| Hey-Jude |
My wife just returned from Babies-R-Us with these two carseats. We looked them over carefully and were both leaning towards the Britax Roundabout for a couple reasons:
1) The design of tightening and loosening the straps seemed simpler and easier than the Evenflo's twist knob/pulley system
and
2) The virtually universally glowing praise of the Britax...especially on this forum.
Then I put them in the MDX.
Does anyone use the Roundabout (rear facing) and NOT have to build up the car seat bottom with rolled up towels or something? I'd love to see a pic if so because I don't see how it could work.
I set both seats up in the 2nd row and the Roundabout was clearly too vertical even though it was in it's "reclined" position. The Evenflo, which reclines much further in general, seemed just right without any homemade 'towel' adjustments.
The only downside to how the Triumph sat in the car was that the aforementioned knob for tightening/loosening the straps sits right up against the seat back, potentially making it a little awkward to use.
Does anyone use the Evenflo Triumph? It's also about $100 cheaper than the Britax and according to one 'epinion' I read actually received better crash test results.
We're now leaning towards the Evenflo and returning the Britax.
Thanks in advance for any feedback!
( I know the overly upright position of the Roundabout has been covered in previous threads but the ones that I saw were 2 years old or more so hoped to get more recent opinions). |
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| MrPrescott |
| We have the Britax, and have been very happy with it. We did use it rear facing, but not in the MDX. It's now forward facing in the center of the X - an working great. |
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| TheWorm |
We've had the Roundabout for about 1.5 yrs. Still would highly recommend it -- it's holding up well. I honestly can't remember whether it needed towels in the RF position. I don't *think* it did. Did you use the rear tether (underseat, then back and up to the anchor) when you did a test-install? I *do* recall attaching the rear tether made a difference in the recline angle.
FWIW I'm talking the center position. |
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| wmquan |
Both TheWorm and I did indeed use a rolled towel for angle (his with a Britax Advantage, mine with a Britax Roundabout). I'm sure those are the old posts you've seen.
Personally, I don't think using a rolled towel is a big deal. Rear-facing seats are designed to buckle forward in a front crash, with the belt/LATCH keeping the seat attached. There's a smaller rebound as the seat goes rearward. A rolled towel may look a bit weird, but it won't affect the crash performance of the seat.
As TheWorm said, be sure to use the rear tether to help stabilize the seat. You've probably seen various ways you can route and connect the tether.
I still feel it's a better seat than the Triumph, but the Triumph should be fine as well, and it is cheaper. The Triumph is certainly one of the better convertibles out there, now that Evenflo has added EPS foam.
(I'm pretty sure this does not apply to the Triumph, but a few years ago Evenflo advised not to rear-face many of their seats in the center of the rear seat. The Triumph instructions should provide a better indication, and hopefully this restriction doesn't apply to it.)
As for the epinions.com mention, the Triumph did indeed score a "well above average" for infant protection, compared to an "above average" for the Roundabout in Consumer Reports. They tied in toddler protection. Interestingly enough, the Roundabout still was the top-rated convertible seat in the overall ratings with the Triumph a close third.
That all said, I'd take Consumer Union's car seat safety tests with a grain of salt, and look mostly for broad differences rather than small ones. Realistically, their carseat testing is pretty limited (and in fact they don't even document their methodology). It's not even clear if they were using highly instrumented crash test dummies, and how they impacted the seats.
While CR usually does a good job, it's clear their carseat testing methodology still needs work. A few years ago they actually rated the Roundabout mid-pack -- because their testing methodology did not have it installed the way Britax's instructions state it should be! Interesting now that the seat does so well in their tests, when it hasn't changed that much.
FWIW, CR also claimed that the Britax had better side-impact protection than the other seats. Obviously in a center position that's not as big a deal. It will be for me, though, because in several months we'll put our infant daughter in the old Roundabout rear-facing (with the rolled towel), in the outboard position. Unless I can jam it in next to the massive Britax Husky we're using -- and even then we're concerned about our impetuous son chucking his sippy cup at her. |
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| paul123 |
| Go with the Britax, the Evenflo is not made nearly as well. There's a reason why the Fire Department, Police Department and Emergency services use only Britax. |
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| TheWorm |
quote:
Originally posted by wmquan
Both TheWorm and I did indeed use a rolled towel for angle (his with a Britax Advantage, mine with a Britax Roundabout). I'm sure those are the old posts you've seen.
LOL - funny that you remember more about the install -- and which seat I have -- than I do! :bonk:
BTW, have you seen the new buckle assemblies on the most recent Britax seats? Instead of the pushbutton-to-loosen it's a shortened "airplane" version latch. Pretty slick! |
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| FatBoyMDX |
| I vaguely remember using some towels rolled up for the rear facing. Thanks for the reminder, we'll be needing to do that again soon! |
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| stumpelcenter |
you guys have everything on this website.
:)
anyway, I find this topic amusing since I had to install the Britax Marathon into my new 2 day old MDX today. An upgrade from my 2000 Integra. Wow what a sweet navigation system. |
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| wmquan |
quote:
Originally posted by TheWorm
LOL - funny that you remember more about the install -- and which seat I have -- than I do! :bonk:
BTW, have you seen the new buckle assemblies on the most recent Britax seats? Instead of the pushbutton-to-loosen it's a shortened "airplane" version latch. Pretty slick!
I cheated. I remembered that you had an Advantage (I wanted one but #$!@ Britax released it a month too late for us). But I went to www.carseatdata.org and saw your entry using a rolled towel, just like mine. I had to remind myself whether we used a rolled-towel for rear-facing too!
I haven't seen the new buckle. My Roundabout has one of the older ones, with the downward-push button. Britax stopped those because some kids could figure out how to unbutton them. The Marathon we have, and the Husky, both have the center push-button buckle.
Getting my daughter into her Graco Snugride this morning, reminded me of how the Britax harness straps are great quality. The Snugride has only been used for 2.5 months now and they show a lot of wrinkling and twisting. The polyester mesh that Britax uses simply seems to be of better quality.
When she outgrows the infant seat and still needs to be rear-facing, we'll probably put the Roundabout in the Saab, and see if we can fit the new Wizard rear-facing into the MDX. I like its side-impact features.
Also worth mentioning here is that someone found a website selling the Britax Galaxy (convertible seat) at $129.95, a nice price for a Britax seat. Doing a search will find the post. |
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| Hey-Jude |
Thanks so much for the great responses!
I'm going to give the Britax another chance on the install. Tomorrow, I'll do it up just like I would for real ... towels, tethers, whatever it takes. :)
Still, I'm convinced that the Evenflo is also a very safe seat and definitely a better value (half the price). I'm surprised nobody here seems to use the Triumph but maybe it's a new model and the Roundabout has apparently been around for ages.
After discussing with my wife we may opt to buy both seats! Then we could get some experience with both and put the one we like better in the MDX (which is our son's usual ride)... and the other would go in our Camry for those occasions he's forced to slum it. $100 is a small price to pay to not have to move one of those suckers from car to car for the next couple years or however long he will fit in it.
Thanks again for the responses and if anyone's interested I'll post a follow up down the road with the outcome. |
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| wmquan |
Having two carseats is definitely helpful.
Good luck on the install. When we used a rolled towel, it was rolled very tightly and put under the front of the childseat to provide the extra tilt. With the tether, we honestly could not budge the seat, it was really tight. We actually had it leaning back further than the usual 45 degree angle. Our son started in it early because he was pretty big and had/has a huge head. That made it even more important for him to lean further back.
TheWorm's trick of threading the top tether under the seat and up the back to the top-tether anchor works great. If not, you can tether it to the rod running under the second row.
Please note that both Wormy and me used a belted installation. Our MDX's are 2001's without LATCH. Not sure if that makes a difference. |
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| TheWorm |
I second the second seat idea. We have the Britax in the X (95% of our daughter's travel is in there) and a Century (that neither of us care for) is in the other car. We also use the Century for travel -- it's smaller and much lighter than the Britax.
$100 for the convenience of not having to uninstall/re-install carseats (along with the safety advantage of always having one in the driveway..no matter who or which car is out) is well worth it.
Though I don't have experience with the Evenflo's I can tell you from experience w/the Britax and our secondary Century seat that the "value" equation can change as time goes by and the seats get some use. I thought the Century we bought was a great value (seemed to have a good number of features and $100+ less) but the belts are forever tangling and the belt tightener/release is a PITA to use. The seat is pretty thrashed with infrequent use, and the Britax is still "like new". Relegated to secondary car and travel duty the Century's fine, but if it were our primary seat it'd have been replaced w/a Britax long ago. Just some food for thought. |
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| FatBoyMDX |
I third the 2 seat idea.. . .
We had to get a 2nd Britax due to our work schedules, but even now when the wife isn't working, the second comes in very handy. And with #2 on the way, we'll have the 2nd seat when we need it! |
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| A2MDXer |
quote:
Originally posted by TheWorm
Though I don't have experience with the Evenflo's I can tell you from experience w/the Britax and our secondary Century seat that the "value" equation can change as time goes by and the seats get some use. I thought the Century we bought was a great value (seemed to have a good number of features and $100+ less) but the belts are forever tangling and the belt tightener/release is a PITA to use. The seat is pretty thrashed with infrequent use, and the Britax is still "like new". Relegated to secondary car and travel duty the Century's fine, but if it were our primary seat it'd have been replaced w/a Britax long ago. Just some food for thought.
Good point - maybe it depends on the model. I would have to look to get the exact model but I think I have an Evenflo Century (SE?) as my primary seat in the MDX for 2 years (bought it for about $50 - at the time it was CR's top rated seat I believe). I has no extra features and when we bought it I didn't like the seat but after 2 years of use it still is in like-new condition, tightens and loosens very easily and is a joy to use - probably the best $50 I have ever spent! Obviously Britax makes great seats but I wanted to add that I have been very happy with the Evenflo. |
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| jelbnl |
| I've only bought the Britax seats as our main seats due to their safety record. I also feel that they are the easiest to use!! I also second the second seat. I didn't have one and the one day I needed it. DS was sick and it was Christmas Eve. We were flying out the next morning, and DH was out running last minute errands in my Volvo at the time due to needing the extra space. Both of my car seats were in this car, and there was only a booster in DH's car for the occasional ride my DD took with him. Well, here I am trying to get DS to the Dr for the last appointment, and DH is NOWHERE To be found (cell was turned off!) Anyway, luckily I had DS's OLD infant car seat down in the basement (DS was 8 months and had already outgrown it). Well, when you're desperate, you'll do almost anything. I quickly re-installed it into DH's car, and squished him in. We then made it to the Drs and got the required medicines. After returning from our trip, I purchased a cheap seat to keep in DH's car at all times. So, we know have 4 seats, 2 in each car. It's just nice not to have to worry about constantly re-installing seats, and we also take the cheaper seats on vacations. |
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| Hey-Jude |
Jelbnl,
I'm sorry if I'm slow on the uptake .... but what exactly do DS, DD, DH stand for?? I'm guessing it's son, daughter and husband but not sure what the leading "D" is for?
Just curious! |
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| jelbnl |
| Darling or Dear Husband, Daughter and Son.... |
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| wmquan |
| And on a bad day, DH = dang husband. |
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| Twinmom |
I have a suggestion instead of the rolled up towel.. Babies r Us sells this blue foam form just for this purpose. Also I got the blue skid mat to go with it, to keep the seat in place in my old RX300, in the X I was using it for seat protection.
If you haven't already installed the roundabout, look at the marathon quick, it goes rear facing and forward to 65 lbs with 5 pt harness, don't know the price difference but I have 2 1/2 year old twins that have outgrown their britax seat due to height. they are 41" and 43" tall and will hit 40lbs way before 3.. just my 2 cents..
either way.. britax is the way to go.. |
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