The Largest and Longest Lasting Infant Car Seat
Written: Jan 07 '06 (Updated Feb 20 '06)
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Pros: High baby height and weight limit, easy adjustments
Cons: Heavy, no longer manufactured
The Bottom Line: A great concept in an infant car seat.
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| mmcphee's Full Review: Opus 35LX 02-601 |
When I was pregnant with our first child, some 5 years ago, I relied on Consumer Reports when selecting baby equipment. At the time one of their highly rated car seats was the Cosco Opus 35XL.
The Basics
The Cosco Opus 35XL is a rear facing infant seat. It designed to accommodate children up to 35” and 35 lbs. The seat comes with a foot muff, canopy and two bases that are installed in the car. The 5-point harness has five height settings. The seat cover is machine washable.
Installation
Installation has always been easy. We generally used the car seat with the detachable bases. One bases had an angel adjustment while the other one was fixed. Neither provided the necessary 45° angle with any of our cars, but a pool noodle always did the trick. The seat locked in securely with a loud click. The seat was easy to remove by simply squeezing the handle at the top of the seat and lifting it out of the base. At times, mostly on vacation we also installed the seat without the base. Since the car seatbelt goes across the seat this method is not as convenient as using the bases. There is no level indicator on the car seat itself to ensure that seat is at the correct angle
Harness Adjustment
I wish all car seat harness height adjustments were as easy as the Opus 35XL. There is no rethreading necessary. To adjust the harness height you simple pull out the locking handle in the back and slide the whole harness adjustor up or down. While you do need to rethread if you remove the seat cover for washing, height adjustment could not be any easier.
The Extras
The canopy is quite large and covers more than half of the seat. It is not attached to the back of the seat so you can rotate the canopy into any position depending on the sun. The foot muff is a great addition. The blanket fits over the bottom of the car seat and then two elastic loops hook onto the sides of the seat so the baby cannot kick the cover off. The muff is large enough to cover most of the child’s legs. The seat cover washes well. After 3 kids I have washed it more times than I can count and while it has faded some it is still in good condition.
As A Carrier
The handle is adjustable into three positions, upright for carrying, pushed back to allow easy access to the baby as well as to allow the seat to rock and rotated behind the seat. The third position locks the seat semi-upright which is convenient for feeding the baby. Because the seat accommodates larger infants than most other infant carriers on the market, this seat is a couple of pounds heavier. Even though the car seat is rated to 35 lbs, the handle is only rated for babies up to 22 lbs. After that you will need to carry your child by the seat, which is actually well designed for this. Once the seat is released from the bases it is very easy to lift the seat by placing one hand at the top and one hand near your child’s feet. While I would not recommend carrying your child like this for a long time, it is certainly easy enough for putting the car seat onto a stroller or into a shopping cart. The actually carrying bar rotates 360° so you can always find the position that is easiest for you.
Bigger is Better
Most infant car seats are rated for babies up to 20lbs or 22lbs and 26”. What do you do when your child, or in my case all three, reach that limit at 4 months? A 4 month old can’t sit in a restaurant highchair or a shopping cart. Strollers are an option, but you can’t hold even a day’s worth of groceries in a stroller basket. Having a baby in a stroller in the narrow aisle of a restaurant isn’t always safe. You can use a front carrier, unfortunately when a baby outgrows an infant car seat they are usually reaching a weight where they aren’t comfortable to wear for very long either. Without a car seat that went up to 35lbs and 35” leaving the house would have been difficult at best.
Both of my girls were comfortable in this car seat well past a year. In fact, my 34” 34 lb 2 ½ year old could still fit in this seat, although it is a tight fit. The one design flaw with the Opus 35 is the length of the harness. The Little Guy is about 27 lbs and 30” or so, so he is well within the specifications of the seat. In fact he is only on the third of the five harness height adjustments. However with his winter coat and the harness extended as long as possible I can barely lock him in. Since we still have 3 more months of winter it was time to move our 9 month old into our Evenflo Triumph.
Final Thoughts
Sniff, sniff After serving our family well for over 4 years and through 3 children our Opus 35XL was sent to the landfill today. Without a doubt this has always been my favorite car seat of the 5 different ones we have owned. I was sad to see it go, but unfortunately it was time. It is a shame that Cosco stopped manufacturing this car seat with the higher weight and height limit.
Our Other Car Seats
Britax Marathon
Evenflo Triumph
Evenflo Comet
Graco Comfort Sport
Cosco Safety 1st Apex
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 70
Age Range of Child: 0 to 12 Months
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mmcphee
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Member: Mary Ellen
Location: Nutmeg State
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