Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

(The version I own and reviewed is from the initial run in late 2013.) IN A HURRY? JUST READ THIS I am very pleased with this car seat due to the strong (steel and magnesium) frame and, most importantly, the longevity of the seat for rear-facing, which is much safer in a crash than forward-facing. It was easy to install DESPITE the somewhat lacking manual and fits well in the center of our Honda Civic's backseat. I can even still see out the windows. For this price, though, I have to take off a star for some inconveniences and minor issues (e.g. difficulty in reaching harness release button, poor manual) that will hopefully be corrected in future versions. Had I not needed a convertible seat so soon, I would not have been an early adopter of the first run. I will update this over the next several months with further thoughts. Regardless of which seat you choose, I HIGHLY recommend that anyone with a car seat get your installation checked by a CPS (Child Passenger Safety) technician. Many parents do not have their car seats properly installed or are not fully securing their children. A quick visit with a tech can help you make sure you are helping the seat do its best job! REALLY INTO CAR SEATS? READ ON FOR THE LONG VERSION ... When we started shopping for car seats, we continually asked for recommendations from others on the 'best' seat, by which we meant the safest one. What we discovered is that most employees and CPS (Child Passenger Safety) technicians gave the same reply: "The right car seat or booster fits your child and your car, and is one you will use correctly every time you travel." This used to really frustrate me, especially when I considered the wide variety of features offered by different manufacturers. What I discovered is that some of the technologies used, like the side impact cushions on the Britax Advocate, sound good, but we have no way of knowing how effective they are because the United States does not currently have side impact testing standards for child safety restraints. (That was a big surprise to me, which should be your first clue that I am not a car seat tech.) I say this not to knock Britax or any other manufacturer, but merely to point out that we do not know whether some of the features they tout actually improve crash outcomes or are more for marketing purposes than anything else. However, what we do know is that rear-facing absolutely improves crash outcomes, so longer rear-facing quickly became one of my must-haves in a convertible car seat. Originally, I was still considering a Britax convertible in part because I hoped the SIP would be helpful in a crash. However, through research online I discovered that some children outgrew the Britax Advocate earlier than they would have outgrown some other available convertibles due to the size of the Britax shell. So I had to weigh something that might possibly help (Britax side impact) against what is absolutely known to help (rear-facing at least until 2, but ideally up until 4 as is practiced in Sweden), which meant that I wasn't going to take a chance on our child becoming too tall for the Advocate at an early age. We then briefly considered a Radian RXT, which is great for longer rear-facing, but my husband did not feel comfortable with such shallow sides and how open it felt should we ever need to place it outboard, so we kept looking until we found the Foonf. WHAT'S GREAT - Rear-facing up to 43" and 50 lbs, which makes it great for keeping younger, but heavier, children rear-facing. (Wondering why I keep mentioning rear-facing? Even the American Academy of Pediatrics now advises parents to keep their toddlers in Rear-Facing car seats until age 2, or until they reach the maximum height and weight for their seat, as it significantly reduces crash forces in children whose heads are disproportionately large and heavy.) - The seat itself is easy to install and has a narrow footprint. I think I really could get three of these in my Civic's backseat if I needed to. We did have to use a little force to install the anti-rebound bar (ARB), but it wasn't too bad. - The Dragonfly cover is very nice and soft to the touch. Having already spilled water on the seat, I was pleased to watch it bead up and then be easily wiped away. Although the seats are firm, they are not hard and do not strike me as uncomfortable. - clek has been very responsive to customers on their Facebook page, particularly about points of confusion. I wrote to them with a question and got a prompt and thorough response. - clek will recycle this car seat if you send it back to them! You do pay an upfront fee of $20, but once they receive the seat, they give you a $20 credit towards their online store. If you were planning to upgrade to one of their booster seats, this would (as of the date I am writing this, at least) give you a slightly lower price on the new seat than Amazon offers. - Crypton fabrics are Greenguard certified! WHY YOU MIGHT WANT TO WAIT - The manual is very long, but I found it confusing for several reasons. First, the manual often tells you to refer to another section, but never gives the page number of the section, so you must return to the table of contents and then find the new spot. A minor inconvenience, but an unnecessary one. Next, the illustrations are small enough that they do not always readily convey the detail needed to understand the instructions. Also, the same information is repeated throughout the manual, which I found distracting. I spent a lot of time reading over duplicate info to make sure it did not contain anything new. However, I can see that this is a good tactic in order to ensure that a parent flipping only to a certain section is more likely to see critical warnings at least once, while people like me - who read everything - get it multiple times. I had many questions that the manual did not answer. For example, the sticker on the rear-facing base implies that only position three (fully reclined) can be used rear-facing. The manual does not mention anything other than the seat needs to be in position 3 to install the ARB and that the ARB must be used when rear-facing, but an alternative mode was being tested for smaller cars. This, coupled with the sticker, led me to believe that position 2 could not be used rear-facing. After clarifying with clek, however, it turns out that while the ARB must be used for the duration of rear-facing (at least at the moment, until whatever the 'alternative mode' is comes to fruition), both positions 2 and 3 are appropriate while rear-facing. Not sure why the sticker does not reflect this, but I am happy to know my child isn't stuck with a full recline. If you find yourself confused about something, do contact clek, as they seem to be very good about getting back with customers. You may also find your question posted on their Facebook page, which is regularly attended to. - I have a hard time depressing the harness-release lever. For some reason, there is not a button on the car seat for this, but an open hole above the part of the harness that you pull to tighten it. You put your finger into this hole and must feel around for the lever. At first, I continued to fiddle with a little knob-like thing, but I finally figured out the lever was below it. However, I keep accidentally sliding my hand in and getting the lever to jab me between my finger and my nail. No one else has had this happen to them, but several other family members have struggled to find the lever. I really hope clek changes this in a future version. - The headrest on my model does not go up and down smoothly. I don't know if this is true for others or if it is just a quirk of mine, but I have to struggle to move it. As an aside, please note that you need to use a special tool (tucked away somewhere on the car seat, though I forget where at the moment) to completely remove the headrest, so do not think it is broken if it does not come off on its own! - This seat is not for newborns, so you need to wait until your child is at least 14 lbs and has good head control. I believe they recommend six months. - Many more patterns are expected. I really wanted the Julius Stripe, but my immediate need for the seat outweighed that, so I made peace with my green Foonf. OTHER MINOR COMPLAINTS - I have no idea why there is a slightly less expensive 'Drift' model with a cheaper fabric. When you are paying $450 for a car seat, why would $25 extra make a big difference? As far as I can tell, there is no advantage to the 'automotive' fabric, so why not make the Drift pattern in the Crypton fabric? - The magnets for the harness are a nice idea, but too small and too weak to really make a difference. I spend as much time making sure I find the magnet and place the harness in the right spot to attach them as I normally do holding the harness out of the way, so I end up rarely using the magnets.