Quinny Yezz Out and About Review

*EDIT* It is a few months since I wrote the review below. The Yezz has travelled all over with us, including on holiday, and has been very useful for both our children. However today the Yezz tipped with our now 24 month old son in it. The Yezz was on a flat surface, with nothing on the handle. Our son was sat calm and still in the Yezz watching me. The Yezz somehow then tipped backwards – we have no idea how. There was no protection for his head or back, with just the thin fabric between him and the floor. Our son is pretty calm natured. If this could happen to him, it could well happen to a child who is more lively. We are very shocked and wanted to post this warning before you go ahead and read the review that we wrote.

The Quinny Yezz is an incredibly useful pushchair. When I first saw the Yezz, I suspected it would be excellent for holidays, public transport, visits to restaurants, cafes, swimming or even the theatre where space to park or store a folded pushchair are restricted. I desperately wanted one for our family. But that was until I saw the price! At £175 plus £25 extra for the raincover, I have to say I felt that the Yezz was really overpriced for a pushchair that really to the user is very basic, and as Quinny themselves say is a fibreglass frame, with fabric similar to a paraglider’s, with skating wheels and climbing rope!  That is not to say that we dont fully appreciate the technology and the design that has gone into this amazing little pushchair, because we do – we suspect it was technically very difficult to achieve!! However thanks to several online discount codes we acquired our Yezz for £140 which to us felt a more acceptable price.

The Quinny Yezz however is proving a very useful little pushchair for us. Its main use for us is on the nursery run. It is so easy to simply press the button hidden in the Yezz handlebar which releases the mechanism so that the pushchair unfolds itself and stands upright on 3 wheels. Then it is a simple press down on a footplate at the rear to lock the pushchair into place. The push with the foot is quite a firm one and is best done with some shoes on. However we have easily managed to open the Yezz whilst sat down (with child sat on lap) and to lock the mechanism using one hand. This all literally takes seconds and you can be unfolding the Yezz whilst getting other stuff out from the car!! It is also very useful for times where we need to transfer a child eg into a shopping trolley, and the Yezz can be then slung into the trolley or onto our back. We also use the Yezz in places where we need a small folding pushchair to store eg in a cafe. The Yezz is a perfect car pushchair. It is so easy to open, use, close and put in the boot. It is also a great pushchair for an older toddler who wants to walk for part of the way but may need to be in a pushchair for parts of the outing, or simply for a ride home when tired at the end of the day.

When you open the box of the Yezz, you literally get the fibreglass chassis with pre-stretched climbing rope attached and what feels like very strong quality kite fabric. It did take a while to set the Yezz up. I did have to seek Mr BB’s help in places as the loops which are used to attach the fabric to the chassis are inflexible solid plastic. They did require strong fingers to push them on! But it was not hard to do. We absolutely love the bright colours of the climbing rope – they are so pretty and are a fabulous attention to detail by the Quinny design team.

There are really no frills on the Quinny Yezz. There is no padding, no shoulder or crotch pads, a minimal hood and no basket. However the Yezz is unlikely to be your only pushchair. Part of the beauty of the Yezz and its design is the simplicity. Even just not having to battle with shoulder pads is actually a relief when in a hurry!

Seat, hood, footrests and harness:

The Quinny Yezz main seat is huge – really large. The Yezz may well take the award for the tallest seat we have measured to date at a huge 58.5cms tall. As you can see in the photos, even our tall (102cms) 3.6 year old looks very comfortable in the seat! The seat is strong and taught when the pushchair is upright. There is a small but adequate hood with a tiny flick out visor. It may not seem much, but it was useful for our older toddler. There are two places for little feet to rest. First of all there is a footrest, which is a good depth. However our older toddler preferred to place her feet on the front of the chassis. There is no danger of her feet obstructing the front wheel.

There is no recline but due to the good sides, we suspect an older toddler could nap fairly well in the Yezz. Personally we only use the Yezz for short outings with our youngest (21 months) because we do not feel he would be supported enough should he fall asleep. Although the Yezz is apparently suitable for a child aged over 6 months, I would recommend using it with a child over 12 months old who is likely to stay awake for the time you are out and about.

The harness is basic and functional but it works. The buckle requires both pieces to be put together to lock. The buckle is quite low on a child which may make it easy for a young Houdini to escape from the arm pieces. The harness can be adjusted very simply by using the sliders. This is fab when you have two children of different ages using the pushchair. The one concession is that when you initially adjust the harness (for the eldest child) you also need to thread the harness through the buckle at the rear of the pushchair to neaten it up. When switching between siblings, if like me, you do not have time to faff say if you are on a school run and find the pushchair is set up wrong, then sliding the buckle up on the front works fine but it does leave a loop (see photo). This is no issue at all. The height of the harness can be easily adjusted by simply posting the rear buckle through to the front of the pushchair, choosing the correct harness height hole of the 3, and then posting it back through to the rear and lying the buckle flat again. Simple but effective.

Wheels and manoeuverability:

The wheels are amazing! The Yezz uses skating wheels to make it super responsive and brilliant to handle. It pushes our 3 year old around with ease. We had such huge fun spinning her around and weaving in and out really fast. Brilliant!! I dont think there is another pushchair with such awesome manoeuverability and speed. However, as I am sure will be appreciated, the best terrain for the Yezz is a hard surface. We had a real shock when we went into a shop with a carpet and I promptly drove the Yezz into a display stand because the manoeuverability had been lost! It was quite hard to push on the carpet and has been difficult on grass too. But the Yezz is not built for either, and to be honest, I wouldn’t expect it to cope with anything other than a smooth surface. However I have read reports of the Yezz handling cobble stones well, but equally of the Yezz wheels getting stuck down drain holes in town! But the beauty of the Yezz is that it folds very fast, one handed and is light enough then to simply lift and carry, so that if necessary eg to go on a beach or down an escalator, then it is no trouble to fold and carry the Yezz whilst still holding your child’s hand.

The fold involves flicking the locking footplate back up and then simply pressing the button situated in the handlebar very firmly whilst pressing downwards. The Yezz simply folds down and autolocks. Then if you wish (and also depending on exactly where the hood ends up because it can vary!), the handles can be flicked down to make the package smaller.

Weight, fold, carrying and brake:

The Yezz is extremely light – just 5kgs. Quinny claim that it is light enough for your toddler to lift up. I have to say our tall 3 year old fell over when I asked her to try to hold it (dont worry we caught her!) so the child in the Quinny photos must be super strong or much older! But yes the Yezz is very light. There is also a useful carrying strap on the rear of the Yezz. So it is relatively easy (the strap is quite taught) to sling the Yezz onto your shoulder and off you go. I have to say I really am not keen on carrying anything on me when walking – not even a handbag – but I was keen to see how easy the Yezz was to carry. So part of our shopping outing test was to take our toddler out part way through the trip, see how easy the Yezz was to fold in a shop, and then carry the Yezz on my back whilst juggling my handbag, shopping and the toddler.

I have to say, it was all no problem. The Yezz folded up with one hand as I put PIN number in with the other at the cash till. As you can appreciate the Yezz is solid carbon fibre, so not very forgiving on your back, but after rotating it around a few times, I found carrying the Yezz no problem at all. I carried it for quite a while and at no point felt like I wanted to put the Yezz up again and push it instead. That to be honest is quite a compliment from me. I carried the Yezz upright on my back on that occasion, but since then I have tended to sling it horizontally across my back. I was surprised to find that there is no travel bag to date for the Yezz, because a small bag with some padding – to protect the adult as well as the pushchair – would make the Yezz comfy to carry on an all day outing. We have managed successfully to carry the Yezz in a rucksack though.

The Quinny Yezz is one of only a handful of pushchairs that can fit in the small space that is in our car boot when the roof is down. So the Yezz would be great for anyone with a small boot or tight storage space at home. I do worry about damaging the Yezz though. In the boot of the car – well in our car! – things are being constantly put in and out – lunchboxes, shopping, other pushchairs, and I am being very precious about the Yezz. I can see the Yezz being superb for a holiday abroad, but there is no way that I would allow the Yezz to be put in the cargo hold for the journey, especially in the absence of a quality travel bag. I really think this is something that Quinny need to address.

The Yezz is also very very strong – I was very surprised when I first saw the Yezz because there really is no give in the chassis, even when a heavy child sits down. The Yezz will freestand when folded which we are finding really useful. In the photos above there was a very strong wind blowing and yet the Yezz amazingly stood up against it all. I have heard a report of the Yezz being tippy, but in our experience we have found the opposite. It is actually well grounded. The main difference to the Yezz than most other pushchairs, is that the handlebar is straight up in the air. Thus instead of pushing the Yezz forwards, a mere touch as you lean down onto the handlebar will set it in motion. Thus the downward movement by the adult stops keep the Yezz firmly on the ground. I will confess that I do lean on pushchairs slightly at times, and the Yezz suits me perfectly because there is no way I can tip the front wheel off the ground! The ultra manoeuverability of the Yezz means that it really does drive itself with minimal effort by the adult just to keep it on course.

The brake is a really easy – step onto the right hand side pedal – marked red – to lock and then step onto the left hand side – black – to release the brake. It is easily visually to see that the brake is on as well as feeling the pedal depress.

Storage:

It is very difficult to hang a bag from the Yezz handle, as it impacts on the hood of the Yezz. But as the photos show, I did hang my light handbag over the hood. There is a good sized pocket on the rear of the Yezz seat – this however is restricted by the upright rear bar, so that should too much be put into the pocket eg a coat, then it will push into the child’s back once the pocket reaches the bar. It is worth saying this because something hard or a collection of objects eg camera, purse, keys etc collectively may actually dig into the childs back making it uncomfortable. It may well be, that the raincover will fit in the pocket, but we did not buy one.

Raincover:

Talking about the raincover – I have to say our Best Buggy team were all incredulous when they saw the blue raincover cover for the Yezz. The Yezz comes in such beautiful bright jewel like colours so why cover it up with a pale blue Smurf outfit?

We often review pushchairs that turn heads, but this raincover has provoked more strong reactions than anything else to date. Some quotes from the team were: “It looks as though the Yezz has been prepared for an operation. The raincover reminds of a surgeon’s scrubs” ; “It reminds me of the scene in ET where they find him and they are all in those suits like astronauts”; “Space age raincover” “It makes me think of a crime scene being covered up”; “Its like a baby boil in the bag – the child will look like a chicken ready to be cooked!”; “It makes it a ballet slipper on wheels!”; “Is it a pram or a canoe?”; “You would get laughed at walking down the street”; “The pale blue clashes with the bright colours of the Yezz”; “Its ugly”. For me, it just reminds me of the Smurfs! I am afraid I could not bring myself to buy one, and none of the team said they would buy one, nor would they pay £25 for one!

On top of the negative reactions, the RRP for the raincover is £25 which is a lot of money for a raincover especially when you consider the Maxi-Cosi Noa and Quinny Zapp come with a raincover as standard. I think to be honest, its the additional cost of the raincover which does make the overall price of the Yezz feel steep.

In Conclusion:

Leaving the raincover to one side, the Quinny Yezz is superb. It is a highly manoeuverable, small, easy folding pushchair with a huge seat. The hood is minimal, there is nowhere to store more than a few small items and there is no recline. But as an occasional or ‘nip from the car into somewhere’ stroller, then the Yezz is superb. We honestly thought (given we have a Noa and Baby Jogger City Mini) that the Yezz would never get used. But on the contrary, the other two pushchairs have been gathering dust and the Yezz pretty much lives in the car! We love the Yezz!!