Friday, September 10, 2010 Britax Roundabout 50 Convertible Car Seat Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The new Roundabout 50 is a very useful addition to the Britax line, if it matches what you're looking for.It's a somewhat compact seat with the safety and convenience features Britax offers (though with a couple convenience feature changes).And it's Roundabout-level price makes it a very good value, as a safe seat that will have a long useful life.

The notable differences vs. the original Roundabout is that this model can handle a child of up to 50 lbs, and up to 49 inches in height.(The original Roundabout was 40 lbs and 40 inches.)Given that a lot of children will outgrow the height of the chair before they outgrow the weight, this provides another somewhat compact option for parents, and lengthens the amount of time the chair is useful.

By the way, this seat is a "Roundabout" only in concept - a somewhat compact, moderately priced seat (compared to the rest of the Britax line).It isn't physically a version of the original Roundabout.Reportedly it's actually based on the Decathlon, and it does have the same overall dimensions and weight and very similar details like strap heights. (Though the Decathlon has the extra HUGS padding and more pillows.)So you may want to read comments on the Decathlon, too, if you're wanting more info on this new model.

Other important differences relative to the earlier Roundabout:
- Larger (19.5 W x 27.5 H x 25.5 D vs. 18.5 W x 24.5 H x 24 D).
- Bigger seat area (9.5 D x 11.5 W, vs. 9 D x 11 W)
- Heavier (15.5 lbs vs. 13.1 lbs.), but still lighter than many seats.
- Four harness slot heights, so seated shoulder height of 10.75" (rear facing) to 16.25" (forward facing), vs. three heights with a range of 10.5" to 15".
- Three buckle strap depths (2.4", 4.4", 6.4") rather than just one (6.6").

There are a couple features the Roundabout had that you may miss having on the Roundabout 50:
- The Roundabout 50 does not have the push button harness adjustment, which many parents really (really) liked on the original Roundabout.Instead it uses a lift lever.
- The Roundabout had built in belt lock offs, while the Roundabout 50 uses a locking clip.(We use the LATCH system on our own cars, the lockoffs were nice because they were easy to use on rental cars, but I imagine we'll adapt.)

I don't find any of these seats especially compact, though!We have a large station wagon and the back seat is very crowded with two.So you'll want to research how it fits in your specific car - since this model is new, perhaps see what people say about the Decathlon and your car.

We bought a 50 to use as our older child grows, and we'll use the smaller original Roundabout for the younger child, to help a little with the space in the back.

We did use another car seat (with a base and a detachable bucket) for the first several months, because we found it easier to put a newborn baby in the seat in the house and use that to carry her around in that, than to try to use a seat permanently installed in the car. So I can't say what it's like to use either of the Roundabouts with a newborn.

And just a reminder to keep your child rear facing well past the old 1 year / 20 lb guideline, if your circumstances make that at all possible - a quick web search will give you the safety facts.This larger seat will help somewhat with making that possible.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Britax Roundabout 50 Convertible Car Seat

Product Description:
Britax Roundabout 50 Convertible Car SeatThe Britax Roundabout 50 Convertible Car Seat maintains many parent approved features from the ever popular Roundabout compact convertible car seat and comes with recent advancements in child safety and the best practice to keep children harnessed as long as possible. This Roundabout has been stretched to accommodate a child up to 50 lbs. The Roundabout 50 features a tangle free, five point harnesses with 4 harness heights and 3 buckle positions for