ERF car seats

[OopsieeDaisy]

Looking for suggestions or experience with ERF car seats. DS is around 99th centile for both weight and height. Looking in particular at the Britax Max Safe pro or Safeway M currently as they’re just about within budget in the sales. Anyone know if these take up a huge amount of space in the back seat? DH and I are both quite tall and I’m concerned it wouldn’t leave us much leg space!

Both my DS are 99centile weight and height. We went with the joie every stage car seat. Doesn't take up much space, our seats can still go all the way back, and they fit my boys lovely grows with them to age 12 so cost effective. I think this also depends on your car? We have a big family car so plenty of room, my sister has a little fiesta and one of those car seats wouldn't even fit 😅

Sorry just realised you wanted ERF, mine isn't that, they still fit, but not helpful to your post I guess. Good luck

Thank you @dontcomeatme ! I think I have looked at this one but I thought he would probably outgrow the rear facing height limit earlier than I’d want to turn him forward facing with an adult belt.

The forward facing function on the joie also has the child harness and can still be tilted back even forward facing. My oldest DS went forward facing around 19/20 months but he was still leaning back with the "baby" harness. Even now he is sitting up straight he still uses the harness. Definitely not ready for the adult belt at all.

It depends a lot on what car you have. My parents had Britax Max Safe in a Ford Fiesta and Nissan Qashqai. The front seat had to be pushed forward as far as it goes. I found it uncomfortable even though I'm only 5'4.

@GreenLemonade We’ve got a Volvo XC60 so it may be ok behind the passenger seat if your parents managed to get it into a fiesta!

Some of the Axkids can be fitted very compactly – I've got two Minikid2s in a Rover 25 (although not ideal for a tall driver).

Is there a shop anywhere remotely near you that stocks a couple of the ERF seats? They're usually very helpful at trying different seats in your car and seeing what works. Failing that, many will help via email.

@skkyelark yes that might not be a bad idea, I think we have one within an hour or so drive. They just don’t seem to stock any britax seats anymore and the axkids are more than we’d ideally like to spend as we need two but still could be worth a look.

We have a Britax (Max Safe Pro). No issues with leg room, and DH is 6ft 4. We have an AxKid in other car that is pretty compact too. Britax do great seats.

That's unlucky they don't have the Britax ones. How far is your nearest Britax retailer? And is it anywhere you could reasonably combine with a day out?

I have the Safeway M in two cars and I would say it very much depends on your car. I can get away with two of them in a tiny hatchback because I am short and sit quite far forward, but I have to warn passengers not to push the seat back. However, we also have a Skoda Octavia estate and it's fine in there.

You need to go somewhere and actually have it fitted in your car and see how it fits with the seats adjusted as you normally would adjust them. There absolutely will be a seat that will fit both your car and your baby.

We had a Klippan one, which was excellent. It fit in my then Ford Focus just fine and Dh is 6’5 and I’m 5’9. Dh could still sit in the passenger seat, though maybe not as comfortably as he’d have liked.

Our dc are average height, but the Klippan one in particular was designed as a high back booster up til age 12. It’s always weight that is a concern for ERFs because they are usually only certified up to a certain weight RF. Just look for one that is up to 25kg and not 18kg, I think they often need to go in with the belt beyond 18kg rather than isofix, but it’s all the same. Height shouldn’t be an issue as they are adjustable and a 2-3 year old is never going to be taller than a 12 year old.

@mindutopia I think some of the seats have a lower height limit when rear facing compared to when used forward facing. So the Joie Every Stage for example can rear face up to 105cm which is about 3 years old for a 99th centile boy, but the forward facing limit is 145cm which is closer to 8-9 years for the same child. Klippan isn’t a brand I’ve come across, not sure how easily available they are in the UK but I’ll take a look, thank you!

@skkyelark looks like my closest Britax retailer is absolutely miles away, but perhaps an excuse for a day out, good suggestion!

Avionaut Sky 2.0 is on sale some places at the moment, can personally recommend if that might be in budget (understandable if not!)

Keep an eye on his weight, because at 99th centile he will need to come out of the straps at some point on the Joie Every Stage, it's 18kg the limit on the one with the forward facing straps mode (with red belt guides). That isn't always clear when you buy it so fingers crossed he still has plenty of use out of it!

Klippan are no longer selling car seats in the UK. The Britax ones I think can be a bit space hungry front to back compared with the Axkids. But unless you have a tiny car this might not be a problem. I think ERF car seats take up less space than isofix spin type seats, because they can be so much more upright.

Some of the online retailers will be happy to measure for you if you message them and they may even have pictures of installed seats in the same model of car, to show the amount of space needed. Is it a popular model?

If it's a Volvo check the carseatsweden instagram or FB page as they often post installation photos.

(Searched here for XC60)

https://www.facebook.com/profile/100063474220259/search/?q=xc60

I have a maxsafe pro in a Vauxhall Insignia, at the moment while I have the seat in space saving mode (no extension wedge) it's fine but I suspect once I need to have the wedge in it will be too big to go behind anyone taller. I also have a axkid which has more choices for positioning so might be a better option, but with a higher percentile child you'd need the newer 36kg axkid seats which are £££

Very car dependent annoyingly. Basically if your seat belt buckles are buried in the seat rather than on long stalks the seat can be fitted more compactly because you don't have to worry about positioning to avoid buckle crunch.

@BertieBottsoh my god thank you for mentioning this, he's just been weighed by HV for 2 year check and he was around 17kg 🤦🏻‍♀️ brilliant news ...

We have the britax safeway M and it takes up less space than a joie isofix! I love it and highly recommend

This is all very helpful, thanks everyone!

@Springadorable I definitely wouldn’t have thought about this - I have a feeling the buckles are buried in the seat but I’ll have to double check, thank you!

What age are you looking from? As we had a Britax two way elite from 9months. They are now called Britax Romer Two-Way Car Seat. This fitted in our Ford focus which had very short seat belts. Its not Isofix, but was a very good seat.

Sometimes they slow down a bit as they hit 2-3 years, so you might get longer than you think – but definitely reaching the point where you need to keep a close eye on his weight and start thinking about his next seat.

As you say, 2 is much too young to just use the adult belt, and the options for harnessed forward facing past 18 kg are really limited. I think the old Joie Bold (not the newer i-Bold) harnesses to 25 kg, but you need to have isofix and a top tether point in your car for it. The i-Bold harnesses 22 kg, again isofix/top tether. I think they both have a maximum harness height of 105 cm, though, so if your boy is also 99th centile for height, you'll hit that by about 3.

Rear-facing, there are quite a few seats that harness to 125 cm/25 kg or 125 cm/36 kg. I think both the Britax models the OP mentions are 125 cm/36 kg.

@MigGril I’m looking for something to fit him from around 12 months. I haven’t heard of the seat you’ve mentioned but I also can’t see much online about it either, I wonder if it’s pre-R129 or perhaps the newer model has also been discontinued? I’m not fussed about it being isofix though so I’ll look into that one a bit more, thank you!