R44 v R129

Regulations are changing with the phase out of R44 car seats.

It was agreed in Europe the R44 approved car seats can no longer be sold after 1st September 2023. However as we are now outside of the EU the UK goverment have chosen not to enforce this.

As a company we have chosen to no longer stock R44 approved car seats and have been phasing the sale of these seats out of our inventory for some time, with a couple of excpetions.

The reason why we have chosen to do this is because the R129 regulations are much newer and offer a higher level of safety. The original R44 approval dates back to the 1980's and technology has moved on massivly since then.

The R129 standard is an improvment on the R44 regulations with the following differences.

• The R44 standard did not have a side impact crash test where the R129 standard does.

• The R44 had 4 sensors and the R129 has 32 so the test gives a more detailed result of the forces.

• There are groups in R44 based on weight - no groups in R129 – it is based on height and weight.

• Rear facing mandatory to 9 kilos in R44 (around 9 months) Rear facing mandatory to a minimum of 15 months with R129.

  
  
  

Please note you can still use your R44 approved car seat for as long as you wish, the change is to the sale of seats not the use of the.