Car Seats: Britax B-Safe 35 vs Chicco KeyFit 30

[LadyNymeria]

Anyone have thoughts or opinions between the two infant car seat options?

It seems like one website says Britax is the safest, then the next says Chicco is the safest. I imagine that as long as they're installed correctly both are very safe, but how do you decide between the two?

[mrsjene]

It really just seems like they're all safe.

I picked the Chicco Keyfit because of the size of my back seat and it comes with a little muff that can be attached for the winter.

[serendipity731]

You really can't go wrong with whichever one you choose bc they're both great brands. They all go through the same safety testing, so yes, you're correct that they're both saw if installed properly and the baby is strapped in properly.

I was debating between these two as well and ultimately chose the chicco but I can't remember why now lol I loved it and it was very user friendly. I have a Britax convertible now and love it too. I think if I could choose again I may go with the Britax infant seat bc it's made in America, but that's not always a deal breaker for most. Now that I'm thinking about it, I may have chosen the chicco bc it weighs less, but I could be wrong.

ETA: my cousin is CPST certified and said that chicco infant seats are one of the easiest installs.

[olive]

I heart my Chicco!

[annapunkalunka]

I have a B-safe from DD that we'll be reusing this time. I loved it. Super easy to install the base, the seat clicks in and out easily and I had no trouble getting a good fit on her from the first to last time we used it. It's heavy and awkward, but I'm sure all bucket seats are. We were between the same two seats when deciding for DD and ultimately went with the B-safe because I liked the simplicity of the looks. They're both great seats, so you can't go wrong.
AND if you're in the market for a stroller, too, maybe that'll sway your decision. I know the Britax strollers are pretty great. But, then again you can always get an adapter for the seat you choose!

Tl;dr: either way you can't go wrong but we have the Britax and love it.

[serendipity731]

Fyi, I got an email from diapers.com and Britax strollers and the travel system is 25% off right now.

[hurricanerek]

I chose Chicco because it's the one that the girl I nannied was using, so I was already familiar. Ultimately, you can't go wrong with either one.

[watermelonseed]

I'm a FTM so I can't talk from personal experience, but we wanted a travel system. When I pushed the Britax travel system vs Chicco I liked the way Britax stroller moved and preferred there "look" over Chicco.

[mc13]

We have the Chicco Keyfit 30 and will be buying a 2nd one since we'll be needing two. We loved it! My brother and SIL had the Britax and I think ours was way easier to install (could be that's just what I was used to, but I do think it's more simple). I will also say that picking the Chicco was easier because I really liked the pattern we got more than the plain colors of the Britax. Lol

Oh yeah...and you can't go wrong with either. They are both great seats.

[caz1221]

As others have said, all seats pass the same safety testing, so they are all safe when installed and used properly. CSFTL has a helpful comparison tool for car seats (infant, convertible, combination, boosters, etc.).

Depending on which car(s) it will be going in and whether you anticipate needing to fit more than one seat in those cars, compactness front-to-back and/or narrowness side-to-side may be important to you, so I would look at those measurements for each seat (we chose the Chicco Keyfit 30 over one of the Graco infant seats because the Chicco was significantly more compact front-to-back, and I have a relatively small car).

The Britax has higher weight/height limits but is a bit more expensive, and once baby hits a certain weight, you probably aren't going to want to carry him/her around in the infant seat. However, higher limits may mean you can put off buying a convertible car seat for longer. As it was, DD fit in her Chicco Keyfit 30 until she was at least 13 months old (at which point, we switched to a convertible since she was getting close to the height limit on the Keyfit).

[pismoduo]

I went with the Chicco because I liked their travel system better. I think it might have also had higher stars on Amazon than the Britax, I can't remember.

[danielle]

We have a Britax bucket seat and had no issues other than it is heavy. We love our stroller also. I have a chicco nextfit for our convertible and it is the easiest to install, so I might choose the chicco if I had it to do over again.

[lovetruly2015]

I chose a chicco travel system I don't know if it falls in with the key fit classification or not though. It was sitting right next to the graco one my husband and I looked at that when I went back to register I found had been discontinued for whatever new line they have coming. I chose it because it had bigger wheels than most and was smaller than a lot of the jogging strollers I saw. Also it was insanely easy to get the carseat in and out of the stroller as well as fold the stoller it has a one touch handle on the back. Seriously I hit that button it collapsed and I said sold.

m.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=80055866&cp=2255957.2273443.2255983.2256189.2256206&s=A-UnitRank&s=A-UnitRank&parentPage=search

[cbrandt1]

We HAD a B-Safe for DS1 and he hated it. He always seemed so uncomfortable and would stretch like it was hurting his back when we took him out. So we only used it for 3 months and switched to a Clek Foonf convertible seat. I find the infant carriers to be impractical after that age anyways because it's just too heavy and awkward to carry that thing. I'm also a baby wearer so...

This time I'll be getting the Maxi-Cosi seat. I like that it has the anti-rebound bar. It's required in Canada I believe, and I feel like it's safer.

This is the one I'm getting.

[LadyNymeria]

May 18, 2016 9:33:14 GMT -5 cbrandt1 said:

We HAD a B-Safe for DS1 and he hated it. He always seemed so uncomfortable and would stretch like it was hurting his back when we took him out. So we only used it for 3 months and switched to a Clek Foonf convertible seat. I find the infant carriers to be impractical after that age anyways because it's just too heavy and awkward to carry that thing. I'm also a baby wearer so...

This time I'll be getting the Maxi-Cosi seat. I like that it has the anti-rebound bar. It's required in Canada I believe, and I feel like it's safer.

This is the one I'm getting. 

The more I read about the new B-safes the more I'm seeing people complain about them being too narrow pretty quickly. Which is part of the reason I was wondering about what people thought of the Chiccos.

I've heard good things about Maxi-Cosi too, but I had really only been looking at Chicco and Britax so far.

[cbrandt1]

May 18, 2016 9:38:31 GMT -5 LadyNymeria said:

May 18, 2016 9:33:14 GMT -5 cbrandt1 said:

We HAD a B-Safe for DS1 and he hated it. He always seemed so uncomfortable and would stretch like it was hurting his back when we took him out. So we only used it for 3 months and switched to a Clek Foonf convertible seat. I find the infant carriers to be impractical after that age anyways because it's just too heavy and awkward to carry that thing. I'm also a baby wearer so...

This time I'll be getting the Maxi-Cosi seat. I like that it has the anti-rebound bar. It's required in Canada I believe, and I feel like it's safer.

This is the one I'm getting. 

The more I read about the new B-safes the more I'm seeing people complain about them being too narrow pretty quickly. Which is part of the reason I was wondering about what people thought of the Chiccos.

I've heard good things about Maxi-Cosi too, but I had really only been looking at Chicco and Britax so far.

Girl there's a whole world of car seats out there!!! Explore, explore!!!

[cbrandt1]

Also, while I was at Buy Buy Baby the other day, I noticed several car seat companies have started adding the anti-rebound bar.

[LadyNymeria]

May 18, 2016 9:40:02 GMT -5 cbrandt1 said:

May 18, 2016 9:38:31 GMT -5 LadyNymeria said:

The more I read about the new B-safes the more I'm seeing people complain about them being too narrow pretty quickly. Which is part of the reason I was wondering about what people thought of the Chiccos.

I've heard good things about Maxi-Cosi too, but I had really only been looking at Chicco and Britax so far.

Girl there's a whole world of car seats out there!!! Explore, explore!!!

I'm starting to like the idea of a Maxi-Cosi and a Baby Jogger City Mini (my expanded research shows they have easy to use adapters!). The fact that the Maxi carrier is less than 9 lbs is pretty awesome. I had been primarily looking at Britax because I like the B-agile stroller they snap into, which is basically a cheaper version of the City Mini.

Good thing I'm headed back to BRU this weekend. 

[cbrandt1]

May 18, 2016 11:31:54 GMT -5 LadyNymeria said:

May 18, 2016 9:40:02 GMT -5 cbrandt1 said:

Girl there's a whole world of car seats out there!!! Explore, explore!!!

I'm starting to like the idea of a Maxi-Cosi and a Baby Jogger City Mini (my expanded research shows they have easy to use adapters!). The fact that the Maxi carrier is less than 9 lbs is pretty awesome. I had been primarily looking at Britax because I like the B-agile stroller they snap into, which is basically a cheaper version of the City Mini.

Good thing I'm headed back to BRU this weekend. 

Seriously play with ALL the strollers too! We hated the B-Agile. The handle bars weren't tall enough, I kept kicking the wheels (ouch), and the under carriage is ridiculously small. The lack of parent console was annoying too. I didn't like the "universal" one that Britax made.

A lot of people like it, just make sure the stroller you get is 100% what you want.

[briannea]

We got the keyfit 30 and really liked it. We got the britax convertible and switched at about 11 months because she was hitting the height limit. I think it was the easiest to install and the stroller was easy for me.

[serendipity731]

May 18, 2016 9:41:05 GMT -5 cbrandt1 said:

Also, while I was at Buy Buy Baby the other day, I noticed several car seat companies have started adding the anti-rebound bar.

I know Britax makes them for the convertible seats, it's just an added cost. Last I checked they were out and this reminded me to check again! Extended rear facing for the win!

[cbrandt1]

May 18, 2016 15:01:44 GMT -5 serendipity731 said:

May 18, 2016 9:41:05 GMT -5 cbrandt1 said:

Also, while I was at Buy Buy Baby the other day, I noticed several car seat companies have started adding the anti-rebound bar.

I know Britax makes them for the convertible seats, it's just an added cost. Last I checked they were out and this reminded me to check again! Extended rear facing for the win!

Lol I was really confused and had to read that a few times. The anti-rebound bar for the Britax convertibles is extra? But they were out and now they have them again and you just ordered one??

Lol my head was on infant carriers so I was confused.

Eta- I think I was confused because I was talking about anti-rebounds now being added onto infant carriers but I wasn't clear in my post that you quoted.

[serendipity731]

Lol cbrandt1 yup! Well, I haven't ordered it yet but I need to. They don't come with the seats but you can purchase one separately. They were not in stock last I checked a few months ago and then I forgot about it. You mentioning them reminded me.

[annapunkalunka]

Sorry to bump this but I have an additional comment. I raved about the B-safe above. Well, today I washed the seat. It's a major pain to clean. Everything has to be hand washed. After a quick google it seems the Chicco seat cover can be machine washed. Just another thing to consider!

[mc13]

Just saw this and thought it had great info on all the major car seats.

carseatblog.com/safest-recommended-car-seats/

[thekatezombie]

May 24, 2016 12:39:51 GMT -5 annapunkalunka said:

Sorry to bump this but I have an additional comment. I raved about the B-safe above. Well, today I washed the seat. It's a major pain to clean. Everything has to be hand washed. After a quick google it seems the Chicco seat cover can be machine washed. Just another thing to consider!

All other factors aside, I had a baby with bad reflux and carsickness (which continues to this day).  Based on that experience, I don't think I could live with a carseat where I had to hand wash the cover.

[LadyNymeria]

After a quick detour where I was considering a Maxi-Cosi, I'm back to trying to decide between the Chicco KeyFit and Britax B-safe. I like the idea of just buying the travel system so it's really the related strollers I'm trying to decide between and I just can't decide which I want.

I feel like I was leaning towards the Chicco Bravo/KeyFit, but I can't get over the fact that I've had multiple people tell me they thought the 3-wheel design was way easier to push long-term than the 4-wheel design. They both seemed to push ok in store.

[annapunkalunka]

LadyNymeria travel systems are overrated, IMO. I never had one for DD. I have a bob stroller and bought an adapter for the infant seat. And we have an umbrella for quick trips and a citi mini double, now for when there are two.
The only thing I can attest to: the b-ready is an amazing stroller. I wish we had gotten that vs the bob. So versatile. Easily becomes a double.

[LadyNymeria]

annapunkalunka - I was looking at the B-ready and am just not a fan of how the 2 seats line up. I like the Baby Jogger City Select a lot more, but it's expensive!!!

I have been considering getting the Chicco KeyFit and the car seat caddy rather than the full travel system, then getting whatever separate stroller I want instead. I'm just having so much trouble deciding.

[mc13]

May 24, 2016 16:12:23 GMT -5 LadyNymeria said:

annapunkalunka - I was looking at the B-ready and am just not a fan of how the 2 seats line up. I like the Baby Jogger City Select a lot more, but it's expensive!!!

I have been considering getting the Chicco KeyFit and the car seat caddy rather than the full travel system, then getting whatever separate stroller I want instead. I'm just having so much trouble deciding.

We have the city select and love it! I got it on sale for like half price when the newer version came out so that might be an option. But honestly, if you're looking at a caddy, I'd just get an umbrella stroller that the car seat clicks into because then you can use that stroller long term. Chicco Liteway plus is the Chicco one. We have the Babg Jogger Vue and that accepts a few seats too (not the Chicco as far as I'm aware - we got it when we were out of the bucket seat stage). Then if get a good regular stroller like the city mini or select. For as much as I didn't want two strollers, I'm so glad we have both full size and umbrella strollers.