Cosco Alpha Omega Elite Convertible Car Seat

Rating

I had this car seat for my son. I would not recommend this seat to a friend. It is safe, when used properly, but after I bought it, I found out it had several quirks and features that make it not worth the price. For one, the top usable harness slots are the 2nd from top position on this seat and are just 15" tall. The very top adjustment position is ONLY to move the headrest up for booster mode. In addition to the low top harness slots, the seat only harnesses to 40lbs.This seat is also not rated well by car safety experts as a good booster seat. The geometry of the seat makes it so the belt is held too high on the childs abdomen, and the closed belt guides may not let the shoulder belt flow freely, which may leave too much slack if the child leans out of position. It also may not position the shoulder belt correctly on the child. It has a 100lb limit as a booster seat, but most kids will outgrow this seat by height well before they ever reach that weight. The seat is outgrown altogether in booster mode when the tips of the ears go past the top of the headrest.The seat in 5pt harness mode is VERY often outgrown by height before children reach 40lbs as well. It is outgrown as a 5pt seat when the tops of the shoulders go past the top usable harness slots. My son outgrew his Dorel 3-in-1 alpha-omega seat by height, by the time he was three years old and since he was on the lighter side, he was also not yet 30lbs... This led to me needing yet another car seat for him, because he was still way too little for a booster seat, and even if I had wanted to, we could not have used the 3-in-1 as a booster. This is not uncommon occurrence w/this seat.THis seat does harness to 35lbs rear facing, which is it's best feature. Rear facing is safest by far. this seat has a fairly tall shell for a 40lb limit seat and many kids will make it to 35lbs rear facing in it. The height limit for r/fing is until the child has 1" of shell above the head (regardless of weight).The base can be removed when installing in harness mode, which sometimes gives a much better install (less than 1" of movement at the belt path)

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Rating

Seems comfortable for my daughter (I wouldn't know first-hand!). Nice fabric. Really easy to move the seatbelt as she grows. My only complaint is that the instruction booklet that came with it is a little confusing and not very user-friendly. So you have to figure out how stuff works a little bit on your own.

• How often do you shop at Overstock.com? Few times a year
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