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The research

• Why you should trust u.s.
• Who should get this
• How nosotros picked
• How nosotros tested
• Testing results
• Our pick: Britax Marathon ClickTight
• Runner-upwardly: Graco Extend2Fit
• The competition
• Care, utilize, and maintenance
• Sources

Why you should trust u.s.a.

I interviewed 16 industry experts, safe regime, and physicians while researching this guide, asking them to detail the most important safety and usability considerations for convertible car seats. Among them were certified Kid Rider Safety technicians such every bit Lani Harrison, a seasoned tech in Los Angeles who installs more than 300 automobile seats each year; motorcar seat prophylactic advocates such as Dr. Benjamin Hoffman, who spearheaded Oregon's "rear-facing until two" rule, which became law in May 2017 (Hoffman is also an unpaid consultant for car seat maker Chicco); and leaders of organizations that accept argued both for and confronting a proposed federal side-bear upon standard. I talked to Bill Horn, head sled testing engineer at Calspan, one of the country's top crash-testing facilities, as well as Miriam Mannary, who supervises sled affect evaluation of child restraints at the University of Michigan'south Transportation Research Found, one of the top transportation research organizations in the country.

During the grade of working on this story, I became a certified Child Passenger Safety technician myself, participating in a 40-hour grooming program through the Prophylactic Kids Worldwide arrangement in Carroll Canton, Maryland. During the grade, I spoke at length with the CPS technicians who run the certification courses about car seat prophylactic and best practices, and I personally installed more than 15 unlike seats.

I besides interviewed representatives from six leading car seat manufacturers, including CEOs, production managers, engineers, and condom technicians from Britax, Chicco, Graco, and Diono. I talked to dozens of parents about their machine seat experiences, scanned hundreds of Amazon reviews, and read articles from reputable sites such as Consumer Reports, BabyGearLab, and Car Seats for the Littles before recruiting five Maryland families (in addition to my own) to try a variety of convertible car seats over a period of several months.

Once nosotros had identified the seats that performed best during real-world commutes, tantrums, and potty preparation accidents, we commissioned Calspan, a Buffalo, New York, laboratory that runs much of the machine seat crash-testing in the country, to run tests specifically for this story. Nosotros'd examined available government crash examination data, but since that is limited to front end-impact crash tests we decided to focus on side-impact testing, subjecting six convertible car seats—and a three-year-old dummy—to side-bear on crash tests with both forwards-facing and rear-facing installs.

Later working for about a decade on Capitol Hill and at the Department of Commerce, I'm intimately familiar with government rules and regulations of the type that affect car seat safe. My reporting on policy and parenting has appeared in outlets including Slate, The Washington Mail service, Wellness Affairs, and Marie Claire. My older son, now 4½, but started riding forward-facing in his convertible machine seat.

Who should become this

Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald

All parents with young kids need to have them buckled into a motorcar seat every fourth dimension they are on the route. Most families will offset with a dedicated infant seat (which we recommend) and movement on to a convertible model sometime between nine months and 2 years, depending on the size of the kid and the type of seat(s) used. Nearly states require a kid upwardly to 40 pounds or four years old to exist in a car seat with a v-point harness, meaning that most families will go at to the lowest degree ii to three years of use out of a convertible car seat before moving on to a booster seat, which uses but the automobile's seat belt as a constraint.

The name convertible refers to the fact that the seat can be installed rear-facing or forward-facing, whereas infant seats are meant to exist installed only facing to the rear. Virtually states crave children nether a year one-time to ride rear-facing, and increasingly state police requires rear-facing for kids up to ii.

In fact, in the past year lone half-dozen states accept adopted new rear-facing laws (9 states now have laws requiring it). The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration recommends that children stay rear-facing as long as possible (and non movement to a booster seat until they have outgrown the weight and pinnacle requirements on their forward-facing convertible car seat). Since 2011, the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended waiting to consider turning a child effectually until historic period 2, and the British Medical Journal concluded in 2009 that a child is safer riding rear-facing until 4 years one-time. That's considering when a child is facing to the rear, the impact of a frontal crash is captivated primarily by their dorsum, which is cocooned against the seat. If they're facing forrad, a frontal crash is going to propel their torso forward from the seat, with the strain absorbed by the head, neck, and spine. In Sweden, a country with a notably depression motorcar fatality and injury rate, kids typically sit rear-facing until iv years one-time.

All the research we've conducted for this guide and for our guide to baby motorcar seats leads us to the conclusion that best practise is to motility a child from an infant car seat to a rear-facing convertible, and stay with a rear-facing seat until the child reaches the seat'southward top or weight limit for rear-facing installation (which is more often than not different and lower than the limits for the same seat while forepart-facing). Nosotros recognize that this is not e'er easy to practise and some parents are eager to move their child to a front-facing seat—either because it's easier to run across the child or hand them things from the front seat this way, considering they believe information technology reduces the adventure of car sickness, and/or because their kid only prefers it. Still, nosotros recollect information technology'due south worth some inconvenience for the added rubber of keeping your child rear-facing to a minimum of ii years sometime—and ideally longer—even if you don't live in a state that currently requires it.

Once you plough a convertible car seat around, your child can stay in information technology until they outgrow the weight or meridian limit, or until they're 5, when they tin can generally sit upright in a booster seat without slouching. "At historic period 5, the skeleton has matured plenty that it can withstand the strength from the three points of the seat belt rather than the five points of the harness. Besides, age 5 is the beginning of when they might accept the maturity to be able to sit down still," said Kid Passenger Safety technician Lani Harrison. A booster seat uses the regular lap-and-shoulder seat belt rather than a five-bespeak harness, and requires the chugalug to lay flat to work finer, which is why information technology's not a good choice for a wriggly kid who can't yet stay still and calm in the car.

A final consideration: Many convertible seats come with babe inserts and offer low weight limits, such as 5 pounds, indicating that they are suitable for newborns or immature babies. Though some convertible seats are advertised as appropriate for newborns, they often are not, either because the seat is too upright at its well-nigh reclined or because the straps do not attain low plenty for a small infant, CSP technician Harrison told us. We recommend starting with an infant car seat, which likewise offers click-in, click-out convenience and stroller compatibility that can be helpful when you have a newborn. If yous exercise desire a single seat to use from newborn through kindergarten historic period, Harrison has a few suggestions. Since we think a dedicated infant seat makes more sense for most families, we didn't focus on finding an all-in-one seat for this guide.

How we picked

Photo: Rebecca Gale

We began by examining online customer reviews and existing media coverage, including by Consumer Reports (subscription required), BabyGearLab, Automobile Seats for the Littles, and The Car Seat Lady. That left united states with a list of 30 convertible car seats to consider. Nosotros spoke with experts on car seat condom, policy, and installation, and looked closely at the results of government testing conducted by the National Highway Transportation Safety Clan (NHTSA), the federal agency charged with road safety, equally well equally at the findings of Consumer Reports and BabyGearLab, the 2 other media outlets that take conducted independent laboratory crash-testing of car seats.

We plant that several seats on our list had newly updated models bachelor. Whenever possible nosotros chose to test models that had been available for at least a year, to establish a more solid history of user reviews. But when a model was retiring, we went with the replacement, fifty-fifty when some of the onetime seats were still available for sale.

Our 15 total hours of groundwork enquiry plus 40 hours of CPST form fourth dimension led the states to conclude that the ideal convertible car seat should be:

Among the safest seats bachelor. Nosotros relied on the frontal crash-testing data from NHTSA, and also took into account crash-examination results from Consumer Reports and BabyGearLab, to help narrow down our initial list of 30 seats. All machine seats sold in the United states of america are self-certified by their manufacturers to pass strict NHTSA standards (PDF) for safety testing. The agency doesn't independently test seats earlier they are first sold, merely instead conducts what it terms "prophylactic compliance testing" of multiple seats each twelvemonth and makes its database of results available, though finding and interpreting results for private seats takes some excavation. BabyGearLab tested to NHTSA standards for front impact; Consumer Reports modified the NHTSA standards (PDF) to conduct crash tests at a slightly higher speed. Since car seats are non required to exist certified before sale, several of the seats included in our at-abode testing did not yet have government crash-examination data, which express our ability to compare results systematically. We conducted our own side-bear on crash tests to help determine the relative safety of our finalist seats.

Simple to install. About parents will tell you that the about frustrating thing almost dealing with machine seats is the installation, and the experts we interviewed said that proper installation is the most mutual bulwark to car seat safety. We decided that an intuitive installation organisation trumps a well-crafted set of directions—as whatever parent rushing to install a car seat into an unfamiliar rental car can adjure—and that a practiced car seat must be easy to install correctly, both with and without a LATCH system, and so that a diligent adult following directions can manage a correct installation within a few minutes without expert assistance. (LATCH stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children, a organization that allows y'all to install a car seat with metallic clips that attach to hooks congenital into the machine, forgoing the lap chugalug. All cars and motorcar seats manufactured after Sept 1, 2002, include the LATCH selection.) Unlike an baby seat that can rely exclusively on LATCH if you cull, most convertibles will require a seat chugalug installation when a kid hits xl pounds, every bit the LATCH system is not designed to hold a child in past that weight.

Designed for extended rear-facing utilise. Both NHTSA and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that a child ride rear-facing until they reach the height and weight limit of the seat. We ideally wanted a seat with relatively high height and weight limits for a rear install, so that parents take the option of keeping kids in a safer position longer, and besides took into account pattern features that would make the ride more comfortable for older kids.

Easy to employ. Are the straps unproblematic to conform to go a snug only comfy fit in the five-point harness? Are the buckles like shooting fish in a barrel for parents to clip and unclip but difficult to impossible for toddlers to mess with? Is it easy plenty to get a child in and out of the seat rapidly? We considered the experience of both parents and kids in using the seats, every bit well as how easy each seat was to clean.

Using the above criteria, we narrowed our original list of 30 down to ix top convertible machine seats:

• Chicco NextFit iX (and Zero)
• Britax Marathon ClickTight
• Graco Extend2Fit
• Evenflo Stratos
• Evenflo Tribute LX
• Clek Foonf
• Clek Fllo
• Cosco Scenera Next
• Diono Radian RXT

A notation: Though the size of a seat tin can be of import to some families, especially for those who have smaller cars, who move their car seats in and out of different vehicles often and don't want something too burdensome, or who are trying to fit three across in a back row, we didn't consider smaller or lighter seats to be inherently better. If having a very lightweight seat is important to you you may want to consider the Cosco Scenera Next, which is particularly good for travel. If you lot are looking to fit three across in a back seat, the Diono Radian or Clek Fllo may be your best choice. The Automobile Seat lady offers some tips for fitting three across, as does Car Seats for the Littles.

How we tested

Photo: Kevin Purdy

Like near parents, we began with installation. I found that seats that provide a seat chugalug lockoff (a manual locking mechanism on the car seat designed to concur the seat belt tightly in place) are much easier to install than those that don't. For LATCH installation, push button-push button latches are slightly easier to install than claw latches; though both are easy to clip in, claw latches are slightly harder to unclip. I found that the heaviest seats are hard to maneuver and thus difficult to install. Unlike an infant seat, where the base and seat can be separated for install, convertible seats are a single piece, and typically counterbalance 20 to 30 pounds, though the heaviest seat we tested was a back-breaking 38 pounds.

We had 5 families, including my own, endeavour out two to vi seats. Each family unit was interviewed nigh ease of installation, how difficult it was to get a child in and out of each seat—unlike smaller, commonly more than-compliant infants, toddlers tin be challenging to dispense into car seats—and how like shooting fish in a barrel it was to accommodate the straps and find the right fit. Nosotros also gathered feedback on material, ease of cleaning, comfort, pinnacle, and the ability to fit with other car seats. Rather than creating our ain messes, nosotros were able to witness firsthand how easy it was to clean up later toddlers eating snacks in the automobile, or suffering potty-training accidents.

After subjecting the nine seats to the installation evaluations and user testing, we narrowed our list to the six seats that were the easiest to use and install and provided the most positive riding feel for our persnickety companions:

• Chicco NextFit 9
• Britax Marathon ClickTight
• Graco Extend2Fit
• Evenflo Stratos
• Cosco Scenera Next
• Diono Radian RXT

We decided that commissioning our ain crash-testing, in addition to examining the bachelor crash-examination information, would assist united states make a confident recommendation. We knew that there was not NHTSA information bachelor for several of the seats we tested. Of our finalist seats, NHTSA has only made crash data available for the Britax Marathon ClickTight and Diono Radian RXT. Data is likewise available for the Chicco NextFit, not the newer iX we tested, though a rep from Chicco told us that the seats are most structurally identical. The Graco Extend2Fit is a relatively new seat, with no NHTSA data yet available. NHTSA data does exist for the Cosco Scenera, but non the Cosco Scenera Side by side, and a spokesperson for the company told usa that the two seats have different basic structures.

NHTSA information for car seat crash-testing is for front-impact crashes just. Federal authorities have been considering adding a side-bear on examination to their existing standards, and a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which includes details of how such a test would be run, is pending activity with NHTSA, though in the current anti-regulatory political surroundings the effort is not moving forward. NHTSA still does not have an ambassador, and a source close to the bureau that nosotros interviewed for our guide to infant machine seats told us the side-touch standard well-nigh likely won't be canonical anytime shortly.

The proposed US standards exist for side-impact crash-testing, though, and similar regulations take been in identify in Europe and Commonwealth of australia for years. There is skillful reason to focus on side-impact safety standards. A 2003 report showed that side-impact crashes accounted for twoscore pct of automobile-crash fatalities for children younger than 5. And there's reason to believe side-impact crashes will account for a greater share of serious crashes in the future. "We accept a mix of more and less sophisticated systems sharing the route," said Miriam Manary, who supervises car-seat crash-testing at the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Found. "The newer vehicles may be able to avoid crashing into other objects simply will not always be able to escape being struck by older, less technologically advanced vehicles." Co-ordinate to Manary, the leading crash avoidance technologies will primarily aid reduce frontal impact. "As the number of frontal crashes decreases, the percentage of crash events that are side touch on will rise."

In a laboratory "sled examination" a demote-style vehicle seat with a car seat installed is pushed down a track and so abruptly stopped to simulate a car crash. A specialized dummy has multiple sensors that record the forces at touch on. Photo: Kevin Purdy

We decided to committee Calspan—an independent lab in Buffalo, New York, that both government agencies and car seat manufacturers work with regularly—to examination our vi convertible car seat finalists to NHTSA's proposed side-affect standards. Since most parents volition use a convertible seat both front-facing and rear-facing over the life of the seat, we commissioned the crash-testing for both seat directions.

Several cardinal notes: The tests we commissioned through Calspan are not part of the electric current federal compliance standard. NHTSA sets the legal benchmarks for what constitutes a safe car seat, and all of the seats we tested are considered safe. Calspan conducted all of our tests at its Buffalo, New York, facility. While nosotros paid all the fees associated with the tests and an employee from Wirecutter was there to find the trials, only professionals from Calspan participated in the seat training, testing, and analysis. In all cases, we used make-new seats delivered directly to the Buffalo facility and handled exclusively by Calspan staff. Equally is consistent with all crash-testing protocol, technicians manually dismantled and disposed of the seats following the tests.

A Calspan technician installed each seat to the testing bench, which and so accelerated to betwixt xix.ii and twenty.2 mph before braking abruptly to simulate impact. All seats were installed using the LATCH system, except for the Britax Marathon ClickTight, for which the seat belt is the preferred installation method. Each crash exam took only a fraction of a second and relied on a Q3s dummy, which is a mannequin the size of a three-year-old child and designed specifically for side-impact crash-testing. There are three caput-acceleration sensors and 1 chest displacement sensor connected to the interior of the dummy, and each test results in two metrics. The first, Head Injury Benchmark (HIC), is a measurement of force on the dummy'due south head. The second, Chest Displacement, measures the number of millimeters the ribs button into the body cavity.

Testing results

When we tested infant car seats to NHTSA'south proposed side-impact standard, all simply one clearly passed. We expected similar results with convertible seats. That didn't happen. Rather than meeting the proposed side-impact standards similar almost of the babe seats did, every convertible seat we tested failed at least two of four metrics, some more. While we at Wirecutter were surprised past the results, the experienced technicians at Calspan were not. Seats are not required to run across those standards and are non currently designed to. The addition of side-impact protection can hateful a bulkier, wider, and heavier seat, which Jessica Jermakian, a senior research engineer with the Insurance Found for Highway Prophylactic, cautioned isn't always more effective in furthering overall rubber: "In order to run across those requirements for the bigger children, child-restraint manufacturers might make up one's mind to make [car seats] bigger and bulkier, which would make them more hard for parents to fit in cars. So you might have this unintended consequence of turning kids forward-facing sooner."

In our tests, none of the six seats met the proposed standards for head affect, though our two picks came closest. As a group, the seats did meliorate on breast displacement, which Neb Horn, the sled testing engineer, said was consistent with what he's seen when car seat companies have performed side-impact testing at his lab. All but 1 of the six seats we tested (the Cosco) met the chest-displacement guidelines when frontwards-facing, and all but ane (the Diono) met the guidelines when rear-facing.

We hoped that our crash-testing might provide some insight into how the same seat performs in a side-affect collision when installed rear-facing versus forward-facing. We knew that rear-facing children are safer in forepart-impact crashes, but in that location was no publicly available information to show how rear- versus forward-facing seats fare in side-bear on collisions. In the end, we didn't discover a clear trend when using the three-year-old dummy. A couple of our seats had better overall crash test results when rear-facing (Britax and Cosco), ane forward-facing (Diono), and the others (Graco, Chicco, and Evenflo) almost fifty-fifty.

Our pick: Britax Marathon ClickTight

Photo: Rozette Rago

Our choice

The Britax Marathon ClickTight fared better than whatever other seat in the side-impact crash-testing we commissioned specifically for this story, and it performed besides as or improve than competitor seats in front-impact crash-testing carried out by NHTSA. It is also the easiest convertible automobile seat to install that I take ever come across. Britax's innovative ClickTight system allows you to easily tighten the seat belt to a perfect fit, eliminating the need to use behind-the-seat-cushion latches and drastically reducing the risk of user error in installation. But while the Britax is unsurpassed in rubber and ease of installation—our 2 top criteria—it'due south not as expert every bit some other seats, including our runner-up selection, for extended rear-facing apply, and it lacks a cupholder.

In our side-touch on tests with half dozen top seats, the Britax earned the top score in the chest displacement assessment with both forward- and rear-facing installation, was in the top two for rear-facing head touch, and close to the mean of the competitive fix for frontwards-facing head affect. The seat likewise scored well in front end-touch on crash tests conducted by NHTSA—the bureau tests with dummies for 1-, 3-, and 6-twelvemonth-olds—with notably stiff Head Injury Benchmark (HIC) scores.

Once you get the hang of it, installing the Britax seat with the ClickTight system, which relies on your seat chugalug, is generally much faster and easier than using your automobile's built-in latches. While a LATCH system install oftentimes requires tugging on straps and struggling to achieve a tight fit, we institute that the ClickTight organization gives a snug fit every time.

The seat likewise distinguishes itself with its innovative installation organisation, which relies on the one.5-inch-diameter so-called ClickTight Key, located on the front of the seat. You turn the central clockwise and the seat lesser lifts up. Yous weave both the lap and shoulder belts through the slots, then push the seat lesser closed until it secures with a satisfying click. No squeezing your paw between possibly gunky seat cushions to find a difficult-to-accomplish latch or suffering through sweat-inducing manual tightening as is and so common with other seats.

Equally someone who has gone through the grooming to get a CPS technician, I've learned that agreement proper installation is a very unlike skill from actually accomplishing information technology. Getting the right install with many seats requires a groovy bargain of muscle and maneuvering. Non the Britax. Nearly anyone, regardless of their experience with car seats, can be chop-chop taught to install information technology properly. That said, the ClickTight system will accept a few minutes to understand, as the key and seat belt lockoff may be counterintuitive to parents familiar with a LATCH arrangement. Nosotros think this video offers an easier tutorial than the diagrams in the seat's online instructions. "Once I saw how it worked, I loved it!" one of our at-home testers, a Maryland mom of two, said. "It's past far the easiest to install, and I would even trust grandparents to install information technology." At my CPST class, the Britax was a favorite for installation demos, as it was easy to consistently get a snug fit.

The Britax Marathon ClickTight has a no-rethread harness that makes information technology easy to adjust for shoulder height without taking anything apart. Photo: Rozette Rago

The seat fits kids upwardly to 40 pounds rear-facing, the size of a typical 4-year-old, and a typical weight limit for convertible auto seats. Its minimum weight for forrad-facing is 20 pounds, and it fits to 65 pounds or 49 inches forward-facing; we found that a 7-twelvemonth-one-time could even ride in information technology comfortably. It reclines to seven positions. That's more positioning options than most seats offer, though we don't think there'due south a huge divergence between seven positions or two when information technology comes to kid comfort.

The Britax has a no-rethread harness, meaning that the placement of the shoulder straps tin be easily adjusted in seconds, even with a child in the seat. (Seats without a no-rethread harness require that you manually thread shoulder straps through higher slots as a kid grows taller, which can be a hurting.) It'due south as well like shooting fish in a barrel to suit the tightness of the Britax'southward straps with a child in the seat, which is similarly important for making sure every ride is a condom 1. Information technology's essential to get a car seat tightly installed, but information technology's equally vital to get the kid properly installed within the seat.

The Britax seat performed the best of the six seats we subjected to side-touch on crash-testing.

Consumer Reports included the Britax Marathon ClickTight in a 2016 roundup of its top five convertible machine seats (subscription required), and other outlets, including BabyGearLab and Baby Bargains, praise the ease of the ClickTight system, though they tested unlike ClickTight models.

The Britax is widely available in a variety of colors and patterns, ranging from purple to vivid blueish to polka dots and cow prints. The material is easy to clean, and for a thorough clean the seat encompass can exist removed and manus-washed in cold water (though Britax doesn't recommend machine washing, a Wirecutter editor who has owned the seat for over a year has automobile-washed her cover without ill effect). The Marathon ClickTight weighs 28.4 pounds, more than many similar seats, only significantly less than the heaviest seat nosotros tested. It comes with a one-year warranty and has a service life of ten years.

Flaws but non dealbreakers

Though most 2-year-olds will exist well under the Britax's 40-pound weight limit for rear-facing, some other seats exercise have higher rear-facing weight limits. If you know you'll desire to keep your kid rear-facing until they're 4, for case, you lot may be amend off with our runner-up pick, which has a 50-pound weight limit for rear-facing. The Britax as well has relatively high sides that mean the child sits farther back in the seat, making it harder to have them in and out when in a rear-facing position than in a seat with lower sides, like our runner-upwardly selection.

Even though all of our testers institute the ClickTight system easy to apply, in that location were some complaints. When the seat bottom is open, it doesn't e'er stay open on its own, and one mom with a big SUV complained that it kept falling on her head when she tried to install it. Information technology tin can accept a few hard pushes to close properly, though when information technology does close, it gives a satisfying click and so there is no question as to whether or not it is properly installed.

At 28.iv pounds, the Britax is bulkier and heavier than many competitor seats—one of our testers noted that it wouldn't be bang-up for airplane travel. It too doesn't come with a cupholder, though parents who want a cupholder within a toddler's reach can buy a dishwasher-safe add together-on for $15 (though users complain it pops off easily). If having an included cupholder is something you consider crucial in a auto seat, you should cheque out our runner-upwardly pick, which has two.

Runner-up: Graco Extend2Fit

Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald

Runner-up

The Graco Extend2Fit performed second to the Britax seat in our side-impact crash-testing, is reasonably easy to install and adjust—though nowhere about as easy as the Britax—and usually costs significantly less. Like the Britax, it has a no-rethread harness which makes adjusting for height quick and piece of cake, and the straps are simple to tighten, too, and so a snug fit tin can be achieved without struggle. With lower sides that get in piece of cake to take a kid in and out of the seat and a maximum weight limit of fifty pounds with a rear install (as opposed to the Britax's forty), the Graco seat is improve than our pick for extended rear-facing employ with an older child.

The Extend2Fit was second to the Britax in our side-impact crash-testing, with i of the lowest head injury scores for a frontward-facing, side-impact crash. Because the Extend2Fit is a relatively new seat, at publishing time NHTSA did not take forwards-facing crash-testing results available.

The Graco Extend2Fit performed second to the Britax seat in the side-bear upon tests nosotros commissioned for this guide.

Similar well-nigh convertible car seats, the Extend2Fit tin be installed using either your seat belt or your car's LATCH system (though our pick tin can be installed with LATCH it's specifically designed to work best with a seat belt install). The Graco seat has push-button latches, rather than hook ones. The latches aren't peculiarly like shooting fish in a barrel to tighten, but withal easy plenty to use for someone familiar with LATCH. There is no seat belt lockoff, a feature that provides an easy machinery to securely install the seat using a seat belt; parents installing with seat belts should exist comfy with manually tightening the seat belt for a proper installation.

The Graco has lower sides than the Britax, so it is slightly easier to take a child in and out of. It as well is better for long-term rear-facing riding, with a 50-pound rear-facing weight limit. Like our pick, you can utilize it with a child up to 65 pounds when installed facing forrard. The minimum weight for forward-facing use is 22 pounds. Unlike whatsoever of the other seats we considered, the Graco comes with a pull-out footrest for extra legroom when rear-facing (the panel is not intended for forward-facing use). It's perfectly safe for a kid'south legs to dangle over the side of a seat, though many older kids will likely appreciate this unusual feature.

Where the Graco falls short is in the details: To reposition the latch for forwards- from rear-facing requires taking the encompass off of the chair. If that seems overly onerous, it's because it is. Our parent testers found that the Extend2Fit's material is not as piece of cake to wipe clean equally the Britax's, though the entire embrace is machine-washable, which should placate those who want to keep their seat looking pristine (Britax recommends hand-washing its seat cover).

Parents who value the ease of removing a comprehend tin can opt for the more expensive Extend2Fit with RapidRemove, which allows the fabric to exist stripped off without uninstalling the seat. The Extend2Fit comes with 2 cupholders that click in and are easy to remove for cleaning.

Just like the Britax ClickTight, the Graco has a 1-year warranty and service time of 10 years from date of industry. Information technology'south listed equally i of The Car Seat Lady's best seats for rear-facing —"a fabulous pick that won't break the bank and will keep your little one safely rear-facing until kindergarten." Babe Bargains gives the seat a grade of A-, noting that it has 1 of the highest rear-facing weight limits.

The competition

Britax Boulevard ClickTight and Britax Advocate ClickTight
The Boulevard ClickTight and Advocate ClickTight are newer, more expensive Britax seats that are both quite similar to our pick simply offer some additional features. Even though they have the same 49-inch summit limit as our pick, both the Boulevard and Advocate have shells that are about 2 inches taller than our pick, so a tall child with a long trunk or head might be able to use the seat longer earlier outgrowing it. That characteristic leads CPST Lani Harrison and Car Seats for the Littles—which identify a lot of value on keeping a kid in a seat with a v-point harness for as long every bit possible—to favor the Boulevard and the Advocate over our pick. The pricier Britax seats as well offer the company's Click & Safe Snug Harness, which gives an audible click to let you know that the harness is properly tensioned, and have added layers of side-impact protection (which do add together a bit of weight and bulk). BabyGearLab chose the Boulevard ClickTight and the non-ClickTight version of Britax'southward Marathon equally their two all-time convertible car seats for 2018, just did not include the Marathon ClickTight in their testing.

Other Graco models
A Graco rep explained that the Extend2Fit with Safety Surround and Extend2Fit with TrueShield offer more than side-affect protection than the regular Extend2Fit. They likewise toll more, though the TrueShield converts to a booster seat. Given the regular Extend2Fit's accolades, affordability, and broad availability, we chose to focus on it in this guide.

Nosotros chose to review the Extend2Fit over the Graco Contender 65 because that seat is less widely available, it has a lower rear-facing weight limit, it comes with hook latches instead of button-button ones, and it doesn't have the Extend2Fit'south extension panel, numbered recline, or double cupholders. We also dismissed the nearly identical Size4Me 65, Fit4Me 65, MySize 65, and HeadWise 65 considering they are not every bit well-designed for extended rear-facing as the Extend2Fit and accept less widespread availability. These seats do come with ii sets of latches, though, so you won't need to switch the latches from forward- to rear-facing, which is an reward over the Extend2Fit.

The Graco 4Ever 4-in-ane is an all-in-one (or "multimode") seat that can accommodate newborns and toddlers, then convert into both a high-back and backless booster. It is recommended by Auto Seats for the Littles, Mommyhood101, and Babylist and CPST Lani Harrison says the 4Ever fits newborns improve than other convertible options do. There are significant advantages to dedicated infant seats, though, like the ability to click the carrier in and out, and we didn't focus on all-in-1 seats in this guide. Based on its outside accolades, we do think this seat is likely a good choice for people who want a single seat to see a child though the car seat years.

Chicco NextFit iX and NextFit iX Zilch
Our favorite infant seat is fabricated by Chicco, so we were eager to try the company'due south convertible seats, the NextFit iX and NextFit ix Aught (which is the same seat but with cloth that zips off for easy washing). We were impressed past the ease of installation. The visitor'due south SuperCinch straps allow y'all to tighten one latch to a reasonable tightness, and so go to the second and pull the SuperCinch for a secure fit with minimal musculus required. But we found that information technology can be hard to get a kid in and out of the NextFit's deep, egg-shaped seat, and that since the seat is deep, the kid is inevitably sitting on the crotch buckle, fifty-fifty at the highest setting. Loosening the shoulder straps requires sticking a finger uncomfortably deep to achieve the adjustment button, and of the six seats we crash-tested, all just one performed better overall.

Diono Radian RXT
With low sides, a deep recline, and loftier rear-facing limits of 45 pounds and 44 inches, the Diono Radian RXT is a favorite of people who prefer to keep a child rear-facing until they are iii or 4 years onetime. The seat has an Fifty shape, rather than a more typical C shape. "For some kids who become queasy, sitting in a C-shaped seat isn't great because it puts pressure on the stomach," said CPS technician Harrison. The Radian's narrow frame also ways that three of these seats can fit beyond nigh demote-style dorsum seats, which is key for many people with a sedan, wagon, or compact car who either take 3 kids or want to be able to carpool. Unlike most of the other seats nosotros considered for this guide, the Radian is a "combination" seat that converts to a booster seat (which requires the child to be 50 pounds to use) and can exist used with kids up to 120 pounds.

The dummy'due south caput hitting the door in a side-impact test.

But the seat had a notably depression breast-displacement score in our side-impact testing, and the dummy fabricated head contact with the door when the seat was installed front-facing. (One of the Calspan techs suggested that the sparse Styrofoam that lines the seat's steel frame allows more than force to be transferred to a kid during bear upon than on seats with a thicker layer of cushioning.) It was also the subject of a national recall in 2017, though that only applied to a minor number of users, namely those using the seat for a kid weighing more than than 65 pounds and installing it forrad-facing with a lap chugalug but without a tiptop-tether (the strap that anchors the superlative of the seat to the car).

Cosco Scenera Next
At just half-dozen.eight pounds, the inexpensive Cosco Scenera Adjacent weighs far less than either of our picks and about other convertible car seats, making it relatively like shooting fish in a barrel to travel with and to accept in and out of your motorcar. (One tester described the lightweight seat as "similar a child's toy.") But for everyday employ, the Cosco has some serious drawbacks. Offset, information technology is difficult to get a tight install that hugs the seat well. It'south achievable, and Harrison offers some tips, but even professionals involved with our crash-testing noted that this seat is harder than others to install well. The Cosco also fared worse than the other far more expensive seats in our crash-testing, though had the all-time head injury score for rear-facing installation. And unlike our picks, which both have a forward-facing weight limit of 65 pounds, the Cosco weight limit is 40 pounds, forward- and rear-facing, which ways you lot can't use information technology nigh every bit long.

Evenflo Stratos
The Evenflo Stratos is relatively piece of cake to install, though I had trouble getting the unusual latches to click in. Instead of a push push to click out, in that location is a ribbon to pull back on, which makes uninstalling the seat with LATCH easier than the norm. While it'due south easy to become a kid in and out of the Evenflo, nosotros institute that the straps tin be hard to tighten with a toddler in the seat and the crotch buckle is difficult to undo, which is not ideal for older caregivers who don't have a bang-up deal of dexterity in their hands. Information technology scored in the middle of our competitive set in side-impact crash-testing and is made of specially comfortable material ("like a memory foam tushy" is how one tester described it). It has removable cupholders and a sensor that audibly reminds y'all non to forget your kid in the back seat when you turn off the auto.

Evenflo Tribute
The Evenflo Tribute weighs just 9.1 pounds, making it easy to move and travel with. But it'south hard to position snugly; our testers had problem installing it properly without using a pool noodle or towel. It can also exist hard to adapt the straps, and both a low shell height and depression top-shoulder-strap slots mean the Tribute is oftentimes outgrown early, before a child is ready for a booster seat (the straps demand to fall above the shoulders for forward-facing). If you're looking for a lightweight, inexpensive automobile seat to utilise as a fill-in or for travel, the Cosco is a improve bet.

Clek Foonf and Fllo
Clek seats are the much-lauded elevation recommendations of The Motorcar Seat Lady and more often than not considered safety stand-outs (they also stand up out cost-wise). The main divergence between the Foonf and Fllo is the rigid latch organisation, designed to minimize user error during installation. The Foonf has it, the Fllo doesn't. Clek was the first company to offer a seat that rear-faces until a child hits fifty pounds, and the company'due south higher seat back and L-shaped angle go far easier for kids to sit rear-facing every bit they become older. Alone among their peers, the company self-publishes its internal crash-testing results.

Both Cleks take a sleek design with Crypton Super Fabric, which has a moisture barrier and anti-fungal handling on top. Even for the grossest messes the Clek is easy to clean, no seat cover-removal or hand-washing needed. It also has easily adjustable straps that sally from the buckle tongue in a way that prevents twisting more effectively than whatever other car seat we've used.

The Clek seats also have significant downsides, unfortunately. Unlike most seats, they crave some assembly, including putting the headrest on, a somewhat onerous procedure. The harness needs to be manually adapted using a splitter plate tucked behind a panel in the seat. They're big and heavy. The Foonf weighs a whopping 33 pounds for forward-facing and 38 pounds rear-facing with the anti-rebound bar attached, and is 28 inches loftier compared with 23.5 inches for our selection. (The rigid latch organization in Foonf adds to its weight.) The added height makes information technology harder to navigate getting these seats into a car, especially a vehicle like a minivan where it might need to be maneuvered between seats to reach the back row. One at-habitation tester, a mother of three, said she threw her back out putting the seat in her minivan. These downsides led us to eliminate the Cleks from contention earlier crash-testing.

Still, either Clek may be a expert pick for a parent who wants to install the seat once and rarely remove it; of the two, nosotros'd recommend the Fllo. But for parents who want a seat they can have in and out of their auto with relative ease, 1 of our picks is a improve choice.

Intendance, use, and maintenance

Equally we wrote in our guide to infant machine seats, the stringent rules surrounding car seat use are merited. NHTSA estimates (PDF) that the lives of nearly 9,000 children nether the age of 5 were saved past the utilize of car seats or safety belts between 1975 and 2008. In one case yous've called a seat, you can maximize your kid'south safety by being certain to:

Install it properly. Whatsoever seat should be installed snuggly, with minimal wiggle. Both The Car Seat Lady and Car Seats for the Littles have guides on achieving a proper install. Safe Kids Worldwide hosts gratuitous events with Child Rider Safety technicians, who will ensure that you get your seat in right the start time and know how to practice it yourself the next time.

Buckle up for safety. A practiced install is important, just so is making certain the straps are snug on the child. Shoulder straps should be positioned in the harness slot right below the shoulders when rear-facing, and at or above the shoulders when forward-facing. The chest clip should hitting at the armpits. Know how to tighten and loosen the straps on your car seat, and have puffy coats off when buckling a kid in, every bit they tin can go out the harness too loose.

Keep your kid rear-facing at least until 2. Land laws are changing to reflect a growing acceptance of the fact that small children are safer in a rear-facing seat. There is express existent-world evidence for the do good of rear-facing with older children due to the fact that so few Americans keep older kids rear-facing (making meaningful data collection difficult). But condom experts mostly agree that longer rear-facing is amend, every bit is staying in a seat with a five-point harness for equally long equally possible before switching to a seat chugalug–dependent booster seat (we program to review booster seats after in 2018).

Notice your seat's size and weight limits. Similar with infant seats, well-nigh kids volition probably hit a convertible seat'south height limit before its weight limit. Kids outgrow the rear-facing seat when their caput is less than an inch from the meridian of the shell acme. (Once the child has outgrown rear-facing, they may still likely fit in the seat forward-facing.) A kid has outgrown a forrard-facing seat when the tops of their ears are at or to a higher place the top of the seat's caput restraint at the highest setting (it'southward okay for the summit of their head to exist above the top of the seat every bit long as the ears are not), or if the shoulder straps can no longer be properly positioned at or above their shoulders.

Dispose of your seat properly. Convertible machine seats by and large have a longer life than infant seats (ten years is typical instead of five or vi). If your seat has reached its expiration appointment, information technology should exist thrown abroad. Stores like Target sporadically concur merchandise-in events; bring your unwanted seat to the store, they'll dispose of information technology, and typically give y'all a discount on the booster seat you'll need next. Not sure where to dispose of an sometime seat? Contact your regional or local Prophylactic Kids.

A auto seat that has been involved in a moderate or serious accident should besides be thrown away, though a seat can continue to be used after a minor crash if all of the post-obit criteria are met: You are able to drive abroad from the crash site; airbags did not deploy; at that place are no injuries to passengers; in that location is no visible damage to the car seat; and the vehicle door nearest the car seat is left undamaged.

Sources

1. Mike Kulig, business unit manager, SLED , telephone interviews

2. Bill Horn, head engineer on SLED, operational manager Calspan , phone interviews

3. Miriam Manary, senior research associate, University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute , phone interview , August 30, 2017

4. Lani Harrison, CPST, Auto Seats for the Littles , telephone interview , August 30, 2017

5. Chris Lumley, founder and CEO of Clek , telephone interview , September thirteen, 2017

6. William Conway, engineering leader, automobile seats, Graco , phone interview , March 5, 2018

7. Sarah Haverstick, Evenflo safety advocate, phone interview , September xviii, 2017

8. Joshua Dilts, marketing product manager, Chicco U.s. , phone interview , September 18, 2017

9. Dr. Benjamin Hoffman, pediatrician, uncompensated consultant to Chicco on matters of automobile seat safety, CSPT-I , phone interview , September 20, 2017

10. Maggie Rauser, Safety Kids/KISS county coordinator, Carroll County Wellness Department (Md.) , CPST Training , September 21, 2017

11. Ryan Hawker, director of car seat product management and automobile seat product marketing managing director, Dorel Juvenile, The states , phone interview , October 3, 2017

12. Allana Pinkerton, certified Child Passenger Rubber technician, Diono , phone interview , December twenty, 2017

13. Kelly Thomas, Britax brand manager , phone interview , January 30, 2018

14. Joyce Kara, director of production marketing, Britax , phone interview , Jan xxx, 2018

15. Jessica Jermakian, senior research engineer, Insurance Institute for Highway Prophylactic , phone interview , March one, 2018

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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-convertible-car-seats/

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