Love the Rotating Seat
November 9, 2021
I am using this with my rear-facing 2.5 year old and absolutely LOVE the rotation feature! It makes getting her in and out of the car so, so much easier than her previous convertible seat. No more bumped toddler head or cranking my arm to tighten her harness! The straps move very smoothly and there are magnets on the side of the seat to keep the buckle clips out of the way while loading the child. I like the load leg and anti-rebound design as additional safety features to keep my babe as protected as possible in a crash. We have the Indigo Blue color and it is beautiful, with good quality fabric and padding. I think the crotch buckle pad is a little too short (it comes out frequently, but is easy to replace). I have washed the cover once already and it washed wonderfully and is fairly easy to remove and put back on the seat. Other features that I love include the ease of adjusting the recline, the Linear Side Impact Protection, the no-rethread harness, removable cup holder, and rear-facing weight limit. I am a firm believer in rear facing as long as possible, and this seat lets me go to 50 lbs, ten more than our previous one!
I like the idea behind the SensorSafe chest clip, but have not found the app to be particularly helpful. I was regularly getting alerts that my child was too hot, when she had AC blowing directly on her and was able to tell me she was comfortable. I live in a very warm southern state, so I think the temperature sensing technology just isn't quite right. The app is very quick to alert you if you walk away from the child and the child is still in the seat. I left my daughter in her seat while I ran to my mailbox at the end of the drive, and got an alert to return to my vehicle immediately, as the child was left in the car. I do think this is a fantastic safety feature and would love to see this alarm-type feature expanded in the car seat market. I also like that it alerts you when the chest clip is undone, in case you have an escape artist on your hands. Ultimately, if you allow the app to run in the background, as is needed for full, automatic functionality, it uses a fair bit of phone battery. However, you can always open the app when you get in the car, and it immediately connects and begins to work.
My biggest dislike about this seat, and the reason I could not rate it 5 stars, is that I do not feel like the install is as rock solid as I had with my previous seat. We installed it 4 separate times (after fully reading the manual) and had a CPST check it over. The seat does not move more than one inch in any direction at the belt path, as per directions, but the forward part of the seat (the part nearest the load leg) wobbles a lot. This happens in both the rear-facing and forward-facing configurations. If the load leg is extended too long, it lifts the base of the Sirona S up off of the car's seat. When working with the CPST, what we found that made it the most stable was to pull the load leg forward slightly (towards the driver's seat). This seemed to lock it in place better and there is less side to side motion. Once we made that adjustment, I have loved using this car seat and my daughter is always asking to ride in her new seat.
Thanks to the Stellar Product Testing Panel for providing me with this car seat.
This product review was collected by the manufacturer.