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Joolz Geo Mono and Duo Review by Best Buggy

The Joolz Geo has absolutely blown us away! We will confess that when we first saw the Geo, we were not sure about the lower seat in Duo mode, but having used this pushchair over the last few months, we think it is fantastic. We would love now to keep it because it is amazing to use!! The Joolz Geo is one pushchair that we have absolutely fallen in love with! The Joolz Geo is one of the most beautiful, most smooth to push, most luxurious, robust and best quality pushchairs we have ever had here at Best Buggy HQ.

Seating Options

The Joolz Geo comes as a single pushchair, which can then be converted into a double pushchair.
In Mono, the Geo box contains the pushchair chassis; seat frame; carrycot and pushchair seat fabrics; and a large shopping basket.
The Geo can easily be turned into a tandem pushchair for a second child or to carry twins from birth by adding on a second seat or carrycot.
The Geo can be turned into a travel system with the addition of one or two car seats.
There is also the option of adding the Joolz Footboard onto the Mono, for an older toddler to ride along behind the Geo in Mono mode.

The Geo Mono can be used with either carrycot, seat unit (facing either way) or car seat.
The Geo Duo (for siblings) uses the main seat for the eldest child and a lower carrycot or seat or infant carrier for the youngest child.
The Geo Twin can have two carrycots, two seat units or two infant carriers or a combination of these e.g. car seat on top with carrycot or seat underneath; or carrycot on the bottom and seat on top; or infant carrier on the top with seat or carrycot underneath.

First Impressions

The first thing which really hits you is the quality and finish of the Geo. There are few pushchairs which are as well finished, and feel as luxurious, as the Joolz pushchairs. The fabrics are strong and good quality, with details like the metal hood rim and a sturdy harness. The handlebar and bumper bars are covered with stitched leatherette. The chassis is solid, and all round you can see why the Joolz Geo is a premium product.

The basket has to be a huge selling point for any parent. It is absolutely enormous. We will discuss more about the basket later, but you can not help but notice it!

We are experts in double pushchairs, but in particular tandems. Having the experience of using many different tandems, gives us the ability to compare ease of use and push. What was most refreshing about the Geo is that there are NO adaptors required to convert the Geo from single to double mode. The basket is removed, and the seat and carrycot simply drop into position underneath the upper seat. Bearing in mind that we had no instructions, the Geo was simple to work out.

We absolutely loved that the Geo is so compact – just 83cms long when open which is actually 5cms shorter than the Joolz Day! So, although the Geo looks large, it is perceptional. We have had the Geo next to an Uppababy Vista and the length is very similar.

We especially love that the Geo will fold with both seat units left in position to form a neat package, which can be easily lifted into the car. The Duo fold is no bigger (although a little heavier) than in Mono mode, and is just 5cms longer than the Joolz Day when folded as a Duo. It is a really refreshing change to have a tandem with no adaptors or pieces which need removing to fold. The main / upper seat remains in the same sockets as it does in single mode, the lower carrycot or seat simply drops into position onto ‘pins’ on the chassis.

Child Comfort and Hoods

The main seat of the Geo in single mode can be forward facing, or can be turned parent facing. It looks beautiful with the seat forward facing, however, if the basket is left in situ, a rear facing seat does look a little odd!  Although the basket space is compromised, there is still plenty of space left for bags! There is always the option to remove the basket.

The Joolz Geo has very comfortable padded seats. The main Geo seat is relatively high and is surprisingly large and roomy. Master BB, at 4 and a half, and 100cms tall, fits into the seat really nicely with his head underneath the canopy, and importantly, his feet and legs look very comfortable. There is good depth to the seat for an older child. Equally our younger testers also look comfortable in the seat units. The Geo is a pushchair which will last the duration, for all your children.

The upper seat is reclined using the two round buttons either side of the bumper bar on the sides of the seat. There are 3 recline positions including an upright position and a lie flat position. The main seat hood is huge, and has a flick out sun visor. The rear of each hood can be lifted up and folded back to allow air flow through hidden mesh. There is a velcro tab to keep the flap closed when not required. Both hoods are lined. Our only issue with the main hood is that the side clips ping off very easily. They slide back into position easily.
We like the wide fabric footrest on the upper seat, although the foot area in both seats can get dirty easily.

The lower seat is highly unusual. It is a seat which has a two position back rest which gives a fairly flat sleeping position, and a more upright, slight incline position. The child has their legs out in front of them, instead of pointing downwards. At the start of our review, we were unsure how well the lower seat would work for a toddler. Surprisingly, none of our children minded being sat with their legs out, or only having a partial recline. In fact, the children were fighting to sit in the underneath seat, which is something we often find with tandems. Children never do what you think they will!
The seat back is altered by using two buttons on either side of the seat. The seat does have a ‘bucket’ to the seat, thus it is suitable from 6 months of age, as the child’s bottom sits lower than their legs i.e. it is not lie flat.
The young boy in our photos is nearly 2 and a half years old and is small for his age at 88cms tall. He still has a few cms of space before he reaches the end of the lower seat unit. Our children (except the smallest) had to duck underneath for us to pull the small hood up. We found the lower seat was a useful transition from a carrycot for our smallest baby as he reached 6 months.

It is possible to have the main seat parent facing with a lower carrycot or seat on, but Joolz don’t recommend this in case the top child kicks the lower one. However, we can’t see how a child in the main seat would kick a child certainly in carrycot mode, but this is for you as a parent to decide how you feel about it.

If you have siblings, your eldest is highly likely to be walking by the time the second child reaches the age of 2, at which point the youngest child can use the main seat and the toddler can walk or use a Joolz Footboard. The lower seat may be more of an issue for tall twins who will reach a similar height at the same time. However, we think you will still see your eldest child wanting to try to bag the lower seat for a ride because it is fun! It would be more exciting if advantage is taken of the toy loops, which are stitched onto the rear of the main seat, and toys were hung for a child to look at.

Harness and Bumper Bar

The harnesses and buckles are great – plenty of adjustability for a small or a large child, even with a thick winter coat on. The harness has been easy to alter – both at the front, but also the shoulder height settings. We especially like the way the harness pads can be velcroed behind the seat covers, to keep them in position at the top of the child’s shoulders. We have never seen this before, and it seems to work really well at keeping the harness pads where they need to be. We also love the covered buckle. A neat touch. The harness itself is chunky and easy to use. The webbing is slightly shiny which makes it comfortable for a child without it sliding. The buckle can break into 5 parts if desired, but not easily, which is good.

The upper seat has a beautiful textured stitched leatherette bumper bar – we think these bumper bars, along with the matching handlebar are defining features of Joolz style. Joolz do offer a personalisation service called MyJoolz where a customer can choose the bumper bar of their choice and then it can be laser engraved with a name if you wish. A neat idea, however we are not so sure about having our child’s name for the world to see, but we know many parents do like to do this. The bumper bar can swing open from either side, and will stay open whilst a child gets in and out. The protruding handle at the front of the pushchair has been useful as a step into the high front seat in both single and tandem mode.

Probably my biggest issue with the Joolz Geo is that I personally, found it impossible to remove the upper seat. The buttons were too hard to press in, and the seat was then too difficult pull apart from the chassis, and I had to ask Mr BB to help me turn the seat around for the photoset. This the only pushchair that has defeated me! This would only be an issue if the seat is rear facing and needed folding. The seat when forward facing does not need to be removed to fold. The lower seat uses a completely different technique to fit, and has been simple to get on and off.

Basket and Raincover

The XL basket is definitely one of the big advantages of the Joolz Geo. The HUGE basket absolutely swallowed my handbag up leaving masses of space for shopping and other items. It can hold up to 15 kgs of weight. The rear of the basket can be lowered via 2 buttons into 2 further positions to assist with access, which is very useful especially in carrycot mode. It was very easy to fit a large changing bag in and out of the basket. This pushchair really is a shopper’s or picnickers paradise! It will carry everything you want for a day out.
The basket removes quickly using two squeeze buttons, and there are carrying handles. It is a very eco friendly way to shop – use the basket over your arm around a supermarket, and then fill it back up again at the checkout, and click it back into position to travel home again. There is a downside though – you can’t get too dependent on the huge basket if your plan is to eventually use the Geo for a second baby. Once the baby arrives, the basket can only be used in your hand, as the carrycot needs to fix into the basket space. Joolz are good at storage solutions, and they recently launched Sidepack panniers for the Geo. We did see these at the Harrogate Nursery Show (with french bread sticks in them!) here if you would like to see the size and what the Sidepacks look like.

There is a raincover for both upper and lower seat units / carrycots. However, these are additional accessories, which considering the overall cost of the Geo is a little cheeky of Joolz not to include them. They come in very smart matching pouches which fix onto the pushchair (one is hanging off the chassis in the raincover photos). As the photos show, the raincover was a little space age. We will confess to not being fans of the coloured fabric as it really hides the beauty of the pram. However, it did fit on very easily though, and the raincover has got a peekaboo window with an opening in the middle to allow ventilation.

Wheels, Handlebar, Handling and Brake

Our first outing with the Geo was across some really rough grassland with hidden lumps, bumps and dips. We weren’t sure how well the smaller front wheels would cope with the tricky terrain. However, a simple press of the button above the wheels meant they fixed into the locked position and off we went. The wheels went straight across the field, through gravel, and glided across mud. The rear air tyres and four wheel suspension cushioned the ride, and all round the Geo was bliss to push. After that outing, everything else was easy! With the wheels set again to swivel (simply locking the wheels on and off was a joy to do), the Geo was great to handle around shops, and even on the bus. Whether there was one child on board, or two, the Geo was a delight to manoeuvre or lift up a kerb. As always with air tyres we would recommend adding Slime to them to prevent punctures. The rear wheels do pop on and off fairly easily, although the button to release them is hidden by the frame when folded. The front wheels also come off easily. With the rear wheels off, the Geo is smaller when folded.

One of the big advantages of the Geo is that it is extremely compact for a double pushchair. The wheelbase is a single pushchair size, however, the way the frame rises up some way from the front of the chassis, does make the Geo look longer than it really is at the front. However the Geo makes up for this by being tidy at the rear, with no overhang beyond the handlebar. One of our first questions to the Joolz rep was whether customers kick the back seat. The rep was over 6ft tall and he showed me how he doesn’t kick the lower seat, and neither does tall Mr BB, nor myself, nor none of the parents who tried the Geo out did either! Brilliant!

The handling was superb in tandem mode, even one handed. Tipping the Geo up kerbs was no problem. It felt beautiful to push. The air tyres meant that the Geo felt relatively light to push. It was certainly smooth!

Our handlebar is beautifully stitched with leatherette and is stamped with the Joolz logo. We love this handlebar and it has been lovely to push, although one tester did say that the stitching had rubbed her hand a little which she found uncomfortable. Again the handlebar can be changed to one of your choice by using the MyJoolz service. The handlebar is adjusted using two flick levers on either side of the handlebar – press these down and pull the handlebar at the same time to extend or lower it. The Geo has a very adaptable handlebar which goes down low or very high. This should suit anyone and give anyone good room for walking behind the Geo even in tandem mode.

The space between the pushchair and the handlebar also makes it easy to add on the Joolz Footboard in single mode, so that an older toddler can hop on and off. We are not fans of toddler boards, but we could walk easily without catching the Footboard, so the Geo gets a huge thumbs up from us as a good pushchair to add a toddler board onto. We did try the board in Duo mode, but the photos in our Geo photoset, show that it does not fit.

The foot brake is situated on the right hand side near the back wheel. It is a simple flick on and off brake pedal.

There is one detail at the front of the Geo which may be missed: this is the handle to help lift the Geo up and down steps. This is a neat touch which has indeed made it easier to lift the Geo up when necessary. It is also useful to stop parents accidentally bashing their child’s feet on shop displays etc. as they steer – the front of the pushchair will make contact before the child’s legs get hurt. Some of the children also used this handle as a step to help them clamber up into the front seat. As one of our photos shows, Little Miss BB also found this handle a useful place to perch to watch a display at a show. A small detail but a good piece of design by Joolz!

There are wheel guards available for when the Geo is in use in tandem mode. These come with the pushchair (see photoset photos) These clip on very easily at the front and rear of each wheel and prevent a child from putting their fingers in the wheel spokes as they turn. However, as our photos show, the child in the lower seat is relatively high above the wheels, and with the harness tightly done up, we felt that our testers were unlikely to put their fingers in the wheels. It is great that Joolz considered this though, and we recommend fitting them in Duo mode.

Newborn Options

The Geo carrycots are built from the seat frames. The Geo comes with the frame, seat fabric and carrycot fabrics. These are then attached to the frame to create the seat or the carrycot. The hood is the same one as is used for the pushchair seat. Our carrycots came pre-built, so we are unable to comment on how easy they were to build.

Thanks to our little baby tester, we have had opportunity to explore the upper and lower carrycot options. He was 4-5 months old (50th centile) in these photos and it is clear that even in the smaller of the two carrycots, he has loads of room inside. The carrycots both fold flat for storage, and both have hard bases and plastic feet, so that they can be used on the floor. There is a thick mattress in both carrycots covered in a breathable mesh. The main carrycot can be used for occasional overnight sleeping, the lower carrycot can not. The carrycot sides are padded. There is a thick zip on apron on top of both carrycots. There are velcro tabs under the apron, which make the carrycot look neat and tidy when the zip is closed. The bumper bar from the pushchair is used as the carrying handle for the carrycot.

Travel System

The Joolz Geo can be used as a travel system with the addition of optional car seat adaptors. A car seat can be placed rear facing in the single position, or another car seat can be added forward facing into the lower position, so that newborn twins can be safety transported. A car seat can also be left in the upper position with a carrycot or lower seat unit underneath. The Geo can take a Maxi-Cosi Cabriofix or Pebble; a Cybex Aton; a BeSafe iZi Go; a Kiddy Evolution Pro 2 and Evo-lunafix. We needed advice about where to fit the lower car seat adaptors – they do not fit on the silver uprights of the chassis, as you would expect! They fit onto the black part of the chassis below where the basket usually sits. They have to partially cover the black plastic to be seated correctly. The car seat has to be lowered into position from underneath the handle. The lower car seat adaptors or the upper car seat adaptors can either be left on the chassis when folding. Both sets could be left on together, but the chassis will not lock and you run the risk of damage to the adaptors. However, this is useful to know.

Fold / Unfold

The Joolz Geo will fold with one or both seats forward facing.

It is noticeable in the photos of the Geo in the car boot just how compact the Geo folds even with two seats on. There is no additional height or bulk whether you have one seat left on, or two, because the lower seat hides underneath the lower seat. The fold locks in the same position. The Geo is a little wider than some of our single pushchair (but not much) but lengthwise, it is considerably shorter than some ‘compact’ light pushchairs!

In single mode, the main seat can be left on to fold when forward facing, along with the basket. When rear facing, the seat needs to be removed or turned round to fold. The carrycot needs removing to fold too. The two rectangular buttons (beneath the round seat recline ones) need pressing in to release the seat or carrycot. As mentioned, I found these extremely difficult to do. The seat or carrycot, drops simply back into position on the sockets when it needs refitting.

The upper / main carrycot drops simply into the main position. However, I struggled once again to press in the buttons to remove the main carrycot. I would find this frustrating if I needed to carry a baby asleep into the house in the carrycot, although it would be easy for us to wheel the pushchair into the house.

The lower carrycot and seat can be fitted from the front or from behind the pushchair. Standing at the rear, tilt the carrycot or seat up to about a 45 degree angle. Hook it onto the pins at the front of the harness and then drop the carrycot or seat down to horizontal until it audibly clicks. The carrycot is a little easier to fit from the front, before putting the upper seat on, however it can be done from the rear.

Removing the lower carrycot and seat is simple, however the baby or child from either of the seats or lower carrycot before removing! Half way along the carrycot or seat are two white squeeze buttons. With these held in, the head end of the seat or carrycot needs pulling upwards to be lifted free of the pins. The carrycots can be used off the chassis for a nap or a nappy change.

To fold the chassis, or the pushchair with forward facing seat(s) on, there are two buttons situated half way down the handlebar. Simply squeeze these in and the chassis slides neatly down onto the base of the pushchair. The handle is best lowered after folding to ensure it clears the main seat hood. The Geo rests nicely on it’s four wheels, thus will not get scratched when folded. It would have been really neat if the Geo would freestand when folded. However, we have been unable to manage this. The folded Geo does take up a fair amount of floor space, but it will also wedge into a gap. It has been possible to tow the Geo along when folded. It is quite heavy to lift and carry otherwise (13.3kgs Mono mode or 15.1kgs Duo mode).

Packaging

Not all our items arrived packaged, but we need to mention that Joolz pushchairs usually come in cardboard boxes which have great patterns marked out so that you can make interesting items with your child from the packaging – whether it is a boat or a bird. Even the smallest boxes which we received had a pattern marked out. We love Joolz’s ethical and ecological approach, and that Joolz plant a tree for every pushchair registered after purchase.

In Conclusion

The Joolz is a truly versatile single to tandem pushchair with its multiple-options for all ages and stages – whether it is bought for a first baby, and then added to for a new arrival, or whether it is for twins from birth to three. There are so many options including carrycots, seat units, infant carriers and the Footboard. All the modes work brilliantly, and the Geo is easy to handle, and is a joy to use and push. We love how simply the different parts slot onto the Geo chassis. The quality of the Geo and the robustness, makes you want to love using it – it has been an absolute pleasure to use and so beautiful to look at.

In Mono mode, the Geo is difficult to fault. It is a bigger pushchair, but not overtly so. It is chunky and works great off road, however, it will be just as happy in a shopping centre or pulled up next to you to a table in a cafe. We just find parent facing a little odd to look at, but that is of little consequence if this is the way you wish to use your Geo. The seat is large, and the basket is amazing.

As a Duo, the Geo is a compact tandem, both when open and folded, and this is a big advantage if space is an issue e.g. small car boot or if you use public transport. However, in the house, you do need floor space to store it. Being able to leave two seats in situ when folding is so useful. However, the downsides are that there is no basket space when in Duo mode (although panniers can be added, which do add to the 60cms width). It pushes well with two children on board.

My only personal issue is that I have struggled to remove the main seat and carrycot, however whether this could be an issue for you, is something to try out for yourself in a stockist. The other parents had no problems.

All round the Joolz Geo has been fantastic. We always love it when a pushchair surprises in our real life testing, and the Joolz Geo certainly has. We have great pleasure in awarding the Joolz Geo a Best Buggy 5 gold star rating for both single and tandem modes. Well done Joolz!

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