avlm24

I saw a few threads where folks were asking about bringing car seats in the US to UK.

But can I take a UK isofix car seat to the US and use it there ?
I mean is it legal, and if so, is the isofix same as the latch system I read about in other threads ?

Cheers.

jackattack

I think that LATCH and the European system are the same.

The last few years, when I brought my purchased in US (Britax brand) car seats over to England, I was able to easily put them into my parents' cars and also my rental car.

I know that the car seats need to undergo a bunch of testing in the US to make sure that they are 'legal', and I'm assuming that the UK does the same thing. And I can guarantee that there is no universal testing, so if you buy a brand which isn't readily available in the US, then it is unlikely they will have undergone the time and expense of getting US testing done. I've never heard of anyone being pulled over and had their car seats checked for legality.

Although, I know that if you are planning to use a car seat for your child on the aircraft, some carriers specify the max size of car seat and that it has to be an approved car seat. But presumably the airlines take British and American (amongst others!) passengers, they will allow car seats approved by different safety systems.

Five years ago, when I first investigated kids car seats, the UK testing was more stringent than US testing, so Britax car seats were deemed some of the safest. So if you have a fairly new UK car seat, I honestly wouldn't swap it just because it might not have been tested and certified in the US.

Weeze

Short answer, no.

Long answer: isofix and latch are different. Testing on European and USA car seats is different which means many European seats wouldn't pass the USA tests. The bases are different so chances are you'd need to buy a new base anyhow.

On the plus side, they are usually on sale at Albee baby
http://www.albeebaby.com/carseats2.html

Alan17

"But presumably the airlines take British and American (amongst others!) passengers, they will allow car seats approved by different safety systems."

You'd think so, wouldn't you? We flew American to Heathrow and BA to Aberdeen, carriers that are part of an alliance, code share and booked both legs through American. US approved seat faces backwards, UK seat faces forwards and the BA trolley dollys insisted that our 1 year old was safer in my wife's lap than in a backwards facing seat.

This is presumably a CAA/FAA requirement but you'd think their booking agents would know this especially when you tell them you are using a car seat.

sir_eccles

I was under the impression ISOFix was the same as Latch but I am willing to be proved wrong.

I vaguely recall one big difference is that US insists on a chest strap while the EU bans them because having the second buckle means it takes twice as long to escape.

Weeze

Isofix has 2 tether points, latch 3.
This is quite a nice guide to some of the difference in the car seats themselves.

http://mbeans.com/spillingthebeans/b...-seat-edition/

For us with our Britax, we would have required a new US base unit which worked out as pretty much the same price as a whole new USA seat when it was on offer.

jackattack

Wow. So my original info was almost completely wrong.
I honestly remember researching 5 years ago and deciding that the British testing was tougher. My sleep-addled brain must have read it incorrectly.

I thought that the modern crocodile style clips worked in both the USA and UK cars, and the differences were that the UK required the top tether and the USA did not, and that the UK did NOT allow the chest clip and the USA required it.

But I can definitely confirm that my USA purchased seats definitely DID clip into multiple cars in the UK. I definitely did not dream that up, even in my twin baby insomnia.

Weeze

Although it's not illegal to use a UK carseat in the USA, I seem to remember it being illegal the other way around. Most USA seats don't display the correct saftey mark to allow them to be legal in the UK. I think it's a big E mark or something like that.

For us the best option was to leave our UK seats at my folks to use when we were in the UK. Then we ordered a USA seat for our arrival in the USA. I'm not saying our way is best, just cost wise and saftey wise it's working best for us.

penguinsix

I believe it applies both ways. With a few exceptions, US seats are illegal in the EU, and EU/UK seats are illegal in the US.

Only car seats that have been tested by the standards available in that country are legal, so for a car seat to be legal in the UK or EU it has to pass the EU car seat safety tests and for a car seat to be legal in the USA it has to pass US car seat safety tests. These test differ, from the use of a lap belt vs. a lap and shoulder harness to the strength of the webbing to the use of chest clips to the requirements for padding around the head, etc. etc.

There are car seats available that have passed both, but by and large most normal car seats are US or EU only. Please note that car seats from one country used in the other often "work" due to similarities in latches/clasps, etc, it's just on paper they aren't "legal".

If you are moving to the USA, chances are there is a very very similar model of the car seat you are using overseas that you can purchase (possibly even the same name, just having passed a different testing standard). You should get a new car seat if you are going to live here full time.

This is one of the issues that is being negotiated in the US-EU trade pact discussions that are underway. They want to standardize things like car seats across both trading blocks (and a whole slew of other items).

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=6232

http://wardsauto.com/politics/us-eu-...fety-standards

This is a very long post by a guy who has gone over many of the differences between testing standards. Not sure how accurate but looks interesting. Like a lot of things between the US and UK, you have to ask: Is it better? worse? No, different.

http://www.car-seat.org/showpost.php...3&postcount=93

Zez

Anyone know about california. My kids are in high back boosters/booster seats. The law in ca states they need a car seat/ booster until they are 8 or something, but doesn't say "federally approved"

Zez

http://www.chp.ca.gov/community/safeseat.html