How to find and read a car seat expiration date label
Every car seat sold in the US carries a label that tells you when it was made, and most tell you exactly when to stop using it.
Flip the seat over or check the back of the shell. Federal rules require a label showing the date of manufacture, and most brands add a second line with the expiration date or a useful-life statement. If you only see a manufacture date, add the brand's stated lifespan, usually 6 to 10 years, to get the expiry.
Where is the expiration label on my car seat?
There is no single standard spot, but each brand is consistent with itself. Start with the bottom of the shell, then the back, then under the fabric cover near the top.
| Brand | Typical label location |
|---|---|
| Graco | White sticker on the bottom or back of the shell |
| Chicco | White label on the underside of the seat |
| Britax | White sticker near the top of the shell, sometimes under the fabric |
| Evenflo | Date-of-manufacture label on the side or bottom of the shell |
| Nuna | Printed on the bottom of the seat shell and on the base |
| UPPAbaby | Sticker on the underside of the carrier and base |
| Safety 1st / Cosco | Molded into the plastic shell or on a white label |
| Diono | Label on the bottom or back of the seat |
| Peg Perego | White stickers under the seat |
Infant seats usually have two labels, one on the carrier and one on the base. Check both. The carrier and the base can have different manufacture dates if you bought an extra base, and each expires on its own schedule.
What if the label only shows a date of manufacture?
Plenty of seats, especially models made before about 2015, print only a DOM. In that case you calculate the expiry yourself:
- Find the date of manufacture. It may read as a full date (03/14/2019), a month and year, or a Julian-style code.
- Look up the brand's useful life. Graco allows 10 years on most current seats, Chicco allows 6 years on infant seats and 8 on convertibles and boosters, Britax ranges from 6 to 10 years depending on the model, and Clek allows 9 years across the board.
- Add the lifespan to the DOM. A Chicco KeyFit made in March 2021 expires in March 2027.
The lifespan is stated in the manual, usually in a section called "useful life" or "when to stop using this seat." Lost the manual? Every major manufacturer posts PDFs online, and our brand pages for Graco and Chicco list the current numbers per model line.
How do I decode a stamped date wheel or clock?
Some shells, common on Dorel brands like Safety 1st and Cosco, carry a round molded stamp instead of a sticker. It looks like a small clock. The number in the center is the year. The arrow points at the month, numbered 1 through 12 around the rim. An arrow at 7 with 22 in the center means July 2022.
Other seats print a code like 190314, which usually reads year, month, day (March 14, 2019). If a code is ambiguous, the model number plus the code entered on the manufacturer's support page will return the exact manufacture date.
What should I do once I know the date?
- Not expired: write the expiry month somewhere you will see it, or set a phone reminder. Then register the seat with the manufacturer so recall notices reach you. NHTSA's car seat pages link every brand's registration form if you are unsure whether you ever did.
- Expiring within a year: start watching for sales and trade-in events. Target's trade-in typically runs each spring and fall and gives you 20 percent off a replacement.
- Already expired: stop using it and retire it properly. Our guide on disposing of an expired seat covers trade-ins, recycling and how to make the seat unusable first.
If you know the manufacture date but not the brand's rule, the checker on our home page does the math for you: pick the brand, enter the DOM, and it returns the expiry date with the manufacturer's source.
Why does the label matter more than how the seat looks?
A seat can look showroom-new and still be past its useful life. Plastic weakens through years of temperature swings inside a parked car, and the seat may predate standards updates. The label, not the appearance, is what fire departments, CPST technicians and airline crews will check. That is why manufacturers put the date on the shell itself rather than only in the manual: the shell stays with the seat even after covers are replaced, and a missing or unreadable label is itself a reason to retire a seat, since you can no longer prove what you are strapping your child into.