Best Convertible Car Seats 2024 Crash Tested

The lower anchors are initially stored in the rear facing belt path. To move them to the forward facing belt path, loosen the harness and extend the headrest graco turbobooster all the way. Remove the top tether from the storage spot on the side of the seat’s shell and loosely connect it to the vehicle’s top tether.

graco car seat

In order to switch over to booster mode, your child must be at least 40 pounds and 43 inches tall, and have the emotional maturity to maintain correct posture while in the seat. To turn the Extend2Fit 3-in-1 from a five-point harness seat into a booster seat, you remove the bottom crotch buckle strap, move the harness straps behind the padding, and stow away the buckles in a compartment behind the padding. Removing that lower buckle is harder than it sounds; it can take several minutes of maneuvering to guide it out of its tight slot. This is not a flaw that’s particular to this seat—we’ve found readjusting crotch buckles to be a nuisance on plenty of other car seats—and you’re unlikely to be changing from convertible to booster mode all that often. If you buy this after your child has outgrown an infant seat, you might be able to get away without buying any other car seats.

Britax has released two new convertible car seats, the Poplar and the Poplar S, both of which rely on the company’s ClickTight system. Your child’s safety could be in jeopardy if your car seat is not installed correctly. Before you install your car seat, make sure you’re familiar with vehicle and graco turbobooster car seat parts used in the installation process and these important installation safety tips. As your tiny baby grows into a big kid, messes are bound to happen, but we’ve made cleaning easy. The seat pad snaps off easily without removing the harness and is machine-washable and dryer-safe.

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 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.

This graco convertible car seat is designed to be 10% slimmer than other car seats from the brand. It features SnugLock technology to help you install it in your car in less than one minute. This car seat is Graco ProtectPlus engineered, meaning a combination of the most rigorous crash tests have been performed on this device to ensure that it can help to protect your child in frontal, side, rear and rollover crashes. A well-installed car seat is a snug car seat; once it’s in, there should be minimal wiggle.