J. Van Kirk:

I want to start this review off with an acknowledgement that this is the first time I have EVER in my life left a review for a product. I very much appreciate other people’s reviews, but I never seem to find the time to leave my own. However, I felt this was very important to go out of my way on this one. Particularly in that this is a newer product.

I really REALLY wanted to like this product. I love the idea of the air pockets and still think they have GOT to help in the event of an accident. But barring the very unfortunate and very unlikely case of an accident, the daily functionality of this seats…(excuse my language) SUCKS. Allow me to start with items ranking from high importance (might be deadly to child) to low importance (the convenience of using this seat).

1. The harness straps were VERY if not impossible to tighten evenly on our 10 mth old daughter. My other car seats (I have 2 kids, so between ours and visiting relatives, we’ve used tons of different kinds) are fixed mounted down under each of my child’s hips…meaning each harness strap has an equal length as you are tightening it (this is good). This seat has one connected strap that connects under the seat, which means that you tighten, find out that one side has more slack, adjusting a little down by the hip or under the child’s bottom, working that up through the shoulder, then tugging on the strap behind the seat to make sure it is tight. Hard to explain, but trust me on this….it is a terrible design, hard to use, and is not at all safe if your child is not evenly and firmly restrained. Which I’m telling you is very hard to do with this seat.

2. OK, so barring the above image of my as a crazy woman tugging, adjusting, etc. for more than 5 min every time I used the seat for the almost 90 days that I had this seat, here are the other annoying things wrong with it….The small slot on the lower front of the seat where you press to loosen the harness straps (to remove your child from the seat) is almost impossible to access when the seat is rear facing. I have noticed that this is a common problem with some other car seats too. But something to be aware of now that States are often saying kids should stay rear facing for as long as possible (possibly up to 2 yrs old).

3. BOTH the chest latch and the harness latch are (SERIOUSLY!) almost impossible to open. I consider myself to be a pretty fit, nible, and patient person. But I have my limits. The chest latch closes no problem, but is sticks when you try to slide it open. It is almost as if they used a softer plastic than they should have in manufacturing. Ultimately, you have to press down hard with one hand and then using a thumb to push HARD on the opposing side, and then tug on it some, to open it. The harness latch release button is just plain hard to open. Way way way beyond the whole “Oh, we’ve made this safe so children can’t open it” No one can open it without throwing your whole body into it. The result of the above issues is that I spained my thumb trying to get my child in and out of this seat, which them made the seat that much more difficult to use. Life is too short for this crap.

This story has a happy ending for me. I realized I was just under the 90 day return policy for this and switched this for a Graco at Babies R Us. I could not be happier. PS. I’ve decided to also take other probably more useful safety measure – such as not talking on my phone while in the car – as further means to keep my children safe.

Rating: 1 / 5

Melissa A. Onofrey:

At the end of the day we have a carseats to protect out children. Convience and ease of use is important, but nothing matters more than keeping our children safe. A few days ago my car spun out 360degrees and flipped, landing upside down in the woods off the highway. After crawling to the back I easily removed my child and got him out of the car. Amazingly he didn’t have a scratch bump or bruise on him. The police commended the instalation (which I did myself following the directions, it took me about 30mins to get right the first time, after I got the hang of it, it was a five minute process, which we have done often because we move it between two cars)

Several days now after the accident, he is as happy as ever, showing no signs of any physical trauma(he did have a chest x-ray at the hospital)

I have kept my child rear facing even though he is 15months, It was one of the things I liked about this carseat was you could keep them rearfacing longer. While rearfacing the carseat does take up a lot of room and my husband doesn’t like sitting in the seat in front of it because it squished his legs (small price to pay for safety). I have never had a problem with buckling my son into or out of the seat or adjusting it to his size.

For me this carseat passed the ultimate test. I am so thankful for it and we will be loyal users for a long time
Rating: 5 / 5

K. Lukens:

I bought this because it SAYS it has the option to rear-face and I wanted to keep my baby rear facing for as long as possible. We bought this shortly after his first birthday and we could not figure out how to get it to rear face. It sits straight up and and doesn’t recline. My boy was pretty much strapped in with his head dangling forward because of the lack of recline. We were forced to put it forward facing. Now, I really don’t feel ok with him forward facing yet and I regret buying this seat.
Rating: 2 / 5