Editor’s Note: This guest blog does not express the opinions of CarseatBlog. As of 2016, this review is over 6 years old and may not reflect current product or the more competitive marketplace.
This is a review of the Safety 1st Complete Air. It features revolutionary new side impact protection technology called “air protect,” in which the head wings are air filled cushions. This protects the child in two ways: shields the child’s head from impact, and the air in the headrest channels crash energy away, giving the child more ride down time.
So you may be wondering why this carseat is all the new buzz? Along with its innovative new headwings, the Complete Air is only the second carseat to hit the U.S. market that is rated to 40lbs in the rear-facing position. New research indicates that children under 2 years of age are 75% less likely to die or experience serious injury when they ride in a rear-facing car seat, and toddlers between 1 and 2 years of age are 5 times safer rear-facing than toddlers who ride in a front-facing car seat. Also, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that all children remain rear-facing until they reach the highest weight or height allowed by their car safety seat.
The Stats:
Rear-facing = 5-40lbs (19″-40″)
Forward-facing = 22-50lbs (34″-45″)
Seat Depth = 12 inches
Seat inside width = 12 inches
Seat width = 17 inches
Seat height in lowest position = 10.5 inches
Seat height in highest position =17 inches
Seat back height = 27 inches
Features:
- Air protect side impact technology
- Push button LATCH connectors
- Storage for Tether, and LATCH connectors
- 40lbs rear-facing limit
- Tall seat shell for extended rear-facing and forward-facing usage
- Approved for aircraft use
- Detachable cup holder
- Height adjustment levers
Notable observations:
- Harness may be adjusted even while seat is installed.
- Not an ideal car seat for newborn.
- Cannot be tethered while rear-facing.
- Allows child to remain rear-facing until child’s head is even with top of seat shell which is 27 inches.
- Made in USA
- Features Safety Tip in Owner’s manual regarding rear-facing safety: “Experts agree that children should remain rear-facing as long as possible. In this child restraint, your child can remain rear-facing up to 40lbs or up to 40 inches.”
- Color coded owner’s manual
- Allows single layer towel to be placed under and behind car seat.
The first time you set eyes on this seat you will notice its generous headwings. Since side impact crashes with vehicle intrusion can be the most violent types of automobile crashes, these wings have been engineered to help protect your child in such a crash. The air filled cushions are quite soft, and should not cause any discomfort to a child. My children actually found this quite nice to rest their heads on, especially when falling asleep in the car. The seat has a 40lb rear-facing limit. Combine that with a very tall seatback and you have a great combination for keeping your child rear-facing for years to come.
The cover seems to fit the shell decently, but definitely isn’t as nice as some other carseats. I am also not sure it is going to wear as well, as the cover is already pilling up near where the child’s feet would lay while rear-facing. The cover is handwash only, and isn’t as easily removable as I would have hoped. The black and grey colors are nicely done though, and will mesh well with many car interiors. The headrest pad is NOT removable.
Upon installing it rear-facing for the first time in my 2005 Honda Odyssey van I noticed immediately that it was going to give me much more room for my front passengers than my Sunshine Kids Radian. This has been a huge issue in our car, so I was happy to see the Complete Air gave me more angle to work with. I installed the seat using LATCH. It is a bit awkward, as there is no slot to pull the slack through to get a good angle on the buckle while pulling. You really need to remove part of the cover and feed the slack through to get a tight install. It wasn’t bad, but definitely not as easy as other installs I have done. Dual lower LATCH connectors in this situation would come in handy. The base angle for rear-facing could be better. I still needed to put a towel/noodle under there for my 3 year old son, otherwise it was too upright. For an infant, plan on using at least one pool noodle if not more.
First ride in the car went great.
My son, who is 3 years old and 34lbs and who is seen here rear-facing, said he was comfortable and the crotch strap seemed long enough as well to not cause any issues. I must say, seeing him in that seat with those protective headwings around him gave me a great sense of security. I think he also enjoyed being able to sit more upright than he was in his previous carseat. The straps are a bit twisty in my opinion for the price tag though.
My daughter is 5 years old and 35lbs. She is rear-facing as well in this seat. Thanks to the 40lb rear-facing limit on this seat she can remain rear-facing for awhile longer. They both enjoy rear-facing and are quite comfortable. The seat offers them plenty of leg room and gives them the option to place their legs where ever they want. They have both been riding in the Complete Air for several weeks now. I think their thoughts on the seat are clear from the smiles on their faces in these pictures.
In conclusion, the Complete Air has some awesome features and will make a great option for someone wanting to extend rear-face, or for someone who has a larger baby who needs that extra rear-facing weight limit and seatback height. It’s very impressive looking and I think it will be a popular seat.
-Melissa-
Safety conscious Mom to 2 kiddos, and Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician
Also, does anyone know of any legitimate car seat installation technicians/professionals in Southern Nevada (not Babies R Us)? The Clark County Fire Department no longer helps with car seat installation.
I have a Chicco Keyfit with a base for my newborn and two SafetyFirst AirProtects for my 1- and 3-year-olds (approximately 25 and 35 lbs.). Does anyone know if I can fit all 3 across safely in my 2008 Mercury Mariner? I plan to keep the infant behind the passenger seat, my 3-year-old in the middle, and my 1-year-old behind the driver seat. If not, does anyone know which alternative car seats would work, if any? We cannot afford to purchase a new vehicle, but if I have to, I’d obviously rather purchase new car seats. My husband tried to install a few different ways, but not sure if we are complying with laws and safety standards.
Just wanted to comment for people who had asked. I love this car seat. I have it in my 2005 Prius and it fits snugly and securely with the recline correctly level. I have also taken this seat on an airplane several times. In the really tiny planes with just two seats on each side you have to lift the armrest to get it in, but it fits. International flights on big planes are much easier. Honestly, my biggest issue on the plane is carrying it to my seat. Those aisleways are so narrow.
Actually their video does just that… a very thick towel to tilt it forward.
http://airprotect.safety1st.com/RFBelt.php
Just purchased a 65 SE. The rear facing “level line” is a straight up screw up. It must be.
a) Pull out the seat to be fully reclined.
b) Put it on the floor.
c) Look at the line etched into the plastic above the level sticker
You will see the line STILL isn’t level.
There is no way you can get this line level unless you are actually tilting it forward.
No wonder nobody can get this thing sitting properly in their car.
Somebody at Safety 1st made a rather large design screw up.
I feel the need to clarify some of the misinformation that has been spread in this review and subsequent comments.
My wife and I have been trying to install this car seat in the rear-facing position in our 4-door Honda Civic, and with the seat reclined at 45 degrees (as given by the “level to ground” line), the front passenger seat is unusable. Many people have similar complaints, and it has been claimed here that you can ignore this for older children. This is absolutely NOT the case. I just spoke to a Dorel agent regarding this, and they DO NOT RECOMMEND INSTALLING THE SEAT IN THIS MANNER. Many sites say that as the child ages they can be put more upright, including information from Dorel themselves: http://www.djgusa.com/usa/eng/Faq-Section?id=22
However, any given seat cannot be used in any configuration other than that dictated by the user’s manual. Unless your specific model has been tested in a more upright position while rear-facing, and if it has there will be information regarding this in the manual, it must be reclined to 45 degrees (there are apparently newer seats with two different “level-to-ground” lines). This is absolutely a liability issue: if you get into an accident and your child is injured, forget about trying to sue the manufacturer for damages if you installed the car seat according to instructions on an internet message board.
I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to get the harness from being too tIght in the crotch area. The rest fits perfectly, but unless we roll up a blanket and smash the strap down to the seat, our daughter will cry & scream from the discomfort. We have it adjusted on the front slot already too. She is a little tall (75%), but not super tall. She is 15.5 months and around 30-32 inches.
Thanks in advance for any advice! I’m worried we may encounter this issue with many car seats.
🙂
I am doing car seat research and wondering if two car seats will fit side by side in the back of my toyota corolla rear facing. I need to also fit my older child in the back seat without a booster seat and wondering if everyone will fit properly and if not what car seats would work like this. Advice needed please!!
I just want to say thank you to the testers ans writers of this site and blogs. I have two of these seats for my 15 month old twins. They were recommended to me by a car seat safety tech in our twin group. I went to a certified car seat safety installation spot at Segal’s for children in Oregon to have them installed and the tech told me how bad these seats were and basically told me they could not be installed rear facing. I am grateful I came across this website after going home and doing some research. You are very patient with all the comments on this post. Thank you for that. It looks like there are a lot of misinformed car seat techs out there, so I appreciate you both even more! Thanks I will be keeping our seats after reading this info!
Jenn,
At first I thought mine didn’t have a manual either but it was tucked up high underneath the bottom of the seat (backside). Did you check there?
Also, I didn’t have any problems installing (rear facing) until I got to the big warning about the level line. I would have to put the front seat almost all the way forward as the seat is so big. But, after reading many of these reviews, learned that the level line isn’t crucial if your baby is holding his head up on his own.
So far my son seems to enjoy his new seat. He seems very comfortable in it.
Hi-
I just purchased this seat today at Babies R Us.
We have a 4 month old, he is about to outgrow his Maxi-Cosi carseat that I love! He is over 18 lbs. and we purchased this because it looked very safe ( rear- facing) and it was on sale for a great price! Opening it when we got home it doesn’t have an instruction manual at all, and wasn’t wrapped just in a box…. So lame we live an hour from the store-;(
Was wondering if people are liking this seat, it seemed like a good one but has some bad reviews here…
We have a Sonota Lx and pt cruiser- haven’t tried it in cars yet.
Thinking maybe We should return it…?
Hi Scarlett and thanks for visiting our blog. As Darren has stated above, the information you received was not correct. My children are perfectly safe the way they are, and in fact more safe because they are rear-facing which protects their neck and spine in the event of a car crash. Please visit http://www.car-seat.org and post your questions regarding this information you received. Hopefully you will get some great links and articles to read. 🙂
Hi Scarlett,
Unfortunately the information you have been given is not only incorrect, but also very dangerous. A certified child passenger safety technician would never give this advice. I hope you do some more research here and at our forums on http://www.car-seat.org to learn more about this very dangerous advice. Here is one link that includes the policy from the American Academy of Pediatrics https://carseatblog.com/?p=5168 .
I just want to give a little bit of advice that I received to the person who wrote this blog, I have been looking into buying a forward facing car seat for quite a while as my son is very big and tall, he is only 10 months old but when I went in to several different stores to look at the different car seats, I was told the “wait til 12 months to forward face your kids”, is a recommendation ONLY! as most babies are not as big as my son(26 lbs), my son’s legs touch the seat and was told by the car seat specialist in the case of a car crash (God forbid) if his legs are even a little folded, they will brake! I see in the pictures your kids are both crossing their legs, which cannot be good. If you were to get in a car crash (God forbid again) and their legs aren’t positioned correctly one of their legs could brake. Just a heads up!
Hi Jayme, I did a quick search of our forums to see if anyone had any feedback with flying with a Complete Air, and I found this post: http://www.car-seat.org/showpost.php?p=1094636&postcount=6
I just purchased this car seat for my 7 1/2 month old. Has anyone attempted to bring this carseat on an aircraft? If so, I’d like to hear some comments.
I have a 2 1/2 year old and my twin girls are almost a year old. I need to fit 3 convertible car seats in the back seat of my 2004 Saturn Vue. Do you think that 3 of the Safety 1st seats would fit side-by-side?
I have a surbaru forester and i was wondering if you knew if it would fit….
Video showing how to get a better install using LATCH straps.
http://gallery.me.com/babyjoggermel#100000
I also have had a difficult time installing this seat. The latch straps included with this car seat are very poor quality in my opinion. They are incredibly hard to tighten snugly, at least in the rear facing configuration. Pulling with all my strength does not get it nearly tight enough and the seat still moves side to side way too much. I did not have this much difficulty tightening the latch straps on our chicco keyfit base. In fact the darn thing took about 5 seconds to install. I spent hours trying to make this seat work and I think it’s going back to the store. Making the line level with the ground is impossible in any of our vehicles including a huge Ford F150 supercrew or Volvo SUV. By how hard it is to tighten the latch system straps was a huge red flag to me. I need to be confident in the installation as well and I’m not with this. I’ll be spending the extra money on a Britax.
The LX has a different base with more recline, addressing one of the problems noted with the standard version. We discussed it briefly here https://carseatblog.com/?p=4208 .
What is the difference between this one and the LX version?
Hi-
It used to be that with only a few exceptions, rear-facing seats could touch or brace against the vehicle seat in front of them. In fact, some experts claimed this could be a safety advantage. More recently, with the presence of advanced airbag sensors in seat backs and dynamic head restraints, some vehicle and child safety seat owners manuals may now recommend against doing this. You definitely need to check the owner’s manuals to be sure.
I just had a Britax installed RF in my 2003 Honda Odyssey at a NHTSA Car seat inspection center. The technician informed me that the car seat back could not touch the front passenger seat. I see you state otherwise here. I’ll have to double-check the manual, but I don’t recall it stating anything specifically about this. So, I’m confused.