PSA: Evenflo recalls 1,000,000 Discovery car seats
by Alex Nunez on Feb 7th 2008 at 10:57AM 
Evenflo has announced a voluntary recall of 1 million of its Discovery car seats. Discovery seats with the model numbers 390, 391, 534 and 552 manufactured between April 2005 and January 29, 2008 are affected. If you currently own and/or use an Evenflo Discovery, you are advised to check the white label on the underside of the seat, where you'll find the pertinent information listed. The problem which caused Evenflo to issue the recall is that the possibility exists for the car seat to separate from its base in the event of an accident. Customers who have affected units and participate in the recall will be sent an additional fastener that corrects the problem.Additional information and/or instructions can be found at these resources:
- NHTSA Announcement
- Evenflo Announcement
- NHTSA Consumer Alert
- Evenflo customer service: 1-800-356-2229 (Mon-Fri 8AM - 5PM EST)
[Source: CNNMoney]
PRESS RELEASE:
Evenflo Announces Voluntary Safety Recall of Discovery Infant Car Seat and Provides Supplemental Fastener to Enhance Safety Performance
VANDALIA, Ohio - February 1, 2008 - Evenflo today announced it is implementing a voluntary safety recall of its Discovery Infant Car Seat Models 390, 391, 534, 552. Approximately one million units were produced beginning April 2005. This is based on recent laboratory tests conducted by Evenflo and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which show that this car seat could potentially become separated from its base in high impact side collisions similar to those in the tests. As a precautionary measure, Evenflo is providing current owners of these models with a free supplemental dual-hook fastener that has proven that the seat remains attached to the base in the event of such collisions. Additionally, Evenflo is taking steps to develop future models of Discovery with enhanced safety performance. These new Discovery models will be available to consumers starting in the second quarter, 2008.
"We are parents, too, and protecting children is our core mission at Evenflo. While our current Discovery car seat models have performed well to protect infants in actual side impact automobile collisions without any reports of serious injury or death since they were introduced, we want to take further steps to protect the safety of children who use our products," said Rob Matteucci, CEO of Evenflo. "These lab tests do show there is potential for the base to detach from the seat in high impact side collisions, so we are recommending that all Discovery owners use the supplemental dual-hook fastener, available free from Evenflo."
To order the supplemental dual-hook fastener, Discovery 390, 391, 534, 552 model owners should call Evenflo at 1-800-356-2229 between 8 AM and 5 PM EST or visit www.evenflo.com/Discovery. No shipping costs will be incurred and orders will arrive in approximately 3 to 4 weeks. In the meantime, consumers should continue to use their Discovery infant car seat and there is no need to return it to retailers.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alex 12:10PM (2/07/2008)
"the possibility exists for the car seat to separate from its base in the event of an accident"
I'm no product engineer, but that sounds counter to the purpose of a baby seat.
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RxMadness 12:38PM (2/07/2008)
So, these chair have been on sale/production for almost 3 years. I'm pretty sure the majority of those affected have already grown out of them.
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joe23521 12:45PM (2/07/2008)
This makes me uneasy about using any Evenflo car seat...
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dean 2:24PM (2/07/2008)
RxMadness, sadly no. Especially those manufactured in 2007. My sister has an Evenflo I think. I'll have to call (I have a 2 year old nephew and a 3 year old niece) them.
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Bungle 3:09PM (2/07/2008)
Evenflo-o... thoughts arrive like butterfli-ies...
Sorry.
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Matt Heerema 3:40PM (2/07/2008)
developer testing please ignore
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Matt Heerema 3:40PM (2/07/2008)
developer testing, please ignore
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jake18oly 4:12PM (2/07/2008)
My wife is 7 months pregnant and we bought one of these seats on clearance about 2 months ago. It's a good thing that I read about this now and not 2 months from now!
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GhostDoggy 5:30AM (2/08/2008)
I see not problem with this. I mean, how many millions of kids are carted around in seatbelt-less school buses by questionable bus drivers each day and do so on crazy roadways and interstate highways?
Parents don't care about that so why should they care about this? Apathy America suggests tossing the baby in the rear deck and letting it roll the dice in mommy's bad driving day.
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innocent bysitter 11:28PM (2/08/2008)
I assume the roadways are equally crazy for the parents & children in the cars as they are for the buses. So, the potentially busted car-seats are equivalent to the presumably fully functional school buses? Is that a valid comparison?
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iguide 11:12AM (2/10/2008)
Cool. Make a car seat that's busted and then say: "I'm sorry your baby died in that car crash, but we didn't think of testing the car seat but you'll get you money back"
http://www.i-guide.ro
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Stacey 2:43AM (4/06/2008)
We used one of the recalled seats for our son born in 2006 and tucked it away. We planned to use the same seat again and then heard about the recall. I called and got the supplemental fastener for the seat. Truth be told, this fastener is a pain in the behind and to have to use this additional fastener each and every time we will need to put our child in the van is annoying. It isn't the easiest thing to use and truth be told, I don't know that it can and will be used properly by all who would get it for use with the recalled seats. We have decided to throw the entire seat, base, and fastener in the trash and purchase a new seat all together. It's just an akward fastener to use. But if you can't afford to buy another seat, I would certainly say make sure you install it properly if you have no other alternative. Like I said, after getting it and putting it in the base and trying to get it to fasten onto the car seat itself was VERY difficult and it didn't seem as though it would stay securely fastened in the first place.
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