2018 update: Once again, Clek has updated the Fllo in fabric only; it’s the same seat, and still one of the best 50 pounders on the market.

It seems like I review the Clek Fllo every year, but I can’t help it; it’s one of my favorite car seats on the market right now. If you’re wondering whether it’s worth getting the 2018 version over the older version, it is, but the truth is that there aren’t that many significant changes from the older version to the current (or 2017, 16, etc) versions. Your rear-facing and forward-facing height and weight limits are still the same, but that doesn’t take anything way from the newest Fllo; it just means that if you’ve got an older Fllo or have the chance to get one for significantly cheaper, you can save your money and skip the upgrade. With that out of the way, I picked up a  Fllo from Amazon and put it to work to make sure it was still a seat worth recommending. It is.

Before buying it, keep in mind that the market for convertibles that will allow you to rear-face until 50 pounds has grown by leaps and bounds in the US in recent years. There’s the original Clek Fllo, the Clek Foonf, the Diono Rainier, the (now discontinued) Diono Pacifica, the Graco Extend2Fit, the Graco 4Ever Extend2Fit, the Nuna Rava, the Safety 1st Advance EX 65 Air+, and now the Safety 1st Grow and Go EX Air–that’s six seats in a country that didn’t have a single seat 5 years ago. We’ve come a long way in the US in car seat safety, although we still have a ways to go in education–most parents are still turning kids forward-facing between 1 and 2.

Let’s take a closer look at what makes the new Clek Fllo Convertible Car Seat worth considering over the other sevearl options for 50-pound rear-facing.

Clek Fllo – Fast Facts and Feature Updates

The 2018 Clek Fllo is a refresh of the Clek Fllo, which I reviewed earlier and loved. The Fllo itself was a redesign of the Foonf with the goal of making it lighter and cheaper, and it was a huge success. The Fllo refresh includes 4 basic changes:

First, the rear-facing seat belt lock off has been redesigned. The lock off is now easier to close and is designed to stay closed when you remove the seat cushions. You can also retrofit the seat belt lock off to older seats. Second, the forward-facing lock off was also redesigned to feature a thicker rubber bumper. Third, the harness pads at the shoulder have been lengthened and designed to include a snap button to open and close them. Fourth, the car seat cover was redesigned to feature better stitching and thicker foam.

None of these changes significantly affect the functionality of the seat; you still have the 50 pound rear-facing and 65 pound forward-facing weight limits, and you still can’t use it with infants unless you also buy the Infant-Thingy infant insert. More broadly, it’s still a convertible car seat, which means you can use it in two configurations: as a rear-facing infant seat and as a forward-facing seat. It’s still a great car seat; it’s just not that different from the older model.

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Clek Fllo – Weight and Height Limits

Rear-facing: 14-50 pounds with a 25-43″ height limit. Your child needs to be able to sit upright without help, which most infants won’t be able to do before 6 months. Your child’s head needs to remain below 1″ from the top of the headrest.

Remember that using the Clek Infant-thingy infant insert reduces the rear-facing weight limit to 5 pounds and overrides the need for your infant to be able to sit upright without assistance. Your child does need to be at least 19″ long.

Like the old Fllo, the new Fllo remains one of the best seats for making sure kids actually reach the useful limits of the seat, as it measures around 26.5″ in shell height when the headrest is extended to its fullest position.

Most seats top out at 23″ or 24″ in shoulder height, which means a lot of children will outgrow them by weight before doing so by height. The greater shell height gives your kids more time in the seat before outgrowing it by weight.

Forward-facing: 22-65 pounds, and 30-49″ in height. Your child should be at least 1, and it’s recommended that s/he is at least 2. Of course, research into car safety indicates children should remain rear-facing for as long as possible (the average is 4 years in Sweden, which posts the lowest child fatality rate on Earth), and after rear-facing, the child should remain forward-facing as long as possible.

Dimensions and Key Stats for the Clek Fllo

The new Fllo retains the dimensions of the old Fllo. It’s 17″ wide at the widest point (Clek claims 16.9″, but I measure 17″), 13″ wide at the base, and weighs 25 pounds. It weighs 3 pounds more if you use the Anti-Rebound bar. The harness slots range from 8″ at the lowest setting to 17″ at the highest, and the seat ranges from 23.5″-27″ in height when rear-facing, depending on the height of the headrest. When forward facing, the seat ranges from 26″-31.” The seat takes up between 29″ and 32.5″ front to back when rear-facing, depending on whether or not you use the Anti-Rebound Bar, and is 24″ long when forward-facing. You can see how it ranks compared to other seats in front-to-back space through this comparison guide.

Using and Installing the Clek Fllo

The new Fllo looks and feels pretty much like the old Fllo out of the box, and if you’ve seen the old one, you’ll be pretty familiar with how the new one works. It’s a futuristic, fighter jet pilot-looking seat, and it comes with a new range of colors and patterns–9 in total, including the psychedelic Tokidoki space. As a mild-mannered car crash detective, I opted for Capri, which is basically a sky blue.

There isn’t much of anything to put together with the seat; just remember that you need to use the steel anti-rebound bar while you’re rear-facing, and that you’ll only use the tether while forward-facing. Installation is pretty straightforward with LATCH and takes a little longer with the seat belt. As with most seats, I prefer using the LATCH anchors when I don’t need to worry about room (e.g., when it’s the only car seat in a row), and I use seat belts exclusively whenever attempting 3 across installations, because it makes a lot of installations that wouldn’t be possible any other way…possible. Check out the 3 across car seat guide to see what will work in your vehicle.

Install the Fllo with Seat Belts or LATCH (they’re equally safe)

Remember that seat belts are as safe as LATCH, and that most vehicles don’t allow you to use LATCH beyond when a child weighs around 40 pounds, which means that if you plan to rear-face until your child hits the full weight limit, you’ll either need to switch to seat belts during your rear-facing years or just start out using seat belts from the beginning. I don’t like messing with seats once they’re installed, so if you’re going to buy this seat for its rear-facing abilities, which is the primary reason to buy this seat, as far as I’m concerned, I’d just start out with a good seat belt installation and call it a day.

As with the old Fllo, airplane installation is pretty straightforward on the new Fllo. Keep in mind that it’s not likely to fit in the X-ray systems at most terminals, so you’ll want to leave a bit of extra time for being screened manually. Similarly, in most smaller and mid-sized jets, you aren’t going to get it to fit in the aisles, so you’ll need to be prepared to hoist it above them. However, the Fllo will fit the actual airplane seat well. Don’t even bother trying to fit it in the storage compartments above; that’s just an exercise in frustration unless you’re in first class. And remember that it’s a good idea to bring your car seats onboard if at all possible instead of checking them in with baggage; you don’t want your seat to go through additional crash testing when being flung across the tarmac by an overworked baggage handler.

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Why Buy the Clek Fllo?

The most important part of a car seat review, in my experience, has to do with whether or not the seat is worth buying based on my needs. My goals are extended rear-facing, extended harnessing, and boostering until the 5-step test is reached. The new Fllo is not the best seat for you if you’re looking for the cheapest car seat on the market, or even the cheapest 50-pound rear-facing seat on the market; the Extend2Fit, Pacifica, Rainier, and Safety 1st seats are all cheaper than the Cleks. It is the best seat for you if you’re looking for a 50-pound-capable seat that’s narrow enough to fit virtually any car, SUV, minivan, or pickup truck on the market, and don’t want to spend additional money on the Foonf. There are only a handful of seats 17″ wide on the market regardless of rear-facing capabilities, and there are exactly two that will allow you to rear-face until 50 pounds–the Fllo and the Foonf. If money matters, the Fllo is cheaper.

Skip the Fllo if you already have the Foonf

The new Fllo is not the best seat for you if you already have the old Fllo, or even the Foonf; the seats are too similar to justify spending another few hundred dollars on the new Fllo. It is the best seat for you if you don’t already have those seats and are interested in the additional technologies present in the Fllo that just aren’t in any other seats in its class right now. I’m talking about the Energy-Absorbing Crumple Technology, or EACT safety system, which Clek stated helps reduce the forces your child experiences in frontal collisions. I’m also talking about the metal substructures within the seat and foam on the sides of the seat to maintain its integrity and reduce forces in side impacts. There’s the anti-rebound bar that helps stabilize the seat by reducing tensional forces. It’s a well-designed seat with various nods to safety on the inside and out. And if it matters to you (I’ll admit that it matters to me when buying a seat I’ll be looking at for several years to come in the rear view mirror), it also comes in some pretty nice colors.

Get the Fllo if you want one of the best new options for extended rear-facing

In conclusion, just as I wouldn’t call the old Fllo the best car seat ever, I’m not going to say the new Fllo is the best car seat in the history of car seats, as there isn’t one seat that does everything perfectly. Once again, I wish you could RF younger infants with the Fllo out of the box instead of having to pick up the Infant-Thingy insert. I also would like a higher forward-facing weight limit; if you use it to rear-face to the limits, your child will probably outgrow it as a forward-facing seat within a couple of years of being turned forward. However, for what it does–provide nearly-unparalleled RF abilities by weight–it has very few equals (namely, the Clek Foonf, the Diono Rainier, the Graco Extend2Fit, the Graco Extend2Fit 3-in-1, the Graco 4Ever Extend2Fit, the Nuna Rava, the Safety 1st Advance EX 65 Air+, and the Safety 1st Grow and Go EX Air). And it’s lighter than the Foonf while being easier to fit in smaller vehicles (or in 3 across configurations) than the Rainier, Pacifica, Extend2Fit, or Safety 1st seats. In that sense, it has no equals.

Just like the old Fllo, the new Clek Fllo is an amazingly safe seat that can be fit in just about any vehicle while reassuring you as a parent that you have literally done everything possible to transport your child safely. I recommend it wholeheartedly. You can buy the Clek Fllo in a range of colors here. Canadians can buy the Fllo here.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can  shop here for Canadian purchases. Have a question or want to discuss best practices? Join us in the forums!