to add: I just seen the place January recommended you contact sell these also:
http://www.incarsafetycentre.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/232?osCsid=u5l7vddug2hj3fno82n6fsmjo2

Britax two way elite 5 point harness till 25kgs.

I'm considering this one myself but haven't decided yet.

http://www.incarsafetycentre.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/30/products_id/46

I'm not convinced by the Kiddy - it has very good reviews on Which but I have read user reviews online saying that children wriggle out of the seat belt really easily.

Also, I contacted the incarsafetycentre about our problem, (we ideally want an extended rear facing car seat with isofix but without a support leg as our car has underfloor storage) and they got back to me straight away, so while I haven't actually purchased from them yet their customer service certainly seems excellent so I can recommend them from that point of view anyway.

caprilicious wrote: »

I read that too prior to buying the seat, though unless it's a different model I really don't understand how
Please God I won't ever find out either!
Thankfully despite having the worlds wriggliest 2 year old she hasn't managed to escape from it so far

Yeah I don't quite get it, but we do a lot of driving and cover a lot of distance so I'd still rather have a rear facer. My brother was given a Kiddy second hand by relatives in France and it does look good, but by the time I get his opinion on it I'll already have committed to another car seat for my son. He's just over a year now and nearly out of the baby Britax.

Luella Few Gang wrote: »

Mods ..Would it be worth having a sticky for to list the car seats we have. We found this on another forum with the offer of going to look at peoples seats to help in the decision making.It really helped us avoid certain ERFs as shops didnt stock all makes.

Good idea....Not only do a lot not stock them, but as I found in a local toy store that sells car seats they're not aware of the existence of extended rear facing seats either.
when I queried them I was told "There's no such thing" :rolleyes:

^^^ saw that too, a few shops here have it, but reviews say the material leads to sweating where as the Kiddy has breathable material?

Right, trying a "let's cut the bull" boards thread here to get some real-world opinions rather than politically correct ones.

As a soon to be new parent, like the majority of other parents I've taken a delivery of a maxi-cosi car seat and base.

I realised early on that what should be a very straightforward thing is in fact ridiculously complicated.

I have a stereotypical family car, a Renault Scenic. Isofix on the rear seats. Awesome, an isofix base clicks in and it's fine, right? Apparently not. The salesman tells us, "Oh no, the Renault scenic has a false floor (i.e. underfloor storage) which isn't safe with the base". This seems logical because the base has a foot which takes some of the force in an impact. If that's sitting on the lid of the storage compartment, it could break through it.
Consult the maxi-cosi website and it appears to confirm that you can't install this. Except that when you dig deeper, it simply seems that maxi-cosi just haven't tested it. They won't say it's unsafe, but they won't say it's safe either.
I would have gone along with this, except that the lids of the storage compartments are strong, and massively reinforced. The salesman also told us that, "If the leg of the base reaches to the floor of the compartment (i.e. open the lid), then you're fine". Except that the floor of the storage compartment isn't solid at all, it's just some felt carpetting over a hollow space. It would be safer on the lid.
So bull****-senses tingling, I investigate some more and contact Renault. They pretty much ignore any question I have about the storage compartments, but instead send on a list of recommended car seats. All Graco, and lo and behold the car seat bases have legs and recommend that you can place it using one of the seats that have the underfloor storage. So if it's OK for one manufacturer, it has to be OK for another.

I can't be the only one who's had to deal with this. I was checking the status of most other family cars and it actually looks like they almost all have this underfloor storage which is allegedly unsafe with a car seat base. I'm inclined to think that it's all hand-wringing nonsense to avoid being sued. Can anyone shed any further light on it?

The second part is actually on the verge of making me angry. Resigned to the fact that I can't put the base in the back, I was happy that it was perfectly safe to install in the front passenger seat, rear-facing, airbag switched off.
"Well, there is a chance that the airbag will deploy, even if it's switched off. And the government are planning on giving you penalty points for putting kids in the front at all. And you'll have to check with your insurance company, lots of them will cancel your policy if you switch off the airbag". Wait, what? That doesn't sound right.

At a course with a midwife a few weeks after that, she practically said the same things - "Some airbags deploy even if they're not switched off, and sure isn't Leo Varadkar now going to give you point for carrying your baby seat in the front? And if you switch off an airbag, you'll invalidate your insurance".

I googled it. There has never once been a single incident reported of a deactivated airbag deploying in a crash and causing an injury to an adult or a child. And no, Leo Varadkar is not planning on giving you penalty points for carrying car seats in the front.

Seriously, what is up with all the scaremongering? And I have never once read an insurance policy which will invalidate your insurance if you switch the airbag off using the manufacturer's switch.

In any case, my wife has already decided that the car seat base is going in her car, in the back, rather than in mine. Because apparently my car which si rated one of the safest family cars on the road is suddenly a death trap when you include an isofix base.

I definitely can't be the only one who's heard all this.

</rant>

if you're in dublin i cant recommend tonykealys enough, and its great to be able to call up if you're worried about the seat at all.

We have a Britax Hi-Way. It's great; smally loves it and it's easy to fit once you're used to it. Choose it over the Be Safe and others as our cars don't have isofix. Got it from Sweden; couldn't recommend carseat.se highly enough - checked suitability for each of our cars for us as they're too old to be listed in the Britax guide. Will be getting another as soon as the next one is ready for it.

liliq wrote: »

LilMrsDahamsta wrote: »

We have a Britax Hi-Way. It's great; smally loves it and it's easy to fit once you're used to it. Choose it over the Be Safe and others as our cars don't have isofix. Got it from Sweden; couldn't recommend carseat.se highly enough - checked suitability for each of our cars for us as they're too old to be listed in the Britax guide. Will be getting another as soon as the next one is ready for it.

The britax is a lot neater than the isofix ones i think. that's the only prob i have with the izi combi, it's huge.

I wouldn't be too sure about that. We got yer one in Tony Keeley's in Cork to show us the isofix izi as the didn't have the non-isofix one, and they seemed pretty similar size-wise. Certainly the front seats can't go back nearly as far as was possible pre-Hi-Way. Doesn't bother me, but the other half has had to change driving position.

liliq wrote: »

Maybe I'm thinking of another one! There is one non isofix one that is neater.. I think. I still have baby brain a year on, so it's definitely possible that I'm dreaming!

Maybe the Graco Duologic 2? Though that is both isofix and non-isofix and it comes in two parts so the infant seat can be clipped in and out quickly regardless of whether it's isofix or seatbelt. It's meant to be one of the most compact ERF seats on the market, IIRC.

We've decided on that one for a number of reasons. It passed the Swedish Plus test, it can go in just about any car due to it's size and seatbelt and isofix options. The infant seat can be taken out easily and even used without the main frame in another car, so it's handy if you are getting a lift with someone else or need to take a taxi. And while it wasn't a consideration in our choosing it, the fact that the infant seat has wheels and an extendible handle to pull it along with may prove useful at some point, especially as we'll be moving home by car and ferry at some point in baby's early weeks.

Luella Few Gang wrote: »

The difference with the duologic and the besafe is that the headrest in the duologic doesnt adjust and its not forward facing.
the besafe has an adjustable headrest which is important as kids grow:D and its also forward facing when that time comes.

But the Duologic is never meant to be forward facing, it's rear facing until 18kg, roughly 4 years of age, which is the only way I want my child to face for many years. Our plan is to use the duologic on this baby as long as possible and when we have a second baby get a seat that goes to 25kg rear facing, move the older baby into that. I'm intent on keeping this child and any future child(ren) rear facing until 5-6 as that's the safest way for them to be turned.

Luella Few Gang wrote: »

the besafe is both rear and forward facing.
the duologic is only rear facing.

Which is the only way I want it to face.

wmpdd3 wrote: »

WOW what a brilliant seat? Where did you buy yours, ie is it available in Ireland?

I ordered mine through carseat.se, as it was the lowest price I could find for that seat, but as far as I know incarsafety in Belfast does them too. For some reason they are called the OY Kilppan Kiss 2 in the UK market but they are the same seat.

Your cousin is wrong. When installed correctly, the car seat should never come into contact with the back of the seat in front of it, so it's irrelevant.

He might be getting confused with the older middle two-point seat belts which make it impossible to fit a car seat. If the middle seat is ISOFIX and/or has a 3-point belt, then it's legal.

its not illegal at all or to do with the car seat manufacturers its actually the safest place in the car as side impacts will not hit the seat directly. The manufacturer only doesnt recomend it if rearfacing the car seat touches the front seats. Also here they recommend you put the child with the least protection in the centre seat.

Many people think its illegal due to when you couldn't install a car seat with a lap belt only but most seats can work around that now. I'm buying my next seat based on whether it can fit in the centre or not. We are also getting one that rearfaces to 45lbs and then can be used ff until 65lbs.

for the boosters some seats need the headrest so they would probably need to go in a side seat.