Customer Reviews

Graco Soft Seat Potty Trainer

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was an excellent potty seat for my daughter and now my son is using it as well. We tried a couple of other potty seats that did not have a cushioned seat and the holes were just way too small. My son and daughter both refused to sit on the others. And I agree that this one is harder to keep clean because you have to remove the cushion from the handles to get all that pee that gets under the cushion, but it was still the only potty seat that they would sit on. Plus the opening is just so much bigger than any other potty seats I looked at. And I just ordered a replacement cushion from Graco becuase we are just starting potty training my son and with all the use from my daughter, the cushion no longer snaps into place on the handles. I have never used it as a stepstool, so I can't comment on that aspect of this potty chair

We've had this for three years. We tried not to use it as a potty for too long simply because going in a real toilet is easier/cleaner - though this was easy to clean, as far as such potties go. We used it as a step stool for well over two years and still use it as a seat ring (daily for > 27mths). It's the best seat ring - it's comfy, ours hasn't ripped at all, and it's much easier to keep clean than the standard $12 Dora/SpongeBob/etc rings, which I find I have to replace (for our other bathrooms) about twice/year otherwise they get simply disgusting. And it has handles so you don't have to put your hand inside the ring when moving it on/off the pot. I will say, the hinge on the potty lid did break, which is why we had to stop using it as a stepstool... but I still find it to be the best potty out there, by far. It's a potty, a stepstool, and a ring to use for years to come - well worth the money.

I've purchased two of these potties (the first one smelled too much to keep; will explain later) for my first two kids, but with #3 on the way, I'm reconsidering:
Pros: large opening (I never thought that would be an issue, but it is)
comfortable seat

Cons: lots of nooks and crannies to harbor urine/feces

I would wipe down the seat with a disinfectant wipe daily and clean out the potty after every use, but there would still be a residual urine smell. I couldn't stand it! I felt like such a bad housekeeper.
It turns out, the seat isn't one whole piece. It is attached to a base plastic. So, I started bleaching it once a week and that still isn't doing the trick.
My first child is a boy, so I thought he was just urinating forward/into the nooks; but my second child is a girl, and I'm still having the issue.

I'm now considering a one-piece/whole potty (like Bjorn, maybe, I need to make sure the whole is large enough), so hygiene isn't such an issue and I can keep it as a hand-me-down or for baby #4.

First things first, this product is meant for kids. No one over 70 pounds should attempt to use this, and certainly not a 6'1" 225 pound man. Trust me on this one folks. If you manage to actually sit on it (I could only get one cheek in place, the other lapped over the side) you do not want to "perform". It's a mess and the lid forms a vacuum seal over your bottom.

This does beg the question - why don't adult toilets have handle bars on their sides??? These are a great feature, and believe me, after eating those Fiber One Bars I can testify that handle bars would help TREMENDOUSLY in expulsion activities.

Now that said, my son thoroughly enjoys this toilet. He's just started to stand while peeing and he takes great delight in spraying the back of the seat and lid. Further, be warned, when the little guy sits and thus urinates against the "splash guard" the liquid tends to run under the seat and form puddles under the rim. Not very pleasing to clean up. We ended up taking the splash guard off entirely, which does not reduce the problem of under splash, so to speak. However, removing the splash guard reduces the reflective spray that used to soak my kid every time he used it. Imagine sitting half an inch away from a wall and spraying it. Hell, us guys have a hard enough time getting it in the bowl as ADULTS let alone while we were potty training - the splash guard only confuses the issue.

I'll also point out that the removable red bowl has a handle. While this makes it convenient to dump the offending material, it also makes it easy for the little guy to sling the offending material into orbit. Yes, if you try teaching him to remove and flush the stuff himself, just be aware you might be faced with a situation where you're standing on a kitchen chair trying to clean the ceiling with paper towels and cleaning fluid in a state of panic before your wife gets home and notices the bio-stalactite...

All in all, a decent product. Future versions should come with a roll of toilet paper and a copy of playdude or a newspaper - to get the little guy more acclimated to a man's potty...

I've potty trained 2 kids and I'm shopping for a potty for the third and I'm not buying this one. That's because this one helped me figure out what to avoid in buying a potty. It does have good features, of course: it has a soft seat, it allows you to transfer the seat to the toilet, and you can use the shell as a step stool and the pee cup can be removed and emptied into the toilet. In my opinion, every potty chair should have these features, or at least have a seat that is in a natural shape for comfort.

The flaws that were enough to prevent me from buying another are as follows:
The seat, while soft, moves around loosely on the toilet seat. It is in more than one piece, or was 8 years ago (it looks exactly the same now), and with ours, the pee worked its way in between the padded portion and the base with the handles. To clean it, I had to pop them apart and scrub the pee away, yuck. And I used hot water, which seemed the most sanitary, but seem to cause the padded part to shrink a tiny bit each time... and then I realized water was starting to get inside the plastic cover of the padded seat. Then of course, pee also gets under the seat and under the pink pee cup. So you're wiping up pee all the time anyway. And that smell never really seems to come out.

I could see the problems with the pee being somewhat unavoidable given the nature of potty-training, but I am looking for a seat that comes in one piece.

This seat was fine at first--except that my son wanted to play with the guard, so it always came off. Now, however, the lid frequently pops off its hinges when he uses it as a stepstool, and the plastic cover on the soft seat has come apart all the way around at the seam, exposing the foam. I'm glad to see from another review that we can order another seat from Graco, but am still disappointed that this did not hold up to regular use.

This works best as a step stool. As a potty chair it hasn't worked well with my daughter. The cushioned seat keeps coming off the chair whenever she makes the slightest movement (and we all know how much toddlers like to squirm) which has sometimes allowed the mess to get on the floor as well as my daughter. Also, it gets dirty in all the extra nooks (like under the cushion) which requires a lot more work to keep it clean.

I like this potty chair because the opening is much bigger than others we tried, and now that my son is a little older, he can use the very comfortable ring on the regular toilet. However, the guard comes off very easily and that is very annoying. We also use it as a stepstool and I did notice the lid does snap off, but its easy enough to fix. Overall, I'd recommend it but the guard is sort of a pain!

I bought this same potty trainer 11 years ago for my first child and love it so much that I just bought one for my second child! It is the right size and it is very sturdy! And when you put the lid down, it turns into a step stool which is at perfect height and it is very sturdy and durable...not made cheaply at all! I totally recommend this toilet!

This is an AWESOME seat. I tried another seat for my son first and the pee guard just smashed him so needless to say he couldn't/wouldn't potty b/c he couldn't even get his equipment past the guard to pee in the toilette. The pee guard moves so you can move it over their stuff so they don't spray the whole bathroom, which I think is brilliant. That helped my son a lot b/c he cried the first time we went b/c it went over the guard but when we showed him how to aim and that the guard could move to cover him he was quite pleased and excited b/c he could move it himself. If you do play with the guard excessively it may fall off, ours has like 3 times, but it's removable so its no big deal other than its gross to fish it out. Don't let that deter you though b/c my son is an extreme mover and fidgets with everything a lot, so if it can take his abuse and only fall in 2-3 times over a 7 month period that is awesome. Also he has figured out how to stand over the potty and pee like a big boy so the fact that it's small enough for him to stand over and pee in it is awesome too. This seat is amazing, just amazing. I researched every seat out there I think and this one is the best, search no further this is it, especially for BOYS!!!!!!! AWESOME SEAT!