Umbrella Stroller Review

Umbrella strollers: plain and fancy

Although we found many magazines and websites that make stroller recommendations, two reviews top the Our Sources chart as having the most credible, thorough tests. The excellent book "Baby Bargains," by Denise and Alan Fields, relies on parent and manufacturer interviews, hands-on testing and manufacturer histories of build quality and recalls to assign product ratings to umbrella strollers and other lightweight strollers. ConsumerReports.org tests strollers, including several lightweight umbrella strollers, for ease of use, maneuverability and safety. Both publications are reasonably up to date, but "Baby Bargains" covers nearly every brand available in the U.S., and generally goes into more detail about each brand's stroller lineup and performance history.

We found some excellent stroller reviews outside of the U.S., including those at consumer magazines such as Which? magazine (in the U.K.) and Choice magazine (in Australia). However, many of the strollers reviewed there aren't available in the U.S.

Some excellent reviews come from parents who -- like Denise and Alan Fields of "Baby Bargains" -- started with their own obsessive baby-product research. StrollerQueen.com's Janet McLaughlin has personally owned dozens of strollers and reviews them on her website. Hollie Schultz tests strollers with her three small children and posts lengthy video reviews at BabyGizmo.com. New York Magazine publishes a great test by Faye Penn and her baby son, Ezra, who try out nine strollers in the obstacle course that is New York City.

In all, we studied reviews from more than two dozen sources for this report. User reviews are very helpful, as parents sometimes discover problems with strollers that don't show up in expert tests. We found plenty of retail and user-review websites, but Buzzillions.com and Amazon.com attract the most reviews. Other sources are helpful in a more limited way. For example, Babble.com and People.com's Celebrity Baby Blog -- both aimed at trend- and style-conscious parents -- have roundups of the latest stroller models, but neither source goes into much detail about how strollers are evaluated. Mainstream parenting magazines are less helpful than you might think; Fit Pregnancy and Parenting magazine both publish articles recommending a variety of strollers, but they don't back up their picks with any testing.

Umbrella strollers are lighter and more compact than the models discussed in our companion report on full-featured strollers. Umbrella strollers usually offer spring-action folding, but they have far fewer convenience features (such as cupholders and larger baskets); they're less stable and durable than full-featured strollers, but also less expensive. Also, lightweight umbrella strollers don't usually recline fully, and thus aren't appropriate for newborns up to 3 months old, who need to lie completely flat -- there are exceptions, including the fully reclining Chicco Liteway (*Est. $125). For slightly older babies, however, it's often easier to use a lightweight umbrella stroller, especially after packing a diaper bag, snacks and toys.

The vast majority of parents say that a cheaper umbrella stroller, like the Kolcraft Tour Sport (*Est. $50), is indispensable, and many moms and dads say they quickly abandoned their more expensive strollers for less fancy (and less costly) strollers like the Kolcraft Tour Sport and the similar Chicco Ct0.6 (*Est. $75).

On the other end of the spectrum, we found reviews of higher-end umbrella strollers like the Maclaren Quest (*Est. $225), which includes amenities such as a peek-a-boo canopy window and an extendable leg rest -- as well as Maclaren style and brand cachet, of course.

Finger amputations prompt recalls of Maclaren and other strollers

In November 2009, Maclaren recalled all of its strollers in the U.S. -- every Maclaren stroller sold in the U.S. between 1999 and 2009, about a million strollers in all -- after 12 U.S. children reported getting their fingers or fingertips amputated in Maclaren hinges. The New York Post reports that Maclaren knew about the problem as early as 2004, when a Connecticut family sued Maclaren, saying their toddler had his right pinky cut off in a Maclaren stroller (the lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount of money).

Even after it started issuing protective hinge covers to U.S. customers in 2009, Maclaren failed to provide the covers to its U.K. customers, the Daily Mail (U.K.) reports -- even though "it subsequently emerged that many British parents had reported injuries." In May 2010, Maclaren agreed to pay compensation to 40 children who had their fingers amputated, broken or otherwise harmed by Maclaren strollers, although the company does not admit liability.

"Baby Bargains" has recommended Maclaren strollers for years, and "this is the first we have heard of finger amputations," the authors write on their Baby Bargains Book Blog. "But clearly, Maclaren has known about this for some time. While they failed to take the simple step of covering the hinges to prevent this problem is puzzling."

Still, "Baby Bargains" has not yanked its recommendation of Maclaren strollers, and neither has a leading ConsumerReports.org. Shortly after the recall, ConsumerSearch reviewed parent comments on a variety of blogs and found that many parents intended to keep using their Maclaren strollers, even before they got their retrofit hinge covers in the mail (the hinge covers are already included with every Maclaren stroller currently on U.S. store shelves, the company says). Because experts and users still recommend Maclaren, we include a Maclaren stroller as one of our Best Reviewed picks.

After Maclaren recalled its strollers, other manufacturers with similar hinge mechanisms followed suit. Graco recalled some of its older full-featured and travel system strollers (not umbrella models) with five reports of children's fingers being amputated. Cybex recalled its Ruby, Onyx and Topaz strollers to add similar hinge covers after one child reported a finger fracture. The Britax Blink (*Est. $150) has also been recalled to add hinge covers, although no injuries have been reported.

"In general, strollers present risks to young children," ConsumerReports.org says. Falls and head injuries are the most common, "but with the recent Maclaren recall, fingertip safety is now being brought to light," ConsumerReports.org adds. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, "In 2008 alone, strollers were responsible for an estimated 12,400 injuries to children under age 5 -- more than any other baby product." Maclaren actually meets current federal stroller hinge safety guidelines because the hinges are tested only in the open position. ConsumerReports.org says it will now test strollers for safety when opening and closing, and it calls on the federal government to do the same.