Forward facing harness to 25kg seats

[Fabuleuse]

This type of seat seems to be the holy Grail. My (just turned) 3 year old is very tall and is getting too big for his maxi Cosi 2way Pearl and I wouldn't trust him to sit properly on a high backed booster yet. I want to move him forward facing now. I got this excellent list from another thread, are there any more options to add to this list? I'd prefer isofix too.

Joie bold
Cosy n safe Excalibur
Cosy n safe Hudson
Diono radian 5
Baby auto dupla
Maxi Cosi beryl

Unfortunately the ones that have been reviewed by Which didn't get great reviews - a couple are actually Don't Buys!

I've also seen this Halfords seat, but it doesn't spell out that the harness can be used til 25kg - does anyone know?
www.halfords.com/baby-and-child/car-seats/child-car-seats/halfords-group-1%2F2%2F3-isofix-child-car-seat-with-top-tether-592037.html

Would really appreciate any suggestions!

[IndecentFeminist]

Britax two way elite from InCar Safety Centre. Excellent and well priced.

[IndecentFeminist]

incarsafetycentre.co.uk/2-way-elite

[Fabuleuse]

Thanks, that says it only forward faces to 18kg though, and I do want to forward face him now. He weighs about 16.5kg so I'm looking at the 25kg weight limit ones.

[teaandlotusbiscoff]

Out of all of those on your list I’d go for the bold as it gets the best safety out of all of them. I know that the Halfords one says that it can be used with a harness up to 12 years but its actually 18kg unless specified otherwise. I wouldn’t go for a Halfords seat as these are absolutely shit in testing.

We have a cold and have just moved 9yo DC out of the harness earlier this year. No experience with it in booster mode as we’re keeping it as a spare for when we get a second car next year, but found it good. Saying that, we switched it for a high backed booster in our discovery sport as we did find it rather wide and we used to be able to pull the middle seat down with the bold but with the booster despite it being narrower we can’t do that anymore (luckily not a problem at the moment!)

Which? Aren’t actually that good for car seats, as they tend to review them based on easiness to fit, good colours etc. We found it rather solid in our car so felt DC would be safe, I don’t know if cozy n safe crash test past the legal minimum but joie do generally go higher up to 60mph whereas legal minimum is only 30mph

[teaandlotusbiscoff]

Also meant to add, radian 5 isn’t exactly the tallest in the shell and neither is the beryl, so likely to be outgrown by height faster than weight

[IndecentFeminist]

No, it definitely FF to 25, unless it has changed recently. We have two of them. Perhaps call the centre? They're very knowledgeable.

[Fabuleuse]

@IndecentFeminist it does seem to have changed within the past couple of years. csftl.org/britax-two-way-elite-review-eu/

@teaandlotusbiscoff thanks for all the info! And it was you who listed the options on another thread so thanks also for that. I think the Joie Bold would be our pick of those options.

[elephantskiss]

I looked into this but found that forward facing in a harness isn't really recommended by experts due to the way the head/neck move in a crash if I recall correctly. So we're going with a 25kg rear facing seat (aiming to get to 4.5 years old when starting school) by which point they should be developed enough (in terms of the skeleton as well as keeping seatbelt on) to go straight into a high back booster. I was looking at similar seats to you originally but this is the conclusion I came to after my research!

[PleaseGodLetItEnd]

We have a Bold, bought for our longbodied DS aged 3. Just switched him to booster mode aged nearly 6, largely so he can hop in and out by himself when we do the school/nursery run by car once a week, but he would still fit in the harness if required (and we might swap it back for long journeys as he still occasionally nods off). I seem to remember the Which rating being fairly decent. In any event, it’s nice and solid in the car and DS seems comfy. The crotch strap can be a bit faffy and it’s pretty bulky - you couldn’t swap it between cars easily. You’ll need a tether connection as well. But we’re pleased with it.

[BertieBotts]

None of the 25kg forward facing harness seats get great test results, but that is likely just due to the fact they're tested with larger dummies. If you're wanting to forward face and your child isn't safe in a booster, then you just want to focus on the fact you can harness in these seats really, rather than the safety rating.

I like the BabyAuto, it doesn't have an independent test rating though. I have friends who have the Joie Bold and are really pleased with it. You do need top tether (for all of them actually).

The TWE has changed yes, but TBH I wouldn't want to recommend FF to 25kg in it anyway as it's only belt fitted and quite old in the design of it. I think you'd likely get a lot of forward rotation in a crash, modern seats have features to counteract this. It wasn't really known about when the TWE was first developed.

There are another couple on the list now.

Infasafe Event FX (but apparently the harness height is really low, plus it looks like a cheap import)
Chicco Seat Up (has a which/ADAC review)

The Halfords seat you can only use the harness up to 18kg.

[Fabuleuse]

Thanks for the replies! I will check out the others mentioned @BertieBotts.

PS reason I'm wanting to forward face is DS hates rear facing and screams, which is distracting and unsafe while driving. We have turned round his 2way Pearl and he's much happier, which confirms my feeling that ff is the way to go. I do know in an ideal world rf would be safer.