After reviewing hundreds of car seats throughout the history of the Car Crash Detective, I’ve only ever recommended a few of them–the ones that come closest to following best practices. Fortunately, the Diono Radian 3RX, which you can buy here, is worthy of the list, at least if you buy it for rear-facing. If you’ve got the time to read much more, we’re going to talk about what makes it worth buying. However, as always, let’s start by reviewing what to do and what not to do when car seats are involved.

What are best practices for keeping kids safe through car seats?

To keep kids safe when transporting them in car seats, your best bet is to follow best practices. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of misinformation out there about what best practices actually are, and even when they’re known, most parents don’t follow them. Here’s the Swedish approach, which comes from the country with the best record in child road safety for several decades on at this point: rear-face until your child is at least 4 or 5, and then keep her in a booster until she’s 10 to 12, which is typically when she’ll pass the 5-step test. After that, keep her in the back seat until she’s at least 13. Nothing else really matters. You don’t forward-face at 1 or 2 or any such silliness. You don’t let your child talk you into her sitting in the front seat in elementary school. You don’t put her in a seat belt simply because your mother-in-law keeps telling you to do so. You rear-face until 5. You booster until 12. You sit her in the back until she’s a teenager. And then you focus on driving safely, choosing safe roads, and using a safe vehicle, since you’ve done all you can–and all you need to–from the car seat standpoint.

With all that out of the way, how does the Diono Radian 3RX measure up? The Diono (formerly Sunshine Kids) family has grown over the years, and the Radian R120 was recently replaced by the 3RX, much as the RXT was succeeded by the 3RXT. Does the seat have a place at the table of best practices? Yes! At least when it comes to rear-facing; it’s not a good choice for boostering. Functionally, it’s the same seat as the R120 but with different prints, a new name, and a few improvements in features. We’ll take a closer look at it below from the perspective of a parent interested in best practices as modeled in Sweden.

How long will you be able to rear-face through the Diono Radian 3RX, per weight, height, and growth charts?

You can rear-face a child in the Radian 3RX from 5 to 45 pounds (20 kilograms). Your child must be 44 inches or fewer in height and her head can’t come within fewer than 1.5 inches of the top of the Radian’s shell. These are the limits on paper, but what do things look like in the real world?

First let’s take a look at weight. Practically speaking, a 45 pound weight limit means a girl who’s in the 90th percentile by weight will fit in the 3RX until she’s 4:6 (4 years, 6 months old). At the 50th percentile, a girl will make it to 6:3. And a 10th percentile girl will be able to rear-face until she’s 7:9! This is one area in life where being small pays off. Similarly, a 90th percentile boy by weight will have access to the 3RX until he’s 4:6. The usable range rises to 5:9 for a 50th percentile boy by weight and soars to 7:6 for a 10th percentile boy by weight.

The 44 inch height limit is more restrictive. Our 90th percentile girl no longer fits the 3RX when she’s 4:9. Her 50th percentile sister outgrows it at 5:6, while their 10th percentile cousin can continue to rear-face until she’s 6:6. Among the boys, our 90th percentile boy lasts until 4:9, his 50th percentile brother makes it to 5:6 before outgrowing the 3RX by height, and their 10th percentile cousin can keep going until he’s 6:6.

My child’s at the 50th percentile for height and weight. How long will she last rear-facing in the Diono Radian 3RX?

Remember that car seats are outgrown by whichever limit (height or weight) the child reaches first. In the 3RX, as in most car seats, height is the bottleneck when rear-facing. For exceptionally heavy children, you’ll run out of weight before you run out of height, but for typically-sized and smaller children, you’ll need to stop rear-facing due to reaching the height limit long before you would for the weight limit. And practically speaking, you can expect to rear-face a perfectly average girl or boy (one at the 50th percentile for height and weight) for 5 years and 6 months.

What about boostering? How long can you use a Diono Radian 3RX to booster, per weight, height, and growth charts?

I won’t spend much time discussing forward-facing lifespans for the 3RX because a.) rear-facing is safer than forward-facing, and we now know that most children will be able to rear-face in the 3RX until they turn 5, and b.) parents in Sweden are recommended to move directly from rear-facing at 5 to boostering.  For the sake of completion, however, you can forward-face your child until she reaches 65 pounds or 57 inches, and the top harness height is 16.25 inches. Now let’s take a look at how long, in real-world terms, the 3RX will work as a high-back booster.

On paper, you can use the Radian 3RX in booster mode between 50 and 120 pounds. Your child’s shoulders need to reach the 4th harness strap slot to start boostering and the top height of the belt guide for the shoulder belt is 17 inches. Because there aren’t any headrest wings (such as those found on the 3RXT and RXT), you can use the 3RX as a booster for longer than its more expensive Diono sibling.

If you simply look at weight-based growth charts, you’d get the impression that the 3RX could be your only car seat. A 90th percentile girl would make it to 11:9, a 50th percentile girl would make it to 16:9, and a 10th percentile girl would make well into adulthood. Similarly, a 90th percentile boy would make it to 12:3, a 50th percentile boy would make it to 14:6, and a 10th percentile boy would make it to 19. This sounds wonderful! But there’s a catch.

Much as with the Radian 3RXT, Diono doesn’t directly share the height limit for the 3RX. The shoulder belt guide is much higher than the top harness height at 22 inches, and it’s fixed. Because the forward-facing limit is 57 inches, this suggests 57 inches is the effective height limit. With this assumed limit, a 90th percentile girl by height would theoretically make it to 9:9, a 50th percentile girl would make it to 11:3, and a 10th percentile girl would make it to 12:6.  Similarly, a 90th percentile boy by height would make it to 9:5, a 50th percentile boy would make it to 11:3, and a 10th percentile boy would make it to 12:9.

At this point, things still look good. The problem, though, is that there’s no way for a child to get anywhere close to 57 inches in height without dramatically outgrowing the seat itself. Diono doesn’t have a problem with this as long as there’s a good belt fit, but I don’t recommend putting a child in a car seat where the tops of her ears extend past the headrest of her seat, as this suggests a lack of head and neck protection from a whiplash perspective. Practically speaking, most kids won’t get past 52 inches before they start outgrowing the seat by height, even though they may well continue to fit the belt path and weight limits.

How long can my 50th percentile (height, weight) child use the Diono Radian 3RX as a booster seat?

As when rear-facing, what will limit your booster use of the Radian 3RX in most cases isn’t your child’s weight, but her height. Using 52 inches and 120 pounds as real world limits for height and weight, you can expect a perfectly average girl and boy (50th percentile height and weight) to outgrow the Radian 3RX in booster mode by 8 years and 9 months.

How user-friendly is the Diono Radian 3RX in daily life, in terms of lifespan, 3-across installations, LATCH and seat belts, and dimensions?

As noted above, the Radian 3RX is essentially an updated take on the Radian R120 I reviewed years ago. As a result, just about everything that applied to the R120 also applies to the 3RX, including how it works on a day-to-day basis. The seat will last you 10 years from the day it was manufactured and is still among the absolute best options when it comes to 3 across car seat installations in the United States. With 3 Radian 3RXs, you can make 3 across setups work in virtually any car you can buy in the United States that uses 3 seats and 3 sets of seat belts. The only vehicles that are consistently unlikely to work are those that use overlapping seat belts in the center seat position, and these vehicles can’t actually carry 3 passengers in the back at the same time, making them, for all intents and purposes, 4-occupant vehicles. Fortunately, you’ll be able to use the 3RX with just about everything else.

The Radian 3RX weighs just under 24 pounds and is 16.5 inches side to side, with the child’s shoulders measuring widest. When rear-facing, you’ll need to abide by a lower LATCH limit of 35 pounds; this limit increases to 40 pounds when forward-facing. I recommend going ahead and installing it with seat belts from the start, as they’re just as safe as LATCH setups without the hassle of needing to mind the 35 and 40 pound limits. You will, of course, still need to mind your child’s weight so you can flip to forward-facing or boostering once your child reaches 45 pounds (or the height limits, which, as discussed above, will almost certainly be reached first). As with other members of the Radian family, you have air travel approval to use it on airplanes and you can also fold it up into a backpack shape for travel. Diono touts its internal steel frame, but while that’s nice to see in cutout diagrams, remember that all that matters is how long a seat is rated for rear-facing by weight and height, regardless of how much or little steel it takes to get there. You can buy it in a range of colors, including the pink I profiled in this review, as well as in light grey, in blue, in red, in pink blossom, in black jet,  in red cherry,  and in blue sky. Each fabric is machine-washable.

While the seat can be easily installed through LATCH or seat belts, it’s important to note that due to the steep recline inherent in the Radian line, you might not be able to fit every newborn safely. If you have a premature or small (6 pounds) infant, you’ll want to consider starting with a dedicated infant seat. To decide, see if your baby slumps forward when you have her installed in the seat. If her head tilts forward significantly (i.e., in a way that could impact her breathing), she isn’t large enough for the seat or lacks the head control to sit in it safely, and you’ll need to try again in a few days or weeks but use a different seat (e.g., the Chicco KeyFit or any other infant seat) in the mean time. Remember that when rear-facing, the top harness straps must either go at or below your child’s shoulders.

Compared to the best Swedish Car Seats, how does the Diono Radian 3RX fare for safety-conscious parents?

Compared to the best Swedish seats for rear-facing, what sets them apart from the Radian 3RX are weight limits. Yes, there are a few other slight differences, including load legs, but the main real-world difference between the Radian 3RX and a car seat you might buy in Sweden or elsewhere in the European Union is how long you can use it to rear-face. The best Swedish seats will rear-face until 55 pounds, which is 10 pounds more than you’ll get from this Radian. However, keep in mind that the Swedish government recommends rear-facing until 5, and with the Radian 3RX, you can rear-face a typical child (one who hits the 50th percentile for weight and height) until she’s 5 and a half years old. If you’ve got a 90th percentile child by height or weight, you’ll be able to rear-face her until at least 4 years and 6 months, which is still exceptional when you keep in mind that most parents in the United States don’t rear-face past one. To put it bluntly, if you want to do as the Swedes and follow best practices when rear-facing, the 3RX is a perfectly fine seat.

The issue arises for boostering. Per the Swedes, you want to booster your child until she passes the 5-step test, which most children typically won’t until they’re between 10 and 12. Because the real-world limits of the 3RX are at around 8 years and 9 months for 50th percentile children, you’re simply not going to get most kids to the point where they no longer need booster seats. As a result, despite the 10 year lifespan, you’re not going to be able to get away with only buying the Radian 3RX as your child’s only car seat. You’re going to need a booster, and you’ll probably need it for another 2-4 years. I’m a fan of the Clek Oobr, but there are several choices on the market. What’s important is that you buy one that gives your child the usable height necessary for her to reach an age where she can pass the 5-step test. Pretty much any booster seat will give you the weight you need; the bottleneck is almost always the room to grow vertically for the child. Personally, I’d recommend simply using the Radian to rear-face until 5 at a minimum, and continuing to use it to rear-face if you’re lucky enough to get more time out of it until it’s fully outgrown, and then switching to a booster like the Oobr to ride out your child’s remaining years before she’s eligible for a seat belt.

Why buy the Diono Radian 3RX over any other car seat?

Buy the Radian 3RX because it lets you follow Swedish-style best practices and rear-face your child until she turns 5. Buy it because it lets you booster for almost as long as the Radian 3RXT while costing less. Don’t buy it to forward face at 1 or 2; you’re wasting your money and wasting the rear-facing capabilities of the seat. Buy it because you’re interested in fitting 3 of them side by side in any vehicle without worry. Don’t buy it for a seat to use from the day you leave the hospital (or birthing center, or home birth) until the day you put your child in a seat belt, because you won’t get the full 10 years from it. If you’re ready to buy it, when you buy the Radian 3RX (or anything else) through my link here, you help me write more reviews and articles on best practices. You can buy it in a range of colors, including the pink I profiled in this review, as well as in light grey, in blue, in red, in pink blossom, in black jet,  in red cherry,  and in blue sky. Finally, you can buy the Clek Oobr here. Drive safely!

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can buy my books here or do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases.  It costs nothing extra to do so, but when you shop through my links, a small portion of your purchase, regardless of what you buy, will go toward the maintenance of The Car Crash Detective.

I’ve reviewed hundreds of car seats over the last decade of the Car Crash Detective, but in the end, have only ever highlighted a few of them–the ones that keep kids the safest. If you’re in a hurry, I’m happy to say the Diono Radian 3RXT, which you can buy here, is one of them, at least when it comes to rear-facing. If you’ve got more time to read, here’s what makes it a quality seat. Let’s start by reviewing what best practices actually are when car seats are involved.

What’s most important when using a car seat to keep your child safe?

When it comes to keeping kids safe through car seats, the name of the game is best practices. As with many things in life, knowing what they are is half the battle. The other half is following them. To summarize the Swedish approach, there are three things you want to do: rear-face until your child is at least 4 or 5, and then keep her in a booster until she’s 10 to 12, which is typically when she’ll pass the 5-step test. After that, keep her in the back seat until she’s at least 13. Everything else is just noise. You don’t fuss about forward-facing at 1 or 2 or anything ridiculous like that. You don’t negotiate about whether your child can start using seat belts so she doesn’t look different from the other kids at the drop-off line in elementary school. You don’t put her in the front seat just because she tells you all her friends have been there since they were 5, 6, 7, 8, 9…none of that matters. You rear-face until 5. You booster until 12. You keep her in the back until she’s a teenager. And you rest easy knowing you’ve done all you can from the car seat end of things, and you can focus on the broader picture of driving safely, choosing safe roads, and using a safe vehicle.

With all that said, where does a car seat like the Diono Radian 3RXT fit in? Is it a worthy member of the Diono (formerly Sunshine Kids) family and a worthy successor to the Radian RXT? And most importantly, does it fit into best practices? The short answers are yes, yes and yes for rear-facing but no for boostering. Functionally, it’s essentially the same seat as the Radian RXT with a new name and different colors. For the long answers, let’s dig into the details a bit. We’ll take the perspective of a parent interested in best practices as modeled in Sweden.

How long can you rear-face with the Diono Radian 3RXT (weight, height, growth charts)?

You can rear-face from 5 to 45 pounds (20 kilograms) with the Radian 3RXT. Your child’s overall height must be 44 inches or fewer and the top of her head must stay at least 1.5 inches beneath the top of the Radian’s head rest. These are the theoretical limits, but what are the real-world bottlenecks?

Let’s look at weight as a reference first.  In practical use, the 45 pound weight limit means that a 90th percentile girl by weight will be able to use the 3RXT until she’s 4:6 (4 years, 6 months). A 50th percentile girl by weight will make it to approximately 6:3. A 10th percentile girl by weight will be able to rear-face until she’s approximately 7:9! A 90th percentile boy by weight will be able to use the 3RXT until he’ s 4:6, while a 50th percentile boy by weight will fit within the weight range until he’s around 5:9. A 10th percentile boy will make it to 7:6 looking solely at weight.

When using height as the reference, you get less time. Our 90th percentile girl outgrows the 3RXT when she’s 4:9. Our 50th percentile girl outgrows it at 5:6, while our 10th percentile girl by height won’t outgrow it until she’s 6:6 . Our 90th percentile boy outgrows the 3RXT when he reaches 4:9, just like our 90th percentile girl. Our 50th percentile boy makes it a bit past 5:6 before outgrowing the 3RXT by height, and our 10th percentile boy makes it all the way to 6:6.

How long will a 50th percentile height and weight girl or boy last rear-facing in the Diono Radian 3RXT?

Since car seats are outgrown by whichever limit is reached first, we see that when rear-facing with the 3RXT, height is the bottleneck for most children. This, by the way, is almost always the case with car seats. Weight appears to be the bottleneck for exceptionally heavy children, but for typically-sized and smaller children, the 3RXT will be outgrown by height long before it will be outgrown by weight. Practically speaking, the expected rear-facing lifespans of a perfectly average girl and boy (one at the 50th percentiles for both weight and height) are 5 years and 6 months.

How long can you use the Diono Radian 3RXT as a booster (weight, height, growth charts)?

I’m not going to look at forward-facing lifespans for the 3RXT because a.) we’ve already established that most children will be able to use it to rear-face until 5, which is unquestionably the safer position when compared to forward-facing, and b.) parents in Sweden are recommended to move directly from rear-facing at 5 to boostering.  For completion’s sake, however, you can forward-face until your child reaches 65 pounds or 57 inches, and the harness height tops out at 17 inches. With that out of the way, let’s look at how long, practically-speaking, you can use the 3RXT as a high-back booster.

You can use the Radian 3RXT as a booster from 50 to 120 pounds. Your child’s shoulders must at least reach the 4th harness strap slot on the low end, and the belt guide at the shoulder tops out at 17 inches. Practically speaking, the seat is outgrown as a harnessed and booster seat once your child’s shoulders touch the lower portion of the headrest (known in parlance among Diono parents as the “wings” or “ears” of the seat).

When looking at weight as a reference, a 90th percentile girl would make it to 11:9, a 50th percentile girl would make it to 16:9, and a 10th percentile girl would make well into adulthood. Similarly, a 90th percentile boy would make it to 12:3, a 50th percentile boy would make it to 14:6, and a 10th percentile boy would make it to 19.

Diono does not provide a height limit for the Radian 3RXT, but since the belt guide tops out at the same height as the top harness height, 17 inches, and the forward-facing limit is 57 inches, this suggests 57 inches is the effective height limit, ignoring the additional restrictions imposed by the wings. With that in mind, ignoring the wings, a 90th percentile girl by height would theoretically make it to 9:9, a 50th percentile girl would make it to 11:3, and a 10th percentile girl would make it to 12:6.  Similarly, a 90th percentile boy by height would make it to 9:5, a 50th percentile boy would make it to 11:3, and a 10th percentile boy would make it to 12:9.

How long will a 50th percentile height and weight girl or boy be able to use the Diono Radian 3RXT as a booster seat?

Once again, height is the bottleneck. However, with the additional restrictions that come with the wings, most kids simply aren’t going to make it to 57 inches before outgrowing the Radian 3RXT in booster mode, simply because their shoulders will reach the wings before they reach 57 inches. This is the single biggest disadvantage of the 3RXT compared to the 3RX or 3R sister models (which replaced the R120 and R100 respectively). A more realistic limit is probably closer to 53 inches for most children. And if we use 53 inches and 120 pounds as the real world limits for height and weight, then a perfectly average girl and boy (50th percentile height and weight) will outgrow the Radian 3RXT in booster mode by 9 years and 3 months.

How easy is the Diono Radian 3RXT to use on a day-to-day level (lifespan, 3-across friendliness, installation, LATCH, seat belts, dimensions, etc)?

As noted above, the Radian 3RXT is just an updated version of the Radian RXT I reviewed years ago. What this means is that virtually everything that applied to the Radian 3RXT applies to the RXT, including its day-to-day characteristics. The seat has a 10 year lifespan from the date of manufacture and is still one of the absolute 3-across friendliest car seats on the market; you can use 3 Radian 3RXTs to fit 3 across in virtually any car sold in the United States that includes 3 seats and 3 sets of seat belts; the only vehicles I’ve consistently found haven’t worked have been those that require overlapping seat belts with the center seat, and those vehicles, frankly speaking, aren’t designed to carry 3 passengers in the back row at once, making them essentially 4-occupant cars and SUVs. Fortunately, the 3RXT works with everything else.

The seat weighs 24 pounds and is 16.5 inches across at the widest point, which is at the child’s shoulders. There is a lower LATCH weight limit of 35 pounds when rear-facing and 40 pounds when forward-facing; I’d recommend just starting with seat belts, as they’re just as safe and don’t require reinstallations based on vehicle weight limits; you simply need to mind your child’s weight so you know when you need to start forward-facing or boostering. It’s also approved for air travel and folds up nicely to wear as a backpack. It has a steel internal frame, although practically speaking, it doesn’t matter what’s inside a seat as long as it tests well enough to allow you to practice extended rear-facing. It’s also available in 12 different colors, and the fabric is machine-washable.  You can see all the prints here.

The seat is easy enough to install; something to keep in mind, though, is that not every infant will have a safe fit at the newborn phase due to the rather steep recline in the seat. If you have a preemie or a small infant, you’ll want to consider starting off with a dedicated infant seat. The ultimate judge will be whether your baby slumps forward when installed. If her head tilts forward in a way that could cut off her airway, she isn’t old enough for the seat and you’ll want to try again in a few days or weeks but use a different seat (e.g., the Chicco KeyFit or any other infant seat) in the mean time.

How does the Diono Radian 3RXT compare to the best Swedish car seats (e.g., the 55-pounders)?

Compared to the best Swedish seats for rear-facing, the main differences to keep in mind involve the weight limits. There are a few other things, such as load legs and so on, but practically speaking, the lion’s share of the difference between this seat and one you might pick up in Sweden or elsewhere in the European Union is the rear-facing weight limit. At 45 pounds vs 55 pounds, you simply won’t get as much time rear-facing before you’ll need to start boostering. However, as noted above, the Swedish government advocates rear-facing until at least 4-5, and you’ll be able to use the Radian 3RXT to rear-face the average child (50th percentile weight and height) until she’s 5 and a half years old. A 90th percentile child by height or weight will get at least 4 years and 6 months out of the seat, which isn’t sloppy either, considering the fact that most parents in the United States begin to forward-face once their children turn one.  The bottom line is that if you want to practice Swedish-style best practices in rear-facing, you’ll do just fine with the 3RXT.

The bugaboo comes when you want to booster. The Swedes encourage boostering until the 5-step test is passed, which typically isn’t until kids are 10 to 12. Practically speaking, because the Radian 3RXT tops out at 9 years and 3 months for 50th percentile children, you’re not going to get to the point where kids are passing the 5-step test. In fact, there’s a chance your child won’t make it past 8 depending on his or her proportions. As a result, despite the fact that it has a 10 year lifespan, the Radian 3RXT simply won’t last long enough to be the only car seat you ever need for your child. You’re going to need to buy a booster seat. I recommend the Clek Oobr, but there are a range of options. The key point is to make sure whatever you choose gives your child enough height to reach the age where she passes the 5-step test. The weight is almost never the problem in booster seats; the bottleneck involves the available height offered to the child. I’d personally suggest just buying a booster once your child fully outgrows the Radian 3RXT in rear-facing configuration (which, again, will be past 5 for most children); that said, you can also just forward-face until you’re ready to buy a separate booster, or use the built-in booster mode of the Radian.

What makes the Diono Radian 3RXT worth buying over any other car seat?

Buy the Radian 3RXT because it allows you to follow Swedish-style best practices for rear-facing. Buy it because you can use it to rear-face until 5. Don’t buy it if you plan on forward-facing at 1, 2, or 3; that’s a waste of money and negates the primary point of a seat like this. Buy it because you want to fit 3 across in any vehicle without thinking twice about it. Don’t buy it because you want one car seat that will last from the day you leave the hospital (or birthing center, or home birth) until the day your child is ready for a seat belt, because it’s not going to last that long. If you’re ready to buy it, buying the Radian 3RXT (or anything else) through my link here helps me write more reviews and articles on best practices. Finally, you can buy the Clek Oobr here. Drive safely!

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can buy my books here or do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases.  It costs nothing extra to do so, but when you shop through my links, a small portion of your purchase, regardless of what you buy, will go toward the maintenance of The Car Crash Detective.

If you’re interested in extended rear-facing in the United States or Canada, things have never been better. Even though the majority of parents here are still forward-facing once their kids turn 1, there’s a growing minority out there continuing to rear-face past 1, 2, and 3 until 4 or beyond. We’re learning from our fellow parents in Sweden and Norway, and it’s wonderful. But none of this would have been possible if we hadn’t spread the word about the benefits of ERF and forced car seat manufacturers to listen. Well, we’ve spread the word, and they’ve started listening to all we know about best practices for car seat safety.

In the United States today, the best rear-facing seats will let you do so for up to 50 pounds, but not all of the seats target the same parents. These are your options: the Clek Fllo, 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. Today we’re going to look at the Nuna Rava. Its closest 50-pound equivalents are the Clek Fllo and Clek Foonf–high-end rear-and forward-facing convertible seats. Like these seats, the Rava costs north of $400. Is it worth it? I think so. Let’s take a closer look at it together.

2018 Nuna Rava – What’s the big deal? (And Fllo, Foonf, Grow and Go, and Extend2Fit comparisons)

The Nuna Rava is a 2-in-1 car seat and Nuna’s answer to the Clek Fllo and Clek Foonf. While there are ever-more 50-pound-class seats on the market, Nuna felt they could slip into a niche held exclusively by Clek for a more expensive seat that was easier to use, more luxurious, and potentially safer with some additional built-in-security features. Besides being able to rear-face until 50 pounds and forward-face until 65 pounds like most of its fellow 50-pound convertibles, the Rava includes an infant insert, allowing it to be used from the moment your baby leaves the hospital (unlike the Fllo and Foonf, which require separately-purchased infant inserts). It also includes a seat belt lockoff (called the True Tension belt path) that Nuna explicitly recommends over LATCH for installing the Rava.

Like the Extend2Fit seats, it includes a leg extension for increased rear-facing leg comfort. Two cup holders are present, as in the Graco-and Safety 1st-based seats, but unlike in those seats, the cup holders are retractable to narrow the width of the Rava for 3 across installations. Like most of its fellow 50-pound seats, it includes a no-rethread harness you can adjust with one hand. And finally, it includes a wide range of recline options, with 10 settings ranging from a nearly upright or vertical angle for older rear-facing children to an effectively 45-degree angle for newborns. On the more upright end, this helps the seat take up much less front-to-back space for shorter cars and SUVs.

As it is a convertible car seat, you can start using it the day you take your baby home from the hospital or birthing center as a rear-facing infant seat. Even though the vast majority of parents use infant seats for newborns, convertible car seats are just as safe for leaving the hospital as long as they fit your baby via lower weight limit, recline angle, harness tightness, and head support. Once your child reaches the weight or height limits rear-facing (which won’t be until well past 5 per boy and girl growth charts), you can either turn it around and forward-face (which is safe from 4 or 5 onward) or start high-back boostering (which is done from 4 or 5 onward in Sweden).

To put it simply, this car seat can take care of the first 5 years of your child’s life, and potentially longer if you truly use it to its limits. On top of this, with its 10 year lifespan, you can potentially reduce its effective cost by using it with multiple children, or at least use it to take full advantage of the 50 pound rear-facing and 65 pound forward-facing weight limits. Once you’re done using it, your child will be ready for a quality high-back booster like the Peg Perego Flex 120, Maxi-Cosi RodiFix or Clek Oobr.

Nuna Rava Limits for Weight and Height

Rear-facing: 5 to 50 pounds. Best practices urges rear-facing until your child can’t fit his or her child seat by weight and height, which in this case means rear-facing until 50 pounds or 49 inches if possible, since there is no safer way to travel in a car than by rear-facing. The seat is considered outgrown rear-facing when either the weight or height limits are reached, or when the top of your child’s head peeks past the head rest when fully extended. The shell height is a generous 25 inches. Per growth charts from the Center for Disease Control (which are identical for girls and boys), a 50th percentile child won’t reach 50 pounds until age 7 and 49″ until 7 years and 5 months.

The fact that you can rear-face longer by weight than by height makes the Rava a rarity among convertibles. The only other 50-pound seats that let you do so are the Safety 1st Advance EX 65 Air+, the Graco 4Ever Extend2Fit, the Graco Extend2Fit. The important thing to remember is that you’ll be able to rear-face the vast majority of preschoolers (who should ideally rear-face) and kindergartners (who can rear-face, forward-face, or booster) without changing seats.

Forward-facing: 25 to 65 pounds. The height limit is identical to that when rear-facing at 49 inches. The Rava’s manual suggests rear-facing until 2 years old, which is better than suggesting doing so until 1, but still far behind best practices as practiced in Sweden, where children rear-face until at least 4 or 5.

The height limit, as noted above, is one a 50th percentile child will reach at 7 years and 5 months. The weight limit would independently fit a 50th percentile child until 10, but the height limit overrules it. Despite this, the rear-facing and forward-facing combinations suggest you could rear-face a typical child until 7 and then forward face for another 6 months before needing a high-back booster seat like the Peg Perego Flex 120, Maxi-Cosi RodiFix or Clek Oobr to get you completely through the booster years.

In practice, you can move directly from rear-facing into boostering, as is done in Sweden, as the vast majority of children will be sitting appropriately in high-back booster seats by age 7 (with some capable of doing so at 6 or even 5). However, it’s perfectly fine to continue forward-facing until its limits are exceeded.

Dimensions and Key Features of the Nuna Rava

The Nuna Rava is 17 inches wide at the hips and 19 inches wide at its widest point at the shoulders. This makes it a 3-across-friendly convertible for small cars, although it’s not quite as 3-across compatible as the Clek Fllo or Foonf, both of which are 17 inches wide at the base and at the shoulders.

The lowest harness position with the infant insert is 7 inches, while the highest tops out at 17 inches. The shell height, as noted above, is 25 inches, giving a good amount of room to grow into the seat by height. The seat pan is 13 inches deep without the extended calf support and 16 inches when the support is extended. There are 3 crotch buckle positions at 3 inches with the infant insert, 4.5 inches without it, and a 3rd extended position for older children at 6 inches. The seat weighs 27.2 pounds when installed with the infant insert.

Using the Nuna Rava (Rear-facing installation, forward-facing installation, child fit, and additional tips and troubleshooting)

Installing the Rava is straightforward whether rear-facing or forward-facing; you can use seat belts in either orientation and use LATCH lower anchors until your child weighs 35 pounds rear-facing or 40 pounds forward-facing.

I generally recommend installing car seats with seat belts instead of LATCH; it’s just as safe and takes up less space for 3 across installations. Another advantage of using the seat belts and lockoff system in the Rava, which is particularly relevant here, is that you won’t need to remember to switch to seat belts eventually anyway when your child weighs 35 or 40 pounds.

I’m not generally a fan of cup holders in car seats, as our culture’s habits of constant snacking have strong ties to childhood and adult obesity. However, many parents find them essential, and there are two included with the Rava; they are retractable and can also be removed for parents who don’t like or use them. There are other 50-pound seats with single or dual cup holders, but the Rava is the only one so far to make them both foldable and retractable. Kudos, Nuna!

The Rava has a 10 year lifespan and expires 10 years after the date of manufacture, which is included beneath the seat, along with its FAA approval sticker for use on airplanes. There are a number of additional stickers carrying a range of information, but they are tastefully located either beneath covers or close to belt paths to make them less distracting and visually unappealing. It adds up to make a rather attractive seat that’s available in 5 colors: slate, caviar, indigo, berry, and blackberry.

Why Buy the Nuna Rava?

The Nuna Rava is one of a handful of car seats you can use to rear-face until your children are past preschool, kindergarten, and well into elementary school. Parents can us the Rava to rear-face to 4, 5, 6, or even longer thanks to a 50-pound rear-facing weight limit and a class-typing 49 inch height limit; no other seat in the US comes with higher weight or height limits for rear-facing. This is huge.

It’s very hard to find flaws with the seat compared to the other 50 pounders it competes with. It’s not the cheapest 50 pounder, but seats like the Graco Extend2Fit exist to fit that niche. It doesn’t include a booster mode, but the Diono Rainier does, and you can also buy the Peg Perego Flex 120, Maxi-Cosi RodiFix or Clek Oobr to have a dedicated high-back booster that will do better than that found in any combination or 3-in-1 seat. It’s not 17 inches wide throughout its shell, but the Clek Fllo is. It does offer a great blend of safety, comfort, and ease of use for parents that make it well worth considering if you’re cross-shopping it with the Fllo or Foonf. In the end, the most important features of this seat will be based on the extent to which you take advantage of its weight and height limits. Use them as much as you can.

You can buy the Nuna Rava here on MBeans or buy it here if it’s cheaper on PishPoshBaby. You can also buy the Clek Fllo here and buy the Clek Foonf here.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can buy my books here or do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases. Have a question or want to discuss best practices? Send me an email at carcrashdetective [at] gmail [dot] com.

Child car safety can essentially be summarized by the following guidelines: rear-face as long as possible (until at least 4 or 5), and then booster kids until they pass the 5-step test (which is most often passed between 10 and 12). It sounds simple in theory, but finding the right seats to meet those guidelines as cheaply as possible can be a challenge. The Diono Rainier will take care of the rear-facing end, but what about the booster end?

If you don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on some of the best booster seats on the market (e.g., seats like the Clek Oobr, Maxi-Cosi RodiFix, and Peg Perego Viaggio Flex 120 high back boosters), you’ll want to consider seats like the Diono Monterey XT, which I reviewed recently, and the Diono Cambria High Back Booster, which I’m going to review today. Coming in under the $100 mark, it’s one of the best choices for a high-back booster in its price range; let’s see how it compares to the Monterey XT when it comes to keeping kids safe and comfortable. This review will also touch on the Diono Solana, the backless booster portion of the Cambria.

Diono Cambria, Diono Solana – What’s the big deal?

The Diono Cambria is a high-back/no-back booster seat made in China by American car seat manufacturer Diono. I previewed it years ago as a replacement to the original Diono Cambria, and it shares a number of design elements with the more recently-released Diono Monterey XT. Its special features include lower LATCH anchors, the ability to recline, additional padding for comfort and safety, and retractable cup holders.

Beyond these features, the Cambria is a high-back booster, which makes it suitable for use with your kids once they’re done rear-facing (which ideally won’t be at least until they turn 4 or 5, as in Sweden) until they can use adult seat belts without car seats (typically between the ages of 10 to 12). Attractive and affordable, the Cambria is a good choice for a budget high-back booster seat.

The Diono Solana is the backless (bottom) part of the Diono Cambria. When included with the Cambria, it’s the part your child sits on. When sold separately, it’s called the Solana. Besides the fact that it’s sold separately and costs half as much, everything in this review referring to the backless portion of the Cambria booster applies equally to the Solana. To put it simply, if you don’t need the high-back part of the Cambria, save yourself some money and just get the Solana instead.

Diono Cambria Limits for Weight and Height

High-back booster: 40 to 120 pounds. Your child can use it between 38 and 63 inches and the highest belt guide position is 20 inches. In alignment with best practices, infants and toddlers should never use booster seats (they must rear-face), but depending on the maturity of your child, s/he may be a safe booster candidate from 4-5 years of age and up. Preschoolers should still be rear-faced, but highly responsible 5-year olds and kindergartners can be boostered if they no longer fit their rear-facing convertibles. That said, if your children aren’t yet ready to use booster seats at 4 or 5, it’s fine to wait until 6 or 7. It depends on your child’s readiness; kids in Sweden rear-face until 5 and then immediately switch to booster seats with no forward-facing stage. The country also enjoys the lowest rates of child auto fatalities on the planet.

Backless booster: 40 to 120 pounds. The height range is also 38-63 inches. Per best practices, you’ll want to avoid no-back boosters until your children are at least 8, as younger children will have a much harder time keeping their heads in safe positions when falling asleep than older ones.

Headrest support: Whether you use the Cambria as a high-back or as a backless booster, you’re going to need to set it up with a vehicle seat that has a head rest (unlike the Peg Perego Viaggio Flex 120, which doesn’t need vehicle head rests). The head rest must always extend to at least the tops of your child’s ears.

Outgrown: The Cambria is considered outgrown when its weight, height, or manufacturing expiration limits are reached, but it’s also no longer safe to use once your child’s ears grow past the top of your vehicle’s head rest (or that of the booster seat) when either is fully extended.

Buy the Diono Cambria on Sale at Amazon here.

Dimensions and Key Features of the Diono Cambria

The Diono Cambria is 19 inches wide at the base with cup holders retracted; when they are extended, it swells to 23 inches wide.  The seat pan depth is 16 inches with 15 inches of hip width and 16 inches of shoulder width. The seat is 20.5 inches wide externally at the shoulders and the height can range from 29 inches to 35 inches when the head rest is fully extended. It weighs 16.2 pounds.

Diono Cambria & Monterey XT Comparison and Child Fit

The most significant differences between the Cambria and the Monterey XT are in top booster belt guide heights and flexibility in width. Specifically, you get 2 more inches of belt height in the Monterey XT (22 inches vs 20 inches) than in the Cambria, which can make a significant difference in booster usability for older children. Similarly, the fact that you can significantly expand the width of the Monterey XT makes it a much stronger choice for wider or larger children, or for parents who need to accommodate children of a range of sizes (e.g., when carpooling).

The Monterey XT is also a better choice for 3 across car seat installations as it can be contracted to as narrow as 17 inches, while the Cambria is 2 inches wider at 19 inches. On the other hand, the Cambria has a much longer usable life at 10 years before expiration than the Monterey XT, which expires at 6 years. Both feature lower LATCH anchors to allow the seats to be restrained without being buckled in, both are affordable at under $100, and both feature high/no-back booster modes. The weight and height ranges are the same.

Why Buy the Diono Cambria?

In conclusion, just like the Diono Monterey XT, the Cambria is one of the best deals on the market for a booster seat on a budget. With the Cambria, parents can safely get kids from point A to point B once they’re done rear-facing (or forward-facing if they were forward-faced before 5) in cars, minivans, SUVs, and pickup trucks. Your kids will be able to stay in the Cambria until they’re ready to transition from booster seats to seat belts (which typically won’t occur for most kids before ages 10 to 12).

The Cambria is a good booster, but compared to the Monterey XT, I’d perhaps choose the Monterey XT simply because it offers more usability for both taller and wider children while falling in the same price range. On the other hand, the Cambria offers a much longer usable life across multiple children at 10 years vs 6, which makes it the better choice for a hand-me down seat. The better budget booster seat ultimately depends on your family’s needs.

You can buy the Diono Cambria in Suburst or Raspberry here or buy it in Graphite here. Alternatively, you can buy the Diono Monterey XT in 4 colors: Heather (black/grey), Purple, Red, and Teal here. You can buy the Diono Solana here. Canadians, unfortunately neither high-back booster is readily available, but you can buy an equivalent seat, the Britax Parkway SGL 1.1, 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!

When it comes to keeping children safe in cars, parents usually focus on extended rear facing (ideally until their kids are at least 4 or 5). However, while the lion’s share of car seat safety comes from rear-facing as long as possible, keeping children boostered safely until they’re physically and physiologically capable of using seat belts is an essential part of child car safety. A child boostered until s/he no longer needs a booster seat (which typically isn’t until 10 to 12 for most kids) faces a much lower risk of suffering potentially fatal injuries in crashes than children who are prematurely seat belted.

However, not every parent has the budget for the best booster seats on the market (e.g., seats like the Clek Oobr, Maxi-Cosi RodiFix, and Peg Perego Viaggio Flex 120 high back boosters). Today we’re going to look at a good booster seat on a budget, the Diono Monterey XT High Back Booster. It’s made by Diono, a company that will always have a soft spot in my heart for coming out with the second and third 50-pound convertible car seats in the US (one of which, the Diono Rainier, is still one of the best choices on the market for extended rear-facing).

The Monterey XT is one of the best high-back/backless boosters at or around the $100 mark; let’s see how it compares to the high-end high-backs in keeping kids safe.

Diono Monterey XT – What’s the big deal?

The Diono Monterey XT is a high-back/no-back booster seat by American car seat maker Diono; it’s essentially a combination of the high-back portion of the original Diono Monterey and the backless segment of a fellow Diono high-back booster, the Cambria. Its special features include a highly adjustable headrest and adjustable-width side wings to accommodate kids of varying sizes, lower LATCH anchors, retractable cup and snack holders, and thick, durable, and easily cleanable foam padding for additional comfort. Additionally, as a dual stage booster, it can be converted from a high-back to a backless booster in a few minutes.

Beyond its features, the Monterey XT remains a high-back booster, which makes it the next step after your child stops rear-facing (which you’ll ideally do until 4 or later, as in Sweden) or forward-facing. A booster seat like the Monterey XT is designed to keep your kids safely restrained until they’re old enough to use adult seat belts without car seats (which occurs when kids can pass the 5-step test, which is usually not before ages 10 to 12). Functional and affordable, the Monterey XT is a good budget high-back booster seat. It is made in China.

Diono Monterey XT Limits for Weight and Height

High-back booster:  40 to 120 pounds. The height range spans 38 to 63 inches and the highest belt guide position stops at 22 inches. Per best practices, neither infants nor toddlers should ever be placed in booster seats (they need to be rear-facing), but children from 4-5 years old are potentially safe booster candidates depending on maturity. Most 4-year old preschoolers will be safer rear-facing than being boostered, but exceptionally responsible 5-year olds can be boostered if you can no longer rear-face them. On the other hand, if you feel your kids aren’t yet ready for a booster seat at that age, you’re fine waiting until they’re 6 or 7. It depends on your child; children in Sweden are typically boostered at 4-5 once done rear-facing and are expected to sit safely. The country has the lowest rates of child auto deaths on Earth.

Backless booster: 40 to 120 pounds. The height range is the same as that in the high-back mode at 38-63 inches. Best practices suggests sticking with high-back boosters until children are at least 8 before switching to backless boosters since younger children are more likely to move their heads out of safe positions when falling asleep than older ones.

Headrest support: Whether you use the Monterey XT in high-back or backless mode, it needs to be installed on a vehicle seat that includes a head rest (unlike a seat like the Peg Perego Viaggio Flex 120, which does not require vehicle head rests).

Outgrown: The Monterey XT can no longer be used either when the weight, height, or manufacturing expiration limits are reached, or when the tops of your child’s ears surpass the booster’s head rest when fully raised or your vehicle’s head rest in its fully raised position.

Buy the Diono Monterey XT on Sale at Amazon here.

Dimensions and Key Features of the Diono Monterey XT

The Monterey XT is 17 inches wide at the base. When the wings are retracted, it is 17 inches across at the shoulders; when they are extended into wide mode, the seat becomes 20 inches wide at the expandable back. The seat pan depth remains constant at 14 inches. When the cup and snack holders are expanded, the seat becomes a whopping 23 inches wide. With the head rest fully extended, the Monterey XT is 29.5 inches tall, and it weighs 13.9 pounds in high-back mode.

Its narrow width at 17 inches makes it a good choice for 3 across car seat installations with narrow booster seats, although it will not be as narrow as boosters like the Clek Oobr and Peg Perego Viaggio Flex 120, each of which take up as little as 14 inches across. The Monterey XT has a rather short 6 year lifespan; this is less than the original Monterey’s 8 year expiration timeframe. Expiration is based on the date of manufacture; you can find this information beneath the seat as well as the model and serial numbers. As with every other booster seat on the market, the Monterey XT is not airplane compatible, per the FAA, since it relies on a lap and shoulder belt, and airplanes are equipped solely with lap belts.

Using the Diono Monterey XT (Seat belt installation and additional FAQ)

Installation: Installation is rather straightforward. All you need to do is sit the booster on your vehicle’s seat, connect the lower LATCH anchors, thread your vehicle’s seat belt through the XT’s belt guide and click it into the stalk. You can set it up in a few seconds each time. You don’t need to use the lower LATCH anchors, but if you do, they secure the booster seat to your vehicle so you don’t need to buckle it in all the time. You’ll still need to buckle your child in (or have your child buckle himself or herself in) each time s/he uses the seat.

As a bonus, the Monterey XT is one of a few booster seats (and car seats in general) compatible with inflatable seat belts. However, it’s important to note that you need a vehicle head rest behind the Monterey XT each time you use it, regardless of which kind of seat belt you have. Additionally, the XT needs to sit flush against the back of the vehicle’s seat. To put it another way, if the booster slopes forward due to the vehicle’s head restraint, you can’t use the Monterey XT with that vehicle.

Child fit: Because of its wide weight and height range, flexible width adjustment system, and 22 inch belt guide height limit (one of the largest on the market), you’re going to be able to fit nearly all kids of booster age in the Monterey XT. You’ll find a large red and white dial behind the seat that you can twist to adjust the width of the seat by changing the side wings. Per the manual, you’ll want to adjust them until your child is comfortable. The internal space ranges from 12.5 to 14.5 inches. The head rest is adjustable in 11 steps, allowing a booster guide position range from 15.5 inches to 22 inches. To adjust the head rest, you need to squeeze the red handle behind it and pull it up or down.

Cup holders: While I’m generally against cup holders in car seats due to the copious research connecting extensive snacking to childhood and adult obesity, I realize they’re popular with a number of parents and children here in the US. There’s a space for a cup and a space for a snack on each side; both sets of cup holders are retractable, and the width of the XT balloons from 17 inches to 23 inches depending on whether or not they’re in use. It’s worth noting that most European car seats (including booster seats for older children) don’t include cup holders; the RodiFix is a good example.

Why Buy the Diono Monterey XT?

In conclusion, for a $100 booster seat, the Monterey XT is hard to beat; it’s a safe way for parents to transport children once they’ve finished extended rear-facing (or forward-facing if they were turned forward before 5) in a minivan, SUV, truck, or car. You can keep your kids in the Monterey until they are physically and physiologically ready to move from booster seats to the adult seat belt (typically between ages 10 and 12 for most kids).

The Monterey XT is narrow enough to be a 3-across car seat friendly booster seat while having enough room in height, weight, and overall dimensions to potentially be one of the only two or three car seats your child will ever need (along with a convertible car seat like the Diono Rainier for the first five years). The biggest downside to it is its too-short 6 year expiration date, but for a seat this cheap, you can afford to buy another, and another, and another to keep your kids safely boostered until they’re ready for seat belts.

You can buy the Diono Monterey XT in 4 colors: Heather (black/grey), Purple, Red, and Teal here. Canadians, it’s unfortunately not readily available, but you can buy an equivalent seat, the Britax Parkway SGL 1.1, 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!