A weighty winner (if it fits)
July 26, 2022
Thanks to the Stellar Panel for sending my wife and me the Britax Advocate ClickTight Convertible Car Seat to review. It came at an ideal time as we were in the market for a second convertible car seat as our daughter was quickly outgrowing the Nuuna seat she had been using the car since birth. For us, this was ideal as our first child has been using an earlier convertible car seat from Britax, so we were familiar with the brand from the start. First, the pros of this seat:
(1) It is made solidly but with significant padding, so it feels safe and comfortable. The padding also seems more straightforward to remove and replace than the older convertible seat we have from Britax in the line.
(2) Installation can take less than a minute if you know where your LATCH system attaches or if you use a shoulder belt to secure the seat to the car.
(3) When forward facing, the seat has additional anchor points that allow for extra security over the back of the seat to a tie down on the rear. We have a Land Rover Discovery Sport with LATCH attachments across all three seats in the second row and a tiedown behind each seating position in the trunk, which is ideal for multiple car seats and our dog when traveling.
(4) Putting our daughters in and out of the seat is quick and easy as the seats allow for rapid loosening and tightening of the straps once the child is in. The seat also adjusts quickly if you only have one seat in the car, but one of two children of different ages or sizes could be the one riding with you.
(5) Lastly, and this is kind of huge, so apologies for burying a lead here. The seat is swift to take apart and clean. On a recent road trip, we had an incident where our one daughter was carsick and made a mess of the seat. Once we arrived at our destination in under 5 minutes, we stripped all the padding off for the washer and sprayed down the base of the seat clean to dry in the sun. Once it was all dry, all the pads quickly went back in place, and it was back in the car in no time, ready for the next round.
Now for the cons, and depending on your situation, they could be deal breakers:
(1) The Advocate is on the heavier side. The heavy-duty construction and safety built into this seat come at the cost of weight. It is a tradeoff, but one I would take. I will say that during a recent trip where I had to remove the seat in the lot of a dealership and swap it into an Uber was a bit of a pain given the weight and an unleashed child. However, it was doable, albeit I probably won't be taking either daughter to drop the car off for service again, given the seat is a lot to carry with a 2-year-old on the loose.
(2) The dimensions of the seat are on the larger side. We have what we thought was a good amount of space in our car's second row, but this seat eats up a ton of space, especially with two of them installed. When the child is facing forward, this constraint is less of an issue, but when facing rearward, the seat is limited to being in the middle seat if you want to have either the passenger or driver's side seat all the way back. This situation can be less than ideal for the driver and is especially important to me as I am over 6'2" and need the seat farther back.
Overall this is a very solidly built option with an improved padding design. The weight is a bit much if you want to move it between vehicles often or travel with it, but that is a tradeoff for the safety of the design. Easy to clean if you have an incident while traveling, and the pad removal and reinstallation process is quick and straightforward. Lastly, the solid build and safety are a tradeoff if your vehicle lacks significant room in the second row, but it easily installs with either the LATCH safety system or a shoulder belt.
This product review was collected by the manufacturer.