What a nice all-in-one car seat!
June 6, 2018
There are so many things to love about this car seat, particularly the safety features, versatility, and ease of installation and cleaning. The car seat looks very nice, and I love that it has a slimmer profile to take up a bit less space in the backseat of my SUV. I can definitely see the difference as compared to the other car seat we have been using. There is also quite a bit of nice padding, and when my 2 ? year-old first sat in it, she immediately said it was ?so comfy.?
My biggest priority with a car seat is safety, and this car seat seems to be top-notch in that area. The anti-rebound bar seems like a pretty smart addition to a rear-facing seat to absorb some of the impact from a frontal crash. The anti-rebound bar was packaged separately, but I just had to snap the bar into place before it could be used. Aside from the anti-rebound bar, there are some other very thoughtful safety features. The back of the car seat has a sticker to write in the child?s name, medical information, and emergency contacts. The sides of the car seat have really nice, easy-to-follow stickers that identify important safety checks like proper headrest height, harness positioning, recline positioning, and LATCH system positioning. There is also a handy little level on the side of the car seat to assist with proper rear-facing installation.
Another great feature of this car seat is that the harness shoulder straps adjust automatically by simply raising or lowering the headrest. No re-threading the straps through different slots in the back of the seat as the child grows. Nice!
As far as installation, this car seat was fairly easy to install with the LATCH belt and had some smart storage spots for the belt clips and tether strap. Rear-facing installation only required detaching the LATCH system belt clips from storage bars on either side of the bottom of the car seat and connecting them into the LATCH anchors in my SUV. It took us a bit of elbow grease and about ten minutes to get the car seat installed properly the first time, but now that we are familiar with it, it should take much less time in the future. We have not installed the car seat in the forward-facing position yet, but the instructions to do so seem quite easy to follow. We did do a test run on moving the LATCH system belt up to the proper position for forward-facing installation, and it took hardly any time at all. I also liked that the top tether strap could be stored by simply clipping it in to a bar on either side of the car seat.
One other very important feature to me is how easy the car seat can be cleaned. While I really like the look of this car seat, there is quite a bit of stitching on the seat pads. I have learned that such stitching and seams are a magnet for food. Thankfully, the car seat pads snap off and can be thrown in the washing machine! Removing and then reassembling the pads took me a bit of time and effort initially, but the manual provides fairly clear directions and diagrams to help.
Just a few minor issues I have encountered prompted me to give this car seat a 4-star (more like 4.5-star) rating. While I like the anti-rebound bar overall, I am a bit nervous about using it with my taller toddler, who can still sit rear-facing. I don?t like the idea of her sticking her feet in the gap between the bar and the backseat of my car, particularly if we were in an accident. Aside from that, the harness release is not very easy to find at first glance. It is hidden underneath the bottom seat pad and accessible through a slot in the pad that is not marked. It would be nice if there was some indicator on the seat to assist with finding the release lever. I also do not love the cup holder. While it?s nice to be able to attach the cup holder to either side of the seat or remove it completely, I thought the holder seemed a bit flimsy and our toddler?s wider cups did not fit in it. The angle that the cup holder sits at after it is attached to the seat also seems awkward (too low). My 2 ? year-old does not have too much trouble maneuvering her narrower cups into the holder, but I could imagine it might be more challenging or cause frustration for a younger child. Finally, although the car seat has really nice body support inserts for smaller children, there was no pad around the harness buckle. While those pads can be a pain to deal with, I have come to appreciate them because they help prevent pinching.
I have two other general observations. I love that this seat is all-in-one, meaning that it can be used at every stage from a 5-pound newborn to booster. Yet, it?s hard for me to imagine that our infant (who was 6 ? pounds when she was born) would fit well in this car seat during those first few weeks. Even the infant car seat we used seemed to engulf her at first! Now though, at two months old, she fits very well in this all-in-one seat. One final consideration with this type of all-in-one car seat (generally, not this particular one) is that I don?t think it can be attached to a stroller/travel system, and there is simply no effective way to carry it around with you, like an infant car seat that has a handle. So, for example, if I took my infant to the store with me and used this type of car seat, I would need to bring a separate infant carrier or hold her while I shop. The inability to carry the seat with me makes this type of car seat a bit more difficult to use during the early stages, but it?s a trade-off for the wonderful versatility this seat offers.
Overall, I am a really big fan of this car seat and would recommend it, particularly to those looking for an all-in-one seat! Thanks so much to the WeeSpring Parent Panel for giving me the opportunity to test out this great car seat!
This product review was collected by the manufacturer.