Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 Car Seat, Matrix
by Graco Baby
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List Price: Our Price: $137.50 You Save: $52.49 (28%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $136.95 (click here) Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 Car Seat, Matrix
Customer Review: Love this seat - and will have it for many years ahead!
Summary: 5 Stars
I just purchased this item for my 4-year-old daughter. She is a bit taller than average for her age and has outgrown the other Graco 5-point harness/booster seat we had. She is not yet old enough to be trusted with a belt-positioning booster but she wanted to "graduate" like her older brother and sisters. This seat is wonderful! First of all, it is incredibly sturdy and installs easily. Secondly, it is very comfortable for her! She always has a place to rest her head if she's tired without slumping forward like her old one and the wings are wide enough that they're not obstructing her view or restricting head movement. I adjusted the headrest a little bit to fit her height but she still has quite a bit of growing room AND she's only in the second to top harness position so I love that it's going to meet our needs for quite some time. If my daughter were writing this review she'd say, "I like sitting so high - I feel like the queen because I can see everything.", "Cubbies are great", and "I love my cup holder." The seat sits higher off the seat than my older car seats so she really has a great view of everything. The cup holder is very deep, unlike most, so the likelihood that the cup will tip over has been greatly reduced. There are "cubbies" on the insides of the arm rests for storing little snacks, tissues, etc.
Although I am extremely happy with this purchase, there are some drawbacks to having all these great features. Because it's so safe, it is quite heavy (not a problem unless you're constantly moving it from car to car) and it is a bit wider and higher off the seat than most. We have a Honda Odyssey and we carpool with friends. At times there are 6 children getting in the back. I've found that it's very difficult for the passengers to maneuver around the car seat as they are entering/exiting if it's placed on the seat by the door they frequently use. For me, it's the right side. It works out fine for me because I just install it by the other door. The best place for it is probably on either side in the back row but she's my youngest and still needs to be within arms reach of me so I'm not ready for that yet. There was an instance when I put her seat in the middle position in the back row and found it a bit difficult to see out of the back window through my rear-view mirror because of the height. It also took her a little longer to figure out how to buckle herself out of this one so that can be a + or - for you, depending upon your situation. (I kind of like it). All in all, it's a great seat. I don't regret it at all and wish I had started out with it years ago, although I'm extremely happy with the idea that she will be able to graduate from the 5-point harness to a belt-positioning booster, to a backless booster and we'll be getting our use out of it. Sorry, I haven't had to wash the seat covers yet so I don't know how difficult or easy it will be to undo and redo it all.
Customer Review: Very Well Designed Product
Summary: 4 Stars
Graco has produced a good product with an eye for important details.
Our daughter has recently outgrown her Britax Diplomat convertible carseat, and she is not yet ready for a belt positioning booster. We needed a seat that would be able to support her height/weight and yet still keep her in a 5 point harness for as long as possible. We were torn between the Nautilus and the Britax Frontier 85. In the end, we settled on the Nautilus because it fit in our car seats better than the F85.
Now that we have and and have used it, there are some things I've noticed about it that show that Graco really had an eye for detail here.
-visual reference on how the seat should be fitted to the child-examples: on the chest clip there is an image of a child with the clip positioned at the correct level, on the shoulder straps of the 5 pt harness the weight limit is printed so that it's easily and immediately visible
-cover is very easy to remove for cleaning
-shoulder pads and crotch clip pads are easy to remove without having to rethread the entire thing. Additionally, the crotch clip pad is designed in such a way that it remains in position and doesn't slide all over creation.
-cubbies built into the seat for the child to store their various "treasures"
-5 pt harness easy for a child to buckle up (with the exception of the tightening strap, which is something parents should handle anway)
-5 pt harness somewhat difficult to unbuckle. This is important with wiggly children.
-straps in the 5 pt harness don't get twisted!
-there's a pocked on the bottom of the seat to stow the user's manual so that it's always available.
There are some cons to this seat:
-I was slightly appalled that an infant insert was included in the packaging. If a child is young enough to need an infant insert, he or she is too young for this seat and should be in a rear-facing convertible. This is a *toddler* seat. I don't feel that including an infant insert was a responsible choice for Graco, especially considering the new reccomendations for extended rear-facing.
-Head slump is a major issue. When my daughter falls asleep, her head slumps forward in an alarming way. We have the seat at its most reclined setting and this is an issue. There's little point in including the 3 position recline as the difference between the most reclined and the least reclined are so minimal as to not be detectable.
Overall, this is a good seat. If Graco fixed the recline issue and stopped shipping a toddler seat with infant inserts, it might well be the perfect seat for children who have outgrown the convertible, but are not yet ready for a belt-positioning booster.
Customer Review: Nice seat
Summary: 4 Stars
We have two Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 seats now. Overall they are great seats, especially if you can get them on sale. In my mind, they're the best seat for your money (that's why we have two!).
Pros:
They appear to be very sturdily built, thankfully we haven't had to test major structural integrity. There are metal(!) supports running up the back of the seat and this at least makes me feel better than an all plastic seat regardless of the actual engineering that may have gone into either product. Our 3.5 year old has been using hers for about 2 years and no real complaints so far. I really like the buckles on the Graco seats. Easy enough for parents to buckle and unbuckle without pinching the kids, but not too easy for the kids to unbuckle. Materials are mostly (see below) in-tact and there is no wear noticeable on the fabric or other parts. No complaints from our daughter about comfort. The seat has a cupholder for storing acorns, kleenex, sunglasses, rocks, and apparently cups. Two cubbies under the armrests are not really accessible to mom and dad, but our daughter likes to keep things there.
Cons:
This seat was a bit difficult to install in my car - BUT is probably comparable to other seats out there (I don't have much experience in this area). I'm also pretty anal, so I spent some extra making sure everything was really tight, square, level, etc. It is definitely not a seat you will want to take in and out when you go to the hardware store to pick up lumber. Again, this is probably the case for most seats like this. One of the armrests has a tear in the rubber/plastic layer that covers the surface. We're not sure how this happened, but it appears to be only a cosmetic issue now. The storage clip for the instructions is conveniently located on the back of the seat. After you are finished using the instructions for installation, you will already have them on hand for removal so that you can access the storage clip to stow the instructions. (We tend to keep the instructions in the glove box.) There are big patches on the seat and shoulder strap that say things like UP TO 60LBS. These aren't removable and are just plain ugly. They weren't on our other Nautilus seat (different style, same seat). I guess we will at least remember when to switch from seat to booster.
Again, I think this is an excellent seat. I would buy another one if I needed another car seat.
Customer Review: Great alternative to putting kids in a booster too early!
Summary: 5 Stars
We purchased our first Graco Nautilus carseats in July, 2008. Our boys (3 1/2 and 5 at the time) had almost reached the height limit for their Britax Roundabouts, and I was looking for seats that would allow them to be in a 5-point harness well past the 40 pound mark. I spent many hours reading reviews of various choices, including the Britax Frontier and a couple of others. Based on the reviews, I determined that the Nautilus held some advantages over the others, and with their safety and features basically equal, I went with the one that cost a bit less (since I was buying 2 at a time). Amazon shipped them free to our APO address in Japan and they arrived in less than a week. My boys LOVE these seats! Even after 10 months they still think it is cool that they have a cup holder and a place to stash small toys in their seat.
I have no problems with the harness straps getting twisted-- when the boys get out I just tuck them sort of behind the arm rests so they are out of the way for them to get in the next time. Both of them know how to pull the crotch buckle out of the way as they get into the seat so they aren't sitting on it-- this could be a problem for younger kids but it is easy to just grab it with one hand as you help the child into the seat. My 4 year old buckles himself in and after 10 months his straps are not in the least bit twisted-- all I have to do for him is pull out on the strap to tighten the straps to my liking (I'm pretty picky about car seat straps and it drives me nuts to see kids with them too loose). My 6 year old has some fine motor delays so doesn't have the strength to buckle the clip at the crotch, but he does get the straps on and buckles the chest clip himself.
We'll be using these seats for a long time-- my boys only weigh about 37-38 pounds even at 6 and 4 1/2, so I am happy to have a seat that can keep them in a harness even after they have outgrown other seats in height. Even if they weighed 40 pounds, I would not have them in a seat-belt booster--I appreciate the safety of the 5-point harness and they have made no complaints about it! We just bought 2 more of these for my husband's car, and I am about to order 2 more (yes, a total of SIX) to be waiting for us in the U.S. when we visit our family there this summer so we can avoid having to check bags on our flight! I couldn't in good conscience purchase an inferior seat for our month-long visit.
Customer Review: One Year Later, Still Happy!
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this seat for my 3 yr old when he outgrew our Britax Roundabout. (My children are petite.) It has seen constant use for a year or so, including frequent switching to different cars. I am still pleased with the seat, and am purchasing another for my second son.
- My sons love the seat. They are comfortable and like that they can buckle themselves in. (I check to be sure it's tight enough.)
- The cupholder is a huge plus. That seems frivolous: I didn't expect it to be as useful as it has turned out to be, but it's great.
- It's true that the seat doesn't recline much at all, but for older kids it's not a big issue. My son naps in his seat sometimes and his head doesn't flop around.
- The straps can get twisted through the belt connectors, which NEVER happened with the Britax. I didn't understand what reviewers meant when they said "twisted straps" until I bought this seat. They're pretty easy to untwist though.
- The construction seems high quality. When I originally researched it was rated highly for it's performance in crash tests.
- It's reasonably attractive.
- I had no trouble assembling it.
I switch car seats between various family members' cars pretty frequently, so I'm quite practiced at installation.
- The seat is big and heavy. (a minor issue to me)
- The belt path is easy enough.
- Latch connectors are easy to use until kid outgrows them (@40 lbs for most cars I think).
- When you install the harnessed seat (not using it as a booster) using a seat belt, you have to use a locking clip. (The little flat metal thing shaped sort of like a sideways H, which you use to "clip" the belt into it's fully tightened position.) I HATE using the stupid thing. It's no big deal if you don't have to do it often, but it's a wrestling match I sure could do without. I wish this seat had a built-in lock. In general, I see a lot of user error when seats are installed using a locking clip.
- Oh, and I wish the seat cover were easier to clean. That's my only other complaint.
Over all, I think this is a great seat. It gets the important stuff right- it's safe, it's comfortable, and it's reasonably easy to install properly (especially if you don't have to do it often). I think it's a super value. I feel very comfortable recommending it.