Some manufacturers and car seat technicians say that car seats do expire. But the facts are few and far between on this subject.

A few years ago we went through the same task of rearranging car seats for our kids. Riley moved into a booster and Josiah had out grown the infant car seat (carrier). We had a fairly nice Britax that we got when Riley was less than a year old. It was in good condition and had never been in a vehicle when an accident occurred. The seat was nearly six years old and I was wondering whether or not the seat was still usable despite its appearance. I had heard that car seats expire. Is this a true statement?

I probably would not have even given this a thought but rather let common sense dictate whether or not to replace a car seat. But, sometime during the previous spring we had a fire rescue team at our church one Sunday afternoon doing inspections on the installation of our car seats for anyone who wanted to participate. Ours were all installed and being used correctly, but the technician did give me a little feedback that I found interesting. One of the things he told me was that Riley’s Britax seat was expired. “DO WHAT?,” was my reply. This guy proceeded to tell me that car seats expire after five years. Don’t get me wrong. I get the concept. These things are made of mostly plastic and plastics can become weak when it gets pushed and pulled on enough. The belts can become weak when they get enough acidic spit up, juices, and other foreign substances on them over the years. All that said, you would think that the manufacture would have this plastered all over the boxes that these things come in. After all, that would equate to a fresh sell ever five years and more revenue for their companies. Anyway, I heard what the guy said and went on about my business since this he did not give me a reference for his data. Even though I did get the concept, how can you you pick a number and say that in X number of years a car seat will expire? In my opinion you can’t because there are too many variables to consider.

Here are some facts about car seat expiration. There are currently no federal laws requiring that child safety seats have an expiration date. I have also found no state laws referring specifically to expiration dates. If you find that a seat has an expiration on it, you are not likely to get put into jail for using it past its expiration date, but you should certainly contact the manufacture to make sure you understand why they put that date on the seat.

Yes, some seats have expiration dates on them? Why? The explanations vary. Maybe the seat nmaufactures are trying to ride the wave of fear created by the technicians who tell us that the seats to expire. Many “convertible” car seats are sold touting that they can be used for 5-35 lbs rear facing and from 20-50 lbs forward facing. Those seats would need to be replaced before one child outgrew them if they were to expire in five or six years. For instance, the average boy will reach 20 lbs between 8-9 months of age based on the CDC Clinical Growth Charts that most of our pediatricians use. That same average boy will reach 50 lbs at about 7 years of age. That means that the average male child would be required to get a new seat before reaching the maximum allowed weight for most convertible seats simply due to an expiration.

Some Child Passenger Safety Technicians claim to have been taught that seats expire after five or six years depending on who trained them.  One organization that offers certification classes for Child Passenger Safety Technicians says, “Make sure the safety seat is less than 10 years old (preferably less than five), the expiration date stamped on the plastic has not passed, and it has never been used in a crash.” Reference

The bottom line is that opinions rather than facts seem to be driving the five, six, or ten year expiration date. The expiration age varies depending on who you talk to.