When we were looking for our car seat, we fell in love with the Orbit. Talk about great design! Their whole infant car seat-stroller system (shown above) caught our eye. Unfortunately Consumer Reports hasn’t looked so kindly on them.
The Orbit Infant System was rated “Don’t Buy: Safety Risk” after the baby carrier detached from its car seat base in two of six simulated 30-mph frontal crash tests that Consumer Reports commissioned at an outside laboratory. Consumer Reports says it decided to give this rating so that parents, safety experts and regulators would be aware of the results and of the potential for injury if an Orbit seat were to fail in a real crash. Consumer Reports advises anyone who already owns an Orbit Infant System to strap the infant carrier directly, without the car seat base, into the back seat of a vehicle
Orbit disputes these testing results, saying that Consumer Reports didn’t follow the installation instructions, which may well be the case. We all know how important proper installation is to car seats. However, if CR can screw it up, what chance do us non-professional “testers” have at correct installation? I’m not saying, I’m just saying.
If you have an Orbit Baby infant seat or are thinking of buying one, it is worth hearing what Orbit has to say about the issue:
Consumer Reports’ findings about our Infant Car Seat are completely contradictory to extensive testing we have conducted on a regular basis, in the same independent lab that Consumer Reports uses. As soon as we learned of these findings, we took immediate action and scheduled further extensive testing of our own. All of our tests passed. Also, we receive reports of real life car accidents from Orbit Baby parents, and we have never received reports of any car seat separations or injuries.
You can also read the official Orbit response/statement. They do bring up some very good points, not least of which is that they have never experienced any of the same failures and they use the same labs that Consumer Reports does.
As a conscientious company, Orbit has taken the matter up with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and is working with them on any recommendations they may have.
[update: The post had originally stated the toddler car seat may have safety issues, which is not the case. Consumer Reports only tested the infant car seat. This has been changed in the text.]
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Like any car seat, if it’s not installed properly it won’t be safe. The question is how hard is it for the average parent to install the Orbit properly? In my experience it’s not that much more difficult than any other car seat, but I guess all parents are different.
2 out of 6 failures seems like a lot to me. Orbit seems pretty well made, but I would think Consumer Reports would go out of their way to do a fair test.
The carseat was not installed correctly by Consumer Reports.
An update from Orbit as of 9/2/2009:
“The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) tested the Orbit Baby Infant Car Seat for compliance with all crash testing requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 213. NHTSA confirmed that the Infant Car Seat passes these tests.
NHTSA also independently verified:
The middle shoulder harness slot is the appropriate slot for the size of the official CRABI 12 test dummy.
The knob on the car seat Base should be turned to engage the StrongArm™ tightening mechanism to achieve the regulated seat belt tension for compliance testing.
Therefore, our Infant Car Seat not only passes our own tests in independent labs, it also passes tests conducted by NHTSA, the government agency that regulates traffic safety.
Orbit Baby maintains that Consumer Reports did not properly follow the Infant Car Seat instructions when they conducted their tests. (Our full response can be found here.) As an Orbit Baby parent, I believe that this issue highlights the importance of following car seat instructions, as well as the need for parents to educate grandparents, babysitters, and other caregivers on proper car seat usage. ”
Full statement here: http://www.orbitbaby.com/support/safetystatement.html
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