Reviews for SafeGuard Child Seat

Yes, for safety it is wonderful but for me who has owned three Britax seats, I am finding this one terribly hard to get used to. My four year old never had a problem buckling himself into the Britax Regent or Marathon, then I could easily adjust it with the tension strap. With this seat I have to assist him everytime and wait for him to do it so I can turn the knob and tighten it. I want him to be responsible and get into his seat and strap himself in and with the Britax he can do that then I can turn from my drivers seat and tighten it and adjust it but with the safeguard that is not possible. The straps also do not glide easily and I find they twist easily and this not only frustrates me but my son as well. The yellow button you have to push upwards for the tension is very hard, I have to pull up on it so hard that I hurt my nails everytime (and I don't even have long nails lol) I do like that the seat is not as huge as the Britax Regent, so I can fit other car seats in the back of my truck and the installation is so easy. For the money I expected the harness to be as smooth and easy as the Britax. I am really unhappy and wish my husband didn't throw away the box and packing. I would have returned it and gotten another Regent. I would definitely order from Elite again, they were wonderful and shipping was super fast and FREE!!!

Comments from The Staff:

Thanks for the compliment! For those of us used to using Britax seats - it's hard to get used to ANYTHING else. I do love this Safeguard Child Seat, though. I love that you don't have to jump up and down on it in your vehicle to get a tight install - and I love that you have so many different adjustment points, so you KNOW that your child is secure in the seat. It's different than a Britax, yes, but it's a great seat. It's the one our owner is going to put his daughter in when she's old enough to be forward facing.

Christina
Call Center Manager
Certified CPS Tech

We just purchased this seat for our daughter who is 4 now. This thing is so sturdy and secure that I have no worries at all. The head rest is very comfortable compared to other seats...she just leans her head to the side and it's like a pillow. She loves it and is very comfortable in it. It's perfect size for her (she's 41" tall and weighs 40 lbs). And still room to grow! I would HIGHLY recommend spending the extra money for safety and comfort.

Our son (age 2) had just about outgrown his Britax Roundabout and we were looking for another car seat to replace it. We wanted safety plus a seat that would grow with him and keep him in a 5 point harness for the longest time possible. We looked at all the seats out there, but kept coming back to the SafeGuard. Our only hesitation was the expensive price. We finally ordered it through Elitecarseats (they are awesome!) and I am SO glad we spent the extra money and got this seat! I love it! My son seems very comfortable in it too, even when he's sleeping. It's completely user friendly for the parents! It is without a doubt THE best of the top of the line carseats! You can adjust the height of the harness straps and headrest with one hand by pulling the lever on the back of the seat AND the child can be in the seat while you're adjusting it! It's also very easy to loosen the harness straps (with a lever on the base at the front of the seat) or tighten the straps (with knobs on each side of the seat.) The straps do not twist, they are thicker than most carseat straps and they have non-slip pads on them to protect your child from any chaffing. There is a built in belly pad on the bottom seat buckle. The buckles themselves are easier than many to undo (I've actually broken fingernails before on others trying to get them to release) but I do not think a child could have an easy time of unhooking them, especially from their seated angle. It was no problem to install (we used the LATCH system and it took about 5 minutes.) There are LATCH release buttons on the front base of the seat (but out of reach of the child,) push them and the LATCH buckles release instead of having to dig around between the seats to unsnap them with your hands! The seat is well padded and sturdy, and I have peace of mind knowing my son is in a seat that has tested so well! There's a slot in the top of the seat to slide the maunual down in so you will always have it handy. Yes, it is bigger than some seats, but fits fine in my mid-size SUV. I would not however, recommend carrying this seat through airports as it's too heavy. I have not had to take the cover off to wash it yet, but my son did spill some milk on the seat and I was amazed how easily it wiped off! I would highly recommend this seat, it's worth the money (after all it IS your child's safety and comfort) and you will most likely not need to spend money on another carseat for your child as this one accomodates children from 22 lbs all the way up to 65 lbs. in the 5 point harness. This is a case of "you get what you pay for," and if you purchase this seat you'll be getting THE best carseat out there for children over the age of one!

I agree with the other reviews that this is a great and sturdy car seat. It is very easy to install via LATCH and my 2.5 year old daughter is very comfortable in it. However, I wish the harness were easier to use. When the headrest is at the lower height settings, the harness is harder to pull out to put the child in the seat, and the harness hardly retracts at all when the lever is pulled to tighten. The fine tuning knobs have to be used to get the harness tight enough, and I find them very difficult to turn to get the harness as tight as I would like it. It concerned me enough that I contacted Safeguard and their customer service was superb. They actually sent me a replacement seat to see if there was any problem with the original. As it turns out, I was just expecting it to be easier to use, and there was nothing defective about the first seat, so we have kept it. They explained that as the child gets taller and the headrest gets moved into the higher positions, the harness belt will move more freely inside the seat and the harness will retract much easier and be easier to loosen as well. Until then, I have gotten used to adjusting the harness even though it takes quite a bit of strength on my part to get it tight enough.

All in all though, this is probably the safest and best built seat out there and I feel very comfortable with my daughter in it.

I was looking for a 5-point harness for my nearly 4-year-old son. He's just outgrown his Britax Roundabout. The SafeGuard seat was quite pricy but sounded like it was very safe, very easy to install, and easy to use on an everyday basis. After trying it out, Iâ??d say the first two items are true. It seems ruggedly safe and it is remarkably easy to install. The retracting belts help make the latch installation easier than that of most other car seats. In addition, it is remarkably simple to adjust the seat for children of different heights, basically like adjusting a headrest on an adult seat. In short, the designers really have thought of everything when it comes to installing and adjusting the seat. However, I think the designers left the table at that point because the buckling system leaves much to be desired. In fact, after just a few times of buckling my son in it, I decided it was too much of a daily hassle to keep.

We're used to a Britax, with its handy Velcro pieces that keep the arm straps secured out to the side when the child exits the seat. The old Britax also had a simple pull-strap to tighten the straps. In contrast, with the SafeGaurd, there is no Velcro, so the buckle pieces were always lost in the recesses of the seat once my child got in it. We had to dig around for these and they often came out twisted. Same with the crotch strap. We had to go digging for that every time too. I might've bought some Velcro and tried to duplicate the system that the Britax uses if it weren't for the frustrating SafeGuard tightening mechanism. First you have to press a button to do the initial tightening. It's supposed to work like a regular seat belt retractor, which is a fantastic idea. However, it could barely tighten against my sonâ??s puffy winter coat. It certainly did not provide enough tightening action to make him at all safe. They account for this though: after the initial tightening, one has to turn one of the knobs on either side of the seat to finish tightening. The knobs were difficult to keep a good grip on when I was trying to tighten the straps down over the bulky coat (though not so much so without the coat). After all the digging, untangling, and work to tighten the straps, it really was a lot more work to get him buckled in this seat than in the old Britax Roundabout. In the end, we returned this one and bought a Britax Marathon. I wouldâ??ve preferred the Britax Regent but itâ??s on back order at this point. Still, the Marathon has the same easy buckling system and itâ??ll give us another 20 or 25 pounds of time in a 5-point harness.

We purchased the SafeGuard seat 3 months ago for our 4 year old and have been very pleased. It looks and feels very solid, more so than the Britax Advantage (no longer sold, but the equivalent of a Britax Roundabout with extra bells and wistles). Though we were happy with the Advantage (seemingly the best at the time we bought it), the SafeGuard is in a league of its own. Recaro is up there too but, as another mentioned, with Recaro you cannot use the 5 point harness up to the weight limit like with the SG. A 5 point harness for higher weight/height limits was a must in our seat search. I know some at the preschool age switch to boosters for ease and price, but I think this is a mistake. A 5 point harness is safest.

We narrowed down to the Britax Regent and the SafeGuard. We ruled out the Britax Decathalon and Boulevard because of reviews that they were narrow in the hip. Not an issue now, but at 60 lbs it might be. Also, the SG and Regent look more like "Big Kid" seats. The SG offers an easy shoulder strap height adjustment, however the Regent only has slots. After having a height adjuster knob with the Advantage, we saw this as an important feature for convenience and safety. Since the strap height can be perfectly adjusted to our daughter's size, she is more secure. Ruling out the Regent was easy when comparing the quality, design, and safety with SafeGuard.

Even though the SG does not recline, our daughter has slept comfortably in her seat. The sides hold her head very well. In the Advantage, her head would fall forward or too far to the side. According to our daughter, the seat is more comfortable than the Advantage.

The seat fits well in our Chevy Tahoe and doesn't take up much more space than the Advantage. Average adults can sit on either side comfortably. I read reviews that some had issues with the Regent (formerly Husky) being too wide.

A dislike, though MINOR, is that there is not a stop on the straps to keep the buckles from sliding all the way down the straps. We have to fish behind our daughter to locate the buckles. With the Advantage, the buckles did not slide all the way down. Also, the Advantage had Velcro to attach the straps to the sides of the seat when not in use; no fishing for straps and buckles! It is a little thing in the big picture, but the addition of these conveniences would make the SG perfect! Eventually, I will add some Velcro myself. Okay and maybe SafeGuard could also offer a leopard print cover; that would be sweet! Britax did good with that one.

We purchased the SG in Graphite; the color is not jet black, but it is much closer to black than dark gray. The Graphite seat on this site looks more gray than our actual seat color (though it could just be our monitor). It looks sharp!

The SafeGuard seat is pricey. However, like any child, our daughter is priceless, so after researching and seeing the quality of the SG, we would not want to settle for anything inferior. I hope the other safety seat manufacturers start measuring up to SafeGuard's standards, so that, with more competition, this level of safety does not have to come with such a huge price tag. Though sadly the SG is truly out of reach for some, for others, skipping the fast food, 10th Dora or Thomas, and Starbucks for a few months surely will yield enough to pay for this ultimate in child safety.

This is our second purchase from this company. The first was a jogging stroller 4 years ago from their other site joggingstroller.com. Both experiences were good and their customer service was personable, competent and helpful. If we had to do it all over, we would (without reservation) buy the SafeGuard seat again and buy it from EliteCarSeats.

I do alot of research before I buy anything for my children, especially something as important as a car seat. I bought this for my soon to be 5 year old son and am glad I did. I know it is safest to keep your child in a restraint as long as possible so I wanted a seat that would meet those needs. I also needed a seat with side impact protection as my sons were constantly having difficulty being beside each other when my oldest was in the center seat. I love this seat, as everyone has commented it is super easy to install. I wish they had a seat this great that could be used rear facing! My husband was a bit put off by the price tag, so I said well then it can be my birthday present too because I wanted it for my son. Once he installed it he agreed it was worth the money we spent!! I aslo love Elite Car Seats , I have ordered alot of things from them over the years and they have the best customer service.

Comments from The Staff:

Thanks for the compliment! I LOVE hearing that customers were so happy with our customer service, that they brought their business back to us, or recommended us to a friend. Thanks for taking the time to let us know that :)

Christina
Call Center Manager
Certified CPS Tech

We got this seat for our almost 2 year old because we wanted him to be riding in a seat with true side impact protection. I did extensive research and talked with many helpful people at elitecarseats before deciding on this seat. Here are some reasons why I chose this seat over others (Britax Regent, Britax Boulevard & Recaro Young Sport are others we considered)

This seat has a very sturdy aluminum frame. Once I got it out of the box, it's superior quality was apparent. I had this seat sitting in my living room alongside our Britax Decathlon, which has a platic frame, so I could compare the two. The Safeguard seat was so sturdy and it was obvious that there was a lot put into the design of the seat. Both seats are rated to 65 lbs but the Safeguard seat gives my son more room and also has the highest slot adjustment for the shoulder straps available in any of the seats mentioned above, therefore accomodating taller children. (Max height for Safeguard: 57 in, Regent: 53 in, Boulevard/Decathlon: 49in)

Like I said, this seat will harness a child to 65 lbs, unlike the Recaro Young Sport which limits harness use at 40 lbs and then is used as a booster seat. We want our son in the 5 point harness for as long as possible and we feel that this seat will do that for the longest. Although the Britax Decathlon and Boulevard both harness a child to 65 pounds as well, our son was fitting snuggly into his Decathlon so we knew he would need something roomier than the Boulevard. Even though the Britax Regent harnesses children up to 80 lbs we chose this seat instead b/c: the Safeguard has true side impact protection, unlike the Regent and also, like I said before, the Safeguard has a higher height limit as well. In my opinion, most children will outgrow the straps of the Regent b/c they are too tall, before they ever reach the 80lb limit.

One thing my husband noticed about this seat is that the back and bottom have smooth round edges that are gentler for our leather seats than the Britax seat was. A few other nice features: the easy harness height adjustment. This is so simple, no turning a knob forever like on the Boulevard. Latch installation was so simple as I didn't have to struggle to tighten the straps myself, they simply retract into the seat and tighten by themselves. Also, we love the knob adjustment on the sides of the seat which make it so easy to tighten the straps after putting our son in. This makes it easier to get a safe and snug fit every time we put him in.

Overall, we are happy with our purchase and our son looks comfy in this seat. He can rest his head on the side wings, unlike in his Decathlon. If I had to make one complaint about this seat it would be that the crotch strap is not adjustable as it is on the Decathlon. (The Boulevard does not have an adjustable crotch strap and I don't think the Regent does either) My son is big for his age and I think he would be more comfortable if the crotch strap could be moved further out. This seat is very expensive so most people won't consider purchasing it over others, but in my opinion, the price is worth it, considering the safety of this seat and the length of time my son will fit into it.

On a side note, the people at elitecarseats were very helpful as I had so many questions. They looked up information for me that was not on the website and I never had to wait on hold to speak with someone.

Comments from The Staff:

Thank you so much for taking the time to leave that review - it's excellent - it's going to be VERY helpful for future consumers! And thanks for the great compliments about our service, Robin! We're SO glad we could help you out :)

Christina@NicheRetail.com
Call Center Manager
Certified CPS Tech