The ONLY Convertible Booster Consumer Reports Recommends Without Reservation
Written: Apr 10 '04 (Updated Apr 28 '04)
Product Rating:
Durability:
Ease of Use:
Pros: The only convertible booster recommended by Consumer Reports.
Cons: Not as good as our Britax seats. Harness should accommodate taller children!!!
The Bottom Line: I wanted a seat for someone falling in that in-between stage (outgrown the regular car seat, but too young/lightweight for a conventional booster). This seat comes close...
mizgnomer's Full Review: Cosco Juvenile Summit 22260 Booster Car Seat - Tra...
When my son was 2½ he presented us with an interesting dilemma. Tall for his age while still being quite skinny, he outgrew his beloved Britax Roundabout carseat (a forward-facing seat is considered "outgrown" when the tops of the child's ears are level with the top of the carseat's headrest, or their shoulders are above the highest harness setting). Most kids move to a booster when they outgrow their carseats, but because my little guy only weighs 33 pounds (most boosters have a low-end weight limit of 40 pounds), and because he is far too young to be trusted to ride properly in a booster seat that only uses the car's seat belts to secure the child, we were left in quite a fix. Fortunately the seat in our other car is a Britax Marathon, which he isn't going to outgrow any time soon.
My husband (eager to do something good after failing to notice that my son had outgrown the Roundabout) was the one who found the Cosco Summit High Back Booster. A "convertible" booster, it serves as both a conventional forward-facing car seat with a 5-point harness for children 22-40 pounds, as well as being a belt-positioning booster for children 30-100 pounds. After doing some research on the web, I was surprised to discover that the Summit is the ONLY convertible booster that is recommended by Consumer Reports! After reading that, it was hard to justify getting any other seat for our in-between little boy. Unfortunately, it didn't prove to be quite as "perfect" as I was hoping...
More Seat Specifics:
The Good:
When using the 5-point harness, you can position the harness up or down WITHOUT having to re-thread it through holes in the seat back. It's a pretty spiffy system that beats even our beloved Britax seats -- on those you do have to rethread the straps through the holes. On the Summit you simply move the whole strap-and-seat-back mechanism up and down behind the seat (the headrest also moves up and down with the strap-mechanism). You cannot adjust the height with the carseat strapped in, however, so you do have to un-install the seat to adjust the strap-height. Although there are 4 positions, it should be noted that only 3 of them should be used with the harness (the top-most position can only be used with the booster).
Easy-to-use strap system on the harness is quite nice. To tighten the harness you simply pull on a strap at the bottom-front of the seat. To loosen the straps you press in on a button that is recessed under the seat a bit (presumably to make it harder for your toddler to reach down and loosen the straps himself). The mechanism is convenient and the straps glide easily when tightening or loosening.
My boy won't be figuring out how to get out of the harness by himself any time soon. The release on the between-the-legs buckle is recessed and actually a bit hard to push down upon, so any child would have a hard time releasing it. The latch that goes across the chest has a large button-looking part that isn't really the button (the real button is recessed a bit off to the side). Every time my son tries to "help" me unlatch the harness he presses that large round button rather than the actual release. I'm quite confident that he would be effectively "stuck" in the seat and unable to release himself until he's quite a bit older.
The buckle (that comes up between the child's legs) also has 3 positions (closer to or farther away from your child on the seat-base) to accommodate growth. That's a nice feature that isn't on any of our Britax seats.
Now that I've talked a lot about the 5-point harness, let me sing the praises of the belt-positioning part of the seat. It's why Consumer Reports rates the seat so highly. Apparently, most convertible seats allow hazardous slack in the shoulder belts when used in conjunction with the guides on the sides of the seats. This slack (usually caused by the child pulling on the belt or moving around a lot in the seat) could be potentially deadly in an accident. According to Consumer Reports, the Cosco Summit High Back Booster was the ONLY convertible booster that, when used as a booster, reliably allowed the car's shoulder belts to slide freely and retract like they should, making jamming much less likely and eliminating the slack-problem.
The belt-positioners (which ensure that the car's seatbelt fits properly over the child's chest & shoulders) are also very easy to adjust. Just pull down on the red lever and it can be moved up or down along the upper portion of the seat. It's very simple and easy to adjust.
The seat is equipped with arm-rests that can be folded up and out-of-the-way, making it easier for your child to climb into the seat (or you can just get them out of the way if your child doesn't want to use them). This is a cool feature (and one of my son's favorite things). Large, red buttons on either side of the arm rest allow you to fold them up (but aren't needed to put them down). Because they are on the outside of the armrests the buttons are easy for a parent to get to, but a bit more of a challenge for the child to access.
Seat sits quite high (due to the non-removable base). My son likes being able to sit up high and see everything (although I could see this being an issue later as he continues to grow -- he might end up too high).
The seat has 3 recline positions (although you must set the recline before you install the seat if you're using it in harness-mode). It reclines enough that my boy can fall asleep comfortably without having his head fall forward.
Two velcro-able cloth harness covers can be used on the straps where they go over your child's shoulders, helping to protect your child's neck from chafing against the straps. The covers are relatively small, which might sound like a bad thing, however our Marathon also came with similar pads but they were so large my son didn't like them. Currently we're still using the Summit's harness covers and we like them just fine. I do think that they help to cut-down on the strap-twisting (more on that below).
In the "unimportant but nice-to-have" category, a pull-out cup holder (that he probably won't use until the seat is configured as a booster, as it is attached to the base) is included, along with some small "toy compartments" for storage. Seat fabric is quite attractive, with more attention paid to detail than most seats I've seen. There's extra, removable cushioning that goes around the adjustable seat-back. The edges of the seat also curve forward slightly, which helps give my boy a place to rest his head when he falls asleep. The seat-cover can be removed so you can throw it in the washing machine.
The Cosco Summit High Back Booster is the exact same thing as the Eddie Bauer Summit Deluxe High Back Booster. I e-mailed the manufacturer to find out the differences, if any, between the two (as there is a $20 price difference), and it turns out that the only difference is the seat-fabric (no extra padding, no extra pockets or perks of any kind). I should add that the manufacturer's representative who e-mailed me was very nice and got back to me within hours, so I was pleasantly surprised by their customer service.
The Not-So-Good:
The buckle is cumbersome to latch. Is a "puzzle" buckle similar to the one on our 2001 Roundabout (newer Roundabouts no longer have the puzzle buckle), but I find it a bit more difficult to get together than our Roundabout's buckle. Two halves of the metal tongue must be fitted together before it can be clicked down into the buckle, and while they do have little catches on the metal that help the halves stay together once you've connected them properly, it is still a bit of a juggle to get all the stars aligned properly and the buckle together. I'm sure we'll get more used to it with time. The buckle release is also rather difficult for me to work at times. I like the fact that my son won't be able to release it himself any time soon, but sometimes I have lots of trouble as well. Because the button is recessed, you basically have to stick you thumb in a hole then press down to release, and my long thumbnail (which isn't THAT long really) often keeps me from getting enough of my thumb into the space to press the release effectively.
The harness straps DEFINITELY twist easier than the straps on either of our Britax seats. Still, it hasn't been a massive problem because we are always careful to untwist them before strapping him in, so they never get too badly out-of-whack (if you allow the straps to twist, they will not distribute the crash forces correctly during an accident). Because my husband and I alternate weeks in taking our little guy to daycare, the seat goes unused for as much as a week at a time. I've noticed that during the week of non-use, the chest-latch falls down on the strap -- sometimes all the way down to the crotch-buckle. I NEVER saw that on our Britax seats, probably because the straps are so much thicker. I should note that I have never witnessed the chest-latch slipping down while my boy is in the seat (something I was definitely concerned about after finding it had slid down that first time).
While this seat was definitely more padded than many of the boosters we saw in the store, it is still less padded than our 2 Britax seats. When storing the LATCH straps where they are supposed to be kept when not in use (because my husband's car isn't equipped with LATCH), they actually made a bulge in the cushioned part of the seat, which to me meant that there really wasn't much padding in that part. I would grade the padding as "good" (not bad, but not fabulous either).
You'll pay a bit more for a convertible seat than for a conventional booster. The Summit runs around $100 ($120 for the Eddie Bauer version), however you can get decent booster seats for around $60. I should add that, upon discovering that our boy had outgrown the Roundabout, I was thinking about getting another Marathon ($250) or the Britax Husky ($240), so by comparison the Summit is downright cheap!
While my husband had no difficulty installing the Summit in his car (which is a pre-LATCH Toyota Camry), when researching the seat before making our purchase we saw a lot of complaints from people who could not get it positioned properly in their cars. As when purchasing any seat, you should always keep the receipt on-hand until you are sure that it can be installed securely in your car. It doesn't matter how fantastic the seat is if it is improperly installed in your vehicle.
In the "minor inconvenience" department, I found the instructions to be adequate but not outstanding (once again, I've been spoiled by the excellent instructions that come with Britax seats). Actually, I had found an older set of Summit instructions online and thought they were terrible, however Cosco has really upgraded the instructions for the newest seats, and they are a vast improvement over the older instructions. All of the important stuff is explained sufficiently, with line-drawings that show how to install the seat and work the straps, however I still found some features lacking or hardly mentioned at all. The part about the 4th position of the harness/headrest was particularly confusing, because on one page it states that you should change the seat to a belt-positioning booster when your child's shoulders are above the 4th harness position -- then on the very next page it states clearly that the 4th position is to be used ONLY with the belt-positioning booster and not the harness. It contradicted itself (but I should note that when the harness is on the seat, the seat itself will not let you put the apparatus into the 4th highest slot).
For me personally, by far the most disappointing thing is the fact that, although this seat appears to be uniquely positioned to accommodate children who outgrow their conventional carseats but are still too young for booster seats, the harness-apparatus simply isn't big enough! When my boy sits in the seat, his shoulders are already nearly level with the highest harness setting (which is actually the 3rd highest setting, as the 4th can only be used when in booster-mode). Although he does still have plenty of head-room, he's almost out of harness room. The instructions include a grid that shows that the harness accommodates children up to a height of 40 inches -- my boy is currently 39 inches. I really cannot express how disappointed I was to see how close he already is to outgrowing the harness, as that was the whole reason we purchased this seat in the first place.
More of Our Thoughts/Experiences:
My son, who is the harshest seat critic, really enjoys the seat. He is particularly happy about the arm rests, which he likes to put down himself. It sits up high (something he likes) and is reclined enough that he can sleep comfortably in it. He really has no complaints.
If I overlook the height issue, I'm quite happy with it as well. The seat itself is quite large and it looks like he has plenty of room to grow (using it as a booster with the car's seat belts). The Consumer Reports glowing recommendation is a huge plus for me. Would my son still be using this seat when he weighs 100 pounds? I didn't weigh 100 pounds until I was a senior in high school (then again I'm a girl -- I expect my little boy to be a bit heavier than I was), so I expect he would outgrow it by height (which is 52 inches tall) before he hits the 100 pound mark. I know he won't make it to 40 pounds in the harness, he'll have outgrown it due to height before then.
Alas, we were dismayed to see that my son had practically outgrown the harness as soon as the seat was out of the box. Although we waffled back and forth on our decision to return the seat, we ultimately did decide to return it to the store (we ended up using the Summit for 2 weeks, but I have now placed an order for the Britax Husky). After taking a longer-than-usual trip for Easter, my husband and I witnessed our son's attempts to get things that were beyond his reach while strapped into a harness (meaning that, had he been in the car's seatbelts in a booster seat, my son would have probably wiggled out of the seat to do the things he wanted to do). I'm very disappointed, as I thought the seat was very attractive, was quite easy-to-use, and my son really loved the armrests, but agree that this is simply not the seat for our unique situation.
I really, really wish that the Summit allowed use of the 5-point harness for taller children. You really cannot beat a 5-point harness for safety (the 5-points being over each shoulder, over each hip, and up between the legs). With our Marathon we can keep him strapped in until he's 65 pounds and/or 49 inches tall (right now he's not yet using the topmost harness slot), but with the Summit you must switch to the belt-positioning booster at 40 pounds and/or 40 inches tall. I'm not terribly pleased about that. The seat would have been PERFECT for us if only it accommodated a few more inches in the harness!
Obviously, we have not used the seat as a booster, however it is easy to see what is so good about it. With Consumer Reports recommending it alone in the class of convertible boosters, and the very cool belt-positioners that move very easily, there a part of me that was really looking forward to our upcoming booster days (except I don't want my baby to grow up so fast!).
Quickie Summary:
Pros:
+) 5-point harness for children 22-40 pounds (29-40 inches tall)
+) Belt-positioning booster for children 30-100 pounds (38-52 inches tall)
+) The only convertible-booster recommended by Consumer Reports
+) Reposition the harness level without rethreading the straps!
+) 3 positions for the harness-buckle
+) 5-point harness quite easy to get child into and out of
+) Difficult for child to figure out how to work the harness (great seat for escape artists)
+) Belt-positioners are very easy to adjust
+) Belt-positioners allow shoulder belts to slide freely, and thus are less hazardous than other seats in this class
+) 3 recline positions
+) LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children) compatible for 22-40 pounds (which is a federal requirement these days)
+) Arm-rests that can be folded out-of-the-way
+) Spiffy pull-out cup-holder
Cons:
-) Only accommodates children 40-inches tall in the harness!!! I wish that went MUCH higher!
-) Large, non-removable base makes it difficult to install in some cars.
-) Rather expensive
-) "Puzzle" buckle difficult to work at times
-) Straps twist easily
-) Cannot use the top-height slot when used with the harness (the top slot is for the booster configuration only)
Final Thoughts:
I thought that the Cosco Summit High Back Booster was really going to come through for us in our somewhat unique situation (which is a tall, skinny kid who outgrew his conventional carseat but is too young to be trusted in a belt-positioning booster). Unfortunately, the Summit's harness-height limit is not any higher than that of a conventional carseat! In that aspect I'm disappointed, and think that Cosco is really overlooking a market where they would be the ONLY player! I'm disappointed that this seat didn't work for us, because I really found it attractive and easy-to-use, plus my son adored it.
I would recommend this seat for children who are of a more normal height. For those children it will last longer than a conventional seat, because you can move to the belt-positioning booster when the harness is outgrown (at an older age than my toddler, preferably). I also recommend it for children who are escape artists, because the buckle's release as well as the strap-loosening mechanism are all recessed and difficult for little fingers to work (while still being fairly easy for parents to work).
Sites of Interest: Manufacturer's Website: http://www.djgusa.com
Consumer Reports recommendations: http://www.consumerreports.org/main/detailv2.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=304371
Car Seat Safety site: http://www.car-safety.org/
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