Car seats don't degrade?

I read this from Adventuredad elsewhere and he seems to be pretty knowledgeable on car seats. I didn't believe it, but now I've read this info elsewhere: in a cpst newsletter. The article on the Right Fit quotes this from an email from Evenflo

“Some child restraint manufacturers
began marking some of their products
with a ‘do not use after’ date about eight
years ago. The purpose of this was to
reduce the use of second-hand seats with
missing or broken parts and to ensure
that the seats that are being used meet
the latest safety standards. The “do not
use after” date is not in place because the
material can degrade over time."

http://www.extension.caes.uga.edu/gtipi/pdffiles/TECHTALKVol3No1.pdf

So, if you know the history of your car seat and get some new straps, it would be safe to use past expiration?

Some have referenced that Britax video with the straps pulling out, but TC has been able to replicate that with current Britax seats.

What is right?

It is not safe and not legal to use an expired car seat. Plastics do degrade.

A poster on another board was describing how she spoke to Britax UK and they stated that their products have no expiration date... I plan to call, myself, and see if I get the same response. Whenever I get around to it.

Additionally, my uncle is a chemist- specifically, he works with plastics- and he states unequivocally that the types of injection molded plastic used in child restraints does not degrade significantly in the 5 - 8 year period that these seats are being stamped with.

Honestly, while I do not plan to use expired car seats, I would like an intelligent explanation of why relatively reputable authorities are disagreeing with the CPST party line of plastics degrading, unsafe in a crash, etc. If plastic degrading is not really central to the issue, it is not necessarily helping to continue putting it out there as a major argument to trash expired seats. Protecting against misuse and secondhand seats makes a great deal of sense, however.

I'm not sure. The head of engineering at Evenflo presented at a conference I attended last month. He said the same thing. The expiration date is based on technology changes, safety advances, and that they probably aren't properly cared for (missing pieces and such). :shrug-shoulders:

Anecdota do not equal evidence, however, this is what I have observed with my own two eyes.


Older seats tend to have a number of stress marks in them, and 'weak spots' in them, that you don't see until the seat is 8 or 9 years old.

Last month I pulled out a car seat with DOM of 2000 out of a car (with the intention of replacing it of course) and tossed it into our pile of taken seats.

While I did chuck it, I did not 'throw' it with any degree of force, nor did it travel very far. When it hit the pavement, the base split clear across the side.

We also have, of course, the video of the 10 year old Roundabout failing mightily in in impact.

These are all singular observations, and not scientific data to any degree, but they are certainly enough to convince me that the plastic does, in fact, degrade.

The poster mentioned above perhaps has his own agenda, and I would keep that in mind when he makes blanket statements.

I believe Papooses once told us about the "shelf life" of different plastics that are used for prosthetics. I will see if I can dig that up for you. (Okay, can't find it right now, but maybe later. Good information to have.)

I agree that plastic degredation is not the ONLY reason for expiration dates-- but I think it is probably a component of why, if you take everything together.

ketchupqueen said:

I agree that plastic degredation is not the ONLY reason for expiration dates-- but I think it is probably a component of why, if you take everything together.

Click to expand...

Yep.
Although, I will say - I have always believed that manufacturers pad their expiration dates considerably..there is no reason for them NOT to. Why take the chance?? It doesn't benefit them at all, and could be disastrous. Which is why i don't freak out over *slightly* pushing the dates, although i would never recommend that, of course.

I took an update class last summer and was told that at KIM (or maybe it was another one of the conferences) they were told by manufacturers that seats do NOT expire because of plastic degrading and that we should stop telling parents that. Seats expire for all the other reasons. Lost parts, stickers, updates in technology, etc. That is not to say that plastic doesn't degrade and get stress marks, etc. but from what I learned, that is not the reason for seats expiring.

ETA - I would not use a seat past expiration, even if I owned it from day 1. I think by the 6 year mark most seats have had their day in the sun and imo it's just not worth the risk.

Oh, I'm absolutely sure they do. OTOH, I'm pretty sure that no matter what heat/cold testing they do it can't REALLY compare to the temperature extremes some seats really go through!

I won't do it anyway because... really... how do you test that? Sure, you can expose it to heat, cold, dirt, humidity, whatever. But that still doesn't make TIME pass faster. I wish there was somewhere you could take your old(er) seats and have them check the density/brittleness etc of the pastic... to see how strong it still is, etc.

Keep in mind fabric wears down after time too.... my clothes from six years ago look... bad... :ROTFLMAO: and that harness is technically fabric... and a lot of the time you won't be able to find replacement harnesses for discontinued seats.

I have been told German seats have a 10 yr experation...

I called Britax about 4 years ago to ask how long until booster seats expire. The woman told me they were good for 10 years. Would anybody personally feel okay using a Britax booster at all past the expiration date? Or 6 years from manufacture? If so, how long?

I would go by the expiration published in the manual. For Britax, that's 6 years, except the Frontier.

Britax's CS reps have been known to say things that were, you know, untrue.

I think we should follow recommendations from manufacturers. BUT.... Nothing happens to car seats after 6 years. Contrary to popular belief the plastic DOES NOT degrade (at least not for a very long time). There is no problem using a car seat for 10, 15 or 20 years. There was an article in NY Times a while back talking about the same thing.

The Swedes are as you know quite serious about car seat safety and car seats here don't expire. There are no expiration dates at all. Curious to know is that the base for the roundabout is exactly the same as Britax Hi-Way (even has the sticker from Roundabout on it).

Recommendation is here to not use infant seats longer than 5 years and rear facing seats no longer than 10 years. This has nothing to do with plastic degrading. Nothing will happen to the plastic for at least 15-20 years, probably even far longer.

After some years it might be difficult to know history of the seat and what it has been through. Manuals might get lost and be difficult to replace. Spare parts might also be hard to find after some years since seats can be discontinued.

I'm in close contact with the different manufacturers and people who have been responsible for developing seats and have unbelievable technical knowledge. Degrading plastic is not something which come up when discussing car seat safety.

There is an enormous amount of margin built into car seats. That concerns plastic, harnesses, etc. Most people have no idea of just how much they can handle.

Again, please follow recommendations from manufacturers but don't believe plastic in a car seat falls apart after 6 years.....

I am going to disagree that the seats don't expire! I have personally seen fractures in the seats, breaks, ect. from seats that are only 2-3 years past expiration let along 10-15 years past expiration!

I just yanked a seat from my parents attic a year ago and when I grabbed it the entire side of the seat fell off. That seat was only 6 years past expiration. Would it be safe? Not at all. BTW: their attic is climate controlled so no excessive heat or cold.

I grabbed an infant seat from my friends house to take it down to the fire department (they like using the jaws of life for practice on things) and flipped the seat over. I was checking for the expiration date and I know I saw those straps attached in the back. When I picked the seat up I had my hands full and the handle wasn't up. I grabbed the seat by the straps (because it was being thrown away anyways) and the straps ripped through the seat! This seat was only 3 years past expiration!

I would go by what the manufacturer says! There is no way to know by visibly looking at a seat if it's going to be the seat that lasts longer and *might* work or if it's the one who's straps will rip out of the seat and eject the child!

This seat was about 10 years old when Strollerfreak whacked it with a hammer (with MUCH less force than a child in a crash would have exerted on it)... http://strollerfreak.itgo.com/carseats/Confiscated1995EvenfloScout.jpg
Did the plastic get that weak that day? Or was it that weak at 6, 7, 8 years? Who wants to put their kid in it to find out? Try hitting a non-expired seat with a hammer, and the only thing that will happen is that it bounces back at you

Anyway... carseat.org talks about expiration dates... http://www.carseat.org/Technical/tech_update.htm#expdate

"Expiration date
In the last few years, CR manufacturers have been putting "expiration dates" on their products. This was begun in response to infant deaths from air bags. The companies realized that they had millions of products in use that said nothing about the danger to a rear-facing child. The concern became one that "best practice" and regulations change over time, so that a child restraint becomes "obsolete" and less effective than a new product, much the same way that medicines may change or become less effective after some time has passed. A current example would be with tethers--older CRs do not have them, and this is potentially a situation where a newer product will be more effective than an older one.
Taken at face value, the expiration interval (ranging from 5 to 8 years, depending on the manufacturer) is from the date of manufacture, which is what governs the labeling, certification, and other rules that apply. Whether to continue to use an "expired" CR is a judgment call, depending on the alternatives. It will work as well as before, but it is important to know what regulations and warnings may have changed and the risks involved. It is also important to take the expiration date into account when purchasing a CR that may have been manufactured several months or even a year or more before"