POLL: have you owned a Britax convertable & had the recline mech break

[Synchro246]

I would like to know how many Britax convertable owners have had one who's recline mechanism break or fail to work properly.

[CDNTech]

I've had two and neither have broken.

I also know of three others (friend's seats, not on this forum) that also have Marathon's and theirs have never broken either.

So, 5 total and nothing wrong.

[LuvBug03]

is this a written poll? If so, we have had 2 MAs and neither broke.

I'll vote if a poll shows up too.

[Synchro246]

OK, poll is now made ;)
I've owned two (three if you count the BV that got replaced) and the recline mechanism on my RA is broken.

ETA-- tried some suggestios below and got the recline to work again :o

[katemass]

I had a Marathon that had this trouble. At some point during its life the recline mechanism stopped working so the seat wouldn't stay in the upright position. I was using it FF, so needed it to stay upright. It was beyond warranty but Britax paid to ship it back to them and, when they couldn't fix it, they sent me a new seat. They were great about the whole thing.

I've also had a Roundabout and a second Marathon and haven't had any trouble with them.

Kate

[melniemi]

My marathon with dom 10/04 works great. Was first rfing then ffing then rfing then ffing and now rfing again. No issues at all. I :love: it and am going to buy another from target right now!!

[Sarabela]

I recently got 2 new blvds because of the recline mechanism being broken. They had been installed RF which I am told is what usually causes the problem.

[wendytthomas]

Two Advantages, two Wizards, and nope, never a problem with the recline. With other people's cars and seats I've only seen one once, and the Marathon and Boulevard are pretty popular here.

Wendy

[supermommyof2]

I've mostly use my MA (DOM 10/07) RFing, last time I took it out I had to force it into upright position. Hopefully it won't actually break, I can live with it being difficult.

[KAK22]

We have 2 MAs and both have had issues when going back to upright mode. When I first read about the problem on here, I went and played with ours. They both were very difficult to get back into upright mode, but I was able to get it to click into place.

When DD was still RF, I did "exercise" it everytime her seat was out (which wasn't often) to make sure it would still click back.

Thankfully I didn't have to contact Britax with ours.

[mcomommy]

We have two MA's with no problems but the have been installed on ff and one rf the entire time we have had them. The rear facing one most likely will stay that way until it expires as the third baby will just move into it when dd2 goes ff.

[NZ Child Restraints]

No problems with the recline on my MA. I have had the tether housing break though, and the cover has faded heaps at the top.

[natysr]

I've had a RA, MA and BLVD. None have broken. The MA doesn't easily go into FF mode. It will "fall" back into RF mode. BUT, if you turn the seat upside down and pull up on the base while pushing down on the back of the shell, then it loudly snaps into FF mode and then stays there.

[snowbird25ca]

I own a MA and had no problems with the base even with using the tether to get it from pretty upright to almost a newborn recline. (It was installed that way from end of Sept I think through until a couple weeks ago.) One time it was a bit stiff popping in to the ff'ing position, but I didn't have to do anything special to get it to lock, just tried a few times and then it went...

It's been switched between ff'ing and rf'ing a number of times now - I'm thinking it's been installed rf'ing 4 times now and it started out ff'ing and is back ff'ing again now. I've had a bit more than 1.5yrs now, so who knows if it'll have problems in the future. It's probably only going to get used ff'ing now though, so who knows how the mechanism would fare if it was switched a few more times over the years. :shrug-shoulders:

[TXAggieTech]

Of the 4 MAs and 1 RA that are used the most I have had none of them fail. On the 3 MAs that are RFing most of the time they were getting stuck for a while. After reading the threads on here I finally convinced DH that the RFing tether just needed to be taunt, not tight and it is not so hard to get it out of recline mode now.

There was a few time that it was really stuck and was not so easy to unrecline. Once to the point that I just put DS back in RFing in a friends car and let DH deal with it later. It was over a 100 outside and his was the 4th seat in a row getting moved.

[cryswilkins]

My RA DOM 8/06 broke after 6 months. Britax replaced it not issues.

[Synchro246]

Thanks everyone so far for your imput! Is anyone suprised at the results? I'm shocked that such a high proportion of us have experienced a recline mechanism issue. Even if it's only one of many seats we own that has the issue that's still a large proportion.
I will be calling Britax about mine. I hadn't considered it before (it's out of warranty & it I don't need it for FF). Wish me a less than 30 minute hold time :p

[CPS_obsessed_EMT]

The recline broke on my BLVD. I once read someone who'd went to a Britax seminar that they figured out this problem is caused by parents putting too much weight into the seat trying to attain a tight RF tether.

This is true in my case-- every time I installed it RF, I bounced my weight into it tightening down the RF tether (it ended up being really upright and I was trying to make it more reclined)

They sent me a brand new BLVD free of charge, and I am being careful with this one to only remove the slack and not use pressure to tighten it.

[Synchro246]

Oh, that reminds me. I never really tightened the tether down. I only had it RF tethered for a short time in my civic and it was braced so much that really the only possibility was to take the slack out.
I will admit to putting a LOT of downward force on the seat for general installation though.

[Susan in MI]

I have an '02 RA and an '04 MA, both move easily from upright to recline and back again.

[Synchro246]

I've been meaning to get back to this thread since I re-installed the seats a week ago. I tried some suggestions and I got it to WORK!!!! WOooooot. thank you :)

[amy919]

The recline mechanism on my MA broke, but they replaced it with a brand new seat, even though it was out of warranty :thumbsup:.

I had no issues with the recline mechanism on my RA.

[Niea]

I've had a RA, MA and BLVD. None have broken. The MA doesn't easily go into FF mode. It will "fall" back into RF mode. BUT, if you turn the seat upside down and pull up on the base while pushing down on the back of the shell, then it loudly snaps into FF mode and then stays there.

I have the same issue with my Blvd. It's doable, but not broken.

Out of the 3 Britax seats we have (Decathlon, Roundabout, Boulevard), none have broken.