Help please hhb britax or something else?

[Paddingtonsmarmlade]

So what's the difference between the kidfix 3s and kidfix I-size please?

am I right that isofix in hhb is optional ie just saves you belting up the empty seat and therefore you can use them in a car without isofix? Is this also true of I-size hhb, as to be I-size compliant they have to be isofix?

is there another hhb that's better than britax?

The Kidfix i-size is a newer design that seems to be a bit more lightweight than the old Kidfix 3 series. Practically I don't think there's a huge amount of difference between them except that the i-size is narrower. Britax said that in their internal testing, the Kidfix i-size performs better than the Kidfix 3, but on the ADAC test it did get a slightly worse score (they are both good)

Yes for any isofix booster including i-size ones the isofix is optional and you can just use the belt if you don't have isofix in your car or want to use e.g. in a middle seat.

Other high performing booster seat brands are Joie, Nuna, Recaro, Besafe and Cybex. "Better" is subjective; I recommend trying them out, ideally with your child who can tell you which is comfortable - you can also see how the belt sits on them too. It can be quite individual what fits each child. It's also worth trying in your car, one tip is to try with the headrest raised up to the maximum, because the roof in some cars gets in the way of the top setting on some boosters, and you can pre-empt that issue, if you think you'll likely still have the same car when your child is 8+ years old (no point doing this if you'll probably change car).

Thanks Bertie. Not sure when we'll change the car but no plans to do so anytime soon. We already have a kidfix for our older child and it fits well into the car and I've tried younger dc in it and it seemed to fit fine. Difficult to try any seats here as it's only Halfords around. Dc2 will still be rear facing in main car until she grows out of the minikid but she has almost reached the weight limit on the joie stages harness and I prefer to get a higher quality booster than use that in booster mode.