Super Safe | No Re-Thread Harness | Leg-Room Hog | Heavy!
A nice, safe seat even without an anti-rebound bar/load leg, the Britax B-Safe 35 Elite is a bit of a narrow fit for larger babies and lacks choice for stroller compatibility.
Things We Love
- Nice, Simple Design (& Some Color Landmines): This car seat’s design is simple and nice, but not all Britax B-Safe 35 Elite colors are created equally. Prescott and Vibe are great neutrals. But then Britax also makes a cow print (moo) and a bright red seat, both of which are not particularly attractive. Select wisely.
- Solid Safety Features but No Anti-Rebound Bar: The Britax B-Safe 35 Elite has two layers of side impact protection, an energy absorbent base, and a steel frame. Despite being a very safe car seat, the base does not have an anti-rebound bar or load leg, which helps stabilize the seat against rebound in a crash.
- Taxi and Rideshare-Friendly (American Belt Path): The Britax B-Safe 35 Elite has an American-style belt path, meaning the seat belt only attaches at two points and does not wrap around the back of the car seat. Although the American-style belt path isn’t quite as secure as the European-style belt path, it does still allow for a safe, quick, easy baseless install using a car’s locking seat belt. This is great news for city dwellers or frequent travelers who hail lots of taxis, Ubers, and Lyfts. (Note: Some car seat safety techs recommend using a rolled up towel or pool noodle when installing the car seat using the seat belt, especially on slopey seats. Always check for no more than one inch of movement side-to-side and front-to-back when installing your car seat without a base. See Britax install video here.)
- No-Rethread Harness: The height adjustable headrest automatically positions the harness into the correct spot. No rethreading necessary!
Things We Don't Love As Much
- Some Difficulties with LATCH Install: Some parents have had difficulties using the lower anchors (LATCH) to install this car seat in specific cars. Britax does have a solution for this. The Britax B-Safe car seat bases can be installed using a lap belt instead of LATCH (which is just as safe), and you can get an especially good fit on slopey seats by using a rolled up towel or pool noodle. This is all detailed in the manual.
- Narrow Fit: Parents with larger babies have found that their kiddos grow out of this car seat quite fast, due to its narrowness.
- So/So Canopy: The canopy on Britax seats is nothing to write home about.
- Verging Toward Legroom Hog: At 26.5 inches deep with the base, this car seat takes up more space than the Nuna Pipa and some Cybex Aton models. If you have an especially compact car and need extra front seat legroom, this might not be the ideal car seat for you. An inch or two makes a surprisingly big difference!
- Downright Heavy: Weighing in at 11.5lbs, this is one of the heavier infant car seats out there.
- Limited Stroller Compatibility: This car seat is only compatible with Baby Jogger, Britax, and Bob strollers.
Compare It To Other Infant Car Seats
How To
- Install the Britax B-Safe Elite 35 + base using LATCH
- Install the Britax B-Safe Elite 35 without the base
Buy It
- Britax B-Safe 35 Elite – $230
- Discounted seats are available in select colors (usually the less attractive ones though) for as low as $199 on albeebaby.com.
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