Graco Extend2fit 3 in 1 Featuring Trueshield Review

Best in form legroom? A 50 lbs. rear-facing weight limit?? Superb acme limits??? Under $200???? Extend2Fit is a winner!

What's the one thing most people say when they see an older rear-facing toddler? "What about their legs? Aren't they uncomfortable?" Well, no, really, but Graco was smart to address this common misconception with the Extend2Fit convertible carseat. The Graco engineers have designed a unique extension feature that slides out to conform growing legs as a child sits rear-facing, providing additional legroom for the rear-facing kid. They too gave Extend2Fit a 50 lbs. rear-facing weight limit and dual integrated loving cup holders! It's well-nigh hard to believe that they offer all of this in a seat that is often on sale for under $200. This seat is super popular and it's piece of cake to see why!

Weight and Height Limits

• Rear-facing iv-l lbs. AND kid'due south head is 1" below gray harness height adjustment handle
• Forwards-facing 22-65 lbs., 49″ or less, at least 1 twelvemonth old*

*Nosotros recommend rear-facing to at to the lowest degree age ii before turning your child frontward-facing. Since the Extend2Fit has such high rear-facing weight and tiptop limits, why not?

Extend2Fit Overview

• 50 lbs. rear-facing weight limit—a leader for Graco's convertible line!
• 4-position leg extension for rear-facing comfort: adds up to v″ extra legroom!
• x-position headrest with no re-thread harness
• Harness Storage pockets on both sides of seat for storing buckle tongs out of the way
• 2 crotch strap/buckle positions
• 6-position recline
• Steel-reinforced frame
• Premium button-on LATCH connectors
• 2 cup holders (mandatory use)
• Machine-washable cover
• FAA-canonical for utilise on aircraft
• ten yr lifespan before seat expires

Graco also offers some other versions of the Extend2Fit. Here'due south a quick overview of the differences:

Extend2Fit 3-in-1: Has all the E2F features plus the capability of being used as a highback booster seat from 40-100 lbs. MSRP $249

Extend2Fit 3-in-1 with ARB: Has all the E2F 3-in-1 features plus an Anti-Rebound Bar (ARB) that is used when the seat is installed rear-facing. MSRP $254

4Ever Extend2Fit: Has all the E2F features, plus a lockoff for forrard-facing installations and the adequacy of being used every bit both a highback booster from forty-100 lbs. and a backless booster from twoscore-120 lbs. MSRP $359

2022 Extend2Fit Fashions

(Pictured from left to right: Spire, Kenzie, Gotham, Davis, Binx & Redmond)

Extend2Fit Measurements

Harness height: 7"-18"
External widest point: xix.625"
Shell height with headrest: 27"
Shoulder width: 13.75"
Crotch strap depth: iv.5", 6.five"
Seat depth: 12"
Seat weight: eighteen.4 lbs.

Installation

Installation was amazingly like shooting fish in a barrel in my '11 Acura MDX using either the vehicle seat belt or the lower LATCH strap. The LATCH strap is attached to the inside correct side of the carseat with a metal bar, so information technology will never become tangled in the harness straps. The E2F comes out of the box set with the LATCH strap prepare in the rear-facing belt path, and then unless y'all are using it for an older child who will exist forward-facing, there's no demand to move it. To move the LATCH strap, elevator the embrace and slide the strap upward to the frontward-facing belt path.

The lower LATCH connectors on the Extend2Fit are the deluxe push-on manner, called the InRight LATCH system by Graco, which easily snap onto the vehicle's anchors and remove with the push of a push button.

Rear-Facing Installation

This is a feature-rich carseat and every bit such, in that location are several things to continue in mind when setting the Extend2Fit upwardly for rear-facing.

iv rear-facing recline settings: Infants 3 months and younger must have a recline that allows the ball in the recline angle indicator to exist fully in the light blueish circumvolve, merely afterward that age, y'all tin can make the recline equally upright as your child is comfortable. The recline handle is on the very lesser of the seat and you lot pull on information technology to appoint the mechanism.

4-position extension panel: If you would similar additional legroom for your kid's tootsies, clasp the handle under the front end of the seat and pull the panel out to one of 4 positions. To be fair, there are really 3 extended positions, since position 1 is fully retracted. For kids over 40 lbs., any of positions two-4 must exist used (any extended position). With the extension panel fully extended, information technology's the most legroom of any convertible carseat on the market.

80% of the base of operations must be on the vehicle seat: To achieve a more than upright installation and allow more room for the extender to be in positions 2-iv, you can move the E2F base out on the vehicle seat. Nevertheless, you must maintain at to the lowest degree fourscore% of the base of operations on the vehicle seat at all times. I don't know about you, but I don't walk effectually with a ruler in my back pocket and Graco doesn't wait you to either: they've put a handy dandy sticker on the base of operations showing y'all the verbal amount of E2F base of operations that needs to be on the vehicle seat for both rear- and forward-facing installs. Cool!

Forrard-Facing Installation

In that location are also some attributes to keep in mind when using the E2F forward-facing.

Utilize recline position 4 just for children weighing 22-40 lbs.: This is a very reclined position for frontward-facing and volition leave very piddling legroom for many kids in virtually vehicles. Unless your child has outgrown the carseat by height, it'south worth it to leave them rear-facing in this weight range. Kids over 40 lbs. must use recline five or vi.

Move the crotch strap to the forward position: The crotch strap has to be all the way out when forrard-facing.

No extender: Put that leg extender away. It'due south for rear-facing only! No exceptions.

No harness covers: Remove the harness covers and put them in a safe place when using the E2F forward-facing. It's as if Graco wants yous to use this seat rear-facing!

Equally always with whatsoever forward-facing installation, don't forget to use the top tether regardless of whether you install the Extend2Fit using the seat belt or lower LATCH strap.

For fun, I put the E2F in my husband'southward Tesla Model Southward and information technology fit nicely both rear- and forward-facing. In fact, it fit better rear-facing considering the back seat doesn't have the side bolsters like my back seat does, so the Extend2Fit was able to sit farther dorsum on the vehicle seat, leaving more than room for the front passenger seat. Using the E2F in its tallest position, though, won't work in this vehicle because of the low ceiling height. Even though our back seat is stained with red softball dirt, I didn't want to adventure dissentious the headliner by installing the E2F and extending the headrest to it's uppermost position. I did get it to one position below the highest.

Rear-facing and forward-facing LATCH weight limit: 45 lbs.

Center LATCH installations with Non-Standard Spacing:
Graco allows LATCH installation in the center seating position if the vehicle manufacturer allows it and the LATCH ballast bars are spaced eleven" apart when measured at their centers.

Inflatable Seat Belts
Graco has determined that the Extend2Fit Tin can exist installed with inflatable seat belts found in some Ford Motor Company vehicles. Other types of inflatable seat belts are even so incompatible for use with the Extend2Fit.

Locking Prune
Like most other convertibles of its generation, the Extend2Fit does not come up with a locking clip. If your seat belts exercise not lock at the retractor or at the latchplate, you will need to contact Graco for a locking clip.

Fit to Kid

The Extend2Fit is designed to fit children from 4-65 lbs. and to fit pocket-size babies, a body support and head pillow are included. The body back up must be used if the baby's shoulders are beneath the bottom harness slots, and information technology must be removed when the E2F is turned forward-facing. The harness pads also must be removed upon frontwards-facing. The head pillow can exist removed at any fourth dimension. Though it looks puffy, the pillow actually compresses pretty hands then bigger noggins will exist comfy with it also.

My iv lbs. preemie doll did not fit well in the Extend2Fit; this is not a carseat that volition piece of work for a very modest newborn. The harness was likewise loftier and there was also much infinite around the hips and crotch. My doll, Romeo, is well-nigh the size of an 8-nine lbs. newborn and he fits well without the body support. In the rear-facing fit section, the teaching manual specifies that the harness tiptop must exist at or below the child's shoulders.

Nora, left, is 1 and around 25 lbs. Emma, right, is 4 and nearly 30 lbs. You can run into the arable legroom the Extend2Fit offers both girls.

Here's Emma forwards-facing. At age 4, she's very safe to ride in this position.

Embrace/Maintenance/Ease of Apply

The cover that shipped on my seat wasn't the easiest to remove. It was attached in 4 places with tight elastics that had me proverb some not-and then-nice things and since this is a family web log, at that place's no demand to impress you with my noesis of sailor vocabulary (no criminal offense to sailors intended!). Ii of the elastics are fastened under the extender. If y'all disengage one of those to lift the encompass to betrayal the rear-facing belt path, information technology is impossible to reattach if the extender is retracted. Information technology is virtually impossible to reattach if the extender is extended at all. I don't think that over time a kid will work the encompass upwards in that location getting in and out of the seat since it's then tightly attached around the cup holders, just it is poor design. At that place are also 2 little elastic loops at the acme of the torso section that are used past Graco to hold marketing tags. You may try forever to hook those little suckers to something only they don't go anywhere. It's OK and non a failure on your office.

I besides don't like elastics because they're hard to thread through tiny holes or slits to attach to hooks and they don't final more a single hot flavor hither in Las Vegas. OK, so I'grand clearly not a fan of the logistical design of this encompass, though I do like the look. I'm especially addicted of the seafoam blue-ish "Spire" encompass on the sample I was sent; it's lovely, though all the E2F covers are sharp-looking. Some of the covers are mesh in the seating area and my experience with mesh is that crumbs tin be ground into those niggling holes and never see the light of day once again, so stay on meridian of the snacks. The comprehend can be done in the washing machine on cold and air-dried.

The harness is 1 long length, but information technology has a butterfly zipper in the middle under the kid's bum surface area, and so there'southward not a possibility of one side being longer than the other. Information technology tin be cleaned like any other: dip a washcloth in water and use a drop of balmy soap (Dawn, Dreft) to make clean information technology. Be certain to wipe off that soap with the wet washcloth and let the harness thoroughly dry. Set up it in full sun if it withal stinks. Merely . . . the harness *is* replaceable, so if information technology's simply that nasty, purchase a new 1!

Graco has gone to a ane-harness-slot design on their no re-thread convertibles, which ways that it volition exist more than difficult to tighten and loosen the harness in lower "slot" positions because the headrest is pushing on it, causing friction. As your kid gets older and taller, there will be less friction and it will be easier to use.

FAA-Approval/Lifespan/Crash Guidelines

The Extend2Fit is FAA-approved, simply you will most probable need to raise the armrests on the airplane seat to get it to fit because of the cup holders.

The Extend2Fit has a lifespan of 10 years and Graco wants you to replace information technology after whatsoever crash.

Extend2Fit Advantages

• 50 lbs. rear-facing weight limit—a leader for Graco's convertible line!
• 4-position leg extension for rear-facing comfort
• 10-position headrest with no re-thread harness
• Harness Storage pockets on both sides of seat for storing buckle tongs out of the way
• two crotch strap/buckle positions
• Replaceable harness
• 6-position recline
• Steel-reinforced frame
• Push-on LATCH connectors
• Easy install in both rear-facing and forrard-facing positions
• Two cup holders
• Machine-washable cover
• FAA-approved for employ on aircraft
• 10 year lifespan before seat expires

Disadvantages

(In fairness, these aren't necessarily problems but I list them here to inform you lot of specific Extend2Fit issues)

• Lacks a lockoff device for installations with seat belt
• Seat takes up more space rear-facing when the legrest panel is extended
• Tightening the harness takes some effort and is not as shine and easy most other Graco convertibles
• Harness strap covers cannot be used when child is forward-facing
• Recline position #iv is required when the seat is installed forward-facing for a child weighing less than xl lbs.
• Cover difficult to remove and reattach in front

In a carseat universe increasingly dominated by All-In-One carseats, the standard Graco Extend2Fit is a great convertible carseat that is also a tremendous value when on sale.  Not surprisingly, it is i of our 2022 Editors' Picks Recommended Carseats.

Thank yous to Graco for providing the Graco Extend2Fit used for this review. No other compensation was provided. All opinions expressed are those of CarseatBlog.

CarseatBlog Experts Rating

Editors' Pick Midrange Category: Extend2Fit

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Source: https://carseatblog.com/37437/graco-extend2fit-convertible-carseat-review-the-shut-up-and-take-my-money-is-here/

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