Graco Headwise 70 Pics ETA: Nextfit pics too!

MintBerryCrunch

The Graco Headwise is/was on sale at Target this week for $159. It's supposed to be one of, if not the tallest seat on the market for ERF (that's not the Foonf). We got one as a secondary seat for my mom's car. It looks great and is basically the tallest seat in the universe. Unfortunately my model was in a bad mood for some reason so she wasn't too thrilled to be having her picture taken. I bribed her with a cookie and Stephen the dog thinks he's about to get in on that action.

Just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill convertible car seat...

Then, BAM! Tallest car seat EVAR! 

It rearfaces up to 40lbs and your child's head needs to be at least one inch below the red handle at the top (it can be fully extended), with the straps coming from at or below the shoulders. I'm not the best at measuring things, but that's approximately 27" of seated height. Our model is almost 2.5, about 38" tall, 32-33lbs, and has a seated height of 20". 

There is very little padding in the seat area...almost none, unfortunately. I've read some people have trouble with the buckle but so far I haven't. It looks to be a pretty cool seat if you have giant kids, especially if you can get it on sale. I've not installed it yet so I don't know how the heck it fits in a car RF with the headrest up so high though. 

ETA:

Here's the Nextfit! This is our 7 month old's seat, but with the awesome recline feature and no-rethread harness, switching it for DD1 took about 6 seconds. The padding is just so squishy. It's like what would be created if a cloud had sex with a car seat. It's not as tall as the Graco but with the headrest extended it will give us more room to grow than the Radian that DD1 is in now. 

Above: Here's Lily in the seat with her current settings. 

Now I've moved the headrest up to show how much more room she has to grow.

Headrest up, so the chest clip is obviously not in the right place. She probably has about 5+ inches to grow in seated height before she reaches the limit of 1" under the top of the headrest shell. She will totally hit the 40lb weight limit before the height limit. 

This thing was the easiest seat to install ever. I hate, hate, hate putting our Radian in because it's such a PITA. This went in rock solid in less than a minute with almost no effort. 

nanabanana06

I dont think tge head rest counts for rf limits. I think the actual seat shel is what you go off of, not the head wings. Just like my Radian RXT.

MintBerryCrunch

No, the head rest counts on this one, and on the Chicco Nextfit that I'll post pics of next, prob tomorrowish. 

quidditchcapn1120

Nana_Osaki06 said:

I dont think tge head rest counts for rf limits. I think the actual seat shel is what you go off of, not the head wings. Just like my Radian RXT.

According to this:

https://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=223662

Mintberrycrunch is right.

DS is about 2.5 inches away from outgrowing the RF limit on his seat, I may have to look into this. Thank you!

gimmietimmies

Headrest does count. 1" limit with headrest fully extended measure from the top of the red handle. It's taller than the Foonf and will fit in small spaces. I like the pink. At least the model isn't having a hissy fit. Jealous, because we don't have this seat here, but wouldn't work anyway. ( S is 39lbs.

nanabanana06

Huh. Interesting. I'd think that would make the seat itself more unstable. However, it looks cool. I'm glad the cheaper companies are finally coming out with more updated seats. Too bad Britax hasn't caught on.

gimmietimmies

They fixed the issue with instability in the headrest. Britax is clueless, it'll take a few more years before they clue in. People are still stuck in their marketing bubble as far as convertibles go.

nanabanana06

gimmietimmies said:

They fixed the issue with instability in the headrest. Britax is clueless, it'll take a few more years before they clue in. People are still stuck in their marketing bubble as far as convertibles go.

Oh, I agree. Britax is made in the UK though. Right? They only RF till like 9 months. So it makes sense they are far behind the new standards. This Graco looks good for the price. Though unless your kid is super tall and skinny it seems kind of pointless.

MintBerryCrunch

Actually I'll go do the Nextfit right now. It's pure love in car seat form. 

gimmietimmies

Nana_Osaki06 said:

They fixed the issue with instability in the headrest. Britax is clueless, it'll take a few more years before they clue in. People are still stuck in their marketing bubble as far as convertibles go.

Oh, I agree. Britax is made in the UK though. Right? They only RF till like 9 months. So it makes sense they are far behind the new standards. This Graco looks good for the price. Though unless your kid is super tall and skinny it seems kind of pointless.

LOL, tall, not skinny until around age 5. Mini sumos, remember! Radian at 45lbs was just enough, but methinks rf is damn near done. Yes, I'm upset, they need to stop fricking growing.

See:

 

I actually wrote Graco a letter of complaint and posted on their FB quite a few times and showed them a similar picture. Told them they're missing out on an opportunity to fill a need in our market, but that they should also seriously consider trying to make the seat to 45lbs or more. I got a dear john thank you back.

Yeah, Britax is German/UK, and were at the forefront of the market for decades. They're slipping.

nanabanana06

gimmietimmies said:

Nana_Osaki06 said:

They fixed the issue with instability in the headrest. Britax is clueless, it'll take a few more years before they clue in. People are still stuck in their marketing bubble as far as convertibles go.

Oh, I agree. Britax is made in the UK though. Right? They only RF till like 9 months. So it makes sense they are far behind the new standards. This Graco looks good for the price. Though unless your kid is super tall and skinny it seems kind of pointless.

LOL, tall, not skinny until around age 5. Mini sumos, remember! Radian at 45lbs was just enough, but methinks rf is damn near done. Yes, I'm upset, they need to stop fricking growing.

See:

 

I actually wrote Graco a letter of complaint and posted on their FB quite a few times and showed them a similar picture. Told them they're missing out on an opportunity to fill a need in our market, but that they should also seriously consider trying to make the seat to 45lbs or more. I got a dear john thank you back.

Yeah, Britax is German/UK, and were at the forefront of the market for decades. They're slipping.

Yeah. I think the 40lb limit for this seat would scratch it right off our list as well. My son is8 months and 2 months ago was 22lbs. We got him the Foonf for this reason. We needed the 50lb limit to keep him RF longer. Though I fully expect him to reach the height before the weight. However, with all this said I think it's great that Chicco and Graco are both making seats designed for ERF. I think cheaper options need to be available.

gimmietimmies

ITA. We finally (car seat geek says YAY) got the Evenflo Sureride, same limits as the US. Our budget seats are the Scenera $89/32", the Apt $119/$99/36", and the Guide $134/36". And now the Sureride for about $130!

Can't wait for a peek at that Nexfit!

gimmietimmies

@MintBerryCrunch, what height/shirt size is your dd. Dead curious for a comparison on the Radian.

nanabanana06

@Gimmetimmies, that sucks for your seats. My SIL and Brother got their kids Cosco Scenera's.I think I'll be gifting them 2 brand new Nautilus' and a budget RF seat for my niece and nephew.

nanabanana06

crystaladult said:

I'm glad that you posted this. I've been looking into seats that have a higher height limit but it's difficult to know which ones without trying them.

What seats areyou looking at? Almost all of us probably have each of the seats.

gimmietimmies

Lol, with the exception of Headwise and the Nextfit, I'm sure I have. More than 25 seats and many cars.

nanabanana06

crystaladult said:

Nana_Osaki06 said:

crystaladult said:

I'm glad that you posted this. I've been looking into seats that have a higher height limit but it's difficult to know which ones without trying them.

What seats areyou looking at? Almost all of us probably have each of the seats.

TBH, I haven't researched them that much. Obviously, I'd love to have the Foonf and if I would have known about it when I bought my Britax, I definitely would have gone with that one. My Britax was almost $300 and now I'm going to have to buy another seat if I want to continue RFing. Gah.

Well, I know for myself I have a Foonf and 3 Diono Radian RXT's.

MintBerryCrunch

gimmietimmies said:

@MintBerryCrunch, what height/shirt size is your dd. Dead curious for a comparison on the Radian.

Most of her shirts are 3T. I just measured her and she's 38" tall barefoot and 20" tall when seated. 

nanabanana06

That Nextfit looks pretty cool, but once again the 40lb limit would of kept me from purchasing. I know when we got our first Radian it took me hours to figure it out. Now that I'm on Radian #3 it's super easy. Took me 10 minutes to get a perfect install from box to car with my sons Radian. The Foonf though was the best seat to install. Once it was together it was a few clips and BAM! insta install. Loved it!

MintBerryCrunch

Nana_Osaki06 said:

That Nextfit looks pretty cool, but once again the 40lb limit would of kept me from purchasing. I know when we got our first Radian it took me hours to figure it out. Now that I'm on Radian #3 it's super easy. Took me 10 minutes to get a perfect install from box to car with my sons Radian. The Foonf though was the best seat to install. Once it was together it was a few clips and BAM! insta install. Loved it!

Lily was almost as big as Cade was at that age (she was 24lbs at 9 months) but once she started walking she thinned out tremendously. I wish it went up to 45lbs, but she's only gained 5 lbs in the last year and a half so I think so we're going to be in good shape with our combination of seats that we have. 

My Radian issues stem from putting it in the middle of my car. It's just the seat belts that piss me off so much and I can't use LATCH in the middle seat. 

gimmietimmies

MintBerryCrunch said:

gimmietimmies said:

@MintBerryCrunch, what height/shirt size is your dd. Dead curious for a comparison on the Radian.

Most of her shirts are 3T. I just measured her and she's 38" tall barefoot and 20" tall when seated. 

Awesome.S is about 41", and 4t/5t shirts depending on brand. More 5t TCP if that helps. And 39lbs. I wish mine thinned out earlier, at 5 KIis on the low side of the bmi, t and e are very low. Tall and skinny. Doesn't help at that age. Oh, ff Frontiers were our only option. I don't mind, the seats are nice and also easy to use.

nanabanana06

MintBerryCrunch said:

Nana_Osaki06 said:

That Nextfit looks pretty cool, but once again the 40lb limit would of kept me from purchasing. I know when we got our first Radian it took me hours to figure it out. Now that I'm on Radian #3 it's super easy. Took me 10 minutes to get a perfect install from box to car with my sons Radian. The Foonf though was the best seat to install. Once it was together it was a few clips and BAM! insta install. Loved it!

Lily was almost as big as Cade was at that age (she was 24lbs at 9 months) but once she started walking she thinned out tremendously. I wish it went up to 45lbs, but she's only gained 5 lbs in the last year and a half so I think so we're going to be in good shape with our combination of seats that we have. 

My Radian issues stem from putting it in the middle of my car. It's just the seat belts that piss me off so much and I can't use LATCH in the middle seat. 

See, Ifind LATCH to be a huge PITA and find seat belt installs way easier. Took my forever to go a good LATCH install in my SO's Dart. I think I went back and reinstalled it using the seat belt too.

gimmietimmies

Team LATCH PITA. I had a much easier time with the Radian doing a seatbelt install. In some vehicles you do need to twist down the female end of the buckle and it goes in solid.

gimmietimmies

MBC that Nexfit is nice!

gimmietimmies

@Fredalina Foonf is only 40 here because it couldn't pass with the next size up test dummy which is the ff 6y atd at 65lbs. Radian can, but sets the limit back at 45.

LadyXaverian

@MintBerryCrunch Thanks for sharing! I think Nora is about to outgrow the RF height limit for her MyRide 65 due to her long torso, and I'm so tempted to get one of these instead of turning her FF.

Not to be an obnoxious butt, but I thought that while RF, the shoulder straps were supposed to hit below/behind the shoulders? In the Chicco with the extended headrest, the straps are well above her shoulders. Is this one of those things that differs from seat to seat?

gimmietimmies

No it's always at or below rf. She was just showing how much more room she had rf.

MintBerryCrunch

SarahL77 said:

@MintBerryCrunch Thanks for sharing! I think Nora is about to outgrow the RF height limit for her MyRide 65 due to her long torso, and I'm so tempted to get one of these instead of turning her FF.

Not to be an obnoxious butt, but I thought that while RF, the shoulder straps were supposed to hit below/behind the shoulders? In the Chicco with the extended headrest, the straps are well above her shoulders. Is this one of those things that differs from seat to seat?

I just pulled the headrests up to show how tall they get. There's a pic of each seat with the straps done correctly, and then with the headrests raised to show max height. I wanted to leave her in it so there would be a way to easily see the difference. They both have no rethread harnesses, so the strap height corresponds to headrest position.

MintBerryCrunch

fredalina said:

I think it's the anti rebound bar on the Foonf that is so genius. Seems to be what makes the seat more stable when it gets so tall and the center of gravity goes way up for the seat + kiddo combination. I am guessing that is why it has a US limit of 50 pounds instead of 40.

Char is 34 pounds. We have an old school Radian80 with RF limit of 35 pounds. She is pretty close in height too. Sigh. Not sure what I'll do as far as FF both seats or just the Radian. Ironically Char is almost obsessed now with booster seats. She asks strangers with kids her age and older "what does she sit in?" all.the.time. And you have people like her brother and various classmates sitting in backless boosters WAY before they should. Her brother's shoulder belt cuts into his neck and he turns almost all the way around to wave at her driving off and in general does NOT belong in a backless booster. But whatcha gonna do? Sigh.

I would love to get my hands on a Foonf, but, $. Both of these seats combined (Nextfit was $233) were less than a Foonf on Amazon.

I wish the Chicco had a RF tether but they claim that there's no proof that rebound is dangerous. Though it's in so tight with the way it's designed, there's very little give for it to rebound even without a tether or actual antirebound feature.

LadyXaverian

MintBerryCrunch said:

@MintBerryCrunch Thanks for sharing! I think Nora is about to outgrow the RF height limit for her MyRide 65 due to her long torso, and I'm so tempted to get one of these instead of turning her FF.

Not to be an obnoxious butt, but I thought that while RF, the shoulder straps were supposed to hit below/behind the shoulders? In the Chicco with the extended headrest, the straps are well above her shoulders. Is this one of those things that differs from seat to seat?

I just pulled the headrests up to show how tall they get. There's a pic of each seat with the straps done correctly, and then with the headrests raised to show max height. I wanted to leave her in it so there would be a way to easily see the difference. They both have no rethread harnesses, so the strap height corresponds to headrest position.

Oh, duh. That makes sense.

LoveActually4

@SarahL77 I noticed that too. I don't think it differ by seat, I'm fairly certain when RF the straps should always be at or below shoulder level.

nanabanana06

MintBerryCrunch said:

I think it's the anti rebound bar on the Foonf that is so genius. Seems to be what makes the seat more stable when it gets so tall and the center of gravity goes way up for the seat + kiddo combination. I am guessing that is why it has a US limit of 50 pounds instead of 40. Char is 34 pounds. We have an old school Radian80 with RF limit of 35 pounds. She is pretty close in height too. Sigh. Not sure what I'll do as far as FF both seats or just the Radian. Ironically Char is almost obsessed now with booster seats. She asks strangers with kids her age and older "what does she sit in?" all.the.time. And you have people like her brother and various classmates sitting in backless boosters WAY before they should. Her brother's shoulder belt cuts into his neck and he turns almost all the way around to wave at her driving off and in general does NOT belong in a backless booster. But whatcha gonna do? Sigh.

I would love to get my hands on a Foonf, but, $. Both of these seats combined (Nextfit was $233) were less than a Foonf on Amazon. I wish the Chicco had a RF tether but they claim that there's no proof that rebound is dangerous. Though it's in so tight with the way it's designed, there's very little give for it to rebound even without a tether or actual antirebound feature.

I guess I got lucky. We got our Foonf on sale for just over 300$. It ended up only being 100$ more than the Radian RXT on sale.

MintBerryCrunch

@SarahL77 I noticed that too. I don't think it differ by seat, I'm fairly certain when RF the straps should always be at or below shoulder level.

Yes, but with no rethread harnessesit's not possible to raise the headrests all the way up

lrachelle80 said:

Thank you for this!!!! I have a tall kiddo who is average weight (28lbs, 37" at her 2 year) and will probably upgrade our convertible when DD2 switches from an infant seat to convertible. I'll move DD2 to DD1's current seat - Britax - and get a giant RFing seat for DD1. 

You're welcome! We also started with a Britax for DD1 so I know the frustration of outgrowing those seats faster than you expected!