For comfort and quality, we review the materials and overall construction. We analyze the padding, fabric, and foam and how well they come together compared to the competition. We consider how each seat’s design contributes to a baby’s potential comfort, parent use, and durability. In this review, several seats have a belt lock-off located on the seat. Interestingly, most of these seats ranked higher overall and have higher installation scores using a vehicle belt. The Evenflo Gold Revolve360, Nuna RAVA, and the Britax One4Life ClickTight scored the highest for belt installation and each has a useful belt lock-off.
Keeping a child rear-facing until they’re 4 years old is an ambitious and oft-cited benchmark; that would mean an average of about 35 inches tall and 40 pounds. If you want a seat that will last for most of the time your child needs a car seat, the Graco 4Ever DLX Grad could be a good option. We recommend either starting with an infant seat or keeping in mind that you will likely need a backless booster for your child once this seat is outgrown. Out of the 4Ever versions, this would be our favorite, thanks to the seat belt trainer. We do still think that the backless booster mode is very bulky, and we don’t care for that mode of use, though it’s a perfectly safe option.
The 50-pound rear-facing feature ensures your child can safely ride for a long time. The four-position adjustable extension panel provides up to five-inch of extra legroom, allowing your child to ride with enhanced safety and comfort. The storage pockets of this mommy-approved model hold the harness, enabling you to get your little one in and out of the extended rear-facing infant seat easily. With any car seat, it’s important to follow the height and weight restrictions for that particular model. Because the Graco 4Ever 4-in-1 can be used in so many different modes, parents may find themselves referring to the manual or Graco’s online resources as their child grows.
Keep in mind that children can switch to a booster seat when they reach a certain size, and they’ll eventually grow out of that booster seat as well. Don’t forget to consider your vehicle when shopping for a car seat because some car seats don’t fit in every type of vehicle. There are a few third-party websites that claim to offer objective crash test data that compares car seats. First of all, third-party car seat crash tests don’t actually give us meaningful data!
Top-performing seats for LATCH installation include those with push-style connectors, easy-to-pull straps, and often lock-off mechanisms. These options include the Nuna Revv, Evenflo Gold Revolve360, and the Cybex Sirona S. Following close behind are the Baby Jogger City Turn, Nuna RAVA, Graco 4Ever DLX, Graco SlimFit 3-in-1 and the Graco Extend2Fit 3 in 1. The hardest to install using LATCH are the Safety 1st Grow and Go All-in-One, Diono Radian 3RXT Safe+, Clek Fllo, and the Maxi-Cosi Pria All-in-One. If you’re installing the Boulevard with the LATCH system (and again, we can’t think of a scenario where you would or should), the process is the same, but you use the included LATCH straps in place of the seat belts. Thankfully, the entire seat cover can be removed (video), machine-washed, and drip-dried.
In this update, we bought and crash-tested the top 20 convertible seats available today to find the best. We conduct side-by-side tests of each convertible car seat over several months to determine the best in metrics like crash test performance, installation, ease of use, quality, and more. We collect the details you need to choose the right car seat for your needs and your wallet.
The manual clearly states that the top tether is required for all forward facing installations. This model is 25 months old, weighs 22 pounds and is 33 inches tall. The seat allows for rear facing to within 1 inch of the adjuster at the top, or a seated height of about 27 inches tall. We measure the weight and width of each car seat we test, including the forward-facing and rear-facing configuration weight and the width at the widest point (which can vary). While the convertible seat weight is likely not as important as the carrier weight of an infant seat, it can be a consideration if you travel frequently or use public transportation and need to carry it. If your seat will remain in your car most of the time, then how much it weighs might be less of a concern.
The Nuna offers top performance for comfort and quality and is easy to install, no matter which option you prefer. We like that it is the easiest option to use and has some of the best crash test analyses, indicating a potential margin of safety over the average seat in this review. The Uppababy Knox debuted in 2019, but that first version of the seat was voluntarily recalled in April 2020 due to an issue with the design of the base. (The base could cause the seat to tip when installed.) The Knox was relaunched with a new base in March 2021.
Over time, we found that because the seat belt wasn’t locked off, the car seat didn’t stay totally in place; it started to rotate, and we needed to reinstall it to make it straight again. The Rava does have a high rear-facing weight limit of 50 pounds—and an adjustable footrest that adds 2 inches of legroom in the rear-facing position. But in practice, we didn’t find that the extension panel added much room, especially compared with the panel on the Graco Extend2Fit Convertible.
We suggest you keep your baby in their infant car seat until they are 9-12 months old or as their height starts to push the infant seat’s maximum length (always rely on the manufacturer’s limitations of your infant seat to guide you). You should check weight capacity, too, but more often than not, the height limit will force the switch to a convertible seat. We send one to the same certified crash testing graco car seat lab used by NHTSA for crash testing, and we share the crash testing results with you to help you make an informed decision. Our tests are somewhat faster than the federal guidelines to help differentiate between safe but average seats and those that might offer an additional margin of safety. Then, we buy a second unit of each car seat to put through our rigorous hands-on testing process at GearLab.