Diono RadianRXT Convertible Car Seat
Product Details
- Product Dimensions: 10 x 17 x 28.5 inches ; 24 pounds
- Shipping Weight: 31.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
- Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
- ASIN: B005MQRAAK
- UPC: 677726169306
- Item model number: 16930
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: 963 in Baby (See Top 100 in Baby)
- 14 inBaby Car Seats Car Seats Convertible
By : Diono
Price : $289.99
You Save : $50.00 (15%)
Product Description
Color: Shadow
The Radian RXT is a highly versatile car seat that could be the only seat you’ll ever need. It comfortably seats rear-facing children from 5-45 pounds, forward-facing children from 20-80 pounds in 5-point harness, then converts to a booster for children up to 120 pounds. It’s built for strength and safety with a steel alloy frame, reinforced sidewalls, adjustable head support and our patented SafeStop energy absorbing harness. EPS foam surrounds the child's head and body to provide complete side impact protection. Our unique Superlatch system makes installation easy. The Radian RXT is NCAP crash tested, the industry benchmark for verifying child seat performance in severe accident conditions, and the only car seat rated for latch use with a child up to 80 pounds. The Radian RXT sits low on a vehicle seat for easy child boarding, features memory foam padding and infant support pillows. Expandable sides and a longer seat bottom provide extra room and comfort for your growing child. One cup holder is included, with the option to add up to 4 cup holders. In addition to all this versatility, it folds flat for travel and storage, has a 10 year life and offers amazing safety, comfort and convenience your child won’t outgrow.
Product Features
- Adjustable head support, reinforced for complete side impact safety
- Infant body support cushions
- Expandable sides and longer seat bottom for leg support and comfort
- 12 height positions a for adjustable head support
- Fits 3 across in a mid-size vehicle and offers more shoulder space
Customer Reviews
Unboxing:
First impressions of this car seat are daunting to say the least. I pulled it out of the box (a big box) and found I had to dig for the instructions right away. It comes in the collapsed mode, which allows you to attach straps and carry it as a backpack, very handy for traveling, say, on an airplane. By the way, this seat is fully airline compliant, so you shouldn't have any trouble bringing it on a plane.
Anyway, as per the directions, the base of the seat folds out for use, and does so via a simple-to-operate latch. The back of the car seat holds all the various LATCH straps and belts needed for installation either rear- or forward-facing, as well as a seat belt clip for cars built before 2001 that do not have a LATCH system. Also in the box are the backpack straps previously mentioned, as well as the infant padding you can see in the picture above, which will nicely snug in your newborn. Our son is now about 20 lbs and too big to need the extra padding.
First Impressions:
This Radian RXT is somewhat large, as you can see. Given that it can hold children all the way up to 120 lbs (which is heavier than some adults!), it should be. The headrest portion is adjustable so that the aluminum-framed head supports align correctly with your child's head.
Though tall, the seat is not especially wide, a feature Dioni says allows this seat to be installed 3-across in a vehicle. The construction is very strong and durable, composed of both heavy plastic as in most car seats and aluminum framing in certain places.
The straps are all adjustable of course, and this was the fastest part of setup for me, in contrast to many other car seats that make you remove covers and padding and whatnot; this was very straightforward to adjust to our toddler's height. A nice feature that complements the adjustable shoulder straps is the tensioner at the front of the seat which ratchets rather than just pulls, so you don't risk getting it too tight all at once when fitting it to your child.
It's a big plus to have a seat that you can take your baby home from the hospital in and not have to buy another seat until they're big enough to not need one any longer, so I was looking forward to installing it and trying it out.
Installation:
Installing the Radian RXT turned out to be very challenging with our two vehicles that I tried it in. The big disclaimer here is that unfortunately we don't have a modern SUV or minivan, so installation was doubtless more difficult than it would have been had we had one. I first tried installing it in our 2000 Isuzu Rodeo, which unfortunately does not have a LATCH system, and after struggling with it for about 30 minutes and reading the directions over and over, ultimately had to give up. The design of the seat is such that the belt path under the seat is a closed tunnel, which first of all means you need small hands to be able to thread the belts through, which wanted to get hung up inside. But once I got the seat belt through, a larger obstacle cropped up. Because the belt tunnel is so low and closed off from the top (unlike a traditional car seat base), I was unable to tighten the belt enough because the car buckle of course cannot bend around the angle of the tunnel. This was with the rear-facing base attachment properly secured, but it was still as if the belt tunnel was too low to be able to tighten the belt enough. Compounding this in a car without a LATCH system is the fact that you have to secure the belt clip and then fasten the seat belt. However, with the Radian, there was absolutely no way once I secured the belt clip to snake the tightened belt back through the tunnel and clip it into the buckle since you usually have to have lots of leverage to do that, and I'm sorry, but my fingertips just aren't strong enough to manage that.
So, on to option two, the BMW 3-series sedan. It's a 2001, so it does have a LATCH system fortunately. However, given the size of the Radian RXT, I found it couldn't be installed behind the driver's seat, which is where the current car seat goes, because the high headrest of the Radian would have meant that the drivers seat would have had to go forward too far for anyone except a little person. I'm sure it would have worked okay forward-facing, but we can't do that until the baby is bigger.
So I finally got it installed on the passenger side of the car, but seemed to have a similar problem tightening the LATCH straps, due to the belt tunnel seeming too low. But in actuality, when tightened down as absolutely as I could, the manual says that when gripped at the tunnel, the seat should not move more than an inch in any direction, which it doesn't. However, it didn't seem right at first because shaking the seat from the headrest resulted in a lot of play. I guess this is to be expected since there's lots of leverage there, it's just that the manual didn't say anything about how much the headrest could be expected to move, and it seemed like a lot compared to the compact car seat we were currently using.
Use:
So the installation was rough, and took almost an hour before it was finally installed. But once it was in, use is as simple as any other car seat, and the quality of the buckles across the chest and between the legs definitely seems a notch above. As mentioned earlier, all adjust easily and connect positively. I also liked how once our son was in there that it seemed more open and airy than a traditional car seat while holding him securely. In any case, I see no issues with further use, and I know it will prove to be an excellent car seat whenever we finally do get a modern minivan.
Final Thoughts:
The Radian RXT from Diono is very well-built and versatile. You could buy 2 or 3 car seats for your young one until they don't need them, or you could get the one Radian RXT. It's adjustability and quality of materials is definitely above par. I just wish the belt tunnel had been designed to make installation without a LATCH system less painless. That said, my difficulties with installation could just be that a fault of general ineptitude with car seats, mechanical prowess in many other areas notwithstanding, and not so much a fault with the seat. The Radian has lots of great reviews on Amazon, including one I read from a lady who has two in her Honda Civic, so maybe it was just a bad combination of an older car and installing while tired. In any case, the Radian RXT is a great carseat and one that I know will be able to handle all the abuse a baby/toddler/child can throw at it.
I bought this car seat for my youngest son about two months ago. Being the youngest of 3 boys, he had always used our hand me down Britax seats and they are great but getting old. Since he was riding in seat that was almost 7 years old, I thought it might be time to upgrade. I'd heard about the Sunshine kids and that they have a slim profile, so I wanted to check it out. While we have a minivan, we travel frequently and I prefer to have all 3 boys in the middle row during trips. It is easier for everyone but the width of the Britax makes it difficult to fit along with 2 Recaro boosters (which I adore). Anyway, that is how I came to investigate the Sunshine / Diono seats.
What I love:
The steel frame. We live in Southern Europe where the driving is quite perilous. Safety is the PRIMARY concern.
The ability to grown into a regular booster.
The fold and carry. Again, we travel a lot and when we fly, this makes transporting the seat through the airport MUCH easier. I've done the Britax and Diono. Diono wins.
The removable cup holders. Great to have when you have room, can remove when you don't, or relocated.
Thinner profile. I was able to fit 2 boosters and the Diono across the back of an Altima rental car. It wasn't pretty but I did it. The van should be cake.
Lower profile. My son is almost 2 and he could crawl into the Britax but the lower profile is much easier for him to get into and out of on his own.
What I don't love:
The weight. That steel frame comes at a cost and it's your back. At least when carrying. I am a tall, athletic female and it was heavy. Petite women might struggle but with the fold flat feature, you can place it on a luggage cart much more efficiently. The Britax took a whole cart b/c of it's odd shape.
The shoulder harness. I am spoiled by the Britax knob to raise and lower the straps. The Diono is old school. Not a huge deal but not what I was hoping for.
The "wings" are difficult to adjust. I figured out it was best to "walk" them up or down. Alternate pushing on each side instead of equal pressure.
I think that's about it. Overall, I'm thrilled with the purchase. I was very confused and frustrated by all the accusations in the reviews but I did some additional research, took a chance, and it worked out. I highly recommend and I did purchase via Amazon.
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