Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsMy favorite car seat!
Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2020
WOW I love this car seat! We have 3 kids (5, 3, 1) and have owned 11 car seats. This is our first Graco - we’ve owned/own seats from Chicco, Clek, Safety First, Maxi Cosi and Diono. I’ve installed varying combinations of these seats in over 10 cars, including our vehicles, grandparent vehicles and rental cars. This is my favorite car seat and here’s why:
- IT’S (comparatively) EASY TO INSTALL. All car seats are a pain to install but this is actually one of the easiest seats I’ve installed. The level is easy to read, so you know you’ll get the angle right. The way they’ve set up the LATCH straps means it’s unlikely you’ll get them twisted. I have no explanation as to why, but I installed it tightly on the first try, which never happens (even with the seats I know really well and have been installing for years).
- IT’S COMMON. This is important for anyone that does run into trouble installing: because this seat is so common, it’s easy to find dozens of how-to videos on YouTube that will walk you through the installation and help you troubleshoot any issues.
- HIGH REAR-FACING WEIGHT LIMIT. This is probably why most folks buy this seat and it was certainly a selling factor for us. The 50lb rear-facing weight limit means all 3 of my kids can rear face in this seat.
- HIGH WEIGHT LIMIT FOR LATCH. This isn’t something I even paid attention to until my kids got older and it’s important! You can use LATCH to install this seat up to 45lbs!!! All of our other seats only allow LATCH up to 30 or 35lbs, which means we have to switch to seat belt installation. It’s not a huge deal but it’s a pain because you have to remember to switch the installation when your child gets over the limit (and actually remember the limit). I prefer LATCH installation so I’m thrilled we get to use LATCH install for almost as long as we can rear-face.
- NO RETHREAD HARNESS! This is huge. Kids grow fast and it is a massive pain to uninstall and reinstall car seats when you need to adjust the straps. With this seat, you can just adjust the headrest without removing the entire car seat. I love it!!
- IT’S GREAT FOR TALL PARENTS! My husband is 6’5” and all of our rear facing seats have required him to move up his seat when driving... except this one! In one of the photos, you can see the Graco Extend2Fit is installed rear-facing next to Clek Foonf (also rear-facing). The Clek takes up substantially more space front-to-back than the Graco, which surprised me because our Clek takes up less space front-to-back than our other rear-facing car seats. Not only can my husband adjust his seat the way he likes, he’s got leg room to spare!
- IT’S AFFORDABLE. Even if it didn’t have all these other great features, it’s one of (if not the most) cost effective car seats for rear-facing to 50lbs. Now that I own one, I think it’s a total steal of a deal!
- IT HAS 2 GREAT CUP HOLDERS. I was worried because one of the comments on here claimed that no cups fit in the cup holders. Our child’s water bottle fits just fine. It’s snug but I prefer that because it won’t annoyingly rattle around when we’re driving. I like that there are two cup holders because kiddo can keep toys in the other one.
- IT HAS A WASHABLE COVER. Just like installation, all car seat covers are a pain to remove and wash. I think all of our car seats have been thrown up on (usually in the middle of nowhere when we have nothing to clean them up) so I have a lot of experience in this area. Removing the Graco cover is just as easy to remove as other seats. It’s not as easy to remove as the Chicco Zip line but we don’t have to wash the cover so frequently that I feel like I need that feature.
- IT HAS A PLACE TO STORE THE BUCKLES. Not all car seats have this and it’s one of my favorite features: there is a nice place to put the buckles so that it’s a little bit easier to buckle kiddo next time because they aren’t sitting in the buckles when they get into the seat. It’s a small thing but I love it.
- IT ISN'T OVERLY HEAVY. I can barely lift our Clek because it’s so heavy. The Graco is certainly sturdy but I can still move it.
Here is why we didn’t buy it sooner (aka downsides):
- IT’S TOO WIDE TO DO 3 ACROSS. Maybe there is a specific configuration that can make this work but we couldn’t. Our Diono and Clek easily allow us to fit 3 kids across the backseat. We got the Graco because we finally bought a minivan and didn’t have to fit 3 kids in the same row. Obviously this isn’t a factor for smaller families or families with larger vehicles.
- THE OVERALL APPEARANCE IS MEDIOCRE. It certainly isn’t ugly but many other car seats on the market are more attractive. I also wish the straps weren’t visible on the back.
The pros of this seat far outweigh the cons. I absolutely love this seat and I’ve recommended it to everyone that’s asked about it since we’ve purchased it. I’m really impressed by the features.
