Review: iCandy Apple

This was the first pushchair I ever bought and I’m embarrassed to say it was before I was even pregnant! I had been scouring eBay for bargains (never a good idea for a shopaholic) and this one was local and cheap.

iCandy make premium pushchairs and it certainly looked the part, if a little worse for wear being secondhand. My model came with a plush red footmuff which I continue to use today. I loved the ability to change the seat unit to rear-facing and the adjustable handlebar which came down comfortably low enough for my short 5’1″ stature.

Most importantly, it handled pretty well on bumpy woodland trails and country lanes – we love to go on rural walks and didn’t want this to be a problem with a pushchair. The rear wheels have sprung suspension so my son wasn’t jostled around too much on our trips out.

For the first few months of Sprogzilla’s life, the Apple was used exclusively with the Maxi-Cosi Cabriofix car seat. As we approached the six-month milestone, he moved into the regular seat. With the footmuff attached, he was nice and snug with no slack on the safety harness. However, the bumper bar was pretty much useless, being extended a little too far out from the seat to be of any use to hang his toys and certainly not possible for him to reach.

It’s quite a bulky buggy, but folded up adequately to fit into the Citroen C3 we had at the time. The folding mechanism is incredibly fiddly, I got my hubby to do it wherever possible. It’s pretty heavy too and I certainly wouldn’t want to use it on public transport. It’s not necessary to remove the seat unit if in forward-facing mode, but it will make the chassis shorter if you do. This model came with an interchangeable 4-wheel and twin 3-wheel setup as standard – the latter is basically two wheels close together acting like a 3-wheeler. To change the wheel set, you need to fiddle about with a screwdriver, so bear in mind this isn’t something you can do on a whim.

On old models such as mine, there is a bizarre issue where the chassis causes store security alarms to go off as you pass through the doors. Apparently this is something to do with the precise tubular shape of the frame. iCandy offered early customers an accessory to attach to the frame that would prevent this occurring, but there’s no guarantee a used one will come with this.

I started to become really disappointed with my purchase when making some upgrades. iCandy do not permit online/distance sales of their products (even accessories!), so I had to purchase any extras in person from my nearest retailer 25 miles away. The alternative is to buy used via eBay, though second-hand accessories are like gold dust. iCandy also don’t allow their prices to be revealed online, extremely frustrating when you’re trying to work out what you can afford and whether or not you’re getting a good deal.

First and foremost, I wanted to buy the newer jogger wheel (£50) as it’s larger and handles better on uneven terrain. Or that’s what I was led to believe….. The jogger wheel has been nothing but trouble with an incredibly annoying tendency to get stuck at an angle just when you are trying to push the buggy forward. To get around this, the front of the buggy needs to be lifted up and shaken so the wheel falls back into place. Not ideal in the middle of a busy supermarket and I don’t exactly like the idea of shaking my baby around either!

The second problem came when I decided to buy a flavour pack (£55) which consists of a new hood and seat liner in redcurrant. My black hood was looking a little tired and I wanted to spice it up a bit. I was assured by the retailer that there would be no compatibility problems with my older model, but on getting it home I was not happy to find that the hood connector was a completely new design. I was then advised to purchase a new seat unit from them at a further cost of £60 if I wanted it to work. After no small amount of contemplation, I decided to go ahead and order the replacement part, but after a month of waiting on iCandy to deliver to the store I gave up and cancelled. I didn’t fancy the 50-mile round trip to take the flavour pack back, so popped it on eBay. At least I got back what I paid for it, being snapped up 10 minutes after listing!

iCandy products are generally considered pretty cool pieces of kit, but I have noticed more and more of them around lately. So if you want something a bit exclusive then it may not be the pushchair for you. It’s also not cheap to buy new, coming in at £500+ for the basic pushchair and over £1k for a special edition package. You can find plenty of used ones though and at reasonable prices – mine was just £180 complete with the carry cot and footmuff.

The iCandy Apple is an attractive, high quality pushchair. If buying new, confirm that any problems I have mentioned are no longer an issue. If on a tight budget, look on eBay or other used sites such as Gumtree. Condition of used models is highly variable, so take care before you buy.

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