Safety 1st Complete Air convertible car seat Review & onBoard 35 Air carseat Giveaway (ENDED)

Winning comment is #724!

I think if you ask any mom, she will tell you that the most precious cargo in her car is her child. I don't know how much research parents do before they buy a carseat, but I can tell you that we did not do a very good job with our first child, DD. You see, during my pregnancy, DH switched jobs and so we spent a lot of time preparing for our move (selling our old home and trying to buy a new one). We moved 3 months before DD arrived. To be honest, when I finally gave birth, there were still tons of moving boxes in her room. So, you can imagine how unprepared we were as parents. DD's first carseat was a last minute shopping type of thing. We brought what we thought was reasonably priced and what looked decent. I mean, how long does a child need to be in a carseat, right? The first time we put DD in her carseat, we quickly realized we made a mistake. We should have invested in a better carseat. Well, that was one of our many mistakes as first time parents.

Anytime I have a friend who is about to have a baby for the first time, I always recommend checking out the different carseats in person. Feel the fabric, check out the belts (5 point harness), measure the carseat (especially if you have a small car and you are not sure how well the carseat will fit in your car) and of course learn as much as you can about how safe the carseat is. If you do your search, you only need to pick one up and that will last you for at least a couple of years.

Am I smarter about carseats now? You bet. I check for comfort and I check for safety too. The last thing I want is to be involved in an accident and then learn that I did not do everything I can to protect my child. So, when I heard about the Safety 1st Complete Air convertible car seat and I was offered one to review, I looked forward to checking it out in person.

The Safety 1st® Complete Air™ Convertible Car Seat with Air Protect™ Side Impact Technology is perfect for infants rear-facing from 5-40 pounds and 19"-40" and toddlers forward-facing from 22-50 pounds and 34"-45".

Air Protect™ Revolutionary Side Impact Technology: Breakthrough system shields head and immediately reduces side impact forces through the precise release of air.

QuickFit™ Harness System adjusts harness height from the front in one easy step without uninstalling from the car.

Harness accommodates children up to 50 pounds.

One Click LATCH installation system allows for faster and easier installation when moving between vehicles.

5-position adjustable headrest easily accommodates your growing child.
Removable cup holder.

After trying it, here's my take:

I love that you can use the carseat for rear facing for up to 40 lb. While we did not have a problem with DD being too heavy for rear facing, I do have a friend with a very large baby who was too heavy for rear facing carseats when he was only 8 months old (both of his parents were over 6 feet tall). She had a very hard time finding a carseat that could be used for rear facing but still worked for his weight. This carseat is perfect for larger size kids like my friend's son. It also means that even if your child is average in weight, you can keep your child in the rear facing position much longer than other carseats.

The carseat is a bit higher than the old carseat DD has so while this is great for someone as tall as DD (and the carseat does fit very nicely in my mini van), if you have a compact car, you will want to do some measurement to make sure it fits in your car the way you like it to.

There is plenty of cushion on the carseat. DD is hugged pretty nicely and comfortably by the carseat so she is a fan of that. While the wings (by the child's head) is there to help protect your child in a crash, we discovered that it's actually great when DD falls asleep because she uses it as a headrest. She also like the removable cup holder. In the past, she just holds her drink in her lap or she stuffs it in the seat next to hers, so having a removable cup holder is definitely a good thing.

As many of you already know, I prefer using the latch system so I installed the seat using the latch. I did have a minor problem. I discovered that I needed to remove part of the carseat cover to feed the slack through for a tight and secure install. Like I said, it was minor, but I just thought I should warn you that the installation is not as easy as other carseats I have tried.

Now, on to the most important feature of this carseat. The carseat features revolutionary new side impact protection technology called “air protect.”

Through the precise release of air, Air Protect™ shields children from side impact intrusion and immediately reduces crash forces at the most critical spot: around a child’s head. Air Protect™ does this by extending ride-down, the amount of time it takes to slow a child’s movement in a crash.

Over the past 20 years, the number of deaths related to front impact crashes has declined, while side impact crash fatalities have increased by 20 percent, in part due to larger vehicles, like SUVs, on the road. In a side impact crash, there is an average of just eight inches of steel protecting children in the back seat. Side impact collisions are among the deadliest type of collision for children, accounting for one in three child crash fatalities, nearly all of which are caused by head trauma.




Scary right? After I learned about the technology that went into the Air Protect carseat and then watched the video I was sold. Yes, I loaded DD into the carseat and I actually do feel better knowing that she is that much safer in the Air Protect carseat. Would I recommend this product? Yes, most definitely. It is a great carseat and we love the new technology that Safety 1st developed to make us feel better and safer about having our children in the car.

To buy the carseat we received to review, please go to Safety 1st to make your purchase.

Many thanks to Brittany of Safety 1st. She has generously offered an onBoard 35 Air carseat as a giveaway prize to one of my lucky readers (US residents only please). This infant car seat also features the Air Protect™ Side Impact Technology. The retail value of this carseat is $179.99.




How to enter:

In order to enter my giveaway, you MUST be a public follower of my blog through Google Friend Connect. To follow me, click on the "Follow" button on the right hand side of my blog. If you are not a follower and you enter my giveaway, ALL of your comments will be automatically forfeited.

1). Please go to Safety 1st and then come back to tell me about another product you would like to try and why you would like to win this carseat (you MUST be a public follower of my blog to enter this giveaway, and your profile can not be set at private).

How to earn additional entries (please leave a separate comment for each additional entry):


2.) Blog about my giveaway- with a link back to here, when you leave the comment make sure you include the URL of where your post of my giveaway is. Please do not copy and paste my review over to your blog, please write about why you would like to win this giveaway and provide a link back to this post. The Contest ends June 21st, 2010 at 11:59pm PST. Blogging about my giveaway earns 2 additional entries.

3.) Add me as a friend on Facebook for 1 additional entry.

4.) Follow me on Twitter for 1 additional entry.

5.) Grab my button and display my button on your blog or website. Then come back to tell me what your website or blog address is, make sure to leave an url address so I can check it. Grabbing my button is worth 5 additional entries. If my button is not displayed on your homepage but it is posted elsewhere, you will not be eligible to win with your additional entries.

6.) Grab my "Summer Haven" button and display my button on your blog or website. Then come back to tell me what your website or blog address is, make sure to leave an url address so I can check it. Grabbing my button is worth 5 additional entries. If my button is not displayed on your homepage but it is posted elsewhere, you will not be eligible to win with your additional entries.

7.) Retweet this review and giveaway by clicking on the "retweet" button on the bottom of this post. (Right next to where you click to leave me comments). After you retweet, please leave me the url of your tweet so I can check. If you do not know how to check your tweet url, please read this post for step by step instructions. You can retweet once a day for 1 entry each time. NOTE: You can only use the "retweet" button once. If you want to retweet everyday, please tweet the following: " I want to win an onBoard 35 Air carseat@ http://www.sugarpopribbons.blogspot.com/ " for 1 additional entry per day (please leave me the url so I can verify your tweet).

8.) Comment on one of my non giveaway posts for 1 additional entry (leave me a comment here to let me know which post it is).

9.) Enter in any of my active giveaways for additional entries. You get one extra entry per other giveaway you enter. So enter 1 of my other giveaways for 1 additional entry or 10 other giveaways to 10 extra entries. When you leave me a comment for your additional entry, be sure to let me know which giveaway it is so I can check.


Read the fine print:

* Lucky winner or winners will be selected through True Random Number Generator.
* If your profile page does not show your email address, please include your email address in your comment. For example: sugarpopribbons at yahoo dot com -- so that I may get in touch with you if you are selected as the giveaway winner.
* Each giveaway winner has 48 hours to respond to my email about getting the awesome giveaway prize to him/her. If the winner does not reply to my email within 48 hours, I will choose another winner using the True Random Number Generator.
* I do contact each winner via email. If anyone is curious about who the giveaway winner is for any of my giveaways, please go back to the original post of that giveaway. Once a winner is selected through random.org, I will post a screen shot of the the number random.org picked. You will be able to see which number has been selected and if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can cross check who the giveaway winner is.
*I received a free product (or products) for review purposes. I did not receive any form of compensation from the company. All opinions are my own and not influenced in anyway. My reviews are not always positive, but they are my personal and honest opinions. Other people's views and experiences with the product or products might be different from mine.