The Britax One4Life Car Seat Can Be Used from Birth to 10 Years Old—But Is It Worth the Cost? We Tested It Out.

• Value: 18/20
• Functionality: 19/20
• Ease of Use: 19/20
• Aesthetics: 19/20
• Quality: 19/20
  TOTAL: 94/100

News to no one: Kids are expensive. If there’s a way to save money on family essentials then we’re all ears. Enter: The Britax One4Life Car Seat, a convertible car seat that will take you from the newborn phase all the way through to 10 years old. Yep, with the One4Life you can purchase just one car seat to take you from birth to elementary school. This longevity comes at a cost, of course, with prices ranging from $320 to $400. So we decided to put the One4Life to the test. Here’s our honest review of the convertible car seat, including how easy it was to install and if it’s worth the cost.

I already own the Britax Boulevard ClickTight Convertible Car Seat for my now 4-year-old, a purchase we made after consulting with multiple friends, scouring reviews and researching safety ratings. One friend’s husband actually spent months researching the best and safest car seat before landing on Britax, so I felt confident in our decision, and we’ve been very happy with it so far. When it was time to get another convertible car seat for my second child, who is one years old, I knew which brand to turn to. While I was tempted to get another Boulevard model, the fact that the One4Life can be turned into a booster seat was a huge draw. (Two kids means double the cost, after all.) We’ve had the One4Life seat for over two months now and have used it on trips to the beach, the grocery store and even a 4-hour road trip. It has been used on city roads and country roads, for snacking, napping and playing. We also changed cars not too long ago and installed the One4Life seat twice.

Some reviewers have found the One4Life to be on the larger and heavier side, but as someone who already had a Britax car seat I didn’t see this as an issue (the Boulevard and the One4Life are essentially the same size). My two Britax car seats fit comfortably and safely in my SUV, but if you needed three car seats then you would definitely need a third row (which I assume would be the case with any three car seats but moms of three, please let me know if I’m wrong here!). Here’s what you need to know:

• Product Weight: 30 pounds
• Product Dimensions: 20.5 inches (depth) x 19.5 inches (width) x 25 inches (height)
• Seat Area Depth / Width: 13.25 inches
• Shoulder Width: 14 inches

For comparison, the Graco Extend2Fit Convertible Car Seat, another popular convertible car seat, measures 21 inches deep, 20 inches wide and 24 inches high, and weighs 19 pounds. So yeah, the Britax One4Life may be tad longer and heavier, but that’s to be expected since it’s supposed to last for 10 years or until 120 pounds (the Graco seat only goes up to 65 pounds, which is the average weight of a 9-year-old boy.)

The Britax One4Life ClickTight All-in-One Car Seat grows with your child from birth to 10 years.

More important than age, however, is your child’s height and weight. Here are the One4Life weight and height limits:

• Rear-facing: 5 to 50 pounds (child’s head also needs to be 1 inch below top edge of headrest)
• Forward-facing: 22 to 65 pounds, 49 inches or less
• Highback booster: 40 to 120 pounds, 44 to 63 inches, at least 4 years old

Like other Britax models, installing the One4Life is fairly straightforward thanks to their ClickTight technology, which lets you install the seat using the seatbelt. 

For rear-facing installation, all you need to do is:

1. Open the seat.
2. Follow the path to thread the seat belt through and buckle it.
3. Click the seat closed.

In our experience, those three steps were pretty easy. What takes a little more time, is making sure that the recline is set correctly. The seat has nine recline positions, numbered 1 through 8 for the rear and forward-facing harness modes, and B for booster mode. Like many other car models, there’s a handy indicator that turns black to let you know when your recline isn’t right and when you’ve done it correctly (the arrow should be in blue or green, depending on the child’s age and neck control). This isn’t hard to do but you may need to try a few modes until you reach the sweet spot (especially if you set the recliner before you install it). 

For forward-facing installation, the steps are similar, but you’ll also want to unhook the tether from the back of the One4Life seat, pass it over the car’s seat and hook it to the tether anchor in your car.

Note: You can also use LATCH to install the car seat, but Britax recommends the seat belt method. LATCH stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children and lets you install a car seat by attaching metal clips on the car seat to hooks built into the car, something that can be found on all cars and car seats manufactured after September 1, 2002.

For installation, we liked that the built-in mechanism tightens everything into place. Our previous infant car seat required a lot of pulling (and sweating) to get it into the correct position. Again, the ClickTight technology really does make installation easier.

While all car seats are required to pass extensive safety tests, Britax does have a few standout features that are worth mentioning. The first one is the SafeCell Technology,  a honeycomb-like structure located in the base of the seat that’s designed to compress in the event of a crash, thereby lowering the center of gravity and counteracting the forward motion of the child seat. There is also a V-shaped tether that helps absorb crash energy, plus two layers of side impact protection.

Having said that, I was disappointed to learn that in a BabyGearLab crash test, the One4Life performed significantly worse than the Boulevard. Per the pros, “with disappointing results during crash testing, we feel this option is not one we'd recommend, as you can find a better seat with better crash test results that cost the same or less than this option with similar scores overall. If Britax is your brand of choice, we believe the Britax Boulevard ClickTight ARB is a better option.”

Have baby, will travel. Fortunately, the One4Life is FAA-approved when used with the harness, say the pros over at Car Seat Blog. You cannot use the One4Life, however, if you are using it as a booster seat, since booster seats require lap/shoulder belts.

As previously mentioned, this car seat was easy to install, which is a huge plus. It’s also very comfortable with plush padding, no annoying tags that will irritate a small child’s sensitive skin, built-in arm rests and mesh panels for air flow. I wouldn’t say my daughter loves sitting in the seat (she started walking at ten months—the girl just wants to move!), but she has napped comfortably in there and if she’s in a good mood, she sits happily listening to music and making silly faces at her brother. 

I love the two included cup holders (something the Boulevard doesn’t have) because I can put my daughter’s water bottle in one and a snack cup in the other (how else do you think I got through that four-hour road trip?). It comes in12 color options (trust us—go for something dark), as well with a few much-appreciated accessories, namely a removable infant insert and a removable head. 

Similar to the Boulevard (and every other car seat I’ve tested), it can be difficult to adjust the straps, particularly in the rear-facing mode. The straps are nice and thick (great for safety and comfort) but that means that if they get twisted (why do they always get twisted?), it can take some fiddling around to set them straight or tighten them. This isn’t a big deal, but it can be slightly annoying when you’ve got a screaming toddler in the seat. 

• Longevity
• Lots of adjustability (nine recline positions, 15 headrest positions)
• Comes with accessories
• Comfortable
• Machine-washable (because no one wants the smell of spilt yogurt to linger in the car)

• Some reviewers find the seat to be large
• Disappointing crash test from BabyGearLab
• Car seat straps can be tricky to adjust

At $400, this car seat is a big expense. But considering that it may be the only car seat you ever need, it’s actually not as expensive as you think, and on par with other brands offering that kind of longevity. (The Evenflo Gold Revolve360 also lasts 10 years and costs $430, for example.) Apart from the longevity factor, we like how comfortable the seat is and how easy it is to install. 

If you’re looking for a car seat that will take you from hospital to pre-teen, the Britax One4Life is a solid choice.

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