Sleepypod Pet Carriers Pass Standards Used To Test Child Safety Seats

Sleepypod, which makes carriers for small and medium sized pets, has long touted the safety of its carriers for travel. Now, the company has put its carriers to the test, hiring its own crash tests to be performed by the U.S. Department of Transportation and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This is a highly unusual step for a manufacturer of a pet product line, particularly in these times when there are so many irresponsible companies producing pet products.

The original Sleepypod, one of four models tested for car safety

There are no standardized tests for measuring the safety of travel restraints for pets, but the government has standardized requirements for child safety seats in the U.S. Child seats must pass a 30 m.p.h. frontal crash test, so it seemed comparable to test the Sleepypods in the same way, using comparable generic pet travel safety systems as controls.

All of Sleepypod's pet travel restraint systems (Sleepypod, Sleepypod Air, Sleepypod Atom, and Sleepypod Mini) were tested with Max, a weighted stuffed toy, inside. And all of Sleepypod's travel systems passed as 'crash worthy,' meaning that the Sleepypods and their contents remained in the same condition before and after the crash tests.

Sleepypod 12-pound weighted 'Max' was used as a test dummy.: image via sleepypod.com

The control tests included an unrestrained plastic generic pet carrier containing a 12 pound Max, which hit the barrier with 2000 pounds of force. Interestingly, with no pet carrier and unrestrained, Max hit the barrier with 650 pounds of force, showing that an unrestrained pet carrier performs worse in a crash than no pet carrier at all.

"The Sleepypod carriers softened and dispersed a tremendous amount of force and kept the dogs safely inside the cushioned interior,” says Michael Leung, one of Sleepypod’s co-owners and product designers. “The before and after shots are almost identical. Other carriers that claim to be safe in car seats could not even remain in the test seat in lower speed collisions.” Leung adds, “Testing our products provides data to further improve our designs to keep pets safe.”