I had my 4 year in the iCandy and he was very comfortable – he wasn’t supposed to be in it, his 2 year old sister preferred the buggy board! I don’t think your toddler will grow out of the iCandy.

I am finding this website really helpful and I was wondering if anyone could help me with some advice. I am torn between a icandy peach or apple or a phil & teds. I think the icandy is winning but the only thing that is putting me of is the icandy looks as if a toddler would grow out of it quicker than the phil and teds. Does anyone have any experience of this or any advice would be greatly receivied. Thanks!

I have been reading all the threads about the iCandy with great interest. I have a 4.5 month old and am trying to decide between the McLaren Techno XT stroller and the iCandy Peach.

I am torn! I hear nothing but great reviews about the McClaren: compact, easy to use, does birth to toddler, durable and great customer support.

However I also like the iCandy as the child can face me and because I can put a second baby (which we hope to have soon enough) in its car seat, so I can go out with both of them. But I have read a few threads on this and other boards where people have shared their experiences of terrible customer support and technical problems with the products.

Have iCandy upped their game, are they worthy contenders to the McLaren?

Adele

- Travel system inc. carrycot and infant car seat
- Reversible seat
- 3 all-terrain wheels (I see you can buy a special all-terrain wheel for the Buzz) – I live in the countryside and it would need to be suitable for uneven footpaths, fields etc.
- Small enough to fit in the boot of a Fiat Panda (I realise I might have to take the wheels off to do this)

Also, I would probably be buying on eBay – is there any way I can tell for definite whether the Apple has the old or new chassis?

Thanks very much

Many thanks!! x

I use the Lascal buggy board on it with my 3 year old (he bumps his head on the large knob quite a lot) but it seems to have to be set at the max width and I wonder how strong the setting is…? Sometimes the buggy board comes adrift and – very annoyingly – when going down kerbs with the buggy board on, the brake sometimes goes down and I have to lift it by hand. You can’t operate the brake with your foot when a child is on the buggy board and this is a serious problem. I had a very near miss with a runaway buggy one day when the buggy (with baby) rolled off a kerb into a parked car and tipped over … it makes me feel ill and panicky to remember this but the baby was totally OK. Thank goodness for the Maxi Cosy car seat straps and sides. I am so paranoid about this now that I have attached a strap to the handle to wrap round my hand, Bugaboo style.

My personal love / hate list re the Apple:
- strong, robust, good coverage in all weathers (important in Scotland!), great for offroad walking, handles cobblestones, paths, hills and kerbs easily, LOVE the basket (I get a whole week’s shopping in there with clever packing on my hands and knees in the supermarket!), height adjustable handle is fab for tall folks, very warm, looks good, takes a lot of hard wear and tear.

on the down side:
- takes up a lot of space when collapsed, esp in car boot (in fact, it took up all the space in the boot of a small hire car one unfortunate holiday); steering is terrible (I am totally used to it now and I woman-handle it with brute force to get that damn front wheel to go the right direction but everyone who offers to push it soon hands it back to me. Two poor grannies find it impossible and get in a real panic crossing the road! This is a serious pain to deal with, and almost impossible to manoeuvre round tricky bits involving corners, slopes and kerbs with the 3 yr old on the buggy board – but that is more the general buggy board issue I guess); it is hard to ‘bump’ up and down steps if they are very narrow as the wheels are so big, again a problem in Edinburgh sometimes; the inability to collapse it easily with one hand on a bus means we often have to let buses go as they only let you on with folding buggies; and next… this is a real biggie for me as it can totally scupper your trip out: the air filled wheels seem prone to puncturing so I always carry the pump with me. We have mended and replaced the inner tubes on both wheels many times but to be fair, this only happened after about 3 years of use so probably my fault for weighing it down too much.

Another thing I don’t like are the 2 plastic rain covers: the one for the Maxi Cosy car seat just blows off in high wind as there are no attachments to secure it! They clearly didn’t road test this model in Scotland in the winter…

One other weird thing: why are the straps in the pushchair seat so long? You can’t shorten them nearly enough for a baby who has grown out of the car seat but is not yet a toddler. I don’t get it.

My final grumble relates to handling again: it is very hard to push with one hand unless going in a straight line. I have to be very creative when I have 8 month old baby in the Apple, basket filled with shopping and the toddler walking beside me holding my hand. I use my free forearm across the bar handle so that I can lean down on the handle when I need to turn a corner and I push it with my body weight that way.

The carry cot doubled up well as a cot for my first born – there is loads of space in it. In fact, way too much space for a tiny newborn: I had to roll up blankets around them to stop them sliding around inside it on the move.

Lastly, I just bought a hook to clip on to the bar handle so that I can quickly clip on my handbag or extra carrier bags. It means you can carry extra stuff and it took me years to figure that out! LOL. Never had any issues with it tipping over.

So my personal conclusions after years of use are that the Apple is great quality and very robust. Particularly good for people with storage space for it at home and cars with good size boots. Also good for country, city and all weathers … but you might want a lightweight folding buggy too.

Even after all these complaints, I am still really pleased with it and very much hoping to get another 3 years of service from it!

Hi Karen , TBH I wouldnt bother with the carrycot my youngest was a prem and only fitted in the yellow carrycot of the pear for about 2 weeks as there is a bar running over the babys legs on the inside I didnt like ( best have a look at one when fitted to the seat unit) Or get the blue carrycot and have your 2 year old in the smaller seat my eldest still fits in the yellow seat a 2 1/2 yrs old. I used the car seat with the pear more as i got both yellow/blue adaptors and my eldest loved sitting int he yellow seat facing forward and her brother in the car seat facing me , she could sort of see her brother . The car seat on the pear makes life easy when your out and about as getting two littles ones out of the car and happy can be a struggle if your on your own.
kind regards AJ

You can use the Apple seat on the pip converter (it takes one Apple seaet and one slightly narrower Pear seat which I think you buy in the upgrade package).

The Apple carrycot will fit on to the main chassis without the pip converter. In theory it will also fit into the pip coverter but then I don’t think the second seat unit would fit as the carrycot is too deep – anyone know any better?

Isobel

Thanks