Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Mommy Tip Tuesday

 Mommy Tip Tuesday! And today I am talking about my favorite stroller!

Philand Teds Explorer Double Stroller

This is my all time favorite stroller! I researched a lot of double strollers when we found out that we were having a second baby and they all seemed really big, bulky, heavy, and had bad maneuverability. 

My sister-in-law has a Graco Duo Glider and I pushed it around the Discovery Museum one day and I hated it! It would not turn and I kept running into things! It shouldn't require that many muscles to push a stroller. I promised myself that I would never buy that stroller because it was awful to push. 




Nicole in the stroller and Daniel patiently waiting to be put in.
After doing all my stroller research, I looked up the price of the Phil and Teds stroller and was shocked that it was $600 dollars! And, the second seat was another $99. And, if I wanted to customize it with things like the bar that allows the carseat to snap in and the parent organizer on the handle, it would cost even more. It was most definitely out of our budget.

So, what did I do? I lamented about in on my blog and posted a picture of the stroller that I felt was most definitely out of reach. And, to my surprise, I got a response to my post. My friend from college, Angela, had a Phil and Teds that she wanted to sell to me for the low low price of $100. I jumped on that offer!


Nicoley's fake smile
So, I purchased the stroller from Angela and then hopped on the Phil and Teds website to customize my stroller. I bought clips to put the second seat on the front of the stroller, the parent organizer for the handle, the carseat bar, axles for the wheels (because the axles were a bent and the wheels scraped the frame) and tire tubes (the wheels were flat and wouldn't inflate) and I only spent another $100 dollars. So, I got the exact stroller I wanted with all the extras for only $200 dollars! Awesome!


Nicole in the back seat and Daniel in the front.

I love this stroller because you can use it as a single or a double. The second seat snaps on and off the back of the stroller. Plus, you can use it with many different carseats (my carseat is Graco). 


If you have sleeping baby, the seat has a full recline. You can also put kid number two on the front of the stroller rather than the back with sleeping baby in a full recline right underneath seat number two. 

The stroller has great manuverability; it turns so easily. And, it is all terrain; it will run smooth on pavement, grass, woodchips, whatever! 





The only draw back to this stroller is that when the second seat is on the back, you don’t have a basket because that is where kid number two’s feet go. But, you can always buy the storage bags that snap to the sides if you need more storage space. But, I have the parent organizer, so I haven't needed any more storage space.
 

I love this stroller! I can't say enough good things about this stroller. I love that I was able to buy it used and upgrade it. Most cheaper strollers do not have the option to replace parts, but apparently, when you buy an expensive stroller, they have that option.

There are other good strollers out there, and my Graco stroller worked great when I just had one kid, but this is my favorite double stroller.

Another reason why I love this stroller, it is tandem. The double strollers that are side by side are huge and there was no way we would be able to fit them in our little cars. This stroller fits easily into our trunk and actually has a smaller fold than my single Graco stroller.

So, if you have a ton of money, buy this glorious stroller when you have one kid and then purchase the doubles pack when you have a second coming. You can also find this stroller on KSL used sometimes for half the price you would pay for it new.

For more Mommy Tips, go to my sister's blog here.

2 comments:

Jasmine said...

I'm still partial to my BOB double stroller, which I will admit is pretty bulky and would definitely not fit in the back of a small car, but that does look like a great stroller. It's a bit if a punch to the wallet, but I think it's so worth it to invest in a high-quality double stroller, especially if it's a jogger. (I hated the duo-glider, too. I borrowed one from a friend till we got our strollers, and it was terrible!)

Angela said...

I'm so glad you love it. When we bought it it was the most expensive thing I had ever bought and that's when I learned you get what you pay for. It was worth every penny.