Orbit has gained a reputation among a small but growing group of devoted parents for making some of the most unique high-end baby gear around. I’d seen the Orbit G3 before and was familiar with rotating car seats, which are quite common in Europe, but it wasn’t until this weekend that I had the time to order an Orbit Baby G3 from Amazon and test it out. It’s certainly a unique infant seat, and well worth considering if it meets your needs. Let’s dive into the details!
2015 Orbit Baby G3 – What’s the big deal?
The Orbit Baby G3 is, believe it or not, an infant seat that can rotate, or swivel, on its base. It doesn’t rotate while the seat is in use, as it’s a rear-facing only infant seat, but it’s designed to swivel to make it easier for parents to install the Orbit into a car or onto a stroller.
Beyond ease of use and side impact protection, the seat is designed to be parent-friendly, toxin-free, and allergen friendly, and is also made from materials free from Brominated Flame Retardants, or BFRs. As a result, you can install it quickly and easily onto its base while keeping your baby free from toxins. When your child outgrows the Orbit Baby infant seat, you can then buy the Orbit Baby toddler convertible and use the same rotating base system. Both, of course, are fully compatible with the Orbit Baby stroller frame.
Broadly speaking, since the Orbit Baby infant seat is an infant car seat, you can use it with your baby as soon as he or she is ready to leave the hospital. You can only use it to rear-face, and your child will outgrow it within a year in most cases, at which point you’ll want to switch to a convertible car seat to make sure you can keep rear-facing before you eventually forward-face in a convertible or combination car seat. However, as with every infant seat on the market, it’s lighter than a convertible car seat, which means you’ll have a much easier time using it in terms of weight and both ease of installation. These are the primary reasons to get an infant seat, and the Orbit Baby is no exception.
Buy the Orbit Baby infant car seat on Sale at Amazon here.
Orbit Baby G3 Infant Seat Limits for Weight and Height
Rear-facing: 4 to 30 pounds. Your child must be between 19″ and 32″ in height. A lower birth weight fit kit is available to help ensure a good fit with small newborns and preemies (pre-term infants). The standard 1″ height limit relative to the top of the seat is present.
Remember that even though it’s legal in most states for children to forward face once they turn 1, since you’re reading The Car Crash Detective, you’re going to rear-face for longer, and up to 4 if you can, the way our Swedish brothers and sisters do, since rear-facing is the safest way to transport our little ones in a car, truck, minivan, or SUV of any size. Once your child outgrows the Orbit Baby G3 infant seat, you’ll want to put him or her in a convertible seat so s/he can continue rear-facing. I’ve reviewed the best convertibles on the market here.
Dimensions and Lifespan of the Orbit Baby G3
The Orbit Baby G3 infant car seat weighs 10 lbs while the car seat base weighs another 15 pounds. The seat base is 14″ wide and 20.5″ long front to back, while the lowest harness position starts at 8″ and increases to 12″ in 2 inch increments. The car seat will last for 7 years from the date in which it was manufactured, and you will need a new seat afterward. Width-wise, the G3 is narrow enough to keep 3 across car seat installations feasible in a range of vehicles.
Using the Orbit Baby G3 Infant car seat
Installation with and without base
Installing the G3 was a snap, whether I used the base or not. When using the base, the StrongArm feature is your friend. It’s a knob on the car seat that’s designed to make achieving a safe and secure installation a 60 second affair. You simply turn the knob when you’re ready to install the seat, and it moves a bar into the back of the vehicle seat so the base becomes tightened against the vehicle seat.
It’s pretty neat to see it in action, and the most important part is that it makes getting a tight installation (remember, you need less than 1″ of movement in any direction for a safe installation) easy without using a lot of manual force. And I love that you can use it both with a seat belt installation and with a LATCH installation. I generally prefer using seat belt installations when I have to install multiple car seats, such as in a 3 across situation, and prefer LATCH setups when I only have one seat to install.
A seat belt lock off is also included within the base, taking care of the need to lock the seat belt. Since all cars made after 1996 in the US feature locking seat belts, this won’t be a feature you’ll need unless you have a much older vehicle. That said, it’s still great to see it present in a seat.
When carrying the seat, even though it’s on the heavier end, you don’t notice it nearly as much due to the soft padded handle and due to the narrowness of the seat. There are also side carry handles to help make it easier to maneuver the seat when you’ve got two hands available.
A car seat that rotates? Yes!
Easily the most unique element of the G3 and one of the most unique features of any car seat currently available in the United States today is the car seat and base’s rotating hub. This is designed to make installing the G3 in a vehicle a simpler affair than the typical struggle many of us experience while trying to fit large seats into small vehicles. Basically, you can place the seat on the hub in any direction and then simply rotate it until it’s rear-facing.
I found it most handy not when installing the seat, but when removing my baby. All I had to do was rotate the seat around and then it was easy to remove her from the seat itself. You can rotate the seat 180 full degrees but no further, which keeps you from using the seat forward-facing. You can look at a clear plastic window on the base of the seat that lets you know when the seat is clicked in and rear-facing properly (the window shows green then) and when it’s not (you see red instead).
Chemical safety and comfort features
There are a number of comfort and convenience (and safety) features packed into the Orbit Baby G3 for your little ones as well, including a deep cradle design to the seat to keep your baby ensconced between layers of EPP foam to aid in side impact protection. I also like the inclusion of a full coverage UV sunshade to keep your baby out of the sun’s harmful rays, and a built-in sunshade extension that’s designed to fully cover your baby from the sun (or to simply provide your baby with extra privacy when you’re out shopping).
Chemical safety is a growing concern among environmentally-aware parents, given the number of unknown and potentially harmful chemicals that line our tools, bedding, toys, and food supplies. Orbit Baby is one of the leading baby gear companies in drawing attention to these potential hazards, and has the most “clean and green” car seat on the market right now. The fabrics used throughout the seat are not only soft-touch, machine-washable, and breathable, but they are also certified by Oeko-Tex as healthy and clean fabrics, which makes them easier on the skin of your baby. They felt soft and smelled good to me, although I couldn’t precisely test their chemical safety.
Another chemical safety element present in the Orbit Baby G3 is the use of safe flame retardants. The vast majority of car seats use brominated flame retardants, or BFR, which are flame retardant chemicals that may have health and safety issues at high doses or with chronic levels of exposure. Examples of such chemicals include PBDEs and PBBs. The G3 is designed to meet flame retardancy standards without using potentially unsafe chemicals. If chemical safety is important to you, this is a huge selling point.
Buy the Orbit Baby infant car seat on Sale at Amazon here.
Why Buy the Orbit Baby G3 Infant car seat?
When it comes to car seats, what matters most to me is a seat’s ability to keep a child safe when used appropriately. The basics of car seat safety start with rear-facing, whether through a dedicated infant seat like the G3 or through a rear-facing convertible seat. I like starting out with an infant seat instead of a convertible seat since it’s going to be lighter in almost every situation and because using one lets you set up multiple bases and also remove your child from a vehicle without waking him or her.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that no infant seat, not even the Kiddy Evolution Pro, which is the best infant seat currently available in the United States in my opinion, will help your child rear-face until 4, which is where I believe we need to aim for when it comes to rear-facing, the way the Swedes do. To reach 4, you’re going to need to switch to a convertible seat somewhere along the way; I’ve written detailed reviews on dozens of these here.
The Orbit shines in its ability to ensure a safe, quick, and easy installation. Being able to effortlessly turn a seat in any direction while getting a child into or out of it will save a number of parents many headaches, and the fact that the Orbit is a chemically safer seat than just about any on the market is sure to appeal to environmentally conscious parents as well as to parents of children with allergies and chemical sensitivities.
I also love the fact that the base is compatible with a range of products within the Orbit family, including the G3 Toddler Convertible and G3 Stroller, with each sharing the same rotation ability. I also like the fact that the seat is FAA friendly and approved for use on airplanes.
Perhaps the biggest downfall of the G3 is how heavy parts of it can be. The base weighs 15 pounds, while the seat itself is heavier than I’d like to see at 10 pounds. That said, the seat is narrow and it has a padded handle that helps make it easier to carry. Overall, it’s a unique and capable infant car seat that’ll certainly appeal to a number of parents with particular needs.
I readily recommend the Orbit Baby G3 infant car seat, and you can buy it with the base included here in Ruby or Black. You can buy it packed with the Orbit G3 stroller here. The G3 stroller frame is available separately here. Unfortunately, it’s not available in Canada, but the closest Canadian equivalent I’d recommend is the KeyFit 30, available 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.