Chicco KeyFit 30 Infant Car Seat Review

The Chicco KeyFit 30 is a solid choice for an infant car seat whether you'll be installing with a seatbelt or LATCh. The higher weight limit means you'll get a longer useful life for the money, and the deep car seat shell offers top-notch protection for your baby on the road.

In the past, infant car seats had weight limits of 20-22 lbs, which frustrated parents of larger babies who outgrew the seats at only a few months old. The Chicco KeyFit 30 will hold babies up to 30 lbs, so you should be able to use it longer, even for larger babies. The KeyFit 30 has three harness height slots so you can choose the right height to keep the harness at or below baby's shoulders.

I also like the deep shell of the KeyFit 30. In a crash, the infant car seat is designed to rebound, or pop back up, into the vehicle seat to ride down the crash forces. In watching crash test videos, you can see that the deep sides of the KeyFit 30 do a good job of "cocooning" the baby inside the car seat during the rebound, so that baby is well protected.

When installing the base with LATCh, KeyFit is likely the easiest infant car seat on the market. You just attach the LATCh connectors to the vehicle's hooks, push down on the car seat base, and pull the front strap to tighten. A bubble level indicator lets you know when the angle is correct, and a pop-down foot helps the base work on different vehicle seats.

Seatbelt installations are fairly easy, too. With lap belts, you don't have to work hard to get the belt through the belt path. It's well-marked and wide open. With shoulder belts, there are lock-offs on either side of the base to prevent the annoying tilt that often happens with infant car seat bases and shoulder belts.

For a car seat that holds a fairly heavy baby, the Chicco KeyFit is pretty lightweight. That's good, because once you add baby, your arms may tire quickly!

There isn't much I don't like about this infant car seat. The canopy is a bit stiff and doesn't always adjust to the right position to block the sun.

The Chicco KeyFit 30 car seat base is wide, which could be a problem if you need to fit three car seats across the back seat of your vehicle. It's worth a try, though, before ruling this seat out, since the KeyFit 30 is one of the best infant car seat options available right now.

You do have to un-thread the harness to change the harness height. It's not terribly difficult to do this, but I recommend only un-threading one strap at a time so you can be sure to get them re-attached correctly.

As your baby gets towards 30 lbs., the Chicco KeyFit 30 may lose some of its convenience as a carrier car seat since you may not want to lug a 25 lb. baby plus the extra weight of the car seat. It's still a great car seat, but you might find that you prefer to leave it in the car after 20 lbs. or so.

Some parents complain that the Chicco KeyFit 30 is an odd size that doesn't fit in shopping carts. Whether to file this under "inconvenience" or "safety feature" is the conundrum here. It's actually considered a safety hazard to put baby's infant car seat on top of a shopping cart. While I, as a former car-seat-in-the-shopping-cart parent, can appreciate the grumblings over the KeyFit 30 not working in this manner, it might be that Chicco was doing us a favor there by not allowing their car seats to make shopping carts top-heavy and dangerous.

• Fits babies from 4-30 lbs.
• Newborn insert for infants 4-11 lbs.
• EPS foam liner for impact protection.
• Three harness heights.
• One stay-in-car base included.
• Bubble levelers on either side of base.
• Spring-loaded pop-down foot helps base fit vehicle seats.
• Single-pull LATCh installation.
• Built-in lock-offs for shoulder belts.
• Works as travel system with several Chicco strollers.

Related Reviews from Consumer Search

• Chicco Key Fit Infant Car Seat Reviews at Consumer Search
• Chicco Key Fit 30 Infant Car Seat Reviews at Consumer Search
• Chicco Cortina Stroller Reviews at Consumer Search