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!

I've got the britax max safe pro seats in a suzuki vitara and I'm 5ft 8, it is a squeeze and that's without using the wedge they supply for extra leg room. My twins are 4 and I was hoping to use the seats until they hit the max weight but that's very unlikely as they will be too tall and I can't use the wedge as it means my seat has to be too far forward. Prior to this I had Joie i spin isofix and these seats are bigger and take up more space, even though they don't recline they are quite reclined - if that makes sense. I don't have an ERF stockist near me so I took a gamble and while the seats are comfortable I think I will be lucky to get a year out of them which is annoying when I've spent £300 on them. Also the support leg has an alarm when it isn't fitted properly, I find if I inadvertently push back in my seat it pushes the car seat and the alarm goes off - highly irritating when you can't pull over anywhere! My older daughter is same height as me and she finds it very uncomfortable in the passenger seat. I got these seats as whilst they were the same price as one of the axkid models they had a higher weight limit, in hindsight I wish I'd got the axkid as it would have been more comfortable and would have lasted the same amount of time!

@skkyelarkthank you this is all great info, we're having a look today for a new one as I didn't realise the limitations. Being honest I bought the car seat before he was born and had no idea he would be so big! Now I have 2 DS both on the 99centile so I definitely need to do some good research and find the best options.
My 2YO DS can't be rear feared anymore due to severe travel sickness, he gets meds from the doctor for it because he's above the allowed weight for the tablets. It was 10x worse facing backwards bless him. When he was titled back he almost chocked we had to pull over on a motorway it was the worst experience of my life. Hoping second DS isn't travel sick and then I can buy the extended rear facing and try to find a one more suitable for older DS in the meantime. He is currently around 98 cm too so won't have long with some of those. Thank you again for the info! Really really appreciate it.

If you join the Bumps 2 Boosters FB group, there is a thread where people have posted pics of their cars and car seat set up. So I bet you'd find a pic of an XC90 and a Britax and an Axkid to compare given they are two of the most popular seats. We have a Britax Max Safe Pro in GPs car (Kia Sportage) for DD1 and there's still plenty of space in the front for passengers. The harness is a bit fiddly on it but then as we don't use it all the time and only when visiting, I'm probably just always a bit out of practice. For its price, its been absolutely brilliant.

Britax Two-Way isn't sold or produced any more, and yes it was an R44 seat. Actually originally R44.03

@dontcomeatme the seats with 25kg harness forward facing are Cozy n Safe Hudson, Cozy n Safe Excalibur, Enfasafe Event FX and Puggle Safe Fit & Grow.

For all of the 25kg FF harness seats you need the R44 version so avoid any which say R129 or i-size.

I believe the Joie Bold R44 was discontinued - the one which you can find now is the R129 Bold. But if you can find the old Joie Bold (again, you can tell the difference because the belt guides are red, not green) then that is also 25kg harness weight limit.

There are some forward facing R129 seats which say they are extended harness but they aren't really as the harness is limited to 105cm so I would beware of these. There are only three forward facing seats on the market which harness longer than 105cm and all of them are very expensive, and only allow the harness to be used to ~22kg anyway (Besafe Beyond, Cybex Anoris T, Avionaut Stardust).

@BertieBottsthank you that saves me so much time, I've just been having a Google and nothing gives you a straight forward simple answer 🤦🏻‍♀️ this list is amazing! Who knew big kids could cause so many issues.

@dontcomeatme, that's really tricky, with the car sickness and being so big and tall! Just double-check the forward facing height on the harness for the Avionaut Stardust – it might be 125 cm rear facing and 105 cm forward facing (or I might have my versions mixed up).

How upright is your current seat? For DD2, being upright makes a big difference – she's actually stayed rear-facing, but with our Minikid2 installed pretty upright. In the infant carrier was a disaster, I basically didn't use the car for a year. I don't know how upright the different forward-facing options can be installed, though.

@skkyelarkrear facing I couldn't have it very upright because of his legs which prompted us to turn him face forward. The doctor also said because of the severity she would recommend forward facing, not lightly btw, just to try and minimise how often he was vomiting. It is definitely better facing forward and sitting up. I justify this in my head because we only use the car 2 days a week and only for short journeys, anything longer than half an hour/hour makes him sick. I will definitely look into the height restrictions for those you have mentioned though. I need to find a shop that has these bigger models in to try him in them really. I doubt anywhere around my way sells them but 🤞

@dontcomeatme , if there's no one near you, try emailing some of the independent car seat retailers. They're often very happy to help via email, as they realise some people won't have a suitable shop anywhere nearby. My eldest outgrew the infant carrier during second lockdown, so I worked out what seats would fit my ancient, not on the fitting lists anymore car entirely by email.

Fingers crossed you find something suitable and that he outgrows his car sickness, poor lad!

@skkyelarkhonestly thank you so much for all of your advice today, this would have taken me weeks to try and figure out and I still would have felt lost! I really hope he does, I always had it as a child and it still bothers me now on long journeys, but I can handle day to day life at least. He is so severe the poor thing. Fingers crossed and thank you again.

I believe the Stardust is 125cm for both RF and FF with the harness but that's just based on a blog by one of the ERF retailers - I haven't seen a manual or a product listing for it yet. I don't think it's actually available yet.

It can be used as a high back booster (with adult seatbelt) from 100cm which may be what you were thinking of?

For the three or four R44 25kg seats I think they are only available online anyway but there is a remote possibility Halfords or Smyths might stock one or another of them? But because they are R44 certified they don't have a height limit. You do have to use the top tether with them, but every car since 2013 has had top tether points included, so hopefully that is no problem.

Nothing I like better than a wild goose chase...

https://carseatninja.com/blogs/news/say-hello-to-the-newest-addition-to-the-avionaut-family-the-stardust says 125 cm forward-facing.
https://www.carseatsplus.co.uk/blogs/news/meet-the-avionaut-stardust-the-ultimate-all-in-one-seat-for-safety-conscious-families says 105 cm forward facing.

And as @BertieBotts says, we can't see the actual manual because it's not even on Avionaut's own site yet, so who knows? The two blogs agree it's harnessed to 21 kg, though, so possibly not the best option anyhow.

Argos might be worth a look for the old R44 Joie Bold – the one near me apparently has it in stock, with R44 in the product listing and red belt guides in the photos.

Yes I have since found more saying it's only 105cm forward facing, so I think the car seat ninja blog might be incorrect. Will have to wait and see on that one.