Hello,
I have two daughters, ages 4 and 1. Big sister weighs in at 36 pounds and is close to max height for her convertable carseat harness. Little sister is at the max weight for her infant seat. So it's time to buy big sister a new seat and move little sister up to the convertable. My hope is to find a good seat that will serve as a combo harness and future high-back booster seat. I want it to last until little sister needs to move up again.
I'm seeing vastly mixed reviews for the combo harness/booster seats online. What are your experiences? Which do you love? Which have you hated? I'm most interested in hearing about how the seat is to install and adjust harness length.What about: Maddening twisty straps? Bulk? Removing cover for washing?
My biggest disappointment in looking at these seats is that most seem to be HUGE in comparison to plain boosters. I'd really like to find something a bit sleeker as we have smallish cars and occasionally need the seats for travel.
Thanks for your recommendations!
We have the Britax Frontier 85 and I LOVE it!!! I'll never buy anything other than a britax now. We also have a Evenflo generations 65 but I hate that thing. The straps get twisted and it's just not as well-built as the Britax.
Another vote for the Britax Frontier. We have two; LOVE them. We also looked at the Sunshine Kids harness booster; I believe it's a little slimmer??
We love the Britax Frontier! I'd look at that one and the sunshine kids one for your needs. The frontier is big but safe and we haven't had any problems cleaning or using it, and both of my daughters love it.
If you need something smallish and sleek, I'd look at Sunshine Kids: http://sunshinekidsbaby.com/
I have a Britax Frontier, which I highly recommend...though I'm not sure it meets your criteria.
I also have a Graco Nautilus. Don't love it as much...but it's decent.
HTH!
We have 2 Britax Frontiers for each of our vehicles... my 6 year old still fits great in the 5 point harness. She is probably 45 + pounds and pretty tall... she will fit in this for awhile still. It is tall... but not as bulky as the Britax convertibles in my opinion.
The Graco Turbobooster got the best safety reviews when they were doing reviews... we love it (and have two, one for each car). The backs are removable, I think... but we use them for our almost 5 year old (in case she falls asleep she has somewhere to put her head!). We also put a flat sheet across the top of the seat (under the booster and her brother's carseat), so messes can be cleaned up easily and not ruin the car!
Updated
The Graco Turbobooster got the best safety reviews when they were doing reviews... we love it (and have two, one for each car). The backs are removable, I think... but we use them for our almost 5 year old (in case she falls asleep she has somewhere to put her head!). We also put a flat sheet across the top of the seat (under the booster and her brother's carseat), so messes can be cleaned up easily and not ruin the car!
Updated
The Graco Turbobooster got the best safety reviews when they were doing reviews... we love it (and have two, one for each car). The backs are removable, I think... but we use them for our almost 5 year old (in case she falls asleep she has somewhere to put her head!). We also put a flat sheet across the top of the seat (under the booster and her brother's carseat), so messes can be cleaned up easily and not ruin the car!
We have the Britax Frontier and the Graco Nautilus. I'd recommend either. Here is a quick comparison of the aspects that are most different between the two.
In the Britax, the armrests move up and down, making it a little easier to get in and out to reach to buckle the seatbelt. Graco armrests don't move.
Britax is a huge pain to install; Graco is much easier.
Britax seems to be a little more comfortable, though my son is happy in the Graco too.
The straps do twist sometimes in the Britax, but it's not too hard to fix it when they do. The Graco is in my husband's car and not used too often, so I'm not really sure about the straps there.
I don't think you'd be unhappy with either seat. Baby Bargains, a great book, rates the Graco slightly above the Britax. Mainly, I think it's because of the difficulty to install the Britax. Both have great safety ratings and the Graco is much cheaper.
We are going through this right now because I was rear-ended and want DS (2yo) car seat replaced. I asked my other mom's group and they HIGHLY recommend the Graco Nautilus - especially as it moves from a carseat, to highback booster to a regular booster. We are checking it out this weekend, and unless something sticks out like a sore thumb, this is what we will be getting. We previously had the Graco Alpha Omega Elite and LOVE it, but it won't trasition the BEST to a booster (it was for RF & FF - where the Nautilus is only FF)
