Roundabout Onyx Convertible Car Seat

It was time to upgrade to a rear-facing convertible car seat when my daughter rapidly flew past the 26" height limit on her infant carrier at a mere 4 months of age. I didn't have a whole lot of time to research car seats as I didn't want to waste time with her safety at risk in the infant carrier, so when I was shopping at aafes.com for a rear-facing convertible car seat and found a Britax Roundabout for $159 shipped and tax free, I snatched it up. I did read a handful of reviews about the product in the 10 minutes before purchasing it and I was satisfied with what I read.

The Roundabout is rear-facing to 35lbs and forward-facing to 40lbs. Maximum standing height is 40". The seat itself is fairly lightweight at 13 pounds and it's dimensions are compact at 18.5" x 24.5" x 24.

What I like about the Britax Roundabout

Many people choose one of the more expensive Britax seats as they go to 65 pounds forward facing, whereas the Roundabout only goes to 40 pounds forward facing. However, the day I purchased the car seat from aafes.com, I took my daughter to Babies R Us and physically put her into the car seats there to see which ones fit here best and were easiest to use. The crotch strap on all of the other Britax car seats was too tight on my baby for me to be comfortable forking over the money for them to last to 65 pounds. The crotch strap on the Roundabout is located farther down the car seat and allows more room for her to grow.

The Roundabout is also compact enough to comfortably fit into our car rear-facing. The other Britax car seats seemed like thrones that would take up far too much space while in rear-facing position. My husband is very tall and needs to have the front seat that he sits in pushed back as far as it can go for his comfort - the Roundabout allows this. I can't see the other car seats allowing for this.

The Roundabout is easy enough to use. It has a 5-point harness with a chest clip for maximum safety and it clips together easily. Tightening the harness is very simple - you just pull on the strap at the foot of the seat and it tightens. Loosening the harness is equally easy. There is a button at the foot of the seat. Push that with one hand and loosen the harness with your other hand. It is easy as pie.

The Roundabout is a comfortable car seat, or so I think it is anyway. My baby seems to cry less in it than she did in her infant carrier, which compared to the Roundabout, didn't have much padding. I like that the seat cover is changeable, but cannot comment on how easy or difficult it is to change as we have not yet changed it or washed it (we have only had the seat 2 months at the time of this writing).

The Roundabout has 4 height slots for the harness. It looks easy enough to change, but I cannot fully comment as I have not yet had to move them up to the next slot. I will come back to amend my review when that time comes to comment on this function.

Putting my child in and and getting her out of the seat is very easy. There are velcro tabs on the sides of the seat and on the back of the harness straps on both sides so that you do not have to set the baby down on top of the straps and then dig them out from underneath. When I get her out of the seat, I velcro both sides of the harness to the side of the seat so that when I return her to the seat, harnessing her in can be done quickly with minimal upset to her.

The Roundabout offers side impact protection and is crash tested in the UK at speeds that are higher than tested in the US. This makes me feel like it is a safer seat than others not crash tested in the UK.

What I don't like about the Roundabout

The Roundabout reclines while in rear position, but I don't feel it reclines far enough for me to want to recommend it for a newborn or a baby that has imperfect head control.

I have had countless problems with the straps twisting easily. I understand this is a common problem among car seats across the board, but I was extremely puzzled and put off one day when I got my daughter out of her car seat and nothing was out of the ordinary about the straps. When I returned her to the car seat to return home, the strap had somehow curled over itself where the belt clip is on her right leg and had become backwards and impossible to clip because it was now facing upwards. I do NOT know how this could have just magically happened when no one was in the car because as we found out, it is NOT EASY to curl the harness strap through the tiny slit in the belt. To this day, I cannot explain how that happened and I am very worried that it will happen again. There is no way my daughter could have done it while strapped in as the harness is so tight it wouldn't have had any slack in it and no one was in the car to tinker with it.

There are many times I will put my daughter in, clip and buckle the harness together, pull the strap to tighten, only to find that one side is tighter than the other. This is a royal pain in the neck because the only way to fix it is to remove my daughter from the seat and just tinker with it until it fixes itself. I check all of the straps to ensure they are not twisted - sometimes it is a problem of a twisted strap but sometimes, there is not a single twist in the strap, yet it's still off. It's very annoying, especially when I have a screaming 6 month old who just got her shots.

My husband installed the car seat and had a lot of difficulty with the LATCH system tightening enough. He ended up having to take the car seat to the hospital and having their car seat safety rep go over it and find ways to tighten it to where it wouldn't budge. He did not have this problem with our Graco infant carrier, so I don't believe it's an issue with our car's LATCH system, I believe it has to do with the LATCH tethers on the car seat.

In Closing

Overall, this car seat is just OK. I am disappointed that it does not go to 65 pounds forward facing, but I also feel that my daughter would have physically outgrown the tight crotch strap before 65 pounds anyway, not to mention that the Roundabout fits compactly rear facing into our car as opposed to the thrones of car seats known as the Marathon, Decathlon, etc. The strap issues I've had are a real nuisance, but my daughter's safety is worth one of the top of the line car seats out there.

Update #1: We took the cover off of this seat to wash and it was a breeze to do so. I like that it comes off and that we don't have to spot clean it, but can instead toss it in the washer.