Britax has been releasing capable and highly developed car seats and strollers over a number of years, and I’ve been happy to either use or review many of them, such as the Advocate ClickTight, Marathon ClickTight, Boulevard Clicktight, Frontier ClickTight, Pinnacle ClickTight, Pioneer, Parkway SGL, and B-Safe. None of these seats have disappointed me, and I’ve also been a happy patron of their B-Agile Double Stroller.
When Britax let me know that the B-Safe 35 was on the way and would soon be available on Amazon, I was eager to put it through its paces, especially having just taken a look at the B-Safe 35 Elite, its high end twin. In short, I think it’s a great seat, even if it doesn’t have all of the features of the Elite. For details, read on!
2018 update: There have been no significant changes to the B-Safe 35 in the last couple of years with respect to its height and weight limits, although fabric options have changed slightly.
Britax B-Safe 35 – What’s the big deal?
As I noted in the Britax B-Safe 35 Elite review, Britax released refreshes to their long-running B-Safe infant seat, splitting it into two tracks: the regular Britax B-Safe 35, which has an upgraded 35 pound rear-facing weight limit and a number of additional safety features thrown in, and the Elite, which has even more safety features built in on top of the 35 pound weight limit. The safety features are designed to offer greater side impact protection while making the seat easier to install and use. We’ll take a closer look at them in a moment.
In terms of categorization, the Britax B-Safe 35 is an infant seat, which means it can only be used in a rear-facing configuration, and that you’ll need another seat when you’re ready to forward-face, such as a convertible or combination seat. However, the B-Safe 35 can be used directly from the hospital to carry your baby home as soon as s/he’s born, and will be a lot lighter and easier to use than even the lightest convertible seats. Overall, it’s a fitting alternative to the perennially popular Chicco KeyFit 30 infant seat.
Britax B-Safe 35 Limits for Weight and Height
Rear-facing: 4 to 35 pounds. Children should be 32″ tall or less, and the usual 1″ height limit relative to the top of the seat shell applies, in that children’s heads can’t be within 1″ of the top of the seat. The seated shoulder height of the child can range between 6.5″ and 11″. Children must be at least 1 to forward-face, but this is far too early, in my opinion. Personally, I recommend children should remain rear-facing at least until 4, which is also known as extended rear-facing. The Swedes don’t forward-face until then, which is a big part of why they lose almost no young children each year to motor vehicle collisions.
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Dimensions of the Britax B-Safe 35
The B-Safe 35 is 17.75″ wide, 25″ high, and 26.5″ tall. The seat itself weighs 10 pounds while the base weighs an additional 9 pounds when used. The shoulder width is 10″ and the seat back compartment height is 20.” The seat area itself is 13″ long and 8.75″ wide. There are 4 harness slot heights at 5″, 7″, 9″, and 11″, while there are two buckle straps at 4″ and 6″ in depth. The width of 17.75″ means that you’re going to have an easy time installing it in just about any SUV, truck, or car with 2 other car seats. For information about which kinds of seats are likely to work with the B-Safe, check out the 3 across car seat guide here.
Using the Britax B-Safe 35
Installation
Out of the box, I like the look of the Britax B-Safe 35. It’s made of plastic and steel, with a steel-reinforced substructure and plastic throughout most of the shell, along with the fabrics for the canopy. You can achieve a good installation through either LATCH anchors or through the seat belt. Something I like about the B-Safe 35 is the SafeCenter LATCH Installation system, which is Britax’s name for some center-pull straps in the base that you simply tighten in order to tighten the LATCH anchors. It works smoothly and takes the hassle out of an infant seat installation, so I’m a fan of it.
However, I’m always a fan of a basic seat belt installation, particularly when dealing with 3 across installations or with older vehicles that might not have LATCH anchors. Thanks to the seat belt lock offs, you can get a good tight installation without much effort. That said, when it comes to infant seats I prefer LATCH setups if you can get away with them because you simply LATCH the base and then connect and disconnect the infant seat as needed.
Base, Harness, and Fit
The B-Safe 35 base is solid and comes with a number of safety indicators. It is also compatible with the B-Safe 35 Elite. You can buy as many extra bases as you have additional vehicles in order to be able to seamlessly transfer your B-Safe 35 from one vehicle to the next without having to deal with a baseless seat belt installation, which is awkward and likely to wake a baby. You get a spring-based recline foot and two ball level indicators, one on each side, to ensure you find the proper level of recline for your infant. The base installation process was smooth and the car seat attaches and detaches smoothly from the base.
The B-Safe 35 harness is not as complex as that in the B-Safe 35 Elite. There are 4 harness positions rather than 6, and they are located at 5″, 7″, 9″, and 11″ at the highest harness height. It also does not have a no-rethread harness, even though it does have a nice easy-release harness button to make loosening the harness straps an easier affair. I’m a big fan of no-rethread harnesses since they make the process of harness adjustment so much less of a hassle than it otherwise can be, but Britax would naturally want you to upgrade to the B-Safe 35 Elite to get that feature. Fair enough. The harness isn’t that bad to rethread anyway. Always remember, of course, that you’ll need the harness straps to be below or at your child’s shoulders while rear-facing, which is the only position you can have for an infant seat.
In terms of fit, the B-Safe 35 is designed to fit newborns and preemies since it’s rated to a lower weight limit of 4 pounds, and I was happy to find that it fit my premature 5 pound doll as well a full term 8 pound doll. Since we’re never quite sure how big or small our infants are going to be until they’re born, it’s a very good thing to know that a car seat will fit most infant sizes before you actually need to try it.
B-Safe 35 Safety Features
Safety-wise, I like that Britax focuses on side-impact protection in the B-Safe 35, even if they don’t to the same extent as they do with the B-Safe 35 Elite. The base in both seats is the same Impact Absorbing Base, which is designed to compress so some amount of crash energy is absorbed before reaching your child. Britax also includes a steel frame that’s designed to stabilize impacts and a strong protective shell that’s also meant to protect your child from life-threatening forces in a collision.
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Why Buy the Britax B-Safe 35?
The Britax B-Safe 35 is worth buying for several reasons. The first, for me, is that it offers a significant boot in rear-facing ability than its predecessor simply due to the higher weight limit. As with the B-Safe 35 Elite, I’d have been even happier if Britax had increased the height limits along with the weight limits, but at least they’re aware of the benefits of increasing some of the limits, and perhaps a height limit boost is not far away.
The important thing to keep in mind when you’re dealing with car seats for children under 4 or 5 is that you want to rear-face as long as you possibly can. This simply means that you shouldn’t stop with the B-Safe 35 when your child outgrows it. Thirty five pounds is nice, but it’s not going to get your child up to age 4, and I personally believe we should be aiming that far when it comes to rear-facing. If you’re aiming that far, then you’ll want to look toward seats like the Advocate ClickTight, Marathon ClickTight, or Boulevard Clicktight. if you’re interested in keeping your car seat selections within the Britax line. On the other hand, if you’re willing to try other companies, there are car seats out there that will let you rear-face up to even 50 pounds, which are, in my opinion, the safest seats currently available for young children.
Besides the ability to rear-face longer, I also like the side impact technology built into the B-Safe 35, even if it isn’t quite as much as that built into the Elite. I’m also a fan of the fabrics and the ergonomics of the seat and the fact that it has stroller compatibility with a range of Britax strollers, such as the B-Agile Double. I’m also a fan of its local manufacture in the United States and the fact that you’re good to use it on an airplane due to its FAA aircraft approval.
I’m a fan of the Britax B-Safe 35, and you can buy it here in Black, Red, and Sandstone.
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!