Diono Radian reviews?

amother

Olive

Sun, Jun 04 2017, 6:52 pm

I want a narrow car seat as we have a sedan and we have two kids... I want space in case we have a 3rd in the next few years and this car seat seems to be one of the only ones that does 3 across... It will be for my FF 3.5 year old child as my younger is still in the infant seat.

Advice? Reviews? It is expensive but I want to get 3 across eventually. And I don't want a minivan right now! Can't afford a new car!

Hashem_Yaazor

Sun, Jun 04 2017, 7:47 pm

For that situation it's PERFECT. It really does have a great slim profile and if you get an angle adjuster if you want to switch it RF for your baby by the time you have a third, it helps with space from front to back. It's a heavy seat and some find it tricky to install. But it's solid and holds up well.

Another option which is cheaper and about the same width is the Harmony Defender 360 from Walmart. It's FF only, so won't help when your baby outgrows the infant seat/ you need the infant seat for a 3rd, but you can worry about a seat then (and maybe get a Radian if you need one to RF). That runs right under $100.

tryinghard

Sun, Jun 04 2017, 8:18 pm

I have two - I needed them to fit three across. They actually both came with the angle-adjusters HY described. I am very impressed with the quality, though they are heavy. Disclaimer - I actually am using them as boosters at the moment so I don't know anything about buckle adjustment or the like.

amother

Olive

Sun, Jun 04 2017, 9:14 pm

How hard are they to install? I am used to Graco convertible carseats with their easy-latch system... I really like the Graco Size4Me (and the similar ones) with the one handed height adjust but they are way too wide!

Its a major investment so I want to make sure I am getting the right carseat. They are like $300!!!

amother

Olive

Sun, Jun 04 2017, 9:36 pm

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

Can you tell me more about this carseat? I don't have a Walmart close to me (it recently closed... Sad

) but I can make the lengthy trip to the next one if this seems like a good purchase.
Its for my FF kid and plan to have this one in the bucket seat for a while since my RF is on the smaller side. I aim to RF until 2 or later so hope this will still work. My elder child used it until over 20 months...

Hashem_Yaazor

Mon, Jun 05 2017, 2:44 pm

amother wrote:

Can you tell me more about this carseat? I don't have a Walmart close to me (it recently closed... Sad

I think you can buy it online (and I heard that Amazon may have started selling it too, but I didn't check, in which case you can do free returns via shipping if it doesn't work out).

It's a great car seat in its price category. No rethread harness, 10 year expiration, movable cup holders, smooth harness....no bells and whistles like steel reinforced frame like the Diono (which makes it heavy), basic hook style LATCH attachments (as does the Diono, or at least mine -- you'd think at that price point they could splurge a bit Wink

)....one drawback is that it's not ready out of the box, and you do have to finish assembling it. I know in the past some people had problems with a short crotch strap, but Harmony provided longer ones at no cost if you called up; but I think I heard they remedied this in later releases and they're all good now...

Really you can't get much better than this for a slim FF car seat if you don't want to spend money specifically on a Diono.