Combi Zeus 360: My Review

christineka

New member
I got my hands on the Zeus 360 and had to try it out. I knew is was a small seat, but didn't realize just how small! It is a niche seat. The small size and the turning capabilities would be great for a small, 2 door car.

First of all, the seat comes with all kinds of padding. There is a combo head pad: a small one with a big one on top. They can be used separately. There is an infant pad which adds a considerable amount of hight (about 1 inch). That pad must be used for infants under 25 pounds that are below the top harness slot both rear and forward facing. The harness has 3 sets of loops, so it can get pretty tight on a tiny infant. With the required infant pad in place, the bottom slot comes to about 8.5 inches, which would be sufficient for many newborn babies.

To install the seat, you can use latch. It's just the regular hook-type latch. First the seat needs to be in rear-facing mode. Then just put it in the belt path (bends the strap), buckle, tighten, then put the seat forward. It's the same with a lap-only belt. When you have a shoulder belt, you buckle, then push the shoulder belt down into the lap belt path, turn the seat forward facing, push it down to locked mode, which then opens up space to open the lockoff. Stick the shoulder belt in, then stick your knee in the seat to tighten, and lock the lockoff. The seat should be top tethered no matter which way the seat faces, though it is not required.
zeuslockoff.jpg


When used rear-facing, the line on the side of the seat must be parallel to the ground. The seat comes with a foam block to use if the seat needs to be more reclined.
zeuslevelline.jpg

(I didn't use the foam block and the line isn't quite parallel.) The highest harness position is about 14 inches. It is reclined when installed, so it may very well be effectively less than 14 inches. All three harness positions are approved for rear-facing. Only the top two can be used forward facing.

Aside from the swivel feature, the seat has some more convenience features. When the child is unbuckled, you can stuff the chest clip pieces in the side loops to hold the harness out of the way for getting in and out.
zeusstrapholders.jpg

The buckle is only a slight puzzle. It has one nub that must be put together, then both pieces inserted into the crotch buckle together.
zeusbuckle.jpg

When unbuckled, the indicator in the crotch buckle shows "red".
zeusbucklered.jpg

When buckled, it shows "green".
zeusbucklegreen.jpg


When the seat arrived, I first set it up in the living room and took my 20 pound 21 month old for a "spin". She was scared to death! After a while, though she got used to it. My 32 pound 4 year old barely fit in the seat in both directions in the house, but when installed, he had outgrown it forward facing and most likely rear-facing as well. (It was really close.) He's the kid that can fit in the combi shuttle 33.
zeusBffing.jpg


Rear-facing
zeusBrfing.jpg


Bottom line: This seat is really nice, but I think of it more of a really nifty infant seat than a convertible seat. If you have a small 2-door car, aren't into carrying infant seats around, and find the Zeus 360 on sale, it may very well be a great seat for you. I wouldn't pay full price for it. I also would not recommend investing in it for a baby over age 1 because it just isn't going to last.
zeusArfing.jpg


Here are my videos demonstrating the swivel feature.

Turning rear-facing
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_MtU65mf0E"]YouTube - Combi Zeus 360 Turning Rear-facing[/ame]

Turning forward facing
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjbr_ALSZok"]YouTube - Combi Zeus 360: Turning the seat forward[/ame]
 
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scariestone

New member
I don't know if you've played with an orbit seat but if you have, how does it compare? They both have pitifully low RFing limits I know that much. :rolleyes: If I ever have a noob again I'd probably end up buying one or the other if said noob was in the middle seat. It absolutely killed my back bending and twisting to get DS in there before he could crawl in himself. BTW I love the look on your DD's face when you're spinning the seat. :p
 

christineka

New member
I don't know if you've played with an orbit seat but if you have, how does it compare? They both have pitifully low RFing limits I know that much. :rolleyes: If I ever have a noob again I'd probably end up buying one or the other if said noob was in the middle seat. It absolutely killed my back bending and twisting to get DS in there before he could crawl in himself. BTW I love the look on your DD's face when you're spinning the seat. :p

I haven't played with the orbit (I want too!), but the toddler seat rear-faces to, I believe 40 pounds, and ffes to 65. The top slot is 18 inches.
 

scariestone

New member
Ah they must have updated it then. Last time I looked at it it only RF to 33lbs. The base comes with the seat on the combi right? I recall when i was checking out the orbit you had to buy the base and seat separately, don't know if that's still the case or not.
 

christineka

New member
Ah they must have updated it then. Last time I looked at it it only RF to 33lbs. The base comes with the seat on the combi right? I recall when i was checking out the orbit you had to buy the base and seat separately, don't know if that's still the case or not.

Well, I was wrong, it rfes to 35 pounds. It was recently reported on the blog. It looks like you have to buy the orbit base separately for the toddler seat. You're probably supposed to start with the orbit infant seat and just move on to the toddler seat. The combi zeus is attached to the base. It doesn't come off at all.
 

Kat_Momof3

New member
while, yes, the base for the orbit is requred for turning it rf, the assumption is that people are buying to follow their infant seat, aka, that they would already have the base.... but you can also buy the base separately.

also, the orbit forward faces with two "feet" attached, off of the base, so it sits a bit lower... the zeus can only be used on the base.

and while the rf limit was not the best at first, it was pretty decent at the time it was created... and is pretty comparable to a Roundabout 50 in terms of height/weight limits when it first came out... and it's been updated, yes.

I think the orbit is much more worth it, but I also would be opting for the coccoro or an infant seat like the shuttle 33 over the zeus

(should this be moved to the reviews section??
 

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