Phil and Teds is a company that has been making a number of high end strollers like the Navigator and Classic for years. However, it wasn’t until recently that they joined the car seat business, and brought out an infant seat that’s designed to work with nearly every single stroller they’ve put out. When a friend of mine who writes a ton of double stroller reviews picked one up and offered me the chance to review the Phil and Teds Alpha, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. You can buy the Phil and Teds Alpha infant car seat from Amazon here, as he did.

2015 Phil and Teds Alpha – What’s the big deal?

The Phil and Teds Alpha is a rear-facing only seat, or infant seat, much like the UPPAbaby MESA or Peg Perego Primo Viaggio 4-35 or Cybex Aton 2, my favorite infant seats. It offers a number of standard features common to most infant car seats, such as the ability to be used directly from the hospital and installed with or without a base in multiple vehicles. If you’re looking for a seat that can face forward as well as backward, you’ll want a convertible seat, such as one of these I recommend here.

However, where it stands out from the competition is in its unparalleled compatibility with a range of high end single and double strollers offered by Phil and Teds, a company that’s gained a reputation among parents of multiple kids for their easy-riding and stylish strollers. How does it stand up in terms of safety and usability as a car seat? That was what I set out to find out in my review.

Buy the Phil and Teds Alpha on Sale at Amazon here.

Phil and Teds Alpha Limits for Weight and Height

Rear-facing: 4-35 pounds. Children can be up to 32″ tall, and their heads must not extend within 1″ of the top of the Alpha’s shell. I measure the height of the shell at 19.5.” Children must rear-face for at least one year. Of course, we’re going to aim for at least 4 years as readers of The Car Crash Detective, as the longer we rear-face, the better. The Swedes are the authority in extended rear-facing, and as a result, they have the lowest rates of child fatalities in auto collisions.

Dimensions of the Phil and Teds Alpha

The Alpha is the lightest rear-facing car seat I have ever reviewed at a mere 8.3 pounds. It’s so light you’ll want to use it to haul groceries! Well, maybe you won’t go that far. But it’s definitely a light seat. It has a 6 year product life and a range of harness positions that start at 5.5.”

Using the Phil and Teds Alpha

Base Installation

The Phil and Teds Alpha is an easy car seat to install whether or not the base is used. When the base is used, a LATCH install is rather straightforward, and the seat belt installation is even easier. A blue lock-off is included to make seat belt and LATCH installations a fool-proof process, and ensures that installations are nice and tight.

A ball level is included in the base that helps you make sure you’ve got a good recline for your child’s eight. There are 3 areas in the level, but only 2 are usable. The blue level is for children between 4 and 20 pounds, the grey area is for children between 20 and 35 pounds, and the red area shows a poor recline that cannot be used.

To ensure a good recline is present, a recline foot is included in the base that can be adjusted up or down. If you can’t achieve a good recline with the foot, you can use a tightly-rolled towel at the intersection of the top and bottom parts of the vehicle seat while retaining the recline foot in the retracted position.

Something I found odd about the base is that to release it, you need to press a button (a red one) on the base instead of on the seat itself. The good about this is that it makes the seat itself lighter when you’re using it separately from the base. The bad about it is that you need two hands to release the seat.

Baseless Installation

A baseless installation is also quite straightforward. Thanks to a clip behind the seat, you can even engage in European belt routing, which is still quite rare in rear-facing car seats in the United States. Essentially, Euro routing allows you to get a good solid seat belt installation even when you don’t have the base present. The base, of course, is detachable, and you can buy extra bases to install in as many vehicles as you’d like. I prefer convertible seats, but when I use infant seats, I always buy as many bases as I have cars in which I expect to use the seat, as it’s so much faster to use a base with an infant seat than it is to attempt a baseless installation over and over again.

Fit to children

One of the best features of the Alpha is the wide range of children it will fit. A premature infant pillow and newborn liner are included to help with fits on the lower end. You need to use the preemie pillow if you have a newborn who weighs below 6 pounds.

Additionally, to help fit, there are a pair of loops in the harness; longer and shorter loops. The longer loops are designed to fit larger children while the smaller loops work well with smaller children. You also get a pair of hip harness slots; there’s an inner slot and an outer slot. You use the inner slots if children weigh fewer than 12 pounds and the outer slots if children weigh more than 12 pounds. Small infants will fit much better this way.

I tried the seat with 4 and 7 pound dolls, and both fit well. My test 8 month infant also fit well, although she was getting close to outgrowing the seat at 27.”

Buy the Phil and Teds Alpha on Sale at Amazon here.

Why Buy the Phil and Teds Alpha?

When it comes to infant seats, I see their primary function as providing a comfortable and convenient way for parents to transport newborns and young infants when on the go. Infant seats like the Phil and Teds Alpha aren’t designed for extended rear-facing; for that, you’ll want one of the convertibles I recommend here, as you’ll want to keep rear-facing as long as possible for the safety of your child.

A seat like the Alpha that weighs next to nothing is a great seat because it makes carrying heavy infants a much easier affair. It’s also a good infant seat because it’s nearly guaranteed to fit newborns of all sizes (at least down to 4 pounds), and it’s easy to install and uninstall. I’m also a fan of its compatibility with a wide range of Phil and Teds strollers. Downsides to the Alpha include the fact that you need to keep the carry handle in the upright position when the seat is in use, which looks a bit odd, and the fact that you only get two recline positions to choose from. I recommend the Phil and Teds Alpha heartily, and you can buy the Alpha here in Flint/Red. Unfortunately, it’s not yet 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.

Recaro has been making a number of quality car seats for adults for years, and have also shown a commitment toward bringing their technology o the field of child car seat safety. I recently took a look at one of their newest offerings with my review of the Recaro Performance Coupe infant seat, and liked it so much that I had to find another one of their seats. It arrived from Amazon a couple of days later, and I’ve spent the last week getting to know the seat. My thoughts? It’s a pretty good one.

2017 update: The Recaro ProRIDE remains unchanged, aside from a few fabric tweaks. The rear-and forward-facing height and weight limits are the same.

Recaro ProRIDE – What’s the big deal?

The Recaro ProRIDE makes use of a number of racing technologies that Recaro has been using for years in their adult racing car seats, but the most significant of these for me are those that have to do with side impact protection. Side impact collisions are the most likely to be deadly out of front, side, and rear collisions, and technology that helps keep children safer in such collisions is technology I want in my car seats.

The Recaro ProRIDE is a convertible seat, which means that it can be used both rear-facing and forward-facing, which is a fancy way of saying it’s a seat you can take with you to the hospital when your baby is due and keep him or her safe in it until he or she is ready to start elementary school. This, in a nutshell, is one of the reasons why I prefer convertible car seats to infant seats if you can afford to choose between the two. They last longer, which makes them easier on the wallet for parents.

Buy the Recaro ProRIDE on Sale with Free Shipping at Amazon here.

Recaro ProRIDE Limits for Weight and Height

Rear-facing: 5 to 40 pounds. Children must be below 49″ tall and their heads must not be within 1″ of the top of the Recaro’s car seat shell in order to remain rear-facing. In the interests of best practices, you’ll want to keep your child rear-facing until he or she doesn’t fit the seat anymore in that configuration by height or by weight, as it’s the safest position in a collision. The internal shell height is 22.5″, which increases the odds of children actually making it to the 40 pound weight limit rear-facing. However, it’s not nearly as generous as the shell height in the NextFit or Head Wise 70.

Forward-facing: 20 to 65 pounds. Children must be under 49″ tall. Best practices indicates children should not be turned forward-facing until absolutely necessary as defined by the seat’s height and weight limits, so don’t mind the lower 20 pound range for forward-facing; focus on getting as close as you can to the 40 pound RF limit and then forward-facing until your child won’t fit in the seat any longer.

Dimensions of the Recaro ProRIDE

The ProRIDE is 19 inches wide, 11 inches deep, and between 27 and 29 inches high, depending on the extent to which the head restraint has been extended. Its relatively narrow width means that fitting a 3 across installation shouldn’t take too much work, although it’s not going to be as easy of a seat as a convertible like a Fllo, of course. The harness positions range from 10″ when the infant insert is used up to the highest position of 18.”

Using the Recaro ProRIDE

The ProRIDE is a solid-looking and solid-feeling seat when used. The installation is easy with both a LATCH and a seat belt installation, even though it’s important to note that you’ll have an easier time achieving a 3 across installation if you use the seat belt than if you use the LATCH setup. You also won’t have to deal with a LATCH weight limit if you choose a seat belt installation. That said, the LATCH system is easy to use and has a push-button adjustment system.

There are a range of features I’m a fan of in the ProRIDE, including the presence of its extensive side impact protection system. Recaro states the system has been tested to meet standards overseas, including protection for the 5 most vulnerable areas of the body in a side collision: the head, the pelvis, the neck, the torso, and the face. EPS foam is generously used throughout the seat to reduce the amount of forces children experience in collisions.

Additionally, I always love no-rethread harnesses when they’re present, and the ProRIDE includes one along with a head restraint that is designed to be easily adjustable and a Safety Stripe system. The system is designed to keep parents informed about potential harness twists in order to reduce the risks of safety hazards related to the harness. To adjust the harness, you simply turn a knob. That’s it!

The fabric present in the ProRIDE is designed to vent air easily to reduce sweating and increase breathability for children, which also results in an increase in comfort for our little travelers. The harness system is also padded and PUR foam is used in the head restraint. The mesh fabric is easily washable and comes in several different colors.

When rear-facing, the ProRIDE has a lower weight  limit of 5 pounds. Unfortunately, it’s not practical to try to fit a 5, 7, or even 7 pound newborn in the ProRIDE even with the infant insert, simply because of the height of the harness straps. Remember that the straps need to be below or at the shoulders of a rear-facing child, and that’s not practical with most newborns in the ProRIDE unless they’re larger.

When it comes to older children, the ProRIDE works much better. However, there isn’t as much room as I’d like to see in the legs for rear-facing children. They’ll be perfectly safe, but it can make things a bit less comfortable for larger children, and a bit more tricky for parents to buckle in and unload their children.

Buy the Recaro ProRIDE on Sale with Free Shipping at Amazon here.

Why Buy the Recaro ProRIDE?

Personally, I’d buy the ProRIDE because it allows you to rear-face children for a number of years. Ideally, you’ll want to max out the seat by rear-facing until 40 pounds or as close to it as possible, since every year you can rear-face significantly increases your child’s safety. The biggest cons of the ProRIDE are the higher harness straps that make it hard to fit newborns in the seat and the limited leg room when rear-facing. I’d also personally like to see higher rear-facing weight and height limits, as there are many seats that can do better today. That said, the seat is constructed extremely solidly and offers some of the most tested side impact protection you can buy today. I’m also a fan of the no-rethread harness and additional safety systems built into the seat for parents.

I recommend the Recaro ProRIDE. You can buy it here in Aspen, Blaze, Blue Opal, Misty, Sable, and Riley.

Unfortunately, it’s not yet available in Canada, but Canadians can buy a similar seat, the Boulevard ClickTight, 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.