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Cybex Cloud Z or Maxi Cosi Pebble 360

3 replies

neonkitchen · 28/05/2021 21:37

I think I'm between these two infant car seats. They both seem to be well rated for safety and have spinning bases to make it easier to buckle the baby up in. The Cybex car seat does have a lie flat feature though, which I think might be useful for popping into the shops or the doctors, which I don't think the Maxi Cosi has.

I also don't know much about the toddler car seats, the Pearl and Sirona. On the websites both sound great, but if I have already spent £200 on the base, then buying the toddler car seat that goes with it makes most sense.

Can anyone help me with the pros and cons of these car seats and give any advice for which is better?

OP posts:
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BertieBotts · 29/05/2021 12:06

TBH I think they are both good options. You may also want to look at the Britax i-Sense system which is very similar to the other two and has also recently come out.

The Cybex system has been out longer than the other two so you'll find more reviews etc about it.

The Maxi Cosi doesn't have a lie flat feature, but with the newborn inserts it is almost a completely flat surface for the baby, which is nice. None of these car seats are lie flat enough to replace a carrycot, but the recline on the Cybex is nice for things like shopping, doctors, or bringing the baby into the house to finish a nap. Britax has a sliding system inside the seat itself which means when it is adjusted to fit newborns it's flatter, and once you adjust it to fit older babies it's shaped more like a reclined chair.

They both have a nice high limit so will last you a decent amount of time. I believe the Maxi Cosi is a bit lighter to carry around than the other two. Maxi Cosi also have another option for their spin base called Coral 360. The Coral consists of a hard shell for when you want to use the seat in the car or on a pushchair, but a soft inner carry portion which you can take out of the shell and carry into the house/doctors/etc - this actually seems like a better use of the spinning base for infant carriers to me.

All 3 go on the same pushchair adapters (Maxi Cosi/Cybex/Universal type, not Britax type, those are for older Britax seats), so will fit all the same models. Cybex is probably "officially" approved for more simply because it's been out longer, but you don't need the official approval especially.

All 3 toddler seats are good - but only last until 105cm so not the best if you end up with a taller toddler unless you have a second baby to hand down to. I think Britax is my favourite of the spinning toddler seat range. I find Cybex clunky (although it works fine) and Maxi Cosi have been getting odd safety results for their toddler seats recently - they say this is to do with the way the Which? (etc) tests look at side impact crashes which don't suit their seats. But their other Pearl models have always done really well.

Worth bearing in mind about spinning infant seats in general:

You're paying a lot for the spin feature, which is not realistically that necessary. Infant carriers are removable so in practice you tend to get the baby into the seat in the house, so they can face you easily anyway, and then just click it into the base. Until you get to the next stage of leaving the seat in the car, the spin is sort of redundant. It's very nice to play with in a shop and it looks snazzy but it doesn't really add any functionality you didn't already have - and if you do plan to leave the seat in the car all the time, then you may as well go for a fixed 0-4 years seat rather than an infant carrier. The situation I think it's suited for is if you want to leave the seat in the car 90% of the time but have the option to take it out occasionally. But I think you pay a lot for this and so I'd question if it's really worth it.

Now, I said rotation is useful for the next stage up and I stand by that, it really is. But if you look at these modular systems (infant seat, base, toddler seat all compatible) from a bigger picture perspective you will often find that they are fantastic from the manufacturers' point of view - they have you captive for the next seat up already. But they are not always practical from the consumer's point of view. Reasons being:

  • They cost a lot. You often pay £100+ extra for the base compared with one that only takes an infant carrier seat. Next-stage seats, 90% of them don't need a base. They fit directly to the car with the seatbelt (and then you don't move it) or they have the isofix base built in. You would think the modular seats would be cheaper than the "no-base" seats but they are not really - maybe about £30-50 cheaper - sometimes they are more expensive!
  • If you have a second baby, your infant seat base is in use for the toddler seat. That's not very practical, because you either have to buy another set of bases for each car (At twice the price of a baby seat only base!) or use the baby seat baseless, which means you lose some of the functionality of it like being able to spin it, which you've paid £££ for. Or you can move your toddler to a larger seat which doesn't need a base, and save the toddler seat for your younger child when they outgrow the base. But that's then more money in a short space of time.
  • There are plenty of toddler seats on the market which rotate and extended rear face. You don't need to get one as part of a system.
  • All these modular seats are limited to 105cm for the toddler part. That's OK if you have an average or smaller sized child, if you don't mind moving to a booster seat aged 3, or if you plan to hand the seat down to a younger sibling. But if you were hoping this system will get your child to booster age and you're not comfortable with them being in an adult seatbelt until more like 4 or 5, then you may end up needing to buy another larger seat later and feel annoyed you didn't just get the bigger one (none of which work with a base) in the first place.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't look at spinning infant seats. They may well be the best model for your family, budget, circumstances. Sometimes other features of the seat (like the recline on the Cybex) are the seling point anyway. But I do think they are overhyped, and it's worth being aware of the full picture and costing up alternative options all the way through to age 4.

Also with the price of a lot of the modular systems, it's worth looking at the Recaro seats Zero.1 elite / Salia elite. Not hugely popular in the UK, I think due to the price. But they are actually cheaper than a full set of these modular seats and have a lot of the same benefits, so I think if you're looking at them then it's worth giving the Recaro seats a look too.

One last tip would be to find a stockist of the Maxi Cosi seat (since it's newer) and try both the infant and toddler seat out in your car to see how they fit. And the Cybex one. (And any others you want to look at.) There is no use buying a modular system and then you go to move to the toddler seat and find it won't fit behind the front seat. See how easy it is to rotate the seat(s) in your car, see how they fit, see how easy it is to get the infant seat on and off the base and simply look at what you prefer.

neonkitchen · 29/05/2021 14:16

Thank you for such a detailed response Smile A lot to think about. I find myself getting overwhelmed with all of the features that the car seats have and they all sound great but obviously I won't know which are actually useful until I've already used the seat for a few months! Your point about how rotating infant seats are a bit of a gimmick is a very good one which I wouldn't have thought of.

I'd never heard of Recaro before. The seats looks amazing, but just had a quick look and it got some really bad reviews on this website. Have you heard of these problems before?

We are both taller, so would expect a child to outgrow the seat before four. I was thinking that (if we do have another baby) we might get an Axkid seat for the older one and then the modular seat for the younger child. I actually joined a car seat Facebook group, where it seems every member has that seat which is where I got the idea from.

OP posts:
BertieBotts · 29/05/2021 14:41

Haha yes the Axkid seats are really popular on the ERF pages. It does make sense to look at modular systems if you're likely to have two needing ERF seats at once but I'd still look at the cost of the whole system. For example we got a Cybex Aton 5 (which I didn't actually like very much!) plus base for about £200 and then a Joie 360 Spin which is also about £200 whereas some of the modular systems can cost more like £600-700 altogether which I always think is a lot of money - you could get an Axkid One for that and it would last longer!

Yes the Recaro is really upright in a lot of cars. Again it's best to do a fit test before you buy - you can check the angle with a spirit level or measuring app, it should be no steeper than 45 degrees. I don't know about the newborn harness - seems some people find it fine and others dislike it. Possibly the Salia is a bit better, that's the newer version.

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