Britax DOM question

courtfrog2

Active member
Okay, my Regent has a DOM of 12/07/07. When I took the cover off for a trade, the cover has a date stamped of 09/07. Then the harness also has a date of 09/07. I'm confused.

I thought that the expiration date is because of the harness? But the expiration date goes by the DOM on the seat right? The cover is no big deal that it has a different DOM, but why would the harness have a different one?

Thanks!

Courtney
 
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joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
Go by the date stickered on the shell. Think about it...the cover has to be made earlier, the harness has to be made earlier, they have to be shipped to Britax to be assembled... expiration takes into account really the changes and laws and breakdown of plastic and maybe a little of the harness breakdown, though I've never really put that into the equation (seatbelts don't have expiration dates, harnesses probably don't need them, really).

:)
 

natysr

New member
The harnesses are made by a different company and are ordered by the manufacturer of the carseats. I can't remember the names, but I'm thinking there are 1 or 2 major manufacturer that makes vecichle seatbelts and harnesses for carseats.

The carseat manufacturer orders a bunch of harnesses to their specs. Then when they make the seat shell, they assemble it with the pre-ordered harness.

In the crash test I've seen of an expired seat, the harness pulled out of the carseat entirely. I believe that this was not a failure of the harness itself, but a failure of the plastic slots in the seat of the shell.
 
i noticed that on two of my ma and did put call in to britax cs. they said to go by the seat exactly for the reason the harnesses and covers are made elsewhere before the seat itself.
 

crunchierthanthou

New member
Have you seen the crash test video of a 10 year old Britax? It's not the harness itself that fails, although it pulls out of the shell. It's the plastic of the shell that dictates expiration. That being said, my shell is stamped about two months before the DOM sticker. It's not like any component is going to combust 6 years and 1 day from DOM. I'm sure there's a little leeway, but we don't know how long that is. You can feel comfortable using it up to the date on the sticker. :twocents:
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
Combust... :ROTFLMAO:

(Yeah, the history of the expiration date really very closely involves airbag warnings... SO many infants died from being put in front of airbags, they want seats to expire soon enough that massive regulatory changes don't just get ignored... there haven't been any real major changes in awhile, but you never know if they find out, for example, seats with a certain kind of padding or latch connector are SO much safer that you want to get the older kind out of cars sooner rather than later. But also, yeah, that plastic does break down, probably more like 10 years which is why Australia and Canada still stick to the 10 year rule for tossing out seats).
 

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