Look at our best booster seat review for the next stage in safety car seats. Like the Extend2Fit Convertible, the Foonf can accommodate rear-facing children up to 50 pounds and forward-facing kids up to 65 pounds or 49 inches. Clek sells an Infant-Thingy insert for the Foonf that lets the seat carry babies as small as 5 pounds in rear-facing mode only; we recommend using a dedicated infant car seat for newborns. The Foonf’s minimum weight for a forward-facing child is 22 pounds, but experts recommend keeping your child rear-facing for far longer. One of our favorite things about the Extend2Fit Convertible is how exceptionally well it facilitates extended rear-facing riding, with a 50-pound rear-facing weight limit. There are four different settings on the panel, so it can be extended for a total of 5 inches of additional legroom when rear-facing.
Also, it’s narrow and easy to keep clean, and it comes with the added safety feature of an anti-rebound bar. We also recommend the Britax Boulevard ClickTight for those whose top priority is ease of installation. We’ve added the Clek Foonf as an also-great pick for families that are happy to pay more for a beautiful but super-heavy (and ultra-sturdy) seat.
Our panel of experts also includes Dr. Juliet Spurrier is a board-certified pediatrician , mother, and founder of BabyGearLab with a background in urgent pediatric care. The Sirona crash test results are slightly below average, and while considered safe and performed better than some, if your goal is rotation and better crash test results, the Sirona might not be the one for you. The Baby Jogger City Turn is a rotating seat in the rear-facing installation with significantly better crash test analysis results. While this option doesn’t rotate in forward-facing, we think most parents won’t mind, given the potential for an additional margin of safety. However, if your goal is full rotation and you enjoy comfort, quality, and ease of use, we believe the Sirona is the seat for you.
Pushing in the pongs takes a little more force than the average option. The chest clip pinch release is on the left shoulder strap and is easy to use; while not in the usual location, it didn’t hinder the process. When the seat itself needs more cleaning, we take it inside to remove the cushions and wipe down the plastic. We machine-wash the cushions (as instructed by Graco) using regular detergent and let them air-dry overnight. According to the company, the five-point harness and buckles can also be wiped down with mild soap and warm water.
Tightening the harness on the Extend2Fit was more complicated than the average option. It kept getting caught on something, making it harder to pull for a snug fit. It is much easier to release, so whatever gets caught during tightening isn’t involved in the release process. Still no lock-off or color coding on the forward-facing installation of the graco turbobooster Extend2Fit. While the seat has some varying colors, it doesn’t appear that they mean anything, and you’ll need your manual nearby to reference. Without Isofix or rotation, and being a large and heavy seat, the Enhance doesn’t tick all the boxes for ease of use, but it does provide superior comfort and is a safe model that is great value for money.
A kid can no longer sit rear-facing when their head is less than an inch from the top of the seat’s shell height. At just 6.8 pounds, the inexpensive Cosco Scenera Next weighs far less than most other convertible car seats. (One 2018 tester described the lightweight seat as feeling “like a kid’s toy.”) That makes it a good choice for travel—it’s the convertible pick in our guide to the best travel car seats. It’s doable, but even professionals we consulted noted that this seat is harder than others to install well. And unlike our main picks, which have a forward-facing weight limit of 65 pounds, the Scenera Next’s weight limit is 40 pounds in both forward- and rear-facing mode, which means you can’t use it for nearly as long. Unlike the Extend2Fit Convertible, the Extend2Fit 3-in-1 converts to a high-back booster seat.