Destroying a car seat (bwa ha ha haaa!)

We're going to be buying new car seats for both of my kids soon, because one seat is almost expired and the other one has energy-absorbing foam chunks that have become detached.

Once we get our new car seats, I think we're going to need to completely disable the old ones before we chuck them, to make sure nobody sees them beside the trash can and thinks, “Hey! Free car seats! Score!”

So, how do we do that? Do we just take a hammer to them or something, or is there a specific (but perhaps less primally satisfying) method?

At my house, destroying carseats is considered positively-directed destruction. I encourage the kids to get creative. (Keep in mind, my youngest is 10; I wouldn't recommend this with younger kids.) They've tried throwing them at trees and rocks, throwing rocks at the seats, dropping the seats from the treehouse, dropping the seats from the treehouse onto rocks, and dropping rocks from the treehouse onto the seats. (That last one worked best.)

We've also tried mallets, axes, and shovels. Which works best depends on the type of seat, but the axe is pretty all-around effective. :thumbsup:

Pull off the cover (if they're in good shape you can keep them). Cut the straps. Cut everything you can. Then destroy the shell as best you can. A hammer will take a while. You'll get a LOT of frustration out. Possibly faster would be power tools. If you can't, just destroy it as much as possible, and write, "DO NOT USE, UNSAFE, CRASHED, RECALLED, DEAD BABY," whatever you need to on the shell, to get the point across. If you have a large non-English population, aim for the biggest language as well. I wrote, "NO USAR," on mine. And drew pictures of dead babies.

Throw the shell out in a trash bag, and put it IN your trash bin. Anything extra, that can go outside of the bin. But that will at least keep the most likely away from eyes.

Don't run over the shell with your car. You'll scratch up the driveway and not hurt the seat.

Wendy

Thanks! Now I'm chomping at the bit to get the new seats . . . just so the games can begin.

wendytthomas said:

Pull off the cover (if they're in good shape you can keep them). Cut the straps. Cut everything you can. Then destroy the shell as best you can. A hammer will take a while. You'll get a LOT of frustration out. Possibly faster would be power tools. If you can't, just destroy it as much as possible, and write, "DO NOT USE, UNSAFE, CRASHED, RECALLED, DEAD BABY," whatever you need to on the shell, to get the point across. If you have a large non-English population, aim for the biggest language as well. I wrote, "NO USAR," on mine. And drew pictures of dead babies.

Throw the shell out in a trash bag, and put it IN your trash bin. Anything extra, that can go outside of the bin. But that will at least keep the most likely away from eyes.

Don't run over the shell with your car. You'll scratch up the driveway and not hurt the seat.

Wendy

Click to expand...

:ROTFLMAO::ROTFLMAO::ROTFLMAO:

and maybe fill the same trash bag w/dirty diapers or something gross smelling!

We used an ax on our infant seat that was expired! IT was a blast to watch! I should have taken pictures! hahaha We have two triumphs that expire in Feb and I'll be sure to take pics of that!

is there not a car seat recycling program near you?

I've always thought it would be fun to do your own low-budget crash test with a used-up seat. My best idea so far goes something like this:

1) Find something expendable to crash into (lean some scrap lumber up against a tree?)
2) Strap carseat to a "car" (maybe a shipping pallet? add some bricks to keep the weight low?)
3) lay down pipes in the back of a pickup truck for rollers.
4) strap "child" in carseat (not sure what a good crash test dummy would be - any ideas?)
5) Put carseat, car, & crash test dummy in pickup bed on top of rollers. Leave tailgate down.
6) Start video camera
7) Drive pickup in reverse, tailgate down towards crash target
8) Slam on the brakes soon enough to not have a real crash.

Alternative:
If you already have a zipline or want an excuse to make one, that might actually be a more repeatable way to get your "car" moving. Then you could stop it by tying a rope to the "car" that will jerk it to a stop when it's pulled tight.

Alternative #2:
"car" on the end of a long rope swing. Stop with a couple ropes just like the zipline.

I must have watched too much Mythbusters. This is starting to sound like something they'd do.

I took one to my dad and he had a blast. Sawzall and dad meets car seat. We removed all the metal like screws cause he loves to reuse screws. Then the old OHS carseat(Evenflo Ultara) was in pieces in a 13 gallon garbage bag.

I've never had the chance to demolish a seat yet lol Sound like fun!