When Do Safety 1st Car Seats Expire? Safety 1st Car Seat Expiration Dates & What to Do with Your Used Safety 1st Car Seat

Behind Car Seat

First, look carefully behind the seat. Most Safety 1st car seats have the expiry date printed on a sticker on the backside. It is usually between 6 to 10 years after the manufacture date.

Inspect the back of the shell from top till bottom. Look for either the manufacture date or the expiry date. If you don’t find it on the backside. Check the bottom.

The Seat’s Underside

For the Grow and Go model (and some others), you need to flip the seat to see the expiry date on the bottom outer surface.

The Manual

Retrieve the manual that came with the car seat. The manual shows you the manufacture date and where to look for the expiry date. You will see it before the table of contents.

Can’t locate your manual? Here’s what to do.

Check In These Lists Of Safety 1st Cars Expiration Dates.

Use the model number, and the table below to find your car seat’s expiration date.

Contact Safety 1st Customer Relations Department.

Call Safety 1st at 1-800-544-1108.

Daily Wear And Tear

The car seat wears out every time you buckle, unbuckle, move it, leave it in the sun, and even when you store it. The fabrics and plastics weaken as the year goes. Like anything else, your car seat degrades with time.

Legal Standards Change

As car seats become more efficient, NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) raises the standards. It’s all for your child’s safety.

Safety 1st anticipates that in a few years, the government will demand better for your child.

Technology advancement

Improved technology gives Safety 1st the power to create masterpieces. But we know that the car seat they will produce in the next 5 years will dwarf the current top-rated seat.

The expiry date keeps you using only the latest and safest car seats.

Recall

Though car seats go through intense testing, some errors could show up after the product launch. The NHTSA monitors car seats to recall those that threaten your child’s safety. If you registered your contact when you bought your car seat and Safety 1st did not contact you about a recall, it’s probably working fine.

Feel free to look at the NHTSA’s updated car seat recalls. Or contact Safety 1st Customer Relations Department.

Get A New Car Seat

Look at the manufacture date when buying your car seat. If the car seat has been on the shelf for over a year, it takes a year off your money’s worth. Car seats are expensive. But can you put a price on your child’s safety? You can offset the price of a new car seat through a trade-in program.

Target’s Car Seat Trade-In Program

During Target’s car seat trade-in events, parents exchange their expired car seats for a 20% discount on a new car seat. Or a coupon to buy any other baby gear. Target recycles the expired car seats through their partner, Waste Management, to create new products. Visit Target’s official website to learn more about the car seat trade-in program.

Walmart, too, has a car seat trade-in program. You can also skip the middlemen and sell it to your local recycling center.

Repurpose Your Expired Car Seat

You don’t need to trash your expired car seat while it could make a good chair. See how this guy turns his car seat into an office chair with a sturdy wooden base.

Wrapping Up

Most of the current Safety 1st car seats have a 10-year lifespan. The older models had a 6-year lifespan. Though you never crashed with your car seat, once it expires, repurpose it or sell it. The most important thing here is getting your child a quality car seat.

Your child is either safe or not. With an expired car seat, she is not safe.