Nautilus Chestclip Issues

[JerseyGirl'sMama]

My friend recently got the Nautilus for her 2 1/2 year old. He is a big boy. He has already figured out how to unbuckle the chestclip. I discussed with her as best I could over the phone about making sure the harness was properly tight, and chestclip at chest/armpit level. She says all that is good.

Any ideas what she can do?

[BW1426]

Thin strips of the scratchy velcro part where he has to push to open the chestclip.

[JerseyGirl'sMama]

Thin strips of the scratchy velcro part where he has to push to open the chestclip.

Ok, thanks. How is that going to help? Just deter him? He is really a handful. Has anyone else tried this?

[Patriot201]

How is he doing that?

My Nautilus's chest clip is hard for even me to open. It takes me a good 30-60 seconds to get it open.

[Unregistered]

How is he doing that?

My Nautilus's chest clip is hard for even me to open. It takes me a good 30-60 seconds to get it open.

I'll swap seats with you any day then! We got the Nautilus a few weeks ago and the chest clip is my one big complaint. It's so easy to open, my two year old is opening it every chance he gets. Half the time he's got the clip open before I'm even in my seat and I have to go back and close it again. I've had to pull over several times to do it up again. It's really very loose, even when it's fastened properly it seems kind of loose and not as secure as the older design one on our comfort sport.

I'm sure I heard somewhere about a Graco thing that goes over the chest clip to stop kids from opening it but I can't find any information about it anywhere. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Am I just going crazy?

[JerseyGirl'sMama]

I'll swap seats with you any day then! We got the Nautilus a few weeks ago and the chest clip is my one big complaint. It's so easy to open, my two year old is opening it every chance he gets. Half the time he's got the clip open before I'm even in my seat and I have to go back and close it again. I've had to pull over several times to do it up again. It's really very loose, even when it's fastened properly it seems kind of loose and not as secure as the older design one on our comfort sport.

I'm sure I heard somewhere about a Graco thing that goes over the chest clip to stop kids from opening it but I can't find any information about it anywhere. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Am I just going crazy?

I have never heard of the cover.

[An Aurora]

How is he doing that?

My Nautilus's chest clip is hard for even me to open. It takes me a good 30-60 seconds to get it open.

Ditto this. Ours is very hard to open.


I'm sure I heard somewhere about a Graco thing that goes over the chest clip to stop kids from opening it but I can't find any information about it anywhere. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Am I just going crazy?

Britax makes one for their seats, maybe this is what you are thinking of.

[Jeanum]

Britax has a "training tool" available upon request to thwart kids from reaching the harness adjuster lever to loosen the harness on Britax seats, but I'm not aware of a cover from Britax or Graco for the chest clip to deter kids from unbuckling the chest clip.

[Unregistered]

Well this is just weird. I keep reading all these reviews and the posts here about how hard it is to open the chest clip. I'm wondering if mine is somehow faulty now. I really don't see how it could be but it really is so easy to open. We've also had the latchloc infant seat, comfortsport convertible, and a cosco booster (the cheapo blue one from Target, name escapes me) and they are all much harder to open. It was actually one of the first things that struck me about the seat, I didn't understand why Graco would go from the secure clip on the comfort sport to the new style on the nautilus that is so easy to open.

Now I have a burning urge to go round every store that sells it and play with the chest buckles. I'll probably be going up to strange moms in parking lots asking if I can play with their seats too *snort*

[Kat_Momof3]

mine was difficult till I got used to it... it was me, not the clip.

but... Ruthie can't open it... but again, probably HER, not the clip

I would encourage her to not only use the velcro as a temporary solution, but to further it with discipline... if he keeps doing it, pull over EVERY TIME and correct him.

[Unregistered]

mine was difficult till I got used to it... it was me, not the clip.

but... Ruthie can't open it... but again, probably HER, not the clip

I would encourage her to not only use the velcro as a temporary solution, but to further it with discipline... if he keeps doing it, pull over EVERY TIME and correct him.

The trouble with that theory is we'd never get anywhere! I can do the clip up and by the time I'm in the drivers seat again it's undone. Even if it's still done up by the time I start the car it's undone by the time I back up and certainly by the time I reach the end of the street. It's not safe and it's certainly not practical to stop every few yards, get out the car and do up the clip.

At this point I'm just hoping that Graco does a recall and gives out clips that actually work.

[kelharris79]

I'm wondering if some of the Graco chest clips are possibly defective. Ours is in-between the extremely easy to open and the near-impossible. I bought the Nautilus for my 5 year old a few weeks ago, and it was hard for me to figure out how to open it at first- took some getting used to, but I figured it was because this is the first Graco seat I've had, so I thought it was just different. Now that I've figure it out, my 5 year old can do it from time to time, but it is by no means easy for her to do. She really has to work at it, so I'm surprised that a 2 year old could easily do it, especially over and over again. If you haven't yet, I'd say contact Graco. They should at least be able to give you more info and tell you if that's been a common problem, and send you a new chest clip hoping that that helps.
Good luck!

[joolsplus3]

The trouble with that theory is we'd never get anywhere! I can do the clip up and by the time I'm in the drivers seat again it's undone. Even if it's still done up by the time I start the car it's undone by the time I back up and certainly by the time I reach the end of the street. It's not safe and it's certainly not practical to stop every few yards, get out the car and do up the clip.

At this point I'm just hoping that Graco does a recall and gives out clips that actually work.

Have you called them yet to describe your problem?

[jaded]

Chest clips are for pre-crash positioning of harness straps, nothing more. The fact that a 2 year old can undo the chest clip isn't a recall-worthy matter, as many of us with older kids can well remember the paper-clip style chest clips, and how easy it was for a determined child to undo those. And those were never recalled, just phased out.

My 6yo can undo the chest clip(and do it up) but my 4 yo nephew who is also in a Nautilus can not. 6yo does know not to do it unless it's time to get out of the car though.

I would give Graco a call, and see if someone there has some ideas for you.

[Unregistered]

I emailed them and nobody has replied; that was about a week ago. I've come to the conclusion that I do have a faulty clip. We went to TRU and the clip on their floor model is much trickier to open. I noticed that the bottom of the clip is quite easy to push in but that the top needs a little wiggle or something, can't describe it but it's harder to open than mine for sure.

Guess I need to call them and (a) complain about the clip and (b) complain about the horrible customer service people that can't respond to an email within a week. I've just about got the little dude convinced that opening it is not cool but I'm not convinced it's really safe (I know it's not technically necessary but still) and there are other people out there with defective clips so Graco needs a firecracker up the butt to fix the issue.