Our first little one is arriving in a few weeks time so we’re getting everything organised for it.

Got the car seat a couple of days ago – Maxicosi Isofix base and seat. The bast fits nicely in the car with no problems. When we put the seat in it clips in properly but there’s a lot of play between the seat and base. There’s no way it’s coming out but I’d prefer it if there wasn’t the play.

Is this normal for the maxicosi seats?

ta
andrew

Sounds about right. You’ll get over your neuroses soon enough too. It’s easier if you dont get stressed by everything…..

Good luck.

🙂 don’t think it’s neurosis, not worried about the seat falling off, more worried by the irritating rattle.

It’s as bad as having loose headset bearings 🙂

Got the same thing and was surprised about the amount of play but think it’s just the way it is, plenty of padding in the seat and I think it’s just natural to worry.
We have two of them and they are both the same.

I wouldn’t have gone isofix, now you can only use it in isofix equipped cars. What if you need to borrow, or rent one, or grandad wants to take Jr out one day………

Actually the base we have is not the isofix one but the alternate Maxicosi base that fits cars without isofix, the fitting to the childseat is the same though.

Indeed Maxi Cosi do 2 different bases one isofix one not but if push came to shove you can still fit the seat the old fashioned way without a base since the seat will have all the routings for the belt still in situ.

I would urge parents to always get an ISOFIX seat if your car has the function it is the safest most secure and most foolproof method available. It was astonishing the amount of traditional style seats i saw fitted poorly in my old job.

I’m with Brother Will, ISOFIX is very secure if you have it. We have the above combination and to be honest I have never noticed any play or rattling. If it does rattle it certainly isn’t audible.

After your first trip out in the car with the diddy one, the last thing on your mind will be the seat/base interface!

As I understand it the whole idea is that you’re not using the seat and belts to hold the seat. It’s connected using the two clips in the seat angle and the leg into the footwell so the bottom line is it’s held rigid into/onto the chassis.

We have a couple of Priorifix seats (for when they’re 1-3 ish) and there is some play with those too but the play is as far as the seats would move in an accident. Compare that to the amount of movement you’d get in the seat cushions in a 5g (or more??) shunt.

Don’t worry.

M

We’ve got the non-isofix one that uses the seatbelt to strap it in. Doesn’t seem to be that much play between seat and base though. Do you have to strap the seatbelt over the base as well as the isofix points for your one?

we have the same and there’s no rattle because it’s wedged in by the front passenger seat… Isofix is great imo and as above, if you need to for travelling you can easily use seat belts

Having a bit of play in the mounting some where may actually not be a bad thing. A slack coupling may decrease the deceleration the occupant of the seat encounters on impact. This deceleration is responsible for some of the serious shearing injuries to internal organs sometimes seen in RTAs. Also, there has been concern over Isofix mountings allowing forward rotation of the seat while it pivots forward about the Isofix point, hence a recommendation to have some kind of top tether (on the seats for forward facing older children anyway). Perhaps the old seat belt attachment wasn’t so flawed after all. Having said that I’ve got a couple of Jane Indy Isofix seats for our eldest, but they are also retained by the seatbelt when the child is fastened in. I think for these seats for older children (3+) the main benefit of Isofix is to stop the empty seat becoming a projectile in the event of a crash and injuring those in the front of the car.

While it is true there is an issue with pivoting in some applications the top tether is available and many seats now come with an additional front support leg eliminating pivoting.

Im not saying that other types of fixing are not as effective however the failure of belt type fixing is down to user error and i would encourage any parent to have there seat checked by a trained professional.

we got rid of our isofix seat as my daughter worked out how to release the straps, went for a conventional seatbelt secured seat with, most significantly, a Mightytite racthet clasp, now rock solid with no play whatsoever, feels far more secure than the isofix. Isofix definately better if you plan on removing the seat on a regular basis though.

we had the isofix maxicosi seat, great when they are young as it also clips into the buggy, and when you engage the seat back into the car its a simple “click”, but expensive and not light weight for swapping between cars, but reasuring as you can’t do it wrong..

Our Recaro Young Expert Plus Isofix rattles a lot. It helps if we slide the child seat back into the car seat for a tight fit.

MaxiCosi Prioifix here. Used for 20 months now. Is bloody heavy to move between cars, which I have to do twice a week. Once in though, & used with the floor support, there’s no play at all & its very secure. Goes in easily with seat-belt mounts also.

Just got a bargain Aprica seat from eBay. It’s not isofix which annoys me but it’s a good piece of kit despite that.

I wouldn’t have gone isofix, now you can only use it in isofix equipped cars.

You can also use a normal seatbelt attachment – I checked this when shopping around.