Going Against the Grain Re: Graco Car Seat Expiration

As everyone knows, the Graco Nautilus expiration date is December of the 6th year of manufacture.

I just bought a GN w/ a 12/11 DOM. However, I won't be able to use it any longer than one with a 1/11 DOM.

If I had a January 2011 GN, then I would be able to use it 11 months past the DOM, why can I not do the same for my December 2011?

I guess I'm asking, does anyone know the reasoning behind the December of the 6th year of manufacture?

What are your thoughts on this?

Do Graco seats stamp "do not use after 20??" on them?

sent from my SPH-M580 using Car-Seat.Org

Doesn't evenflo do the same thing? At least they used to.
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cmcki737 said:

Do Graco seats stamp "do not use after 20??" on them?

sent from my SPH-M580 using Car-Seat.Org

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Mine had just the yr-I imagine it's probably just easier for them to say all seats mfg in xxxx yr are expired as far as keeping track of what's in use out on the roads. I wouldn't be concerned that the restraint itself is somehow different if mfg in dec vs jan that would make it usefull longe-there's probably a lot of cushion built into the exp on even the jan seat.

I think they had to draw a line somewhere. It's always up to the parent to decide what they feel comfortable with. If you have used the seat every day by 5 yrs it might be time to replace before the expiration, if you rarely use it and it is stored in a climate controlled environment maybe it's safe for 6.5 yrs. As techs we go by expiration dates because we just don't know but obviously seats don't self destruct on January 1st. Technology changes too by 6 years it might be there is something safer or more effective on the market. Sorry I know that's a vague answer, you bring up a good point though.

Grace used to be Dec of the sixth year, and they were stamped with "Do not use after December of XXXX." Changing that date changes the mold and requires re-testing to ensure FMVSS compliance.

Newer Gracos are no longer expiring in December (unless manufactured in Dec), they are X years from DOM. I think it's 7 years but don't quote me on that.

Part of the expiration of a car seat includes the time at which the manufacturer no longer takes responsibility for the performance of a seat, tracks failures, issues recalls, and that sort of thing. Actual degradation of the car seat is only one of several reasons not to continue using a seat pasts its expiration date.

Car seats don't turn into pumpkins at midnight on the expiration date, whether that date is 6 years 1 month or 6 years 11 months after the seat came off the assembly line. But they expire when they expire and as far as I'm concerned that's enough for me not to continue using one. On the other hand, I also am not one to panic about using a car seat a month or two past its expiration if "necessary."

I've often thought about this and even though I know it's allowed, if my seat is stamped "March", let's say, I'm going to stop using it by March of the 6th year and not continue to December, to be on the safe side. I wouldn't go the opposite direction to 'see what happens.' Personally, I feel this "December of the 6th year" thing makes it very difficult to explain the importance of expiry to other parents. People say all the time "oh that's the stupidest thing I ever heard. It's not a gallon of milk." (insert any other metaphor here) But IRL, I've never used a seat past 5.5 years, usually way less, since I'm anxious to replace them anyway.

Actually the gallon of milk thing makes perfect sense to me. The milk isn't going to be perfectly fine one second before midnight and be spoiled one second after midnight when it expires, just like a seat won't be perfectly safe the day before expiration and a death trap the day after expiration. But at some point that line will be crossed, and there's no real way to know exactly when that is. You can't sniff a carseat and tell if it's bad or not.

Pixels said:

Actually the gallon of milk thing makes perfect sense to me. The milk isn't going to be perfectly fine one second before midnight and be spoiled one second after midnight when it expires, just like a seat won't be perfectly safe the day before expiration and a death trap the day after expiration. But at some point that line will be crossed, and there's no real way to know exactly when that is. You can't sniff a carseat and tell if it's bad or not.

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Scratch n' sniff car seats!!! Yessss

Only I want mine to smell like strawberries.

Ohhhh Or Chocolate!!!

Pixels said:

Actually the gallon of milk thing makes perfect sense to me. The milk isn't going to be perfectly fine one second before midnight and be spoiled one second after midnight when it expires, just like a seat won't be perfectly safe the day before expiration and a death trap the day after expiration. But at some point that line will be crossed, and there's no real way to know exactly when that is. You can't sniff a carseat and tell if it's bad or not.

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Yeah, I've used buttermilk 3 weeks past the date on the jug. I smell it and it smells fine, so I'll use it. Can't smell the car seat for imperfections, though.

I've thought about using seats past expiration because I don't believe they go bad right at 6 years. In the end, though, I have so many car seats that there is no reason why I need to take the chance. (I think I'll go strip my bodyguard tomorrow.)

kam1011 said:

Personally, I feel this "December of the 6th year" thing makes it very difficult to explain the importance of expiry to other parents. .

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That's kind of my concern as well.

kam1011 said:

I feel this "December of the 6th year" thing makes it very difficult to explain the importance of expiry to other parents. People say all the time "oh that's the stupidest thing I ever heard. It's not a gallon of milk."

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I get what you're saying, but like you've found with the "stupidest thing" comments, I find that telling them the seat is going to fly apart and not hold your kid in doesn't convince most people. Of course I do believe at some point after the expiration date, that becomes true (and nobody knows when that point is for a given car seat), but I have had better luck pointing to the recall list and saying something like:

"Look at all these car seats that have been recalled. Some of them get recalled because after a year of use or after three years of use the harness adjuster stops holding tightly enough to keep the kid restrained in an accident, or the buckle starts falling apart, or the chest clip starts disintegrating and posing a choking hazard, or the whole seat design is found to be unsafe in certain circumstances, or what have you. When those kinds of problems start cropping up after a year or two or five, the company issues a recall, notifies registered owners, and puts out a fix or replaces the seats. When those kinds of problems happen after the expiration date, the company has already washed its hands of that car seat and will no longer track, notify, or fix problems as they occur. So using an expired car seat is as bad as using a recalled car seat because you have no assurance that it's still holding up."

I can't count the number of times I've had people roll their eyes at the mention of a car seat expiration date only to say "Oh, I never thought of it that way" when I explain it like this. Acting like a seat magically stops protecting your child at midnight on a certain date is bound to register on a lot of people's BS-O-Meter, but explaining that companies only agree to monitor the continued performance of their car seats for a limited amount of time makes a lot more sense.

Of course plastic and straps and things also degrade, and that's a factor too but it's only ONE factor.

Love the milk expiration comparison, just so everyone knows when milk goes bad, it is from an excessive amount of bad bacteria, but like a car seat there is a time/line that is goes from fine to sort of fine to going to make you sick. The going to make you sick part comes before the milk goes bad. Same goes for Meat!

I've always wondered the 6 vs 7 years of an expiration of a Graco from a seat made in January vs December, knowing about the mold and responsibility part of things...

However, aren't the new GN made w/ a DOE of 8-10 years? I know this has been discussed before and checked the box at WM and remember being surprised that the box said something like Do not use after Xyrs (greater than 6yrs, but I forget). Thus, what/when/how were the seats changed to support the longer lifespan? Was it done to compete w/ a Frontier and/or Radian?

tam

I just now thought of this. Do you remember the EFTAs from January & Feb 2010 that were on clearance at Kmart for $34.99? Some people even scored them for $27.99!

http://www.car-seat.org/showpost.php?p=1375555&postcount=20

http://www.car-seat.org/showpost.php?p=1997903&postcount=4

http://www.car-seat.org/showpost.php?p=1997943&postcount=5

Well, I have one that has an 8 year expiration date. When I called Evenflo, the rep said that the expiration date was not a typo and that we can use those for 8 years but have to follow the sticker on each model--meaning the expiration date is not retroactive or proactive. She said that for the newer models, they went back to the 6 year expiration date.

Kind of weird, considering that there was no modifications to the Feb 2010 EFTA 50s and the March 2010 EFTA 50s. They allow you to use the Feb 2010 models for 2 years past the original exp. date. and then go back to the 6 year one.

This is pure speculation, but it seems like perhaps they went back to the 6 year expiration date knowing that some parents would use it past the exp date (which leaves a window from 6 to 8 years). But if they left it w/ an 8 year expiration date, some parent would use it up to 10 years or more...just sayin'.

Does anyone else know about Evenflo's rationale for reverting back to the 6 year exp date?

As others have alluded to, the plastic and webbing degradation is the sort of thing that happens over an extended period of time...like way past 10 yrs. I view the expiration the way Elizabeth described as simply the amount of time the mfg supports the product. A shorter expiration is less expensive because it doesn't need to be monitored as long and the company doesn't need to deal with any potential issues as long. Most seats are 6 yrs so I'd guess that evenflo didn't *need* the extra expense of monitoring for 8 yrs to be competitive in the market-just a marketing decision.

StillThankful, this is a great thread and a topic I've been meaning to post about. I have a Graco infant seat that will "expire" on 12/31/12. It was a summer 2006 seat. My theroy is that I would be comfortable using the seat an extra six months given that if the seat was born on 1/1/12, I would have had an extra six months.

My seat has only been in my posession and stored in a cool basement, so I am very comfortable that it has not been exposed to any extremes.