Troubles Tightening Straps on Safe Embrace?

Troubles Tightening Straps on Safe Embrace?

I'm having real trouble getting the straps to tighten on my FPSE. We're using it rear-facing and it seems that the straps hit an end point and can tighten no further no matter how hard I yank on them. I uninstalled the seat, took a look at the bottom to see if anything was catching and couldn't see a problem. I reinstalled it and tried tightening the straps without my baby in it and they tightened all the way flat against the seat. They worked fine the next couple of times I used it and then they started doing the same thing again. I'm really worried because I can't seem to get the straps tight enough on her shoulders. She's a tall 5 1/2 month old and her shoulders are at the top slots. I tried her in the lower slots and still had the same problem.

Has anyone else experienced this with a Safe Embrace convertible seat? If so, did you find a solution?

---Staci

Interesting problem

Have you tried the tug-stop-tug method? That's what I've heard works best on tightening the FPSE harness. Just use short tugs. I guess if that doesn't work then you should call FP and see what they say. I've had this problem before on a friend's Evenflo seat, but wasn't able to come up with a solution for it.

What harness slots are you using now? The top slots of the FPSE are for forward-facing only. I don't have a FPSE manual in front of me, but I believe it's OK to use the middle slots, even if your child's shoulders are above them. Double-check this in the manual.

Let us know if you come up with a solution! Good luck!

Heather

Another suggestion

What I have done that works with troubled harness straps is to assist the harness. As you are pulling the strap in the front, put your hand behind the seat and pull on the harness straps from the rear at the same time you are pulling on the front.

Here's what I do...

The last person recommended pulling the strap on the back...that works great while rear facing, but when you turn it around to forward facing, you can pull the strap up around the shoulders while you're tightening it, it will help. Sort of like you're force feeding it through the back of the seat. It works for rear facing too, but I agree it is easier to just pull on the strap from behind the seat since you can reach it anyway.

hth

Joni

Re: Troubles Tightening Straps on Safe Embrace?

Sorry 'bout the confusion, I meant that I'm using the top slots allowed for rfing...so the middle slots.

I have been pulling them in the back at the same time as the front and it still doesn't work. I'll try the 'short' tugs method. I've been kind of doing that, pulling it until it stops, releasing it and then doing it again.

I'm thinking that I'm going to call Fisher Price to see what they say. When I was reading the reviews on this seat on epinions a few other people had the same problem. If I find out anything new by calling I let you know.


---Staci

Re: Troubles Tightening Straps on Safe Embrace?

I'm glad I'm not the only one having this problem - my parents have a FPSE for my DD in their car, and I don't like it as much as our Roundabouts - it's too difficult for me to tighten, and it makes me wonder if they're tightening it correctly (I've talked about this with my dad, and showed him how tight her harness is in our car, and he says he gets it that tight as well, but I'm just a worrier!). Did you ever find any information?

Tracy

Re: Troubles Tightening Straps on Safe Embrace?

There is a recall on the harness adjuster for some SE. You might want to check it out.

Re: Troubles Tightening Straps on Safe Embrace?

Okay, I finally called Fisher Price about this. Mine is a model 79701, so there's no recall on the straps.

They gave me a couple of tips:

-Pull the harness straps all the way out before putting baby in.
-Make sure you're pulling as straight away from the carseat as possible (we're rfing so this is difficult)

They're sending me a new harness kit anyway, so I'll try that and see how it works.

HOWEVER, upon inspecting my carseat more closely I noticed something. I had threaded the shoulder straps through the seat backwards. It's really, really easy to do and hard to notice if it's wrong. I sat there comparing one strap to the other for a couple minutes just figuring out if they were indeed threaded through differently and lo and behold they were! The way to make sure you're doing it right is to hold the strap straight up in the air, ensuring there is absolutely no twist and thread it through flat.

It sounds obvious, but it's really easy to do it backwards and the way the straps lie when they're pulled out makes it hard to notice the difference.

After I did this they seem to work fine out of the car, but I still have to check when it's installed in the car. What I noticed was happening when they were the wrong way was that one side was pulling up faster than the other so that one side would be as tight as it could go with the other having a lot of slack left.

Hope that helps someone. So...double check your straps!

---Staci