Combi Shuttle reviews?

[Kristydrosgers]

I am 5 minutes from ordering this carseat, but I haven't ever seen one in person and don't know much about the brand.

 

[safeinthecar]

Are you looking at the original Shuttle, or the Shuttle 33?

 

[Kristydrosgers]

The original, it just went on sale from 169 to 99.

http://www.albeebaby.com/combi-shuttle-infant-car-seat-apricot.html

 

[christineka]

I have one that I'm selling It is a bit shorter than the big seats, but it still seems tall for a 22 pound seat. It certainly isn't as nice as my keyfit, but it seems nice enough for a regular infant seat. I like the no-thread harness height adjuster. It has a puzzle buckle.

 

[safeinthecar]

The original was OK. The base is an interesting install. There is a lock-off, so you will never need to use a locking clip with the base, but it is not a great design. Not that hard, but not that easy either. If you decide to go with it, I'd be happy to give you a few tricks to make it easier. Baseless installs are particularly easy due to the anti-rebound bar

The seat does have a tendency to be tricky to get out of the base.

The harness does not have terminal ends, which means the hip strap on one side wraps under the seat and back up to become the other hip strap. I'm not a fan of that particular design in general, and I really dislike it on the original Shuttle because it doesn't slide back and forth under the shell smoothly. This makes it a bit difficult to get the straps adjusted for a teeny baby if you have accidentally pulled more harness to one side than the other. The position of the hip straps fits lower on the legs than most infant seats. For the most part, this is just a cosmetic issue, but some people have reported that the hip straps end up by the ankles of preemies.

The buckle is a puzzle buckle, meaning you have to join the buckles to each other before inserting them. The infant insert is average.

On average, babies fit this seat until 5-9 months.

The new Shuttle 33 has a much better base. The lockoff has been completely redesigned to be super easy to use. The install is super easy now. The baseless install is the same. The seat no longer sticks in the base.

The hip straps now have terminal ends, meaning each hip strap is attached individually to the shell. No more uneven harness problems and the positioning is much better on babies thighs.

You still have a puzzle buckle, but the infant insert is much much better and there is a ton of different ways to configure the harness slots and head rest to give a perfect fit. Tiny preemies will fit really well.

On average, most babies will fit until about 10-15 months.
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In short, the Shuttle is a nice seat with a few annoying quirks and $99 is a pretty good price. I personally use infant seats without the base a lot, so the more difficult base install would not bug me much. I would hate the harness getting uneven, but I trust myself to be careful and for the short amount of time I would be using the seat I wouldn't mind it.

If I wanted an infant seat to use for more than just the the first few months, I would spend the extra $60 on the 33.

http://www.google.com/products/cata...ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBIQ8wIwAQ#ps-sellers