How can I identify my car seat to tell if it's been recalled?

Try getting the year from whomever you got it fom. That should narrow it down. If it’s pretty old, and the ones from that time have been recalled – hey—it’s a carseat. Do you wanna risk it?

Zen has a good idea.

Can you bring it over to a Babies R Us or other supplier to see if they can identify it? Also, I looked at the Graco website and there aren’t that many models. It’s your kid’s safety we’re talking about- take the time to look through the models and see if you can ID yours.

@Likeradar I think the Graco website only lists ones that are currently available in stores. I went to google and searched “Graco Car Seat” and was looking through the Shopping Results. There were hundreds on there.

What recall are you concerned about? Here’s one recall notice, for example: Graco® has determined that a limited number of CarGo™ child restraint systems were manufactured with the incorrect National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA”) Hotline telephone number. Whew, better get those suckers off the streets!

Is there some specific new recall I haven’t heard about yet that is your concern?

Can you post a picture for me? I know a lot about carseats, and graco’s are quite easy to recognize. They usually have a white label somewhere on the handle, or close to underneath the cloth part.

Also, it’s quite unnerving that you don’t know the make or year of it. Who’s carseat was it prior to you using it? How do you know if it was ever in any car accidents? They do expire, usually after 5 years.

@casheroo It was my brother’s… he has two kids, the oldest is 4, so it’s not expired yet, though it may be getting there. Here are the pictures.

@Snarp The recall I heard about had to do with the handles snapping off, I didn’t see that Graco was one of those recalled but I realized that because it’s not registered under my name, if it ever had been recalled I won’t be aware of it, so I just wanted to check.

I asked some ladies, because I don’t have a Graco.
Apparently it’s a Snugride in Kenbrook print. Apparently it’s an old 20# SR.
If you flip it over, it should have the expiration date. They stopped making that particular type in 2004.

@casheroo Thanks! My girlfriend got a gift card last night from her mother, so we decided to use it to go get a new car seat anyway. :)

@stemnyjones Great! I hope you got a convertible carseat, it can be used for extended rear facing, and then forward facing for a couple years. I’m not sure how old your LO is, but infants can go into it pretty early, and it’s a great investment. We have a Britax Boulevard, but there are plenty of other affordable convertible carseats.

@casheroo She’s almost three months old. Should I get a convertible one or will she be too small for it?

@stemnyjones Hmm, three months is pretty young. They say they can go into them usually starting at 5lbs, but they seriously do not have enough neck control.
We waited until our son outgrew the bucket seat, around 7 months, but he still needed to be rear faced, and we took our tax refund and got a carseat for him (since a lot of the money we got back was from having a kid lol)