How do you feel about useing a homemade cover on a carseat?

I guess this is along the lines of things I havn't really thought about (like seat protectors). In my area it is very popular to get a carseat cover made. I was wondering is that safe or not?

I love the IDEA of it, but unfortunately it will void your carseat warranty and if it were to fail in a crash, you'd be out of luck as far as seeking damages from the company.

An aftermarket carseat cover is the same as any other aftermarket product that can be added to a carseat (infant headrests, strap covers, Bundle Me, etc.). There's no way to know how it will affect the performance of the seat during a crash because it has not been tested with the seat, so it's not worth doing.

Carseat covers are also treated to be flame retardant, homemade covers are not (though personally, that's not a big enough reason for me NOT to use one; the other reasons are).

http://cpsafety.com/articles/AftMarketMan.aspx

Thanks, its just one of those things I have never thought about. I myself buy Britax and they are already cute. Its amazing how easy it is to make carseats unsafe. You HAVE to do it just right. I think I learn something new every day.

A replacement for the cover made by the manufacturer -- no....

A fancy cover to put over the entire carseat to block nature's elements -- yes!!!

I would love to find someone who makes the kind for infant seats but BIGGER for FF carseats, too (to block sunlight). I know a towel is just fine, but it's not as fashionable (to use Leila's favorite new word, LOL)

Tiffany- I have to think that wouldnt be too hard to make. Just something to slip over that has elastic around it... You certainly wouldnt leave it on while in use... I may play around this weekend- if I'm still pregnant... I'll have to dig out our convertible for sizing.... I would think just one layer of thinner material would work- dont you think?

I don't think there is any danger to it, and I would likely do it if I had the skills to do so. Britax doesn't make a cover for our seat that is acceptable for our son. We've gotten by in the past but I am seriously worried about this summer. Depending on if I could find one that would work for us, I would seriously consider using it. Made to the same specifications, it's not going to affect performance of the car seat (let's be honest, folks, it's not. Neither would thin strap covers). I personally don't care about it being flame retardant because if my car is ON FIRE my child is not going to be in it anyway, if I can help it. And again if my car is ON FIRE and my child is IN my car, then whether or not his car seat is flame retardant is not going to matter much.
I'm not overly concerned about not seeking damages from the company in event of seat failure. If the seats fails to do what it's supposed to, then they are liable, period. And if people really think that they're going to get off the hook because someone replaced the cover on the seat with another cover of the exact same pattern and thickness as the original, then they've never met a trial attorney or a 12 person jury.

That said, I would not recommend it for most people for the plain and simple reason that it's not important. For us, it might be very important (health wise, nothing to do with fashion) and there is no reason to cause yourself extra headache. That and I think wasting money on something like that just to be foofy is stupid. But I don't think it's dangerous in the slightest, as long as you use the same pattern and thickness.

fwiw, the flame retardancy is important. There was a report a while back of the sun reflecting off a mirror or something in the back of a car and starting a very small fire. The fire retardancy of the car seat prevented it from becoming a real tragedy. I'm trying to find the link but can't at the moment....

edit: Found the link:
http://forums.delphiforums.com/Carseats/messages?msg=7772.1

Splash- do you mean charlie needs a cotton cover or something? They do make cotton cover, just not for the BV

And WEIRD about the fire!!!

Yeah, they do make a cotton cover. The one we have is freedom I think, the flag looking one.

Yeah, they make cotton, but not for the BV. I've thought about buying a denim MA cover and cutting it up, and it might come to that. Although if I were *really* nice, maybe I could convince someone at Britax just to run some denim through the BV cutter? Hmm... nah, probably not.
We'll see. The Onyx one is actually okay, because of the nylon in the middle. The Brownstone one is the one I'm concerned about. Although by summer he'll be FF, so it should lessen the problem a bit in my car (she has air vents in the ceiling above his head, so it won't really matter in that car if he is RF or FF.

Thats actually a problem we ran into last summer with my son. It didn't seem so bad in the winter. The couple of weeks my daughter was in the DC she overheated even though it was winter. I think we are going to get a Onyx cover for hers when she moves into it. Maybe that will help.

I have a thin cotton cover I made for my WZ when it sits in the Jeep with the top off (and no child.) We were using a towel, but if DH took it somewhere he didn't keep the towel on when he stopped and sometimes the towel would blow off when it was parked leaving DD a very hot seat to climb back into. I wanted the seat to stay cleaner, not fade, and not be hot for DD.

I have fabric to make a matching one for DDs RYS for this summer since the baby will be using the WZ. It took about 30 minutes to make.
i have a photo somewhere...