"No thanks" to second-hand car seats
It is very common in conversations among those who are going to be new parents, even through blogs or influencers, the recommendation of baby products and websites that have good prices and variety of products; It is also common to share ideas, news, lend items that are as good as new, give advice on what worked and what didn't... And ultimately share the experiences of each and every one in this wonderful challenge that is to equip the baby who is on the way with everything he or she will need in his or her first months of life. you know that At Asalvo we are in favor of products having a long durability because we are committed to the environment and sustainability.. For this reason and because we want to accompany you and your baby during their growth, we increasingly incorporate evolutionary items, versatile items that you can use in different ways and at different stages of your little one's growth, contributing not only to family savings, so necessary today, but also to generating less waste and making this planet on which we live a cleaner and healthier place. We already know who is going to inherit it, right?
In those park chats, in those conversations with friends, in those shopping advice chats, in those influencer channels, the topic of buying clothes often comes up. second hand items. Whether each person decides whether or not their child uses new products depends on nothing more than the freedom of choice and At Asalvo we will always be in favor of that, but there is one caveat that we would like to point out to you: car seats or child restraint systems (CRS). Since respect for the freedom of each person to buy what they consider appropriate, we want to tell you why buying a second-hand chair is never a good option. Freedom of choice, YES, but also SECURITY.
Second-hand car seats: a bad choice.
There are many reasons that at Asalvo we want to share with you and that make buying second-hand car seats not a good choice, but first it is better that we start by talking a little about this product that is so essential in your daily life. Let's highlight some important things about it, shall we?
1. Think that The European Union increasingly tightens the requirements that CRS must meet for their approval and subsequent sale, and it does so by incorporating increasingly more demanding tests.
2. This means that, to meet safety standards, manufacturing companies require more investment in R&D. In Spain we currently have CRS approved with two regulations: ECE R44/04 and ECE R129 or I-size regulations, The latter is more recent, more demanding and generally involves higher safety car seats.
3. The fact that there are two different regulatory frameworks is neither arbitrary nor capricious: the first regulation that we have mentioned began to be implemented several decades ago, to adapt to the morphological and anatomical reality of children, to new technology automobiles and in general to the changes in the habits of a society whose members move more and more, which gave rise to the need to introduce changes always aimed at greater security. In this way, the R-129 regulation, whose first CRS appeared in the year 2013-2014, has been gaining ground and as of today, although the seats of the R-44 regulation can continue to be used and sold, as of just a few months ago, new models can no longer be approved with it.
4. Think that in the end, buying a second-hand car seat through online platforms It is done without control by the competent authorities, without professional advice, without being sure of whether or not it suits your vehicle, and also without the product warranty.
Is it worth putting a child's life in danger to save a few euros? The answer for all of us who form Asalvo is clear: NO. We will not tire of repeating to you that the car seat is of all the things you buy for a child, without a doubt the most important. It is up to all of us in general as a society and to parents in particular to ensure the safety of the most vulnerable, and above all to do so where this vulnerability is accentuated: on the road. Car seats are not designed to seat the child comfortably as if it were a decorative piece: the true function is to protect and this happens when there is an accident. We say this last because although it seems obvious, many parents forget it: The chair will protect your child when there is an accident, not in everyday life without incidents.
And now, we are going to give you reasons to seriously consider that buying a second-hand car seat is never a good option. As we can think of several reasons, we are going to start by telling you the main reason in this post and we will detail others in the next one. It is an important issue and we do not want to tiptoe around any of these issues that are so important to you:
- LACK OF SECURITY: The fundamental reason that would encompass all the others that can be argued for not advising the purchase of a second-hand CRS is that they do not guarantee safety. There are detailed studies published in almost all European countries and carried out by important public or private institutions dedicated to child safety that agree on one fact: A very high percentage of car seats sold on the second-hand market would not pass the approval tests with which they were approved at the time., in this case the ECE R-44. In general, these institutions, including the Spanish Alliance for Children's Road Safety (AESVi) (the largest forum of experts in children's road safety in Spain and which carried out a study this same 2022), randomly purchased car seats on different platforms and subjected them to a dynamic analysis by carrying out crash tests. The conclusions that have been drawn from this type of study are quite illuminating about the importance of not buying a second-hand CRS, especially when it comes to chairs whose origin is unknown.
The most important keys to saying "no" to a second-hand car seat
As you can see in this post that we share with you, as well as with others that we have shared in previous months and even more that we have yet to develop, we do not intend anything other than to answer many of the questions that arise regarding matters related to the safety of car seats.
We are going to continue explaining why Buying a second-hand car seat is never a good safety option, since it lacks basic guarantees and exposes your baby to dangers that are difficult to see with the naked eye:
• OBSOLETE regulations: Even if a car seat appears to be in perfect condition and looks new, it may have been approved with regulations that are not currently in force in our country. This is not a trivial topic because we are not talking about anything related to aesthetics or comfort, but rather to safety. The labeling of the chair must show under which regulations it has been approved: only if it specifies that it is approved with ECE R44/04 or ECE R129, does the chair meet the minimum requirements to be able to be used today, although obviously, as we will explain to you later, it is not enough for a second-hand chair. In our country, for several years now, the use of car seats or child restraint systems (CRS) whose labels appear ECE R44/01, R44/02 and R44/03 has been strictly prohibited. The review of regulations and the appearance of new ones is aimed at improving car seats from a technical point of view and ultimately at protecting children when they travel in vehicles.
• Technical improvements: The improvements in the technical advances of chairs approved with the most recent regulations are translated into devices and safety elements in the new chairs. For example, a chair with the ECE R44/04 approval label at 10-12 years old may lack safety elements that the most recent ones do have: different padding, different absorbent materials, side protectors, improved isofix systems, etc. Although in some things it may seem to us that 10-12 years is not a long time, in terms of safety we categorically tell you that it is an eternity: a lot of progress has been made and we are always thinking about providing the little ones with MORE PROTECTION.
• Shock absorption and cushioning: Of the safety elements that we mentioned before and that older chairs may lack, it is worth highlighting mainly the impact absorption and cushioning elements. Both the interior foams, specially designed to absorb the kinetic energy of the impact, and the plastic or metal elements that make up the shell and interior of the CRS have improved substantially in the last five years. In addition to being significantly better in terms of energy absorption and dissipation and impact cushioning, the materials of the most recent chairs have not been subjected to the deterioration caused by changes in temperatures (dilation and contraction, mainly in hot climates like ours), or sun exposure. This deterioration or degradation of the materials would result in worse shock absorption and therefore greater INSECURITY.
• Evolutionary elements: Let's suppose that you are still determined to buy a second-hand car seat because you have verified what we told you previously: the regulations are in force and the absorption elements do not seem damaged. Although these last elements are very important, all the reducers, cervical protectors, tilt wedges, etc. that car seats originally come with, especially the so-called evolutionary ones, are no less important. So make sure that all these elements are included because it is with them and not with others that they were approved, manufactured and sold. It is very common to see on second-hand platforms chairs that are sold as group 0123 but lacking the necessary elements for the first months or years of life, which the seller has lost and without which the car seat is simply useless.
• Instruction manual: If elements are frequently missing, it is no less common that the car seat is not accompanied by instructions that guide us in everything related to the technical characteristics, the duration, the gradual transformation of the seat as the child grows and the installation. Assembling a car seat by similarity to other models is much more than unwise: each car seat, new or second-hand, must be installed precisely according to the manual, adjusting it in the correct way, in the correct position and for the baby of the correct size and age.
• Hidden damage: And finally, in case we haven't given you enough reasons, the second-hand chair that you have seen at a very good price, with a few years of life and apparently new, may be the worst option if it has invisible damage. Perhaps they have arisen as a result of an accident, or perhaps due to continued misuse. These hidden damages are really dangerous because in the event of a new impact, your seat will not protect the child adequately since it lacks maintenance guarantees.
From Asalvo, always worrying about you and your baby, we hope we have convinced you that buying a second-hand CRS is not a good option, since there are many risks and there is no guarantee of safety. If despite our efforts we have not been able to convince you, we hope that we have at least helped you discover which elements you should focus on and which aspects to highlight in your product inspection. In summary, they are the following:
- What regulations does it comply with?
- If it is complete including the instruction manual
- If you have suffered accidents
We have been rigorous with what we wanted to convey to you and the significance that buying a second-hand chair can have without knowing the safety guarantees it gives you. Although there are institutions that call for a ban on the buying and selling of second-hand chairs, We do not want to give such a strong opinion because prohibitions require a lot of prior analysis.. But we do firmly believe that it is necessary to create a control mechanism by the competent bodies on online transactions with second-hand chairs, at least while there is no legal regulation on them.
Here we will continue to help you in whatever is in our power, and we repeat that we always care about you and your baby, although on this occasion we have had a more serious tone. We believe that the matter deserves it. Remember the proverb of our grandfathers and grandmothers, fathers and mothers, always so wise: "Cheap is expensive".
