iCandy Peach Review from Harrogate Nursery Fair, 2011 by Jus

When I set off for Harrogate, I thought the Mountain Buggy Duet would be the star of the show, the pushchair that would excite me the most, because it seemed perfect. But as a turned a corner, I was lured in by the shiny metal of my favourite ever single pushchair – the iCandy Peach.

I really loved my Peach as a single, but I still remember like it was yesterday, the horrible sinking feeling as having spent the best part of £1000 on a tandem pushchair, I knew it would never work for us with a toddler and baby.

I had spotted that the second seat didn’t sit upright and when I sat my then 15 month old in the seat, she instantly started screaming like mad whilst frantically pulling herself upright as far as she could.

But as I looked at the iCandy Peach in front of me I had that horrible sinking feeling again as I saw that my favourite ever single, had had a major redesign and the back seat NOW SITS UPRIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not only that but the two seats are THE SAME WIDTH, and the two carrycots are THE SAME SIZE too!!!! I have to say I was absolutely delighted to see the changes that I had longed for, but I was OH SO gutted that I had no chance of us buying another Peach again, and me finally being able to enjoy pushing the Peach as a tandem.

We were fortunate enough to bump into the technician / designer of the Peach alterations. He knew about my online comparison website with the City Select . Funnily enough only this week, I had read on the internet that apparently I was employed by Baby Jogger to write that piece! I have to categorically say here and now that I wasn’t! I simply had both pushchairs in my house at the same time and thought it would be a useful exercise to compare the two.

But the technical team had listened to feedback, both from my website and other people and had ACTUALLY done something about the issues! I was very very impressed!

The technican (apologies for not knowing your official title if you read this!), explained how little by little they had lengthened the pip convertor to give a bigger space between the seats which means that the back child can actually get a view of something other than the back of the seat. He was at great pains to tell us that the Peach fully passes the British Standards entrapment test to stop a child being trapped between the seats. The longer convertor also means that now two Maxi Cosi Pebble seats will fit onto the chassis. They were apparently too large before. You can also now extract the car seat from the back WITHOUT having to remove the front seat to do so. There is even space for the car seat to fit at the top front, parent facing, with a child reclined at the bottom at the back, although whether in reality you would want to do this or not is a different question!

Having the carrycots the same size is a massive massive improvement. With the current Peach you need the lower carrycot for tandem use – this is tiny and most babies seem to grow out of it by about three months old. You are unable to put the smaller carrycot centrally for single use – for that you would have to buy the larger carrycot. The price of the Peach is expensive enough without buying two carrycots for the few occasions in the first six months when as a parent of two, you may not need a second seat..and the lower carrycot on the pip convertor just looked plain silly without the second seat! But now you CAN put the carrycot in any position – front, back or middle! Hurray!!

Other smaller details are just as important. The foot rest bar on the lower seat has been removed. I think this was a safety issue but the lower seat was much shorter and the footrest was also shorter so I guess this would be more comfortable for the child as well. One of the complaints of the Peach has been that the seat units were small, especially the back one. I have to say, when I had my Peach, I had a tall 20 month old (in 3 year old clothing) and she was very comfortable in the Peach, and had head room. Yes I had to get the extension straps but she fitted well in the seat. Yes I admit there was more room for her in the Baby Jogger City Select seat (which is what we replaced the Peach with), but she had adequate room to grow in the Peach. I also had spotted in the shop that it was possible to remove the seat liner to give more room. The only downside of that was that the seat pad was fixed with velcro and the soft half of this fastening was on the seat unit. So I was delighted to see on this new version that the seat pads are now clearly removeable, and also that the straps were longer as standard! The bumper bar on the lower seat has also been removed (and one can not be fixed on) to allow for easier manoevering of the child in and out and also to pass the safety tests. The seats are tested to hold up to 15kgs of child per seat. We were told that the seats would probably hold more weight but they only needed testing up to 15kgs. I tried pushing the Peach up and down the kerbs in the hall (admittedly with no children) and it was lovely to do because kerbs are so hard with the Baby Jogger City Select (but it really is the only negative of the City Select TBH)

I am a pramaholic – I admit it – and whilst practically the Mountain Buggy Duet IS as near the perfect pushchair as you can get, and the City Select gives me a feeling of excitement as I decide which position the seats should be in for any given outing, a piece of my heart was left with my shiny chrome Peach Blossom when it got sold….and I do wish I had had the chance to use this version of the Peach Blossom with my children in. But sadly this version of the Peach won’t be hitting our UK shores for some time yet. My belief is that it is going to be launched in the US next year and then the UK market will follow after that! Thats a long long way off for what seems like just a longer pip convertor, same size seats and same size carrycots!!!!

PLEASE iCandy, consider bringing the new Peach Blossom to the UK sooner!!!!!

PS We have photos of the new Peach Blossom in various modes but we are awaiting further information so please DO come back again!