Could an SS1 last longer RF than AO?

Theoretically, could the SS1 last longer than the AO rear-facing? Here's my story. DS is 2 months old, about 14lbs and 25 inches. He's currently in an Evenflo PortAbout 5 that I'm having some issues with. I have an AO waiting for him that DD outgrew RF at 19 months (so she has an EFTA now). I know the SS1 can last some kids to 2 years old. Does anyone know the harness slot heights for the SS1 and the usable slot heights for the AO? I know the top slots can't be used in harness mode. My AO is up high in a closet now, but if I have to dig it out I will. I just thought I'd ask if any of you have these stats handy.

I know the AO will RF to 35lbs and the SS1 only to 30, but assuming he outgrows them by height before 30lbs, I'm trying to see if the SS1 might be a better idea.

If we don't get the SS1 and he uses the AO after the infant seat, he will take Jessie's EFTA when he outgrows the AO RF. I want to keep Jessie in the EFTA as long as possible because she's still RF and has lots of room left... by the time DS needs it, she may still fit RF and I don't want to buy another convertible if she won't last long RF, but I will if I have to.

I hope this makes sense, thank you so much for your help!

The back height of the shell is the main thing in determining when a seat is outgrown by height rearfacing, so from looking at the two measurements, the AO will last longer height wise then the SS1.

The SS1 has a back height of 20". The AO back height is hard to tell exactly, but the carseat measurements website (Link broken: website no longer exists) shows anywhere from 22-25" depending on seat type.

MomToEliEm said:

The back height of the shell is the main thing in determining when a seat is outgrown by height rearfacing

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Right, I know they have to have 1" of hard shell above their head... I guess I didn't think about the fact that the seats could have varying amounts of shell height above the top slots. Hmm.

Sounds like the SS1 won't last as long as the AO rear-facing, if the minimum shell height for AO is 22". My DD outgrew the AO RF by height at 19 months and 21lbs, and she has a short torso. She is 28 months now and has a 12.5" torso (you can see in my siggy that she still has lots of room above her head in the EFTA). I was thinking the SS1 might actually provide more height room than the AO, but maybe not.

I'll have to get DH to dig out our AO so I can measure it. Thanks!

If anyone else has additional info on the height specs, I'd appreciate it.

MomToEliEm said:

The AO back height is hard to tell exactly, but the carseat measurements website (Link broken: website no longer exists) shows anywhere from 22-25" depending on seat type.

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Ours is the basic Cosco Alpha Omega (not Elite), which isn't on that list. Does the back height of this seat mean the top of the movable head rest part, or the back of the actual car seat shell? I knew the answer to this when DD was outgrowing it, but for some reason I can't remember that now.

It would be the shell of the seat, not the top of the headrest.

AO would definitely last longer - although your's may be old enough to be one of the shorter shelled ones if your dd outgrew it by height at 19 mos with a short torso. My ds with an over 13" torso still fits the AOE by height with growing room last time he was in it. (There's .5" difference in harness height between the AO and AOE, I don't think the shell height difference is very much either.) He'd be out of the SS1 by now - I'm guessing he outgrew it around 6 months ago or so, he was bordering on about .25 to .5" of growing room left when I sold it at 15mos.

At any rate, the SS1 shouldn't last longer than an AO. When ds was outgrowing the SS1, he only had 2" growing room in a RA when I put him in it at the store, just for comparison. He would last in the AOE longer than the RA by height...

snowbird25ca said:

My ds with an over 13" torso still fits the AOE by height with growing room last time he was in it.

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RF? I never put DD in it FF to know if she'd still fit it that way, just took her out of it when she outgrew it RF and then put her in the EFTA. I was not ready to FF her yet, plus she was under the FF weight limit for the seat anyway, so I couldn't have turned her in it even if I wanted to... I'm pretty sure it had a 22lb and 34" minimum to FF.

I kind of figured the AO would last longer, but figured it would be worth asking about. It would be one more tidbit that could help convince DH we "need" an SS1.

Let's see if I can figure out how to do this. Here's a pic of DD in her AO right before I switched her to the EFTA.

Yep, rf'ing. Was there one more adjustment on the headrest that would leave it in a usable position? The seat shell itself there's still a few inches room in that picture. I'm not sure if that seat is one with the slightly shorter harness height or not though - some that was where the headrest sat at top usable, and some sat higher than that in top usable.

Not that it matters now since you have another seat that she has tons more room in, but it looks like she still had a good amount of growing room in the seat when the pic was taken. :thumbsup:

snowbird25ca said:

Not that it matters now since you have another seat that she has tons more room in, but it looks like she still had a good amount of growing room in the seat when the pic was taken. :thumbsup:

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I was thinking the same thing when I saw that picture.

snowbird25ca said:

Not that it matters now since you have another seat that she has tons more room in, but it looks like she still had a good amount of growing room in the seat when the pic was taken. :thumbsup:

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I'm so sorry! I posted the wrong pic. That one was a bad angle, I realized it after I posted, then I had to run so I didn't have time to change it. Oops!





There was one more usable slot in the harness, but to me it looked like she was too close to the top of the seat. These pics were taken the same day as the one I posted previously. Hopefully I can get DS to last a while in it RF before he has to take Jessie's EFTA.

Does it still look she had more room?

Thanks everyone for your help, I appreciate it!

MomToEliEm said:

The AO back height is hard to tell exactly, but the carseat measurements website (Link Broken: Website no longer exists) shows anywhere from 22-25" depending on seat type.

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I just measured my AO. I have the seat in recline mode, and I removed the infant padding to get as close to accurate as possible. I measured the top of the shell at 20". Wow! There's always room for human error, but I did it a few times and came out at 20" each time. I also measured the slots that Jessie was using when she outgrew the seat, and they were 12.5". I had JUST moved her up to those a few days before I took her out of the seat, and they were even with her shoulders (maybe 1/2" below her shoulders at most). She was also still using the infant insert that came with the seat because she would slouch and slide forward without it.