Lightweight Strollers

What really are lightweight strollers?

Ok, how hard can it be? You’re looking for lightweight baby strollers so that’s pretty specific right? Just type in your search to Google and you’re going to come up with everything you need to choose the right stroller for you, right? Wrong. Well not wrong but, trust me it won’t be as simple as that and here’s the reason. Everybody wants a light stroller because, let’s face it, life is tough enough, and certainly short enough, without buying some beast of a machine that takes three of you to lift in and out of your vehicle. You’ve got a baby in one arm, shopping in the other and you don’t need to waste energy pushing junior in his tank of a stroller, so of course you want a lightweight baby stroller.

So what you’re going to find is that all the popular manufacturers are going to advertise themselves as lightweight, trust me I’ve looked, worn the T shirt and bought the buggy. And they won’t actually be lying to you, if you’re looking for a triple stroller (God help you), lightweight double strollers or a robust all terrain model then they may well be light weight considering the nature of the product, but they won’t be nearly as easy to cope with as the old iconic Mcclaren stroller that comes in at 6kg. By the by, Mclaren are one of the few manufacturers who really seem to stay focused on producing very light products and, perhaps, this is one of the reasons that they are seen to produce the best lightweight stroller and are enjoying quite a lot of fashionable success in the streets of many major cities.

So first why don’t we try to define what is and what isn’t light weight? The only way I can think of to answer this, in a way we all might understand, is to compare a stroller weight to a certain number of bags of sugar! If I’m correct then you guys in the US buy your sugar in five pound bags and in the UK we buy one kilo bags, make of that what you will! Anyway I guess we all have a sense in our muscle memories of what a bag of sugar weighs. So let’s look at some typical types of light baby strollers and see how many bags of sugar they weigh. I know, I’m crazy, but it works for me!

The typical and truly lightweight strollers

Ok, first up is what I would describe as the basic lightweight pushchair. They may be very fancy in design and materials, they may have a hood, shopping bag, adjustable handles and the rest, but they are slim and simple and designed for maneuverability on easy terrain and have been around since Owen Maclaren developed his first prototype back in the seventies. Any stroller of this type should weigh between 10 and 15 pounds, that’s up to 3 bags of sugar for you guys in the US and up to 7 bags for you Brits. Feeling tired thinking about it? I hope not, that’s pretty light and if you don’t fancy shifting that kind of load then you might have to rethink the whole concept of having a baby in the first place!

I should point out that there is a very wide choice if you’re looking for this type of toddler stroller. Despite the fact that they all offer more or less the same thing there is a huge difference in price which is essentially dictated by the products good looks, brand name and, to a certain extent, the quality of materials and accessories. I say “to a certain extent” because, whilst I believe that you do pay more for a quality produced product, I do doubt that there is such a difference in quality to justify a price difference between a Chico stroller for around $60 and a Maclaren stroller for $250.

All the rage at the moment are these high tech designs with their futuristic good looks and their ability to do everything short of make you a cup of coffee. Straight forward push chair or pram or car seat carrier they do it all. They also look and, indeed, are more robust with meaty wheels and more comfy padded seats. You can give these models a good run around in almost all types of terrain and environments. They do though come at a price, literally, as they tend to be pricier than their slim framed cousins. They are also heavier, quite a bit heavier. Despite the light weight aluminum or carbon fiber materials they’re made of they are still over twice as heavy as the others.

You can expect to be lugging around something between 15 and 35 pounds (7 and 15 kilos). So now how attractive is it to lift between 4 and 7 bags of sugar (US)? Really take your time to consider your usage. How often are you going to be taking your lightweight stroller in and out of your car? How many crowded shopping malls and streets will you need to negotiate? Pay special attention to the listed weight of the strollers for sale, especially of a lightweight double stroller…and good luck.