I've been off the boards and out of the loop for quite awhile and was wondering whatever happened with Dorel and their crazy 45 deg seat angle lines? I have seen recent questions pop up on a facebook group about carseats and the dorel seats keep coming up. I was starting to almost like their seats when all that drama happened...now I don't know what to recommend to people for cheap, narrow, Rfing seats!
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Whatever happend with the Dorel 45 degree seat angle?
- Thread starter Chris
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momtotwogirls
New member
There new seats have come with dual recline lines. i think one is at 30 degrees and one at 45 but no structural changes with their seats.
An Aurora
Senior Community Member
It's not really 30 and 45 degrees; I measured the level line for a child below 22 pounds, and it was 49* (and the more upright position was 43*). You are to have the seat installed level to one line for a child under 22 pounds and can install level with the other line for children above 22lbs and able to sit independently.
Brigala
CPST Instructor
It's a little more complex than that.
Brand new (new designs) of seats are coming with two level lines. One line is at about 45 degrees and is for children under 22 lbs who aren't sitting unassisted. The other line is at about 30 degrees and is for kids over 22 lbs and sitting unassisted. Younger kids need the level line at the 45 degree angle. Older kids can use it at any recline angle between (and including) the two lines.
The new leveling instructions don't seem to have made a debut on the already-on-the-market seats yet. I have a complete air manufactured in January 2012 and it still has the single line on the side.
Brand new (new designs) of seats are coming with two level lines. One line is at about 45 degrees and is for children under 22 lbs who aren't sitting unassisted. The other line is at about 30 degrees and is for kids over 22 lbs and sitting unassisted. Younger kids need the level line at the 45 degree angle. Older kids can use it at any recline angle between (and including) the two lines.
The new leveling instructions don't seem to have made a debut on the already-on-the-market seats yet. I have a complete air manufactured in January 2012 and it still has the single line on the side.
I do get that younger babies need to a greater recline to maintain their airway. It was the requirement for the same recline for my 1 1/2 yr old (and his discomfort in that position) that lead me to returning my onside air. The complete airs have come up more than once a a great narrow RFing altrnative to the radian, but with the installation concerns that many people had I have hesitated to recommend it.
An Aurora
Senior Community Member
But you can't say 30 and 45 degrees--it's the first line, and the second line. Just like the old seats, you can't say "reclined to 45*" because the line is not exactly 45*--it's whatever arbitrary number Dorel came up with and stamped on the seat.
An Aurora
Senior Community Member
That's where a huge number of people (myself included) are at. Some will say to disregard the angle requirements, but I'm not sure how comfortable I am with that.
This was a huge part of the original controversy right?
But they say it's SUPPOSED to be 45. If it reclines to more than 45 you may be running into the bad-line seats they claim don't exist...
I've seen seats that ARE at 45 reclined to the line, and ones that are at like 54. Same seat, same cover, etc. It's... a head scratcher.
An Aurora
Senior Community Member
I had one that looked like that too (well different cover)- it measured 53 degrees. I had it replaced for an unrelated cause, and the new one they sent me (same model, same cover) only was at 45-ish with the line "level to ground." When questioned on it they claim they all recline the same amount, 45 degrees. So, um... They are obviously ignoring the fact that, well, they DON'T all recline the same amount!
Brigala
CPST Instructor
Ditto. Happened to me, too. My old seat was 53 degrees. They replaced it with another one of the EXACT SAME MODEL (by mistake, they were supposed to send me a new one) and it measured 45 degrees. Eventually they refunded my money and I bought another one that really was the newer version of the same seat (same color, different model number, no annoying harness covers), and it measures about 46-47 degrees.
I think I'm relatively comfortable using it at whatever angle I want to use it at for my own car because it appears that even Dorel doesn't know or care how reclined the seat should be; however I try really hard not to recommend OTHER people buy the seat or use it contrary to the instructions.
And it's true that you can't say 30° or 45° really; that's why I said "about" - though on some seats it's so far off that's not even a decent approximation anymore.
mom of six
Active member
So, the level line(s) is/are on a sticker that gets applied to the seat not molded into the shell, correct. Dorel is putting an awful lot of faith in their sticker applying people/machine if you must be loyal to something that has the potential to have a huge margin of error (or in engineering talk, tolerance).
Pixelated
Moderator - CPST Instructor
Here's what it looks like on Canadian seats - we've got them on a lot of the models now, and our seats (with the exception of the Scenera) did require structural changes to pass our new crash tests, effective Jan 1 2012.
There are no lines molded onto the seat as far as I can tell from this picture.
There are no lines molded onto the seat as far as I can tell from this picture.
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Haley.h87
New member
I have really been wanting to buy a CA for DD, but I'm fairly skeptical now. I guess I don't really understand how they don't see (or for that matter, dont care or acknowledge) how the angles seem to be different on different seats? I think I would be comfortable just installing at a 30* angle for her, but I'm just not sure.
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