Solid, well made seat that's a bear to install
March 17, 2020
I agreed to test a harness-to-booster car seat for the Stellar Product Testing Panel because my son is 5 and getting pretty big for his convertible car seat (Britax Pavilion). I didn't know which brand we were getting, and I was very excited to see that we received a Britax - both of my kids have been riding in their Britax convertible seats since they were newborns. I've always thought Britax makes some of the best car seats out there. And when we took the seat out of the box, it didn't disappoint. The Grow With You Harness-2-Booster Car Seat is attractive and it feels solid. I pulled out the manual to see how to adjust it for my son and he was excited to try it out. It was easy to raise the headrest to adjust the harness, I easily moved the bottom buckle outward, and was pleasantly surprised to see that there's a simple recline function. Meanwhile my son was telling me all the things that he was going to keep in the 4 cup holders! My son is almost 40 pounds, so we got ready to install the seat using the lap-shoulder belt, since the instructions say not to use LATCH when the child is over 45 lbs. We assumed we'd be installing this and leaving it for a long time and we didn't want to forget to switch over to the lap-shoulder belt installation.
Well, my husband, who is our resident car seat installer (and has installed at least 7 different kinds of car seats dozens of times), went out to the car with the seat and didn't come back for a long time. He came back and claimed defeat. He said no matter what he did, the bottom of the seat just didn't feel securely installed using the lap-shoulder belt method. So I went out and tried, and I found the same thing. One of the bottom edges of the seat would feel pretty well installed, and the top felt pretty solid since we were using the tether anchor, but the other bottom side just seemed to move a ton even when we tightened it as much as possible. We normally install the seat in the middle row of our mini van and I even tried the seat in the back row as well as the middle row, with the same result. Ultimately, we just didn't feel comfortable having our son ride in the seat. Maybe someday we'll find someone who can install it more securely, but even then I don't feel very comfortable using a seat that I can't install correctly myself - what if there's a reason for me to remove and reinstall the car seat when I'm on my own?
I think it's a shame that we don't feel we can use the seat because the seat feels so nice and solid, I'm not quite sure what we'll do with it. It also gives me pause that this version doesn't say it has a washable cover, while the more expensive versions do. A washable seat is definitely a desirable feature for me. A possible downside to this seat is that it's so heavy, much heavier than the travel harness-to-booster we bought recently to travel with. But our Britax seats have always been heavy and it's never been a problem because they've always just stayed installed in our car. If I were purchasing a seat like this, I'd definitely try one of the higher end versions of this seat, one of the ones with a washable seat that comes with ClickTight installation. My second son's Britax convertible seat came with ClickTight and it's really a very easy and secure way to install the seat. I don't think I could recommend this version, though.
This product review was collected by the manufacturer.