Has Evenflo made a convertible car seat without the regular car seat hassles?
The Evenflo Triumph LX Convertible Car Seat is cute. But beyond its looks, it actually has substance! It was artfully engineered to fit babies from 5 to 65 pounds and works both forward facing and rear facing. It exceeds all federal safety regulations and has a fabulous latch and harness system. Kiddos will love the cup holders, padding, and other extras. Like all car seats, though, this model isn’t without some inconveniences.
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Safety is Superb
There are more safety requirements for car seats than I ever realized. The Federal governments of both the US and Canada set strict standards for child restraint systems, as they well should. This car seat meets or exceeds all safety standards, and then some.
Full of foam. This car seat utilizes a lightweight foam that surrounds nearly the entire seat. This serves three awesome purposes:
- It’s safe. That’s what helps this car seat absorb impact during an accident, directing all the harm away from your child.
- It’s lightweight. It can provide awesome protection without added weight or bulk. That makes moving it from car to car or even air travel much more convenient.
- It’s comfy. Besides keeping baby safe, it’ll keep them comfortable. This fluffy foam is what they sit on and lean against for the life of the car seat, and it doesn’t disappoint.
Tested in all conditions. If you want to see an exact list of what federal safety regulations the car seat meets, check out Evenflo’s website . This car seat has been crash tested to meet two times that safety standard for front impact and rear impact. It has Evenflo’s e3 safety engineering, which creates 3 different layers of protection in different zones. This means, according to Evenflo, that it’ll reduce any side impact forces by up to 50%. Plus, it’s designed to withstand both high and low temperatures and still maintain its safety and integrity. There’s nothing unsafe about this cute car seat.
Really Grows with Your Child
I get to check out a lot of car seats. Since convertibility is all the rage, I see a lot of seats that say they’ll grow with your child. But since infants can’t use most of the 3-in-1 or 4-in-1 type car seats, how usable are they, really? I love the fact that I can buy this for my newborn and she’ll still be able to use it several years down the road. That’s great design.
Rear facing for the wee ones. This car seat operates like a regular baby seat for babies from 5 pounds up to 40 pounds. It comes with some super comfy padding to support those little newborn babies, and it has a headrest for the smaller kids as well. It’s latches in rear facing so that your child isn’t breaking any laws and is extra safe.
My only complaint about this car seat is that since it’s a car seat that won’t be getting moved around a lot, it obviously doesn’t have a coordinating stroller to go with it. I’m a nerd, and I like having matching sets. An infant car seat and a coordinating stroller for it to click into were staples of my son’s first year. While this car seat is great, you’d have to buy a separate stroller and wake baby up to move them from one to the other. Probably not a big deal, but it would be difficult for me to get used to.
Forward facing for big kids. Once that glorious time comes for your growing child to face the world ahead of them, this car seat does the job. Simply latch the car seat in, facing the front of the vehicle, like you would with any toddler car seat. You can move or remove the headrest as needed, and inch up the harness straps to accommodate your toddler. This forward facing car seat fits kids from 22 pounds up to 65 pounds. That’s at least a couple of years of use, so you’re really getting a good deal for your dollar.
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Buckling Up
The day in, day out task that parents have to handle in a car seat is buckling up their kiddo for the ride. And as a parent, I want this task to be as easy as possible. I also want it to be easy to buckle into the car. In short, I need a good buckling system. The Triumph LX has a pretty great buckling system, but there are some hiccups.
Getting it in the car. Each and every car seat takes some effort to get into the car. I don’t care how much you pay or what fancy tech it has, it will take a bit of parental effort. With the Evenflo Triumph LX Convertible Car Seat, latching takes some effort. The latch system can be tricky, since the hooks are stiff and sturdy to hook and unhook. Now, you will have to adjust the thread path for the anchor straps depending on if it’s forward or rear facing, and there’s a place in the back to do that. You have to remove a plastic cover to access it, but it’s not difficult once the car seat is out of the car.
Once it’s latched in, it felt really secure. If I had to move this car seat around a lot, I would probably dread it. It takes a minute to do the latches, and in addition, it’s a bit bulky. Not heavy, just large. It took up a good portion of my small SUV when it was rear facing. I think forward facing would be much easier. It lands in the middle of the road as far as installation goes: not too hard, but not super easy.
Buckling up baby. Now that the seat’s buckled in, let’s talk about getting sweet baby in. This harness is legitimately awesome. It has a lot of cool features, so let’s break them down:
- Tightening knobs. This is hands-down my favorite feature in this car seat. Once baby is buckled in, you just have to turn some knobs on the side to get the straps as tight as you need them. No struggling with yanking on some strap. Sometimes the knobs were a bit hard to turn, but for the most part, I got them tight with no problems. Such a convenient feature!
- No rethreading. If you need to adjust the shoulder straps as your kiddo grows, you don’t have to rethread them through new holes. Just click the straps up or down in the back as needed. This is called the Infinite Slide Harness. It just glides up and down to where you need to to go with zero problems. I love it!
- Easy strap release. There is one button in the front that releases the harness so that you can loosen it. Easy to do with one hand. Access is a little difficult when it’s rear facing just because of the position of the car seat, but still doable.
- Buckle pockets. This is such a random, yet luxurious feature. There are two small pockets on the side of the car seat where baby sits where you can stash the buckles after getting your child out. No hunting for sliding buckles or getting burnt by hot metal in the heat of summer.
- 5 point harness. This is a gimme, since it’s such a safe car seat. But this 5 point safety harness can support up to 65 pounds. That’s an elementary school sized child! I have no issues with worrying about my big and strong toddler not being secured properly.
- One handed buckling. This is my first test I do on a car seat: can I buckle and unbuckle both the chest clip and bottom buckle with one hand? This harness passed my one hand test with no problems. I can also foresee this being easy for my son to do as he gets old enough to handle the responsibility of it.
Kick Back and Sip Some Juice
I’m talking about baby here, not us parents! This car seat has several recline levels and some super great cup holders for keeping baby comfy and cared for.
Reclining. I like that this car seat reclines back. It’s especially nice for when baby is so little and rear facing. It’s also good for long car trips or car naps where you don’t want your kiddo doing the head bob thing the whole way home. There are 3 different recline levels.
Here’s my qualm with this feature: if the car seat is facing the rear of the vehicle, it’s downright impossible to fix the recline. The recline lever on the front of the car seat is smashed so far down against the seat that you really can’t get to it. You’d have to unlatch the car seat, scoot it out, adjust the recline, and relatch it in. That’s not a convenient feature. At least for forward facing, the recline works well.
Room for sippy cups. There are two built-in drink holders on each side of the car seat. This really isn’t exciting until your child is about a year and half and starts demanding that their sippy cup goes everywhere they go. Then, it’s a life-saving feature.
These particular cup holders are awesome because they will fit almost any cup. That’s because one side is a round plastic form thing, and the other side is an elastic band thing. That’s not a scientific description, but that’s how this cup holder works. Trust me, it’s great.
Wash and Go?
I think that almost all car seats these days have some part that’s machine washable. Â And this car seat is no different. The padding comes off pretty easily and can be thrown in the washer. The straps don’t come out though, so you’ll have to wash these parts and other parts by hand to get your car seat nice and clean. This is a great feature, so that’s why I mention it.
But while we’re on the subject of the fabric, I have a complaint. I don’t like the fabric. It doesn’t seem comfortable nor does it seem well made. I feel like a year or two of my energetic son kicking and squiggling could result in some holes or at least some snags.
Another Color Option
Customer Reviews
- 4.4 stars, 23 reviews- BuyBuyBaby
- 4.7 stars, 352 reviews- Amazon
- 4.3 stars, 78 reviews- Walmart
- 4.1 stars, 62 reviews- Target
Pros
- Extremely safe
- Really grows with child (big weight range)
- Amazing adjustable harness
- No rethreading straps
- Reclines and has drink holders
- Machine washable padding
Cons
- Stays in car and has no matching stroller (for baby mode)
- Takes some effort to latch in
- A bit bulky
- Hard to recline when rear facing
- Material seems a bit cheap
Mommy’s Final Take
The Evenflo Triumph LX Convertible Car Seat is a great buy for a good price. It’s unquestionable safety and amazing harness system won it a best car seat review by a leading consumer magazine. It fits your child for many years since it has a large weight range (5-65lbs). The recline is great, although it can be a pain to adjust. I don’t love the material, but I think it will work. And latching does take some effort. Those three small complaints are the only negative things I can say about this car seat. Overall, it’s a good price and it’s a great car seat.
