Zeta Vooom

  

As Baby A gets older, I needed to make sure that I am happy with the pushchair I have for him to take out with us. Up til now I have used the Quinny Zapp chassis with his Pebble carseat on it as it’s easy and convenient and ideal for short trips to the shops, but for a day out it isn’t suitable to leave him in his carseat for too long, and the Zapp isn’t great off road. My normal pushchair, the Maxi-Cosi Mura Plus, is great for all terrain and has a lovely big comfortable seat, but it is a chunky beast and getting it into the boot of my car is awkward, as I have to remove the rear wheels from the chassis and lie the seat unit over it in a certain way to make it all fit. It doesn’t leave any space for bags which means I can’t do any shopping, and if we’re going out for the day it means I have nowhere to put the picnic bag, the change of clothes you inevitably need when you have two young boys, so I wanted to find something suitable for us to use.

I did my research, as always, and found that a highly recommended lightweight buggy was the Zeta Vooom. I liked what I saw, and I found it for an excellent price from Baby Travel, which included the Footmuff. I made my order for the Vooom in the Ocean colour, and waited for my delivery.

When it arrived it was in a tall, slim box and I wondered how it had fitted, but as an umberella fold pushchair it doesn’t need much space. The only thing I had to do was add the front wheels and it was ready to go.

The sun canopy is vast. It covers very well, with an extra piece at the front that can either offer additional protection or which can be held back with a toggle if it isn’t needed; it’s a wonderful size and offers brilliant coverage regardless of the recline position the seat is in. The seat offers four recline positions, each easily achieved by the simple buttons either side of the seat back.  The most reclined position is almost a lie flat, making it perfect for naptime.

There’s a small viewing window in the hood, so you can peep in and see if baby has fallen asleep and recline them if necessary while you’re out and about.

 There is a very good size shopping basket as well as a pocket on the back of the sun canopy drop which is perfect for your purse, mobile phone and keys and feels much safer to me than putting them in the shopping basket.

The front wheels are swivel wheels, making the turning circle very small, but if you want to lock them in position you can do (great for off road) by clicking the switch on the top of each wheel unit. The handlebars are foam covered and very comfortable to grip – you can push the Vooom with one hand no problem and you don’t feel like you’re fighting against it. As Baby A is still only a year old, he has the seat up at the front because his legs aren’t long enough to dangle comfortably, but you have the option of having it set up or down, depending on the side of the child.

The seat itself is a nice quality, with padded harness covers and plenty of adjustment in the harness to make is suitable from new-born up to 15kg (around 4 yrs old) The fold is nice and simple and the pushchair collapses down to a long, slim size ideal for stowing in the car boot. There’s a transport clip to hold it all together once folded, and a carry handle on the side of the chassis making lifting and carrying it when folded much easier. I am so impressed with the nice touches on this pushchair, the thought that has gone into it, for such a low price. The Footmuff is also lovely – it comes with a headhugger, which you’d use if you were using the pushchair from birth, and the headhugger and inside of the Footmuff is a lovely soft fleece fabric, making it feel very cosy and comfortable. The front of the Footmuff can be completely unzipped, so you can also use the back of it as a seat liner if you prefer. I think I’m going to take advantage of that when we start using the pushchair more often for days out, as it’s easier to remove a liner and wash it than it is to try and clean the pushchair seat fabric itself.

This pushchair is almost perfect – very nearly almost perfect. It has a couple of downfalls, which may just be me being fussy, but there you go.

-    - The seat unit doesn’t go parent facing. Now Baby A is a year old this isn’t such a massive thing, but personally I do prefer the option, and I’d never use anything for a new-born that wasn’t parent facing.

-      -  The brakes are a bit iffy. They’re very basic press on / lift to release and you have to press on with quite a bit of force to get them to engage properly. The first couple of times I thought I’d put them on they hadn’t quite clicked in properly so they weren’t holding the back wheels still.

-    -  The raincover is a bit pathetic. It goes over the handles and over the sun canopy beautifully and I had high hopes for it, but then the front of it doesn’t fit around the pushchair seat very well and there are Velcro strips to do up around the chassis near the front wheels to hold it in place which I can see being a faff to put on in a downpour and which won’t stop a kicking toddler from getting the raincover off. Since the size of it isn’t great, it leaves a gap between the seat and the raincover down both sides, so in particularly wet weather it isn’t going to keep your baby completely dry.

-      -  The wheels are plastic and they look a bit cheap. I don’t know how long they’ll last. They don’t make that awful rattly sound that some pushchair wheels make, but I don’t know that they’ll do many miles before they need replacing. We’ll have to see.

On the whole I am very impressed with this pushchair, and very pleased with my bargain purchase. For what I paid the pushchair is excellent, and it meets my needs for it. Once we’ve done a few more trips out with it we’ll see how well it fares but at the moment I am very satisfied with my Zeta Vooom and would encourage parents looking for a compact stroller to check it out. Delivery from Baby Travel was prompt, though the courier reference number they gave me didn’t work when I spoke with the courier they were able to track the parcel and tell me when it would be delivered, so that was all good.

I’d give this lovely little pushchair a four out of five.