Graco has a long history in the car seat industry of providing quality seats, from the Snugride line for infants to the excellent Size4Me seat (which I consider to be the best convertible seat under $200) to their TurboBooster line to their recent all-in-one efforts with seats like the 4Ever All-in-One and Milestone All-in-One. They have other boosters, of course, like the Graco 70 Elite, which is the basis of the upgraded Graco Argos 80 Elite. As a result, when I found out the Nautilus 80 Elite was shipping, I had to get my hands on a copy for a test run. Fortunately, my older kids were willing to try the seat out with dad. What follows is a thorough review of the Graco Nautilus 80 Elite, which you can buy here.

2017 update: Graco updated the Argos 80 and renamed it the Nautilus 80. It remains essentially the same seat, and is still a good choice for a combination seat in 2017.

Graco Nautilus 80 Elite – What’s the big deal?

The Graco Nautilus 80 Elite offers a number of new features that make it a good seat for families interested in a long-lasting forward-facing seat that’s safe, comfortable, and convenient (can you say no-rethread harness? I love those!).

Being a combination seat, it can be used in two modes: as a forward-facing seat with a 5-point harness (which children should be in until 8 if possible), and as a high-back booster to be used in concert with the lap and shoulder seatbelt of a vehicle (which children will typically need until at least 10), and finally as a backless booster. The seat is a bit confusingly named as a 3-in-1 car seat, which is unfortunate, as you can’t use the seat in any rear-facing position. If you’re in the market for a seat that works rear-facing, forward-facing, and as a booster, you’ll want the Diono Rainier, Pacifica, or Olympia, or the Graco 4Ever or Graco Milestone.

Graco Nautilus 80 Elite Limits for Weight and Height

Forward-facing: 20-80 pounds. Children must be at least 1 year old and between 27″ and 52″ in height. The shoulders of the child should be at or below the highest harness slots. Of course, as a reader of The Car Crash Detective, you know that we’re not going to forward face at 1, 2, or even 3. Ideally, we’re going to aim for at least 4, as if we were in Sweden, where nearly no children die per year in car collisions due to the inherent safety of extended rear-facing.

High-back booster: 30-100 pounds. Children must be at least 3 years old and between 38″ and 57″ in height. The tops of the child’s ears need to be below the highest part of the head support. Again, as a Car Crash Detective aficionado, you aren’t going to booster a 3 year old. Rather, we’re going to try to keep our kids forward facing in a harness until they’re at least 5, and ideally until 8, because of the various benefits of doing so.

Backless booster: 40-120 pounds. Children must be between 40″ and 57″ in height and the vehicle must provide head support.

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Dimensions of the Graco Argos 80 Elite

The harness height of the Nautilus 80 Elite is adjustable between 12″ and 18″, while the crotch strap can be adjusted to 5.5″, 8″, and 8.5″. When used as a booster, the maximum height limit is 20.” The seat itself weighs approximately 22 pounds per my fancy car seat scale.

Using the Graco Nautilus 80 Elite

The Graco Nautilus 80 Elite is easy to like out of the box, as it’s an attractive seat with well laid-out designs. It comes with 3 recline settings (reclined, semi, and fully upright); if you want to switch between the positions, you’ll need to reinstall the seat, so choose carefully. Children who weigh more than 65 pounds and are harnessed need to use the fully upright position, which must also be used while the seat is used as a booster.

A LATCH installation is straightforward, but keep in mind that the weight limits for the child with LATCH is 42 pounds. These weight limits are why I prefer using seat belt installations; they’ll work throughout the life of the seat and child. Using a tether is recommended throughout the life of the seat but it’s a requirement if the child is harnessed and either is taller than 49″ or weighs more than 65 pounds. See here for why it’s a good idea to use a tether when forward-facing 100% of the time.

A seatbelt installation is quick and makes sense. However, something a lot of parents forget to do is to use the tether while using the seatbelt, and that’s a no-no. Always use the top tether, whether you have a LATCH or seatbelt installation.

There are 5 height settings available through the headrest; you access them by pushing the red button on top of the headrest. Keep in mind that you should only use the highest setting when the seat is being used as a booster; when using the harness, use the lower 4 positions.

You’ve got a no-rethread harness in the seat, which automatically makes me a fan of it since it’s so much easier to adjust harness height when you don’t have to reach into the guts of the seat to do so. The seat works well once you’ve properly installed it. Maintenance-wise, you can machine-wash the cover, but it does take some time to do and you’ll need to remove the harness.

Buy the Graco Nautilus 80 Elite on Sale with Free Shipping at Amazon here.

Why Buy the Graco Nautilus 80 Elite?

The critical part of any good car seat review, in my opinion, is information about why you should buy a particular seat. It’s nice to have things like no-rethread harnesses and machine-washable covers, but that’s not what’s most important in the end. For a seat like the Nautilus 80 Elite, I like the fact that the height and weight limits are on the generous end; 80 pounds forward-facing and 52″ in height means the majority of children will be able to use the harness until at least 8 years of age, per CDC growth charts, which puts them in a good range for transition into a booster.

Other features that I like are that the seat is FAA certified, which means it can be used on airplanes, and that it has a 10 year lifespan. Graco stipulates that the seat needs to be replaced whenever it is involved in a crash, and that the seat cannot be installed in harness mode with a car with inflateable seatbelts. I also like in general how thick the harness straps are, as this reduces the likelihood of their twisting.

In general, remember that you want to keep your children forward-facing as long as possible once you’re done rear-facing if you start forward-facing before 4. Each transition from one mode to the next represents a drop in safety, so don’t rush from one phase to the next.

The only features I’m not a fan of in the Nautilus 80 Elite are the fact that it doesn’t give as much harness height as the Frontier or Pinnacle; these are the seats to use if you are interested in Extended Harnessing, or forward-facing your children as long as possible. The Frontier and Pinnacle also offer higher weight limits when forward facing and higher seat belt height limits when in booster mode, making them superior booster seats.  That said, if you don’t need the additional features, it’s hard to argue with the Nautilus 80 Elite.

I recommend the Graco Nautilus 80 Elite wholheartedly. It’s a good, solid combination seat that will let you forward-face your children for several years and potentially serve as the last car seat your child needs before s/he is ready for an adult seat belt. You can buy the Graco Nautilus 80 Elite here. Canadians can buy the Argos here.

If you find the information on car safety, recommended car seats, and car seat reviews on this car seat blog helpful, you can shop through this Amazon link for any purchases, car seat-related or not. Canadians can shop through this link for Canadian purchases.