Britax Essentials Emblem Car Seat Review
By Lakota

February 23rd, 2018

Thank you to Britax for providing me with product in exchange for review. All opinions are my own. 

Car seats are a big deal. The amount of accidents in cars alone is quite staggering so why not go the extra mile to make sure your little one is protected by the best! car seats all pass the same testing but what can make a car seat safer? Ease of use. The easier a car seat is to use the more likely it will be used and installed correctly which equals safer.

In previous years my children have all been started with an infant seat and then moved to a convertible once they outgrew the infant seat. I noticed last baby I didn’t really need the infant seat as I mostly put her in a carrier anyways and avoided the need to lug around the infant seat. It would seem every time that I brought her inside somewhere still in the infant seat I was left carrying or wearing a baby while also carrying the car seat. So this time we decided to skip the infant seat all together and just go with the convertible from the start!

We went with the Emblem Convertible Car Seat in color Pulse from Britax’s new Essentials line. There are so many features so love about this car seat. One that is not so safety related but convenience related is the awesome velcro patches on the straps a s well as the side of the seat so that you can move the straps out of the way and keep them there while getting ready to set baby in! My husband is a huge fan of this feature as well as that always drove him nuts with our last seats.

Britax Essentials Emblem Car Seat Review

Britax Essentials Emblem Car Seat Review

When it comes to ease of use, having stickers that are located on the actual seat for reference is so helpful for quick install and tips. I love that the stickers on the Emblem seat are color coded, easy to find, and easy to read. The bright green stickers are for forward facing installation and the dark blue are for rear facing installation.

Britax Essentials Emblem Car Seat Review

Having clear easy to read instructions on the seat is so important because the more accessible and easy the information the more often that information is used by the person installing the seat.

Britax Essentials Emblem Car Seat Review

Britax Essentials Emblem Car Seat Review

Britax Essentials Emblem Car Seat Review

The back of the seat is incredibly organized with a compartment for each strap when it isn’t being used and labels to understand what each strap or piece is for.

Britax Essentials Emblem Car Seat Review

The seat needs to be reclined for rear facing use, having an clearly labeled handle for that makes it easy to adjust if need be without fully uninstalling the seat or detaching parts, like some other models.

Britax Essentials Emblem Car Seat Review

One of the cooler features of this seat is the quick adjustable strap height. In most other seats you need to unthread the straps of the seat have child sit on the seat to see which slot best fits and then rethread the straps through the correct fitting slots. With the Britax Essentials Emblem seat there is a red handle under the word Emblem at the top of the seat that you pinch and slide up or down, moving the entire head piece as well as the strap height. While adjusting this does take a bit of strength to do, it saves so much time.

Britax Essentials Emblem Car Seat Review

Below is  picture of the back of that same part of the seat but so that you can see just how many height options there are within the seats range.

Britax Essentials Emblem Car Seat Review

Getting more slack for the straps of the seat is pretty simple as you just need to lift a metal level within this pocket pictured below.

Britax Essentials Emblem Car Seat Review

Tightening the straps for the seat is equally as easy by pulling the strap pictured below until the straps are snug to baby.

Britax Essentials Emblem Car Seat Review

The manual is color coded as well to coordinate well with the stickers on the seat and ensure again that the installer is doing everything that they should be depending on how they are using the seat. I also really appreciated that Britax shows the amount of over hang allowed for this specific seat as some other seat brands do have these restriction but they aren’t listed within the manual.

Britax Essentials Emblem Car Seat Review

In the end we decided that this seat would be in the center riding seat between my other two childrens Diono car seats that are now all forward facing. The fit is perfect, we were able to get the tightest install with the Britax Emblem in this location by using the Lower LATCH anchors instead of the safety belt so we went with that. However had we gotten a tighter install with using the safety belt Britax features some pretty neat belt lock off pieces pictured below to ensure a tight and secure fit!

Britax Essentials Emblem Car Seat Review

Since we don’t yet have our little one to try the seat out in yet we adjusted it in the house for my 4 year old daughter. She had plenty of room at the recline for rear facing and loved the feel of the seat.

Britax Essentials Emblem Car Seat Review

I cant wait to put our newest bundle of joy in the seat and see how they do! Check out Britax’s new Essentials line to find the perfect seat for your little one! With bright colors to more muted tones you’re sure to find something you love!

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