Customer Reviews

Sunshine Kids Radian XT Convertible Car Seat, Hampton

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I find this seat to be very sturdy! We also have a Britax and although I love the ease of installation and ease of use with the Britax, the Radian XT has features that are more important to me! I love the low profile of the seat and how narrow it is. The Marathon would NOT fit between our two other seats, where the XT fits easily. I was worried that because the seat was more narrow, there wouldn't be enough room for the baby, but that was not the case. There is plenty of room and most importantly, the seat of the Radian is DEEP, allowing her to rearface comfortably for a lot longer than the shallow seat of the Britax. I LOVE the material! So much cooler than the Britax and a lot of other "plush" seats!
This seat is heavy, but it is made with steel, I would be shocked if it were light. It does fold up for travel and even comes with a carrying strap.
Whatever carseat you get, make sure it fits your car and your kid properly! THat is the only way you can ensure you have gotten the "safest seat"

This car seat is awesome and all the negative things that I read about it before buying it are definetly outweighed by the positive. i own a 2008 jeep patriot and have three small children. I needed to be able to fit three car seats across the back seat. With only 51 inches of hip room this seemed tough the radian made it easy. Even with two other larger carseats it would fit fine. Also i love the side wings on the XT it makes me feel like my childs head would be very protected in the event of a side impact crash. My three year old whom is very tall for her age at 41 inches still has pleanty of growing room I expect to be able to keep her in a harness till she is atleast six years old in this seat. Yes it is heavy but not any heavier than the britax frontier and it folds making it easy for traveling. Love it will be buying another one for my other daughter.

I don't mind paying a bit more for a seat that will keep my kid safe. However, after using this seat for a year, I'm wishing I had gone with another brand.

Here are my issues:

1) There is a strap that you need to attach for cars using the latch system, and those that don't. One of our cars has the latch and the other doesn't. So, we need to take off/put on the strap to switch from car to car. Not that big of a deal, but after about 10-12 switches, I had to fight with it for about 30 minutes to get it back on and the strap will no longer come off (it would need to be cut). If you have newer cars with the latch, this is not an issue for you.

2) One of the buckles on the belt that hooks to the latches (for cars with the latch system) cracked. Obviously, this is a serious issue as the seat no longer restrains my child safely.

3) After about a month of use, the fabric under my daughter's legs/feet was all pilled and made it look like it was a pretty roughly-used seat. She didn't have any issue with her old car seat, and doesn't seem to be moving her legs/feet around any more than the average kid, so I'm not sure why this would have happened. This is a minor issue, but for an expensive seat, I would expect a higher quality fabric.

4) Heavy, heavy, heavy!

If you are going to install this seat in one car and not move it, it would probably be fine. It is slim, so you can fit three across in the back seat, or get adults in the back seat next to it without being terribly squished. If you are going to move it periodically, I would get a different seat as it doesn't seem to hold up to wear and tear with being moved more than about 10 times.

I was planning to buy a Britax Marathon for the longest time thinking it would be a good car seat for our toddler to use and grow with as he's slowly outgrowing the Britax Roundabout. After reading the consumer ratings on the Marathon I realized that though the ease of use with the Britax products was a plus, it was not as important as safety. After a recommendation from a fellow mom and reading the safety reviews on the Sunshine Radian XT, I decided to give this car seat a try. Honestly, I can't say I love this car seat the first 3 months we were using it. It's heavy, not as easy to buckle as the Britax carseats (have to pull the belt from the harness down really hard to get a good secure fit), and our toddler's head has no support when he falls asleep on it. But after 3 months, the harness is easier to tighten and I discover as long as my child is wearing a jacket with a slightly high collar or a sweatshirt with a hoodie, the collars will support his head from slipping. Finally just one negative to report. The material on the side cushion snags from any rings with prongs but I'm okay with that as they're pretty small breaks.

We have a Honda Accord and we're able to fit 2 adults in the back quite comfortably.

I upgraded to the XT's from the 65's about a month ago after I was in an accident. I like the chest clips, but I miss the velcro on the straps! They held the little buckles up, now my little buckles always slide down into the seat. That's really my only complaint. I could knit-pick and say it's hard to tighten the harness while rear-facing, but honestly, the Radians saved the lives of the triplets I nanny (it helped I kept them rear-facing well beyond 1 & 20 too)...so I will always love these seats! They are narrow enough for 3-across, they can be top-tethered while rear-facing. Higher weight & height limits keeps them safer longer! Gotta love that!

These car- seats are great-we have a 2yr old and 11 month old twins and they fit great in the back of our Honda wagon....if u have a tight sqeeze in the backseat these are the way to go---when they are rear-facing it does make the front seats a little uncomfortable but it is still better than getting a new car! I would reccomend these over and over again!

I purchased this seat to keep my 6 year old daughter harnessed for as long as possible. She out grew her Eddie Bauer 3 in one seat harnessed and my husband and i were not ready to put her in a booster seat yet. My daughter is 48inches tall and weighs aprox 60lbs. This car seat though solid was very narrow and was aprox 9.5 inches across the interior seat area. She fit into the seat, but had no room to grow across the thigh area. This is a great car seat to buy for a baby because it really does grow with a child and would probably accomodate a child up until they reach 5 or 6 years old. I found it difficult to adjust the head rest up and down and found the back shell to be very sharp so that i would hurt my fingers adjusting the head rest up and down. I liked the fact that it had a low rating for chemicals by Healthy Stuff.org for car seats. This is one of the reasons i did not choose the Britax car seats because of their over use of flame retardants and lead in some of their car seats and also after watching the crash test videos of some of Britax's car seats from Transport Canada. You can see the Britax car seats harness came right out of the shell on impact from some of the crash tests. I did not feel comfortable with this brand after seeing this. I like that the Sunshine Kids has a steel frame and that is probably why they don't have to use so many flame retardants as some other car seats. I searched a long time to figure out what brand to choose and called car seat companies and in the end discovered that my daughter was going to have to use a booster seat. So i picked the Sunshine Monterey and I am very happy with my purchase. I returned a First Years Compass Booster because it didn't have enough torso protection for me. If i am going to have to use a booster seat i wanted one that was going to give me as much protection as possible. I would recommend this car seat to anyone who is having a baby and/or toddler and wants a seat that will last a long time. It has a nice fabric and is very soft and comfortable. There is a lot of padding and it is solid. I don't have a latch system in my car, so you can use it with or without latch. I wish they had made it wider in the seat area to accomodate a child up to 80lbs most children in this weight range would not fit into this seat.

We bought a radian 65 for my oldest son when he was moved out of his infant seat about 4 yrs ago, but since we loved it so much, we decided to get this upgraded seat for our new baby. He LOVES this carseat so much. We are just now moving up from the infant seat since our guy is still so little (not even 17lbs at 10 months). this seat was SO easy to install-- even rearfacing. It's much more "cushion-y" than their previous seats so that's a nice upgrade for them. We love how narrow the seat is so we actually have room in our car for another carseat and another adult to ride in the back if necessary.

a possible con for the seat (for those that are concerned) It is a rather tall seat because it accommodates up to an 80lb child. We have a pontiac vibe so the passenger seat is moved up rather far and isn't too comfortable to sit in for long periods of time and will definitely be a problem for those that are taller than average. To us-- our child's safety is well worth the discomfort and doesn't bother us at all.

We purchased the Sunshine Kids Radian XT in the Hampton color for our rapidly growing 6 month old son. In general, the seat is great. It is very sturdy, the folding feature is very handy, and it is generally well thought out. There are a few minor quibbles, however, that led to my 4-star rating.

Pros: Nice design, quality fabrics, sturdy construction, on-board stowage for straps and buckles when not in the car, folding feature makes it easier to carry.

Cons: This thing is huge! When installed in the rear facing position, the seat in front of it has to be so far forward in my wife's Subaru Legacy Wagon that there is no way that either of us can ride in the front seat. When installed in the other vehicle (Honda Ridgeline), things are okay. This may have something to do with the seat in the Subaru, but it's difficult to say.

I bought Sunshine Kids Radian XT Convertable for our little girl (12 months) a few months ago.
So far we like it. Here's why:

1.It is narrow (leaves lots of space in the back for other people driving with us)

2.It can be rear facing (which is the safest way to ride for our LO now, but when she is 30lb we'll forward face the car seat)

3.It has a head support (so she can nap comfortably)

4.It folds (we are bringing it with us on the airplane for a trip in November)

I'm glad that our daughter, though still rear facing, can actually see out of the windows while being in this car seat, so the rides are not boring anymore.

Yes, it is heavy, but built solid.

I'd say, go for it.