Review: Combi Flare Lightweight Stroller

We finally had enough of our giant Graco stroller. It was such a pain wheeling it around small clothing stores. So the other day we went looking around for an inexpensive but high-quality umbrella stroller. We ended up deciding on the Combi Flare Lightweight Stroller in Mandarin.

What we like:

Its appropriate for children from birth all the way up to 55 pounds. The seat reclines to nearly flat, and moves up to a position that Anderson finds very comfortable. On our last cheapo umbrella stroller, Andy was reclined a little too much so he hated it.
It weighs 11.7 pounds. Compared to Andy, you don’t even notice the weight of the stroller.
It has a carrying strap. After you fold it up, you can toss it over your shoulder and you’ll barely notice its there.
The handle is nice and tall. One of our requirements was that I had to be able to push it without kicking the wheels. At 6’2”, its hard to find a stroller that fits the billing, but this one passes with flying colors.
The safety bar in front. This was actually one of the factors that sold us on the stroller. We just like having something in front of Anderson when he’s in the stroller. That way we feel like we don’t have to buckle him in every time we use the stroller. With the safety bar, its quite a struggle for him to escape (which he has not yet successfully done).

What we don’t like:

Two hands are required to fold up the stroller. Strangely enough, the sample stroller we tried at the store only required one hand. But when we got the box home, it was a two-handed version.
The two-step fold is a little confusing. After you fold the stroller once, you sort of push the outside towards the center where it catches together. Yes, it does make the stroller very small, but it also took us a while to figure out how to do and undo this mechanism, and there weren’t really any instructions to speak of.
The front wheels get “stuck” when turning sometimes. I’ve noticed that after you go backwards for a few feet, you can’t immediately push forwards. Instead you have to go in a little circle to one side first. Just a minor annoyance, and something we didn’t notice until we had Andy sitting in the stroller.

Andy loves this stroller. I think it gives him a nice comfortable and smooth ride. He’s even taken to asking us to open up the car so we can get it out for him. If you’re looking for a nice umbrella-type stroller, I can definitely highly recommend this one, even with the few faults that we’ve found.

June 4, 2008

Review: Combi Flare Lightweight Stroller