musing on the new, longer lifespans of car seats

christineka · Jan 7, 2013

We now have all graco boosters (and those that convert) and the harmony defender good for 10 years, britax frontier and the clek boosters for 9 years, and diono radians for 8/10 as well as the symphony for 8 and a bunch of dorel seats for 8 years. Do you think car seats are made from stronger materials these days? Or has testing just shown that seats don't degrade as quick as manufacturer's believed before?

_juune · Jan 7, 2013

christineka said:
We now have all graco boosters (and those that convert) and the harmony defender good for 10 years, britax frontier and the clek boosters for 9 years, and diono radians for 8/10 as well as the symphony for 8 and a bunch of dorel seats for 8 years. Do you think car seats are made from stronger materials these days? Or has testing just shown that seats don't degrade as quick as manufacturer's believed before?

Or maybe it never really was about materials degrading, but rather about misplaced parts and manuals, advances in technology that would be missed, and it being harder to know the history of a seat if it's old? :whistling:

stephpook · Jan 7, 2013

More seats with steel in the frames perhaps? I could totally buy an argument for steel holding up better over time than plastic. I'm not sure if all the seats you listed even have steel frames though so I could be totally off base.

gsdguenter · Jan 7, 2013

_juune said:
Or maybe it never really was about materials degrading, but rather about misplaced parts and manuals, advances in technology that would be missed, and it being harder to know the history of a seat if it's old? :whistling:

I think it's a combination of this and testing.

I just don't get how European seats (many) either have no expiration date or 10 year suggested do not use after date and in the us so many are/were 6 yrs.

I won't use an expired seat because I'm not taking a chance, but it just doesn't add up. I'm not the kind if person to accept a rule just because it is a rule. There has to be more to it.

ketchupqueen · Jan 7, 2013

The new Turbos do seem to me to be of stiffer plastic than the old ones. New plastics and materials are developed all the time. I'd wager a guess it's a combination of factors.

kam1011 · Jan 7, 2013

I do think it's a matter of materials. My totally subjective opinion of seats is that the newer ones look like they're made much better than seats from 7+ years ago when I first started shopping.

musing on the new, longer lifespans of car seats

christineka

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_juune

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stephpook

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gsdguenter

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ketchupqueen

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kam1011

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