Graco Nautilus

[sb518]

I purchased the G Nautilus at my local Wal-mart for $149.99

I was amazed at how huge and heavy the box was! It took up the entire back seat of my Misubishi Lancer.

Once I got the beast inside of the house I pulled it out of the box. This seat does require quite a bit of assembly to get it together, but it is quite simple if you read the instructions from the manual.

You need to snap the headrest in place.

The arm rests in place.

The seat has quite a bit of EPS foam on the head rest, more than most seats!

The harness straps are threaded through the guides and rest on red rollers that makes harness adjusting a BREEZE.

Here is the seat on the lowest setting compared to the Britax Marathon

The highest harness setting

The head rest does raise one more increment to use as a booster

The cover is very similar to the turbo booster, but the infant insert is a lot softer, very similar to the "super cool" cover on the radian.

The seat installs like easily and I was able to get a great install.

Latch/Tether are NOT to be used on the seat while in booster mode. The harness needs to be removed as well when using in booster mode. (I just didn't want to spend the time removing it for this picture)

Measurements of the seat that I could get

You can read the manual directly from the Graco website at:
http://www.gracobaby.com/catalog/pr...=1402&tab=instructions&CategoryID=1&subCatID=

The more I use this seat the more I love it. The seat does have 2 recline positions but it seems to just cause an installation problem more than recline the actual seat so I never use it in either recline position.

I would (and already have) definitely recommend this seat to friends, especially those growing out of the harness heights of the marathon.

The only thing I would change on this seat if given the opportunity, would be to change the LATCH attachers to the britax alligator style, allow it to rear face and give it an 8 year expiration instead of 6 year.

The only installation problem is that this seat will not be able to be used as a backless booster due the way my seats are designed. (They are angled upward between the buckle stalk and the back of the seat)

Feel free to send me a PM with any questions or for specific pictures.

Brendan's Mom has also posted some great comparision pictures on her thread you can see below:
http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=32312&highlight=nautilus+pictures

**ADD**

 

[singingpond]

Thank you for putting some of your pictures back up, especially the very useful one showing the various measurements.

 

[Melizerd]

thanks for the review!

 

[Mama2J]

Great review! I'm excited to buy one of these, but there are none at our Walmart yet. Thanks for the info on how big the box is too. I hope it will fit in my trunk!

 

[Misty-Bug]

great pics! Thanks!
looks like a very big seat though. Too big for my car, and then being able to fit more kids. I am confussed cause it doesn't look like it sits flat against the seat back? It looks like there is a space? Does it sit more up and down or does it have recline positions for when FFing?
you did a great job with the pics. Thanks again! I will be checking out my local walmart. LOL

 

[Nadmom]

Thanks for the great pictures and review. I saw one at my Walmart the other day. They had one on display but it was attached to shelf, I put dd in it anyway on the shelf.

I am going to get one as she has grown out of the Roudabout. Hopefully they will have it in stock I had both dcs with me so couldn't deal with buying such a large item.

So wish they had a a cute girly print dd kept pointing to another seat with fun pink and saying I want that one.

 

[sb518]

great pics! Thanks!
looks like a very big seat though. Too big for my car, and then being able to fit more kids. I am confussed cause it doesn't look like it sits flat against the seat back? It looks like there is a space? Does it sit more up and down or does it have recline positions for when FFing?
you did a great job with the pics. Thanks again! I will be checking out my local walmart. LOL

The first picture of the seat installed is with the recline. I think the recline is ridiculous and for me it only made the seat harder to install and prevented the whole back from being pressed up against my actual car seat. In the last picture, the recline is not being used and you can see that it fits a lot better.

 

[Kat_Momof3]

I noticed you have very flat seats, so I can understand why that would be.

The recline is really more to help it fit slanted seats.

I put it in the most reclined position for ruthie because our van seats do slant some and because she is a floppy sleeper with her head. It installed perfectly without me having to recline the van seat at all.
Now it would definitely work if I reclined it a notch, but I chose not to because I sometimes ride in the third row with my oldest when my husband is driving so that it's easier to tend the children.

 

[seamonkeys]

Can you tell me the height of the seat? That is, front bottom of the seat base to the seating portion height. DH hated the MA in his truck cause it was way too high and hard to get DS into. He loves the Radian's size, but now DS wants to use it as his main seat in my van. So I'm looking into what I should get to put into the truck - another Radian, Nautilus, wait and see if Britax comes out with a combo I like better, or the SK Monterey. Too many choices and decisions to make!

 

[CrazyKristy]

Hi there. I'm new to this site but I am a Senior CPST and a mom of 5. I was noticing the pic of you DD in the Nautilus and had a question for you. Do you have problems with her head falling forward if she falls asleep do to the forward position of the head support? I borrowed this seat from our office yesterday to try my DD in it and the head support pushing the head forward looked really uncomfortable. My DD is currently in Britax Super Elite that expires in October. i m just so tired of that huge seat and was hoping this would work better.

Thanks,
Kristy - CPST and mom of 5

 

[TerisBoys]

Kristy - I have a 5yo with muscle tone issues (low tone when he sleeps) - he slept like a baby in it last weekend with no head slumping or slouching.

 

[Kat_Momof3]

Hi there. I'm new to this site but I am a Senior CPST and a mom of 5. I was noticing the pic of you DD in the Nautilus and had a question for you. Do you have problems with her head falling forward if she falls asleep do to the forward position of the head support? I borrowed this seat from our office yesterday to try my DD in it and the head support pushing the head forward looked really uncomfortable. My DD is currently in Britax Super Elite that expires in October. i m just so tired of that huge seat and was hoping this would work better.

Thanks,
Kristy - CPST and mom of 5

Not at all. I have the seat in the max recline and then reclined my captain's chair 2 notchest to accomodate that (because as you know, van seats are very upright, so it would not work well in full recline if the van seat weren't reclined some)

It ends up equalling the recline on the Radian (when you pull that foot out and pop the captain's chair seat back a notch or two to accomodate it)

And she sleeps very comfortably

here's a pic of her sleeping in her dino pjs in the seat

 

[Kat_Momof3]

In the end, I did recline my van seat... not for Ruthie's comfort,but because the seat fit better that way... it looked too close to going over the edge of the seat when the vehicle seat was upright and it was also easier for the boys to walk by it once I'd popped the captain's chair reclined a notch or two...

 

[crunchierthanthou]

I just received an email about the Natulius from my local coalition. All it had was a link to this thread. Way to go, tumblebug!

 

[sb518]

I feel so special!

 

[JoyJoy]

Thank You. I am so wanting the money for this seat. Every time I see it I love it more. Thanks so much.

 

[Sum1Else]

Great pics and information! I just bought 3 of these before our recent road trip. My twins liked them better than the boosters we used last year. When they fell asleep, the 5 point kept them more upright instead of them falling out of the boosters! Yeah and that's why I pushed for us to get these!

 

[SDMama]

I was just looking up this review for a friend. I own the Nautilus. I believe that since the review was written, Graco said it was okay to use the latch and anchors when the seat is in booster mode. So look into this for sure. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[sb518]

I was just looking up this review for a friend. I own the Nautilus. I believe that since the review was written, Graco said it was okay to use the latch and anchors when the seat is in booster mode. So look into this for sure. Can anyone confirm this?

That is correct!

 

[swtgi1982]

The seat assembly is not this complicated anymore, just to let you know they have fixed this issue. I only had to put the headrest in and snap the back into place (but it was attached already) and snap the armrests into place!