Britax Gives the Husky a New Name - the Britax Regent
Written: Apr 18 '06 (Updated May 25 '06)
Product Rating:
Pros: Keeps child in 5-point harness longer than any other car seat on the market
Cons: Huge, difficult to install and over priced
The Bottom Line: The Britax Regent is only for families who will keep their children harnessed as long as possible, otherwise it is too big, too difficult to install and too expensive
mmcphee's Full Review: Britax Regent Booster Car Seat - Sahara
It was time once again for the car seat shuffle. Our once beloved Evenflo Triumph had met an early demise and had to be replaced immediately. Since our 4 1/2 old daughter was about to outgrow her Britax Marathon it only made sense to pass that down to The Little Guy and purchase Bugs a new Britax Regent
The Basics
The Britax Regent is in the class of seats called “youth seats.” These are forward facing seats with an internal 5-point harness. A marketing decision has renamed the Britax Husky the Regent. The Regent can be used for children 22-80 lbs and up to 53” or until the top of the child’s ears are above the top of the restraint or when the child’s shoulders are over the top harness slot. There are 4 harness height positions and the top harness slot height is about 20”. This seat can be installed using a lap belt, a lap-shoulder belt or LATCH connectors.The seat is not approved for use on airplanes. Since the seat is forward facing only children must be at least 1 year of age. The cover can be removed for hand washing and line dry. The seat has a 1 year warranty and can be used for 6 years from the date of manufacture.
Installation
Of course, before you go to install the seat you must read the entire instruction manual. As with other Britax car seats the manual is attached to the seat under the cover. Either clip off the elastic so you can read it without having this very heavy seat on your lap or print off another copy of the manual from brtiaxusa.com.
There is a lot to consider when installing this car seat, far more than any other car seat I have ever used. First you need to know if the seat is going to be installed in a position where you can use the rear tether strap. If your car does not have a tether anchor then you must install the included recline bar onto the back of the seat. The bar simply slides into two slots in the back of the seat. It is important to note that the tether must be used for children over 50 lbs, but is recommended for all installations.
If your vehicle is LATCH equipped that may be an option for you. Most vehicles have a 48 lb maximum for using the LATCH connectors at which point you must use a seat belt to secure the seat. Remember that the 48 lb limit is for a dressed child, including shoes; not the nearly naked one at the doctor’s office! For seat belt installation there are two different paths, short and long. The long path is recommended but, especially in older vehicles, the seat belt may not be long enough and you will have to use the sort path.
The Regent is an enormous car seat, 21 1/2” wide. For comparison most car seats are about 18” wide with a few of the larger convertible car seats up to 19 1/2” wide. We have captain’s chairs in the second row of our van and the Regent barely fits next to our Britax Marathon. Even the depth of this car seat may be an issue in some smaller cars, especially if you need to use the recline bar, which pushed the car seat forward away from the back of the seat at the base.
Installation with both the shoulder-lap belt and the LATCH connectors was a challenge. I attempted to install the seat with the recline bar installed but I simply could not get the seat tight enough. I do not want to have to keep track of this small bar but I had to remove it form the seat to get a good tight fit. The width of the seat that you have to reach around and behind combined with a narrow seat belt path slot makes it difficult to feed the car’s seat belt through the seat. Again, the size of the seat makes it difficult to reach around to the LATCH connectors to pull them tight. I discovered that it was easier to pull the LATCH connectors toward the outside of the seat instead of straight back. While I will have the installation inspected soon for now I am confident that I have a good tight fit with the LATCH connectors and the tether. A second person makes installing this car seat much easier, it would really be difficult to install on your own.
Securing Your Child
In order to change the harness height the seat much be removed from the car and the harness needs to be rethreaded. Fortunately it isn’t something that you need to do often, but it is a pain when you have to do it. My 4 1/2 year old, who was about to be over the limit on the top slots in her Marathon, is about 1/2” below the 2nd set of slots in the Regent. The length is adjusted by using the lever located at the front of the car seat between the child’s legs and is very easy to do. The harness straps have the Britax HUGS pads. I despise them, but they must be used since Britax refuse to redesign their seats to accommodate wider (and safer) straps. The chest clip sits inside the HUGS and is reasonably easy to clip and unclip but stays securely. An audible click ensures that the clip is done. The straps are also a bit twisty and fold over on themselves in the buckle slot. This is due to thin and flexible straps, far thinner than the straps on our Marathon. For the price Britax thinks they deserve for this seat they owe me straps that don't twist!
The seat is reasonably easy to secure a child. The length on the harness is easy to adjust but the lever is placed where bored hands can easily play with it. Children must be taught not to fiddle with the adjuster lever. I do not like that both harness clips have to be installed before either of them locks. At 4 1/2 my daughter is hopefully pass the car seat temper tantrum stage, but for my younger children I prefer a locking system where you can lock the buckles one at a time. That way once one buckle is in, even if you child struggles that one is not going to pop out while you work on the other one. There are two positions for the crotch buckle. You need to use the closest position until your child is at least 50 lbs and continue to use it so long as the buckle is not under your child. This is a huge improvement over the single crotch position for out Marathon.
The Extras
We have not had the seat long enough to need to wash the cover, but hand wash and dry is a pain because of the length of time the cover needs to dry. I have to allow 24 hours to dry our Marathon cover if I am doing it in the house, and I have no doubt that the Regent’s cover will prove to be very similar. The cover is very soft and plush and the whole seat is well padded for comfort. Unlike other Britax car seat options, the covers on the Regent are blah - two tone, blacks, grays, tans and blues. There are 4 different covers currently available and we ended up with the Sahara pattern.
There are recline position on the Regent but the sides of the seat to come around slightly to let a child snooze. On each side of the seat are mesh pockets that can be used as cup holders, or to keep snacks or small toys secure. The elastic at the top of the pockets is rather tight and is difficult for our daughter to do on her own when she is secured in the seat making them useless. There are no arm rests on this seat either.
Unlike other Britax car seat there are no Velcro tabs to hold the straps to the side while your child climbs in. Since I removed that “feature” from our Marathon, I’m happy it isn’t there on the Regent. There are two elastic straps about chest height on the side of the seat that are supposed to be “harness retainers.” I cannot find anything in the instruction manual that describes how to use them, and I can’t figure it out.
You Bought Another Britax Car Seat?
I despise our Britax Marathon, more so now that I realize there is no way my children are going to even come close to either the height or weight limit on the seat. My experience with customer service has been miserable, requiring me to make 4 phone calls before I received my recall kit on my registered Marathon. Despite all of that, yes I took the plunge and purchased another Britax car sat.
The $250 price tag on this seat is ridiculous. Britax now controls their pricing so gone are the days of searching on-line retailers for the best price, they all sell them for $250 until they start to discontinue cover patterns. Your only hope is to buy it from some place like target.com for discounts on your entire purchase. Even with free shipping $225 is way too much money, but Britax knows they have parents right where they want them. My husband and I want our children in a 5-point harness for as long as possible, so the Britax Regent is our only choice.
I learned my lesson with our Marathon, so I had low expectations for the Britax Regent. It didn’t fail to disappoint. This car seat is difficult to install because of the width so you really need a second person to help. I cannot emphasize enough just how large this seat is, you don’t want to be transferring this between cars, never mid how long it takes to install. Other than the high weight and height limits there is nothing on this seat to justify the high price tag. For us, in the end, the high limits did justify the purchase - but I don’t have to like it! I'm not dillusional and I have no doubt that my daughter will outgrow the height of the car seat before she even comes close to the weight limit.
Is the Britax Regent the Right Car Seat for You and Your Kids?
I think the real question is, “Is the Britax Regent the right car seat for your car?” If you don’t have a vehicle where you can use a tether for a child over 50 lbs you are probably wasting your money. If you have a small car you are going to have a tough time getting a good fit. If you have to have 3 car seats across a row in your vehicle, you may not be able to do it if the Regent is one of your seats.
You also need to consider your child’s feelings. Some kids may balk at staying in a 5 point harness if most of their friends are riding in booster seats. In our family that is too bad. Children (and adults) are safer riding in a 5-point harness seat so that is where our kids will be. Hopefully this seat will give us at least another couple of years of the extra safety for our oldest before we pass it down to our younger kids.
If you are considering a Britax Marathon for your child I really recommend you skip it in favor of the Regent. You may be surprised, like we were, when your child outgrows the Marathon height limits long before they reach the weight limit. I really feel like we wasted money on the Marathon and I should have purchased (at the time) a Britax Husky, since I ended up with one anyway. If you have the room in your vehicle spend the extra $10 now and get the Regent instead of the Marathon/Decathlon/Boulevard. However if you do not have the space for a Regent or the wallet for a Britax I highly recommend the Safety 1st Apex 65 car seat with its 65 lb harness and high back booster to 100 lbs capabilities for half the price of either of the Britax car seats.
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