Second Guessing Graco Snugride vs. Britax

[Fairy]

Hi Guys. Yesterday, we bought the Graco Snugride infant seat from BRU based on the BB rating. However, I am really unimpressed with the thin padding and very much wanted to look at the Britax infant seat. However, cuz A) only one place near us carries it (and we'd have to wait till next weekend to look at it) and B) the BB book didn't have time to rate it, my husband insisted we just get the Graco and be done with it.

Now I'm second guessing this. I really wanted to look at the Britax. The Bonus Material on this site doesn't have the rating on it. I know two convertible seats are recalled, but the infant seat, a new entrant, is not. Does anyone have anything they can tell me about the Britax infant seat as opposed to the Graco Snugride? Other than the $$? Thanks in advance!

[Joolsplus2]

It's a much bigger seat... So it's heavier, but will last you probably quite a few months longer (22lbs and 30 inches, vs 20 lbs and 26 inches). It's a lot more padded, for sure.
I bought one for a friend, but had it sent to her house, so I haven't seen it yet, lol. Try reading down through the posts, or do a search, and you should find some good comparative reviews from the moms here who own them.
:)
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 2 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx

[debsten]

Hi,

I was also going backwards and forwards between the snugride and Companion and in the end decided on the Companion. Haven't used it as, 5 weeks to go. But here are some of the reasons I picked the Companion over the snugride:

- Ease of installation, I really like the built in locking clips in the Companion's base, I could just get a tighter fit much easier. I think this is because I have gotten used to these in the Britax seats. The snugride installed pretty easy also but I found that even with my seatbelts locked I would probably need a locking clip to get it as tight as I could the Companion, the base really doesn't move at all, front or back up or down etc it is in really solid really easily.

- I really liked that the Companion goes up to 22lb and 30", I think that as the new addition gets bigger I am sure it will probably get left in the car more but my dd grew out of her infant seat at around 6 months (height only, weight was no problem) and if this baby is anything like her than I should get good use out of it and i like the idea of being able to take it out if I want. This isn't such a big deal to a lot of people though as they prefer to switch to the convertible seat when the baby gets bigger anyway so is really just a personal preference.

- The companion is much more padded than the snugride although there is a gracopedic snugride with lots of memory foam (not eps though like the snugride) it is around $139 the companion can be found for $179 at babyuniverse.com so I decided to pay the extra $40 and get the extra height/weight and additional features of the companion. The companion also has the extra side impact protection which I wanted because I will have the baby outboard, although again rf seats offer somewhat more side protection anyway so not always a total selling point.

I do have a small car and this seat is a bit bigger than the snugride and is heavier to begin with but it did fit no problems even with my 6'2" husband in the front seat so this didn't become a problem to us.

I know a lot of people who rave about the snugride and I have no doubts that it is a great car seat and depending on what you are looking for in an infant seat I think you would be happy with it. Some advantages of it are it pretty much fits into most strollers, carts, snap n go's etc if that is an issue. It wasn't too much for me and I have found the Companion does fit into my Venezia and Graco Metro lite, doesn't clip but fits in snugly and I could add a strap if need be.

Hope that helps some, it took me a few weeks to decide, reading reviews constantly on all the car seat boards and I bought both the snugride and companion home (If you can do that I recommend it then you can try it in your car and play around to see which one you like best as every car is different).

If you have any other questions let me know, although I haven't used it as yet I do have the seat here so can check anything. If you do a search on companion you will find more info and there are quite a few people who actually have the seat and have used it so they will have more insight than me in that regard.

Good luck
Debbie

[hovegator]

My baby is now 3 weeks old. i bought the Companion 'cause i figured i'd be having a tall baby. we are 5'8 & 6'3. i was hoping to avoid moving up to the convertible after only 4 months or so since that seems like a waste of almot $200 for that short time. I really like the seat and i like that we'll be able tokeep him in it until he is older instead of waking him if he is sleeping in a convertible. It is well padded, feels very secure, and has the added adjustable head support. the only drawbavck i can see is that it is a heavier and larger seat so it is a little more awkward to carry around. i drive an Explorer and my husband has a Camry and we have bases in both cars. The seat fits fine in both vehicles. Any more questions, feel free to ask me.

[smilequeen]

I bought the Britax for similar reasons to everyone else. The higher height and weight requirements, the more padded feel, and the extra side impact protection.

The store here that sells the Companion also sells the high end Graco Snugrides (Central Park and Metropolitan) so we looked at those too and they actually are very well padded and comfortable looking. So in the end the extra height and weight and the side impact was the deal breaker for us.

Who knows if we'll have a tall baby, but I'm 5'9 and DH is just shy of 6', so I'm not expecting Simon to be short. It will be 3 more months til I need to use it though :)

I think the Graco is an absolutely great seat and I did go back and forth a bit...

[heatherlynn]

I went back and forth between the Britax and the Snugride also. I went with the Britax because I couldn't get the Snugride in tight w/out a locking clip. Also, my daughter outgrew her infant seat at 4 months (she was very long as is this little guy) so I figured I'd get more use out of the Companion. So far, I love this seat. He's in there nice and snug and the head pillow/pad keeps his head stable. The only drawback I have found is that the seat is heavy w/ him in it and he's only around 8lbs now! But I'm a weakling! But one of the reasons I like the heavier weight is that it forces me to take him out of it and carry him or use a stroller instead of letting him sit in the car seat all day (while shopping, errands, etc).

H-
Heather
dd Gabrielle 3/98
ds Matthew 8/5/04!

[HHCs Mom]

We have the SnugRide and DS outgrew it at 3 1/2 mos. He is a long baby, but still... I will say that I plan to get a new infant carrier when we have baby #2 because I thought the SnugRide was very poorly padded. It took a few weeks to realize why DS screamed everytime we put him in the thing! Very thin padding on a plastic shell does not equal comfort! Maybe we'll bump up to the high end SnugRide for baby #2. DS loves his new Marathon with all of that padding --- no screaming out of him anymore! :-)

Kim
~~ Harrison 04/06/04

[Sarah1]

I never had an issue with the Snugride's padding (or lack thereof) but agree that it was on the small side--by 4 1/2 months, DD was too big for it.

[kijip]

We had a Snugride for Toby and gave it away before we decided to have a second baby. Toby outgrew the snugride just shy of 4 months. He has always topped the charts for length (95-100 percentile) and is not skinny (60-90 percentile at each of his check-ups). I would just as soon pass on the infant seat altogether for #2 but my husband really wants one so we will go for the Britax over buying a secong snugride (since we gave Toby's away nearly a year ago) and hope to get 7-9 months of use out of it versus not even 4 with the Snugride. I suppose that #2 could be a bean but there has not been a small baby in my family for a long time and we are all tall (I am the family shrimp at 5'9- my mother is 6 feet!) so I am figuring on a large baby again. I think that you will be able to use the Britax longer than the Snugride whinch can make it worth the bigger price tag. The built in lockoffs are always a big advantage of the Britax line in general.