The Liing is narrow and compact—16.9 inches wide and 27.7 inches deep, just a fraction of an inch larger than the Chicco KeyFit 30 and KeyFit 35, the smallest of our picks. So the Liing, like our other picks, is a good candidate for fitting three across. At 9 pounds, the bucket carrier without graco convertible car seat the base is more than a pound lighter than our top-pick seat from Graco. Again, we didn’t find the weight differences among our four picks to be all that noticeable. But as your baby grows and you reach the limit of what you can comfortably carry, that extra pound might make a difference.
The KeyFit 30 has the lowest child height and weight limit of our picks (respectively, 5 pounds and 2 inches less than the limits of the Graco SnugRide SnugFit 35 DLX, the Chicco KeyFit 35, or the Clek Liing). That is unlikely to be an issue, but it is something to keep in mind, especially if you have an unusually tall baby. The car seat technicians we interviewed confirmed that a child is likely to reach an infant seat’s height limit before they reach the weight limit. Still, many parents choose to switch over to a convertible car seat well before a child reaches either of those limits, simply because it’s no longer comfortable or easy to carry a bigger baby around in a bucket seat. These all-in-one seats by one of the most trusted brands, Graco, are premium-quality safety gear made from cozy materials and equipped with high-quality features that ensure enhanced protection from collisions.
The 50-pound rear-facing feature ensures your child can safely ride for a long time. The four-position adjustable extension panel provides up to five-inch of extra legroom, allowing your child to ride with enhanced safety and comfort. The storage pockets of this mommy-approved model hold the harness, enabling you to get your little one in and out of the extended rear-facing infant seat easily. Another distinguishing feature of the Foonf is that, unlike the vast majority of convertible seats, you can install it in the forward-facing position using both LATCH and the vehicle seat belt.
If you’re installing the Boulevard with the LATCH system (and again, we can’t think of a scenario where you would or should), the process is the same, but you use the included LATCH straps in place of the seat belts. The main selling point graco car seat of an all-in-one is, of course, that you’ll have to buy only one seat—or at least that’s the hope. It would certainly be more environmentally friendly if you could actually manage to purchase a single seat rather than multiples.
(Although that’s not an adjustment you’ll have to make often, doing it on the Rava is far more pleasant than on most seats.) However, the Rava has a few flaws. For one, though the system enables you to get a secure seat belt install without breaking a sweat, it doesn’t have graco turbobooster a seat belt lock-off, so the seat belt can continually slide through the router. Over time, we found that because the seat belt wasn’t locked off, the car seat didn’t stay totally in place; it started to rotate, and we needed to reinstall it to make it straight again.
This recline position presents some challenges in vehicles with very sloped seats. In vehicles with more level vehicle seats, the 4Ever may install more easily at the 4th recline position. With the infant padding in the seat, the doll fits quite well and has plenty of room to grow. The 4Ever’s low sides mean that loading a newborn in and out of the seat shouldn’t be too difficult. There are 2 lower anchor storage spots — store the lower anchors in the opposite belt path from the one you’re using when they’re not in use. To install the base using the seat-belt method instead, you open the belt tensioner with a lever on the base, feed the seat belt through the bright blue plastic threader on the top edge of the base, pull tight, and then close the belt tensioner.
The Extend2Fit Convertible addresses that problem by adding an extension panel to the seat that pulls out to provide 5 inches of extra legroom in rear-facing mode. Kids can remain rear-facing in the Extend2Fit Convertible until they reach 50 pounds, the highest capacity of the seats we tested. The Extend2Fit Convertible’s LATCH install system can be used for children who weigh up to 45 pounds, the highest LATCH weight limit of any of the seats we tested. Also, the seat is lightweight and has a no-rethread harness, so as your kid grows, you don’t have to take the seat apart to adjust the straps. Even though the fabric isn’t as stain resistant as we’d like (consider going with a dark color), the cover is machine washable. Another issue we faced as we were finalizing our short list of infant seats was trying to sort through the often-confounding differences among the models and model names, many of which sound like they’ve been chosen for journeys into space.
In addition to writing Wirecutter’s updated guides to infant car seats, convertible car seats, and travel car seats, she is responsible for Wirecutter’s guides to the best baby formula and kids face masks. Christina has three children; she can frequently be found ferrying them to soccer practice and play dates in her Honda Odyssey minivan. If you want a seat that will last for most of the time your child needs a car seat, the Graco 4Ever DLX Grad could be a good option. We recommend either starting with an infant seat or keeping in mind that you will likely need a backless booster for your child once this seat is outgrown. Out of the 4Ever versions, this would be our favorite, thanks to the seat belt trainer.