Viewing 31 posts - 1 through 31 (of 31 total)
  • Isofix car seats. Are they safer?
  • paulosoxo
    Free Member

    SmallestOxo is ready to move into the next stage of car seat. We’ve always used Maxi Cosi, so that’s what we’ll be using.

    I’m looking at the Rodi, which is what we’ve got for the older boy, but they do an isofix version, however that’s £180! Obviously as a parent I’m taking the more expensive is better view, however, this is more or less the same seat, but with a £130 difference.

    I need two by the way, if I buy isofix, theses will go in my wife’s car, and the normal two seatbelt jobs in mine.

    Thoughts, opinions?

    geetee1972
    Free Member

    Iso fix isn’t inherently safer but its very difficult to mess the installation up. It was introduced because a lot of child injuries in belt retention systems were happening because of user error. Isofix was designed to be more or less fool proof.

    It is also much more convenient especially for babies which can be put in and taken out in their seats without them waking up.

    Daffy
    Full Member

    Not safer per-say, but it removes any variability during installtion and operation.

    A tight belt which remains tight will operate just the same.

    They make swapping seats between cars much easier though. I had Isofix on the baby seat, but not with the child seats as they stay in the car.

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    csb
    Full Member

    If you want safer and don’t mind paying then look up rear facing seats for older kids. It’s law in Sweden to keep them rear facing, but here we value the kids travel experience (being able to see the urban misery out of the metal box) more.

    Daffy
    Full Member

    If you want safer and don’t mind paying then look up rear facing seats for older kids. It’s law in Sweden to keep them rear facing, but here we value the kids travel experience (being able to see the urban misery out of the metal box) more.

    This is true, though many rear facing seats don’t fit in a lot of cars. Also, there’s apparently some concern relating to floor strength when subjected to loads of this nature.

    csb
    Full Member

    Really? Why would the force driven into the floor be any different depending on direction? I assume it’s the stability leg but don’t some of the forward facers have the stability legs too?

    paulosoxo
    Free Member

    If you want safer and don’t mind paying then look up rear facing seats for older kids. It’s law in Sweden to keep them rear facing, but here we value the kids travel experience (being able to see the urban misery out of the metal box) more.

    I’ve never seen these anywhere, never mind in the uk? What age range do they go up to? Have you got them?

    althepal
    Full Member

    We’ve got a brittax rear facing seat for our three year old. Seatbelt goes over under and back out other side so base is held secure. Top braces against the underside of the front seat head-rest, and there’s anchor straps that tie onto the rear floor mounts for the front seats. Think itll last another 9 months to a year tops before our lad can’t fit his legs in, then they can be used front facing I believe.
    It sounds complicated but we usually have it fitted in our car only and fitting is quick once you’ve done it a few times.
    It has its slight downsides but it very solid in use.. Was also a lot cheaper than other rear facers for his age..
    Will try and find a pic..
    Edit- this one- britax 2way elite. Gets very good reviews..

    Age range up to four apparently..

    johndoh
    Free Member

    the kids travel experience (being able to see the urban misery out of the metal box) more.

    Bless.

    csb
    Full Member

    Paulosoxo – No I haven’t got one yet, but I’m in exactly the same position as you, jnr is about to grow out of her maxi-cosi. Have a look at the rearfacing website for the evidence and options. There’s one called BeSafe izikid that seems to be favoured.

    aracer
    Free Member

    here we value the kids travel experience (being able to see the urban misery out of the metal box) more.

    Is it OK to have a forward facing seat if you live in the bucolic countryside then?

    paulosoxo
    Free Member

    My kids are three and six, both tall, so not sure rear facing s an option.

    csb
    Full Member

    My friends all said that the added safety wasn’t worth depriving their kids of the views for. They don’t go anywhere but to the shops or up the motorway. And they’re usually plugged into DVD screens.

    If the views on your travels are nice you have my (but not the Swedish Govts) blessing to expose them to the added risk of using a forward facing seat.

    takisawa2
    Full Member

    Paulosoxo…forgive my opportunistic approach, but my youngest has grown out of his Maxi Cosi Priory Isofix seat, if you are interested. All the covers have been off & freshly laundered, so it’s all clean & fresh etc. £50 if you are interested.

    As an aside, the seat above was a new insurance replacement for an identical one that saved my lads life when our car crashed & rolled onto its roof on the motorway. Don’t like reliving the experience, but suffice to say the child seats did their job. The car it was in was a non Isofix model incidentally. I crawled out with some cuts & bruises & an injured arm, but the kids were totally unharmed.

    When fitted to the Isofix points in the Toyota Verso we used to have they were absolutely rock solid.

    paulosoxo
    Free Member

    Hi takisawa2. That’s actually the seat the youngest is in at the moment, but he’s starting to get too big for it.

    monkeyboyjc
    Full Member

    We have a Recaro Monza Nova Seatfix car seat for our daughter, which is ISOfix. We’ve had it since whe was 4. Its been the best car seat we’ve used, far better than the 3 Brittax seats we had previously. You can get them for around £120 upwards (if you buy a 2012 version) and come in a range of colours, standard rrp is £160 – £50 more than the non seatfix version.

    I think that the safty aspect is mainly in side impacts – where other seat belt fix seats would slide about the ISOfix system doesnt allow this and the seat provide more support.
    The actual seat is great, and comes with a few gimmics to justify the price like built in speakers (so you can connect up a portable DVD player or MP3), and a ‘pump up’ head rest. The daughter finds it very comfortable, which was a main concern as the harder brittax seat we had wasnt great on 1hr+ journeys. Instalation is a brease, just push the two ISOfix bars into the correct area of the carseat, removal is a bit more tricky but once you have the technique down its pretty quick.
    EDIT: Recaro say this about the saftey aspect LINK

    fizzicist
    Free Member

    I’d wager that Isofix is safer than non isofix – having the seat securely attached to the chassis can only be a good thing.

    Both our kids have been rear facing until the age of at least 3 (the boy was too big at the age of 3, but then he was the height of an average 5 year old by then)

    Have a look at Rear Facing and Sweden

    My daughter still likes being rear facing as she spends most of the journey waving at the car behind.

    DaveyBoyWonder
    Free Member

    I did a load of research into this and it seems that professional (by someone who has worked for 30+ years in car seat safety) opinion is that ISOFIX is safer despite it not originally being designed to be any safer than a normal belted car seat – purely to reduce risk of seats being fitted incorrectly. He did write a paper on the subject which is on the internet somewhere but I’ve just had a quick look and can’t find it.

    I believe, for rearward facing seats, it was said that non-ISOFIX seats are prefferred. For forward facing, ISOFIX is safer.

    I reckon a lot of its down to the car as well. Get side swiped in some little french sh*t box of a car with a kid in an ISOFIX seat and I reckon it’ll be less safe than the same accident involving a kid in a belted seat in an A8 or something…

    Personally I play it safe and go with the opinion of the aforementioned professional. In the grand scheme of things, child seats are pretty cheap for what they could be asked to do…

    stevied
    Free Member

    We’ve just changed car seats as SD jnr has got to 10 months old. The wife has a Peugeot 206 (non-iso) and I have an Alfa 159 (iso). I installed both a couple of weeks ago and can safely say that the isofix ‘feels’ much more secure in the car. We went for Britax for both cars as they were the only company we could find that tested them for the the Alfa (and it makes life easier having 2 with the same fittings for little one)

    tinybits
    Free Member

    monkeyboyjc – that Recaro, what size was your daughter when she started in it? girl micorbits is going to have to give up her Maxi cosi seat (uses the same seat base as the starter seat) when boy microbits comes along and I’d rather get something that’s going to last a long time.

    freddyg
    Free Member

    Is there a market for second-hand Isofix car seats? We’ve got a pair (well, 4 actually) that we would like to get rid of. They were quite expensive (these I think: Clicky-thingy) Maxi-Cosi Priorifix.

    Once the kids moved up to the next age range, we purchased some of the Brittax Isofix ones. The eldest has all but grown out of his, the yougest will be good for another year yet.

    DaveyBoyWonder
    Free Member

    Personally I’d never buy a second hand car seat but I suspect eBay is awash with them… Even if you don’t get much for them, they’re not exactly small things to keep knocking about the house/garage!

    deadlydarcy
    Free Member

    @freddyg, yes there definitely is a market. As long as they haven’t been in an accident then your conscience is clear as far as I’m concerned. I wouldn’t buy one from someone I didn’t know personally, but I’ll happily sell mine on when I’m done with it.

    freddyg
    Free Member

    Cheers DD. I’ll have a look on flea-bay and see what the going rate is.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    being able to see the urban misery out of the metal box

    Now that’s being disingenuous if anyone ever was.

    My daughter has been forward facing since she was too big to sit in the seat in rearward mode, about 9mo iirc. She’s always loved looking at everything passing the windows – shops, people, other cars, buildings, space rockets (aka churches), trees, flowers, pretty houses, sky, mountains, forests, rivers, lakes etc etc etc.

    My youngest has become a far better traveller too now that she has started being able to see out of the window.

    As long as they haven’t been in an accident then your conscience is clear as far as I’m concerned

    Bear in mind there is a recommended maximum age for car seats, about 5 years IIRC. It’s to do with plastics, hot cars, UV radiation and such.

    monkeyboyjc
    Full Member

    tinybits – Member

    monkeyboyjc – that Recaro, what size was your daughter when she started in it? girl micorbits is going to have to give up her Maxi cosi seat (uses the same seat base as the starter seat) when boy microbits comes along and I’d rather get something that’s going to last a long time

    She was 4 when we bought it, but i think you can use it from age 3 (15kg?) as its a group II-III – we’ve had it for just over 2yrs and its been great, with only a little sun fading to the fabric.

    tinybits
    Free Member

    Hmmm, micro bits is 2&3m, she’ll be 2&7m when boy micro is born. She’s already 2st (12.5kg) so I’m hoping she packs the weight on in the next few months so that she’ll fit intot he seat she can have for the next however long.

    cb
    Full Member

    Which have done a good deal of testing on car seats. They test for side impact as well, which the “Standards” don’t. That was the case a few years back anyway when I was looking.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Hmmm, micro bits is 2&3m, she’ll be 2&7m when boy micro is born

    Surely your next should be called nano bits?

    tinybits
    Free Member

    Ooh, I like. I’ll steal it and pretend I thought of it. 😛

    molgrips
    Free Member

    The door is open for more kids too – pico bits and femto bits. Don’t have more than 5 though.

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