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When making our baby registry, I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of carseats on the market! There are hundreds of options ranging from super inexpensive to wayyyy over my budget.
Over $500 for a carseat that my baby will grow out of in 12 months? No thanks! In the same way, I couldn’t imagine putting my sweet tiny babe in a carseat less than $50. So, after studying specs and feeling of the quality of different seats we decided on the Chicco KeyFit 30 Infant Carseat.
Rosy turns 1 in just over a week, so we have officially used the heck out of this seat for a year. I feel that I am now able to adequately review it for anyone out there thinking about using it for their newborn!
First, lets talk about the specs of this seat.
It is a pretty lightweight seat weighing in at 9 pounds. This is SO important because you tote it around A LOT! To me, the seat never felt too heavy or bulky. It was pretty easy to put in my elbow and move from car to the house or to the stroller.
The 30 part of the name KeyFit 30 stands for 30 inches or 30 pounds. That’s when your baby outgrows the seat–whichever one comes first. Rosy is measuring 29 inches right now at a week under a year old. We’ve already transitioned to her convertible carseat, but she still fits in the KeyFit30 totally fine!
I have had some friends with the same carseat use it until a year and a half, while a couple of friends babies have outgrown it around 10 months. Either way, for an infant carseat, it lasts a long time and allows for a lot of growth.
The KeyFit 30 is also super useful for preemies because it is safe to use on babies starting at 4 pounds. It really is a great carseat when looking at the span of sizes it can fit!
Here are some of my favorite things about the Chicco KeyFit 30.
1. Ease of use
This carseat is SO easy to use. It clips in and out of the base super easily. Before she was 6 months, I used the carseat in the stroller and it snapped in an out of there seamlessly as well.
There are no straps to deal with every time it goes in or out of the car. Just snap it in and you’re good to go. Easy peasy.
2. Comfortable for baby
Rosy always napped like a champ in this seat as a newborn! She always looked comfortable in the car and while in the carseat clipped into the stroller.
Considering how much time she spent in this seat, her being comfortable was an absolute necessity and the KeyFit 30 did not disappoint.
3. Easy to clean
Life with a newborn involves a lot of blowouts, and several of those are bound to happen in the carseat. The fabric on the KeyFit30 is not only easy to wipe down and clean in the carseat, but you can also take it all off to clean as well.
If a blowout is too bad, you can also buy complete fabric replacement for less than $50!
4. Great customer service
We had one issue with a stroller wheel when we received it, and the Chicco customer service was wonderful! They quickly sent out a replacement wheel and were SO nice.
There weren’t any issues with our carseat, but I’m sure the experience would have been the same if we had.
I also found their replacement parts on their customer service website. The amount of replacements you can buy is outstanding, which is great when you want to get the most use out of your big purchases like carseats and strollers.
There were a couple of things that weren’t my favorite about the KeyFit 30.
1. The bases are expensive.
The easy of use of the seat is really elevated when you use the carseat bases. When you purchase a seat, it comes with one base. We wanted an additional base so we could easily switch between both of our vehicles. Luckily, we were able to borrow one from family that had an extra, but if you’re not so lucky, the bases are $85.
That just seems like a lot to me for just part of a carseat!
However, you don’t have to have a base to use the carseat as it can be used by just strapping in with the seat belt. So, an extra base is not an absolute necessity.
2. Our baby got sweaty in the seat sometimes.
Rosy was a newborn in Mississippi in the middle of the summer, so I know some sweatiness is guaranteed just due to that fact. However, even on some days where it wasn’t that hot, I noticed that her back was always pretty sweaty when we would take her out of the carseat.
It wasn’t a crazy amount of sweat, and she never seemed uncomfortable from it, but if you live somewhere where it’s always super hot, you may want to look into other options.
Overall, I totally recommend the Chicco KeyFit 30 and will be using it again!
When we have another newborn, I will definitely be using the KeyFit 30 again. In fact, we were so impressed with Chicco quality and customer service, we went ahead and bought the Chicco NextFit Zip Convertible carseat and have been super happy with it so far as well!
I hope this was helpful!
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