Customer Reviews

Sunshine Kids Radian65 Convertible Car Seat - Granite

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

REVIEW
- Foldable seat - This is the key reason that we purchase this as opposed to buying another Britax Marathon. Once the seat is folded, it is about 7" thick. There are tabs on the frame to allow you to carry it with a strap (sold separately).
- Carry bag (sold separately) - We also purchased the bag/backpack to carry the seat onto planes. It fits the seat like a glove and can be converted from shoulder-carry to backpack. BTW, if you want to go minimalist, you can also unbuckle these straps and hook them onto the seat's frame. Very convenient.
- Steel frame - Although the Radian is slimmer than the Britax, it is still quite heavy (20 lb.) due to its steel frame. Since we only plan to lug the seat on infrequent plane trips, this was not much of an issue for us.
- Fabric - Suede feel, less velour-like, more fitted than Britax. Padding is about the same thickness as Britax but looks less as the suede fabric is more tailored (not as puffy).
- Seat Size - definitely a narrower seat (many board members have reported that you can fit 3 of these seats in the back seat).
- Comfort - My 3 year old son has not had any complaints about the seat. I did notice that the seat belts are a bit closer together when buckled and thus making the padded epaulettes (comes with the seat) essential to prevent seat belt burn on the neck.
- Chest Clips - They do feel a bit flimsier than Britax (has extra rubber pad (HUGS in their lingo)).
- Rear Facing - We are using it forward facing so we did not need to install the additional based for rear facing. I am annoyed that the car seat is not all in one piece but I suppose it lowers the weight for traveling for those who only need forward facing.
- Recline - There are only 2 options - recline or upright with very little recline. We chose the recline position and my son is comfortable napping in this position. It is also not overly reclined to prevent him checking out the road.
- Installation - Some people complained of installation problems. We used LATCH (forward facing) on our 2006 Mazda5 and did not have any problems with the installation. We have yet to try installing it with a seat belt. Overall, I think the Britax is easier to install with its clip locks for seat belt installation and versa tether to allow for front tethering options. However, if you plan to use LATCH forward facing, both the Britax and the Radian65 are equally easy to install.

CONCLUSION
The Radian65 is a very nice seat that is far more portable due to its folding seat than the Britax Marathon. I especially like its innovative portable features with the carry bag and the tabs on the seat for carrying it. This is a cool feature that I did not find in any other seat.

My car ('95 525i) has a lap belt in the center back seat, making a belt-positioning booster impossible. Additionally, the only seats I have seen that accommodate a 44# child are GIGANTIC! Since I have 3 kids in the back seat, two already in boosters, a huge car seat was not an option. I have been at a loss, keeping my big kid in his Britax Advantage for waaay longer than he should have been. I was so happy to find the Radian65! I could install it with the lap belt, the weight limit is 65#(!), and it actually fits between the two boosters without crowding my other two kids. This would have been enough for me, but I am also very impressed with the quality of the seat. The design details were very thoughtful, and the workmanship is on par with Britax. It looks like a much more expensive seat. Which brings me to my final point: I live in Hawaii, and shipping is always a killer. Amazon's price for this seat was not just $20 less than anywhere else (and believe me, I did plenty of research), but they shipped it to me for free - which, combined with the lower price, ended up saving me around $100! I couldn't be happier.

SKJP was on the right path with this seat. It's narrow, it's made from quality components, it has the potential to be user friendly.

However, this seat typically runs in the 40-60% of acceptable installation range. In other words it's VERY possible that this seat may NOT work in your vehicle. Remember, a properly installed carseat should not move more than 1" side to side when checked for movement at the beltpath (where the seatbelt/LATCH strap is route through the carseat).

I purchased one of these directly from SKJP when they were first released for my then 4yo son who was too tall for pretty much every harnessed seat on the market with the exception of the Britax Husky, yet he was too thin (33lbs soaking wet) to be placed into a traditional booster seat.

This seat was completely incompatible with the vehicle that I needed to use it in.

Buyer beware...make sure that this is going to work in your vehicle, or that you have the option of returning it if it does not install properly in your vehicle.

Keep your kids safe, make sure that their seat is properly installed and used each and every trip!

strollerfreak - Mom of 4 and Child Passenger Safety Technician

We recently bought a second car and needed a new carseat. My son is 22 months and weighs 27 pounds, so we ideally wanted a convertible carseat. We have a Graco Comfort Sport in the first car but I didn't want a second one (see my comfort sport review, I wanted a carseat that is safer rear-facing). I couldn't seem to find anything I was happy with other than a Britax, but the price seemed a bit excessive. I looked into booster-type carseats that only sit forward, but my son was really too young for them, and I knew in a Britax he could still sit rear-facing. Somehow my husband came across this new seat by Sunshine kids that sounded great. We bought the last one left at BuyBuyBaby with a 20% off coupon (not valid for Britax products) for around $160.00 and installed it rear-facing in our Hyundai Elantra without any trouble. We used LATCH and attached the floor strap, and the seat doesn't budge at all. Before putting it in the car, I put my son in it to see which slot the shoulder straps should be in and where to position the crotch strap. It was very easy to install and adjust the straps. Unlike the Britax, there are 5 slots for the shoulder straps and 3 for the crotch. Even though the seat can be used for up to 65 lbs, it's not as monsterous as the Britax. It's narrow enough to allow for 2 other passengers to sit in the backseat of the car (the carseat is in the back middle). When rear-facing, the seat is in a reclined position, so my son is very comfortable. However, the back of the carseat does hit the back of the front passanger seat, so the frontseat passenger can't recline. I have no problems tightening and loosening the carseat straps so that he's buckled in safetly no matter what he's wearing. The straps don't get tangled easily, and are easy to straighten out when they do. The material is holding up very well- it still looks brand-new, besides for the pretzel crumbs! I plan on turning the seat around when he turns 2, and I'm sure I'll continue to love the seat in the forward position too. I highly recommend this seat.

We purchased this carseat because my 4 year old daughter has just reached the 40 pound weight limit for her traditional 5-point harness booster seat. She is technically old enough and heavy enough to use the vehicle seat belt in combination with a booster seat, however, it just makes me nervous not to have her in a harness anymore. I'd rather be safe than sorry. I actually bought two of them and moved my 2 1/2 year old daughter into one as well.

The seat is very nice. The buckles and clips are easy to operate and the straps do not twist easily. The straps don't always lie as flat and straight as I'd like down her front, which is a geometry issue I think but I'm not sure whether it's just my daughter's size and shape or the carseat itself. They are, however, straight and flat enough that she is safe, in my opinion.

This seat is a good alternative to the Britax Regent, which costs more and is impossible to get right now. I had it on backorder for two months and finally cancelled that order and bought this one. I have not been disappointed. The harness on the Britax Regent goes up to 80 lbs and this one only goes up to 65 lbs, though I believe that Sunshine Kids is coming out with an 80 lb limit version. Still, I have a tall and skinny daughter and I checked average height weight charts and found that my daughter is likely to be 8 years old before she reaches the height and/or weight limits of this carseat, so I went with it. By age 8, she will be fine to go into the vehicle seatbelt.

One added bonus of this seat is that it takes up very little room by comparison with other seats. It has a very slim design. I have two in my backseat of my Honda Accord and there is almost enough room between them for another seat (though I haven't tried this yet so I can't be sure).

The seat cover has velcro strips to hold the straps open for the child to climb in. That's nice. But I would also like to see a velcro strip that holds the crotch-strap/buckle wide open to the front edge of the seat so that when the child gets in, she isn't sitting directly on it. I'm alays digging it out from under the girls after they have gotten into the seat.

Overall, it's a very good seat with a sturdy, safe metal-frame design. A good choice.

We purchased this car seat for our 5 year old because we weren't happy with her high backed booster seat. The seat belt didn't always hold her in place and we didn't feel she was all that secure. We're happy with this seat because:

1. It has a 5 point harness

2. It is on the latch system

3. It fits securely in our car

4. It's narrow enough to fit in our back seat with 2 other seats

5. Our daughter thinks it's really comfortable

We live in London and brought the seat from the US with us, our car is narrow and we often have 3 children in the back seat all needing car seats or boosters, this seat fits in.

We also bought the travel bag with it and folded it for our plane trip home. We checked it through as luggage and it was really convenient. We've traveled with other car seats in the past and they are quite bulky when packing into the carry bag, this one was really easy! It didn't take that long to fit it into our car once we got home.

Great seat - I would highly recommend it!

We have just purchased a second Radian 65. I love the slim design. They are very nice for tight spaces. We have them in our mini-van where a regular car seat would fit, but I still prefer this profile. I have seen pictures, and do believe you could fit 3 of these side by side in a car. It looks almost like the seat of the car and not a huge ugly baby seat. I do feel a little weird about the fact that there is not as much side material compared to other seats, but I know it is still safe, and it helps my 3 year old son feel less confined. We have only used it forward facing, can't speak to rear-facing.

The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because it is HEAVY. We used it travelling and while the fold up feature is great, the seat is so heavy it didn't matter that it was folded, it was still hard to maneuver and didn't fit in the overhead bin when we decided to abandon using it on the flight. We checked it through on our return flight so we didn't have to haul it through the airport. Probably easier than some other seat, but not perfect. If you had to take it in and out of a car on a daily basis I don't think we'd like it as much. (Note on the folding feature: it can't be folded once installed...I thought we could just flip it up so we could scoot by it if we needed to, but not the case (its only for storage). Turns out, its slim enough you an maneuver by it in our van NO problem anyway).

The crotch strap does seem a little close to the back, especially if you had a larger child, but it hasn't been a problem for us. I don't love the release to loosen the straps, but we rarely need to do that anyway, and its not difficult, you just have to move a flap of fabric out of the way before you can reach the lever. The fact that it is safe for 5 point harness up to 65 pounds is what sold it for me, plus the added benefit of its slim design.

Positives definitely outweigh the negatives. Love it!

My 16-month old daughter and I were recently in a car accident on an interstate, going highway speed. Our car spun out of control, slammed into a rock wall, and then knocked down a big highway sign that then fell on top of our car. Props to our Nissan Altima for keeping us intact, as well as our Sunshine Kids carseat for keeping my daughter entirely unharmed. There were not even marks on her from the leg/shoulder straps!

This carseat is definitely heavy, but considering its steel frame, there's no way around that; I'd rather struggle with it when I travel, than have a flimsy seat for my child. A tip for travelers: this seat is narrow enough to remain opened, and set inside our Maclaren stroller. If I am by myself, I carry my daughter in a sling, or she walks, and we push our car seat to wherever we need to go.

I highly recommend such a sturdy carseat for your child, and will definitely be getting another one when our younger baby outgrows the infant seat!

We have this seat for our 3.5 year old daughter. At 39 lbs and 41+", she's tall for her age. She has about 2" of room left in this seat. Anyway, this seat can be difficult to install. Set aside a couple of hours and be prepared to sweat it out! It's heavy, 22 lbs, so wrestling it into your vehicle can be a challenge. However, once you master whatever it takes to get it in your car-it's easy. One key thing to do is pull back the cover to better reach the belt path when tightening LATCH straps or the seatbelt. We've installed this seat, forward-facing, in many vehicles- 2006 Chrysler Town and Country, 2004 Honda CR-V, 1999 Honda CR-V, 2005 PT Cruiser, 2005 Dodge Stratus, 1990 Subaru Legacy and 2004 Toyota Camry. All installs were rock solid. We have also installed it, rear facing, in a 2006 Chrysler Town and Country. My daughter loves her Radian and so do we. In spite of frequent difficult installs, it can be put in most vehicles, some with more difficulty than others. My husband can get the Radian seat into most any vehicle in less then 5 minutes. Most kids will outgrow the Radian65 by height before weight (making the Radian80 an unnecessary purchase, for most people). This is a great seat! We like it and think others will too.

Problem: 2 toddlers and 1 infant all need to fit into a 2004 Prius.

Solution: 2 Radian car seats forward-facing on each side in the back seat and a Peg Perego SIP infant seat rearward-facing in the middle. All seats are using the LATCH anchors and the Radian seats additionally are employing the headrest/seatback tethers.

Note: This setup also works in the Scion Xb.

You could probably find something other than the Peg Perego to use as an infant seat since it is really the narrow base dimensions of the Radian car seats that make this setup possible.

The only minor drawbacks I can see to the Radian car seats are the price (on the high side but still at $180 each not the most expensive seats out there) and the weight (HEAVY in comparison to others but that is the trade-off for the sturdy quality due to the steel support frame construction).