Britax B Agile Stroller With Car Seat Wobbly

Pushchair Review

Britax are a household name in the UK, building on a history of over 40 years, British born Britax produce a huge range of products dedicated to transporting your child in style and safety. Their pushchair pedigree is of the highest class, catering for a range of budgets and family situations they have a 'something for everyone' mentality. Not content with just the practical aspect of their pushchairs, they have worked hard to give stylish and contemporary colours and designs. One of their more popular pushchairs in recent times has been the B-AGILE, and Britax have been so pleased with it's popularity, they have now created a double version - the B-AGILE Double!

What's in the box?

• Pushchair
• Raincover
• Adapters
• Instruction book

The RRP of the Britax B-AGILE Double is £349.99

Colours: Black

Accessories:

• Baby-Safe RRP £99.99
• Baby-Safe plus SHR II RRP £129.99
• Soft Carrycot RRP £79.99
• Cosytoes RRP £51.99
• Changing bag RRP £41.99
• Pushchair Organiser RRP £20

The Chassis

The B-AGILE is a peculiar beast. In the world of side by side doubles it is a little bit hard to place. Considerably sturdier than an umbrella fold stroller, yet not as bulky as an off-road type the B-AGILE feels a nice mix between the two. This is largely because of the chassis; with a sturdy yet compact feel Britax have managed to create a slim and stylish no nonsense frame that does a great job of supporting two children whilst being easy to manoeuvre and handle in day-to-day life.

The pushchair feels wide, but clever kinking of the back axle mean that it is easy to fit through places without catching the rear wheels, the size is easy to judge and you feel in control when stood behind it. The height adjustable foam covered handle bar is comfortable to grasp, and due to the fold mechanism the space in the centre of the handle bar really helps you push it one handed; although never the easiest of tasks with a side-by-side double, it is infinitely easier to do being able to hold the centre of the handlebar.

Taller people would be well catered for with the B-AGILE Double, there is a good range of adjustment to the handle height, and the handle itself is well set back from the frame, giving you room for a longer stride.

The mesh sided basket is as good as can be expected, not massive for a double though and fairly shallow. Access is reasonable – from the rear or even the side. Britax have cleverly allowed the calf rests to unzip to give you a nice big access hole there too, although I think in reality, having to walk around the front to use it, the stiffness of the (potentially muddy) zips and a toddlers kicking feet might put you off using it.

The pushchair has four sets of wheels, with larger diameter ones at the rear and double sets at the front.  The wheels are a solid puncture proof material and should allow for a relatively easy push over smooth hard surfaces, there is some suspension at the rear which will give a smoother ride over the occasional bump. If you are venturing over rougher terrain, or pushing with one hand, the front wheels can be easily locked into a fixed position using a snib on the front of each wheel but I wouldn't recommend venturing too far from the beaten track. The wheels feel a little cheap and plasticy, but I am sure they would cope well with general urban use.

The brake is a foot operated pedal on the right side of the rear axle. Once engaged the brake locks both rear wheels, it feels reassuringly clunky and is easy to put on, although not particularly flip-flop friendly, and you need to firmly remove it otherwise it catches with an annoying 'clickclickclick' as you push it along.

To Fold

This is an interesting one for a side-by-side double; a quick and easy operation resulting in a nice compact fold. Firmly depress a small grey button on the side of the pushchair frame, then grab the straps located at the back of the seat bases on either seat and pull them upwards as if you were attempting to pick the pushchair up by them. Hey presto, the pushchair folds in half like a book and locks into place. You are left with an easy to manoeuvre relatively compact folded pushchair, that (if you have positioned the handle correctly) will stand alone and upright. To unfold just unlatch the auto lock and lift the handle until you hear it lock into place.

The Seats

The forward facing seats initially look a little narrow, but appearances can be deceptive because for a side-by-side double they are actually quite large. They are nicely padded and each one has its own hood and recline system. Something that is immediately noticeable is that the seat is fairly reclined even in its most upright position. This won't be to every toddlers taste, especially given the lack of a bumper bar. A further downside of this is that your children would find it difficult to see each other to interact, although in some circumstances this would possibly be a bonus!

When fully upright the mesh and fabric from the back panel can become ruffled up at the top of the seat, if you had a taller child they might find this annoying, although with a bit of straightening and smoothing you can tuck it all away neatly - not something you want to do regularly though. This fabric and mesh allow you to choose how to cover the rear of the seat when the seat is reclined. The recline mechanism is a slider/toggle style, with a one handed squeeze on the toggle to lower it to an infinite amount of positions, and then the trickier manoeuvre of lifting the weight of the child whilst sliding the straps back through the toggle, not the easiest  of methods and more than a little awkward here. A nice touch is the small pouch on the back of the seat that you can tuck the loose ends of the recline straps through to stop them dangling.

The seat is nicely padded whist the backrest is supportive enough for even a larger child to use comfortably, albeit a little exposed for a young baby. The harness is a webbing five point fully adjustable harness, and the crotch strap can be lengthened but not moved forwards or backwards. There are three shoulder height choices, giving a great range of options to keep everyone from the littlest baby to the tallest toddler safely secured. The harness buckle is a nice easy one, with the option to do shoulders and waist up separately. You need a really quite strong push to do it up though, and I would be careful of bare legs getting nipped in the summer. The button to undo is nice and large and just stiff enough to stop busy fingers undoing it themselves.

The calf rest on the B-AGILE is disappointingly non adjustable. Although supportive for older calves, it would have been nice to allow it to rise to give little feet something to rest up on, rather than poke out into nowhere. The calf rest itself is nicely padded, but as with all fabrics, I'd be expecting it look a bit worse for wear with muddy boots hopping in and out all the time, although the actual footrest is a nice easy wipe clean non-slip rubber, again though, the lower portion is fabric. The zip for accessing the basket from the calf rest is a great idea, but the finish is untidy, the end of the zip pokes forwards unless you actively poke it behind the seat when doing it up, as well as looking messy this would be annoying against a childs leg and could catch on tights.

The folding mechanism of the B-AGILE means that the folding strap is on the seat base, it's nice and smooth and shouldn't cause a problem for a child sitting on it, another aspect of the fold is that there are stretchy fabric parts on either side of each seat where the hinge of the fold lies, these cover the slots for car seat adapters to attach and are supposed to add to the neatness of the look, well they would if they didn't keep folding back on themselves, which has the opposite effect and  actually gives an untidy look.

The hoods on the B-AGILE double are great. With three initial positions (retracted, partially extended and extended) the hood further unzips to reveal a mesh panel in the middle, allowing the front portion of the hood to extend further forward and down, protecting little ones from the glare of a low sun. With the fabric back flap attached to the rear of the hoods there is a spacious zipped pocket on either one - great for stashing those bits and bobs that you like to have close by.

Although the B-AGILE doesn't take a separate hard carrycot, you can get a soft one to use within the seat as the recline is really very flat, although it would be really too exposed to place a newborn in directly without some other form of support. The B-AGILE can also take a single Britax infant car seat on one half of the pushchair, and the adapters for this come with the pushchair as standard.

Conclusion

The Britax B-AGILE Double tries really hard. It has all the standard features you could want in a side-by-side double, and a few extra bits like the access to the shopping basket, and central steering area on the handle bar. Despite there being plenty to like about the B-AGILE Double and not much to dislike, there's nothing really exceptional about it; no panache, no flair. The finish is a little off, with the ends of zips showing and untidy fabric panels, and the seats aren't upright enough for most toddlers, not helped by the lack of bumper bar.

However, it does what is says on the tin; a sturdy, suitable from birth side-by-side double with plenty of room and a clever fold. It's more useful than an umbrella fold stroller whilst still being light enough to be able to lift it in and out the car with ease, it has a great fold mechanism and the hoods give great coverage. At £349.99 it's reasonably priced, and should easily last you as long as you need it if you decide it's the one for you.

The B-AGILE double is a great double stroller esque pushchair. We would just love to see a little more style or as they say 'va va voom'.

We give the Britax B-Agile Double 4 out of 5 stars.

Specifications

• Height to handle bar: 75 - 110cm (10 rotational positions)
• Rear wheel diameter: 24cm
• Front wheel diameter: 16cm
• Pushchair width: 77.5cm
• Seat depth: 23cm
• Seat width (front edge) 30cm
• Back rest height: 47cm
• Height to hood:  54cm
• Calf rest length: 24cm (non-adjustable)
• Pushchair weight: 13.2 kg
  

Seat suitable from birth, carrycot and car seat options are available.

Britax B Agile Stroller With Car Seat Wobbly

Source: https://www.pushchairexpert.com/en/pushchair-reviews/the-britax-b-agile-double-review/

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