Customer Reviews

Safety 1st OnSide Air Protect Convertible Car Seat, Bedrock Black

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Just received this seat from amazon.com and its pretty darn nice. We were originally looking at the air convertible 65. That seat costs $179-$200 in some places!!!! I wanted to justify buying the $180 car seat that looked just plain bad-ass....But I couldn't. After lots of research I discovered that ALL car seats sold in this country meet or exceed federal guidelines for child safety....Keep in mind, these guidelines are rarely updated and vehicle technology/structure has drastically changed in the last 20-30 years. Long story short, guidelines aren't hard to conform to. If they were car seats would cost lots more dough, and we would have fewer choices. Y'know, it would threaten the car seat industry :/

Now really about the seat-

For the money I feel its a square deal. Its a nice car seat, more open for my kid to look around. It seems to be far more comfy than her first seat which she had outgrown, she's pretty chubby(more to love & protect). I actually like the color scheme. It matches the inside of my Jeep well, in fact, its almost identical in pattern and colors are spot on. The installation is idiot proof(but I wouldn't put it past some of the people I see runnin' around) with stickers everywhere telling you explicitly where the seat belt or built in anchoring belt goes. READ THE STICKERS!!!Only use one of the methods, seat-belt or built in anchoring, not both. Do you wear two belts? No, unless you're a cop or perhaps Lady Gaga...

The "air" system. I believe its a gimmick. They don't provide any stats or real data on why it makes your kid safer, therefor I am left to assume. I suppose it makes sense in a side impact crash that more cushioning around the child's melon will protect it better than, let's say, a bag of potatoes, but Other than feeling like a memory foam mattress and looking cool, I believe it makes your kid no safer than other car seats.

This will fit in smaller vehicles,(Jeep Patriot) no doubt. I am, however, 6' 3" and require a bit of extra leg room. This seat has forced me to be a bit cramped, but once I put it forward facing, that won't be a problem anymore.

I posed the idea that because this seat is rated up to 40 lbs that the extra $100 for the convertible 65 se was maybe a better option lasting her until she was 65 lbs. But I looked at booster seats and those range from as low as $25, so fiscally I would argue this is the best deal you can get for a child seat and it will last you as long as your child is small enough to be a in a car seat.

i drive a 2 door hyundai accent and do not wish to own a bigger vehicle. so, when my son out grew his infant seat and i started looking for the next step...i was shocked! car seats are made with bigger SUV/mini van type vehicles in mind. i wanted a britax but couldn't find one that would fit in my car! at first, i was so bummed when i realized that this was the only one that would fit but it didn't take long for me to realize that this car seat is as good as any of the ones that are three times as expensive.
when i had the car seat checked, i was told by the professional car seat checker (haha) that the difference between models is really superficial and more about "appearing" more safe by adding extra padding. this car seat is light weight, easy to install, and leaves room in the back seat for another passenger. my only (small) disappointment was that when the car seat is rear facing, the seat that it is behind will not go all the way back. with a small car like mine though, that is par for the course.
i am very satisfied with this car seat.

Now, this is the thirteenth car seat I have installed for my children (this is my third child). I have never had a car seat that was "easy" to install but this one was particularly difficult. The way the latch is desinged, when you are kneeling on the seat you need to pull the strap straight back towards you but you can't because of the side of the car seat. If you look at the picture near the legs it is very deep which is great for safety but makes the installation very difficult. It also took three noodles to achieve the proper level in my 2005 Hyudai Elantra. It also does not allow the front passenger seat to go back very far and ultimately could make an uncomfortable ride for my passengers. With that said, to adjust the harness height you would need to uninstall the car seat, remove and rethread the straps and reinstall the car seat which is not something I am looking forward too. We have had other "all in one" car seats and I swore off those when my sons broke down from the sun in just three years so we are purchasing by stages now. Over all I love the car seat but my back really didn't like the installation. The four stars are for the safety and design and I removed one star due to the installation.

Edited 10/3/11 - I brought the seat to a car seat safety check point to have it checked (especially since I was so sure of my installation) and low and behold I had it in wrong. They did show me a way to EASILY install the seat rear facing though. If you push the front seats all the way up and stand between the front seat and the back seat with the top of the car seat at your hip level, you can push on the car seat (while keeping the 45 degree angle without noodles)while you pull the latch strap and poof! installed in under a minute. I now love this seat and how completely easy it is to install (now that I know the trick)

Our little guy was getting too tall for his infant seat, so we decided to upgrade him to a convertible one at 7 months. After reading tons of reviews and doing tons of research I found this one to be affordable, safe and have a smaller profile than some of the others. It seems comfortable for our boy, it spot cleans great, and was easy to install. If you're a little OCD, doing hours of research like I did, search no longer, and get this one :-)

We had a babytrend infant carseat that my son was growing out of. I loved the carseat but they do not make convertibles so I had to look elsewhere. I researched for a long time which type of convertible carseat to get. I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg but I wanted to ensure my child was safe. This had great safety ratings and was very economical. I also have a small car (cobalt) and didn't want it to take up the whole back seat (or push into the front seat). To say the least I am very pleased with this carseat. The straps are so easy to snap and my son loves it's comfort. It is very compact but still gives this child room to grow and such. It also comes with a cup hold which is not listed but a great perk. My son is a spitter so it's already been spit up on but I am pleased to say that it cleans up very easily. The only thing is that since it has to be rear facing still I did have to place a blanket in my car to help even it out but when we moved it to my husbands car (accord) he did not have the problem. So it just depends and is still an easy fix. We plan on having more children and I know this carseat will fit with others in the car. I am very happy with this seat and would recommend it to anyone looking for a safe, economical, and space saving carseat.

I am a grandmother looking for a less expensive seat than the highly rated Britax ones. The Safety Council expert in my town recommended this one. She actually installed it for me, safely! I recommend this seat. It is very solid and has lots of padding for comfort of the child.

I ordered this seat for my 10 month old son. He is around 19 pounds and 28in and it is perfect. He also has plenty of room to grow. I drive a Honda Accord so I was worried that it may not fit. It fits great in the the middle of the back seat. My husband is 6'1 and he can drive with the seat all the way back with no trouble. My son seems very comfortable in it also. Installation wasn't any harder than any other seat I have installed. I did have to put a rolled towel under the front of the seat to get it level, but it wasn't a big deal. Overall I am extremely happy with the seat. I will have to uninstall the seat to adjust the shoulder strap height but you don't have to do that often, so it shouldn't be a problem. I shopped around for weeks before I bought this seat and I am so glad I did. It also has a good ammount of padding, which is one thing I was looking for.

This seems to be the ONLY seat on the market that rear-faces to 40 lbs. and is lightweight (with some side-impact padding). We try to rear-face to age 4. This one might get you to 3, or past if your kid isn't very tall or heavy.

I am happy with this seat as a spare. Nothing great to say but nothing really bad.
We got it because it rear-faces to 40 lbs. My 3.5-year-old is 35.5 lbs. so has outgrown most other RF seats. She sits in it rear-facing, crosses her legs, and is comfy. You will probably need a pool noodle under it to get the required 45 degree angle. And of course we won't use it past 40 inches no matter what.

Also, the seat allows you to RF with it until the child's head is even with the shell. This is not a great idea. Most safety advocates would want some shell space, probably 2 inches, or at least 1. I don't think we'll use it as a forward-facing seat, but I'm sure it would be OK for that, too.

It's light and easy so we'll take it on the plane or a rental car.
I went with this over the Scenera because it had some extra side-padding (nothing too impressive). I would prefer to only put this seat in the middle, not outboard, though. It seems like a high price for such a basic seat. But we'll probably get another for our other kids.

There are several things we like about this car seat - it is lightweight, fits well in my Mazda 3, the cover is easy to take off to wash, we got it for a really good price. Off the bat the only issue we had was that it (them, really, we bought 2)required a pool noodle in both of our cars (also have a Grand Prix) in order to acheive the correct angle.

We have been using them for about 2 months now, and have been having annoying issues. The harness straps sometimes get really uneven, and it took some trial and error for me to figure out that it is one continuous belt so I had to tug the short strap to be longer. Not really a safety issue, but kind of annoying. Also the harness straps tend to twist a lot. I actually don't know if this is a safety issue, but I always take the time to fix them which is also annoying.

On to my big concern: on one of the seats, when installed in my Mazda, the harness release occassionally jams to the point it is impossible to use so the baby is stuck in the seat. So scary! I contacted customer service about this issue. The manufacturer's website was a major pain to use to report a complaint, but once I got one sent, they responded quickly, though not very helpfully. Apparently they believe a part (the splitter plate, FWIW)is getting caught on the vehicle seat. They asked me to move it to a differnt location in the car. Well, as small as my car is, it doesn't really fit in another place (we have it RF in the center, which is also the safest place). We switched the problem seat to the other car and so far haven't had the same issue but it really worries me that we could. I am looking for a replacement.

I chose this seat because it was rated by HealthyStuff.org as one of the best seats when it comes to having the least amount of toxic chemicals in it. I was skeptical at first because of the great price on this car seat. In the car seat world you tend to get what you pay for, but this is the exception. My 14 month old is very comfortable in this and will be able to use this rear-facing for another year or so. When you test the seat for cush, it's actually there. You don't feel hard plastic, and the Air side protection is a nice feature. The seat sits into the small backseat of our Ford Escort the way it should, without having to stuff any extra padding beneath the seat, and without having to ride with our knees hitting the dash. We also have to switch the seat from vehicle to vehicle, and there's no fuss there as it's light-weight and easy to install (we do not have a LATCH outfitted car). Very cute pattern on this, too.

My one and only concern is that because it is so light-weight, how well would it hold up in an accident? However, they are rated as being safe, and Safety 1st is a well respected manufacturer.