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Bottom Line
If you are not interested in spending hundreds of dollars after every few years to buy a new car seat, Britax One4Life can be a game-changer! As its name refers, it is the one and the only seat you will need from birth until the time there is no longer a need for a car seat. It will convert super easily from infant seat to 5-point harness seat to belt-positioning booster seat.
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It’s inevitable that we’re in constant need to buy new things for our little ones because kids are growing up fast. Car seats are no exception.
Kids need to ride in separate car seats on average for a decade, and during this time parents usually need to buy 3-4 different car seats. Probably we can all agree that purchasing multiple car seats can be very expensive. Is there anything we could do about it? Actually, there is.
It turns out that Britax has designed a car seat that is suitable for life. They say that it is the only seat your kid is ever going to need. But is it really that good as they say?
Fortunately, our product analysts have reviewed it. We’ll do our best to share our findings with you and give you an honest overview of Britax One4Life ClickTight all-in-one car seat.
In this Britax One4Life review, we are giving you an overview of its features, benefits, specs, disadvantages, and much more. We also compare it to a few same category seats.
Why One4Life and not the other Britax car seat models? Compared with Britax convertible car seats like Advocate ClickTight, Boulevard ClickTight, Marathon ClickTight, Emblem, and Allegiance, this one has some further developments. The main difference is that the use of other Britax convertible car seats ends with Forward-facing harness mode, One4Life has booster seat mode as well. It also has more headrest and reclines positions and a few other features that we will introduce in this review.
Before buying Britax One4Life ClickTight All-in-one seat, you should clear out some aspects, and we would love to help you out with it!
As mentioned above, this seat is quite heavy and bulky. Once you have installed it correctly, you do not want to move it around much, even though the installation process itself is easy with the ClickTight installation system, and it has a comfortable carry handle. So it may not be the best choice if you are planning to switch cars often or use one car seat for two or more cars.
The biggest question to ask is if you are ready to give up the luxury of moving the sleeping infant in or out of the car. If you have an infant seat, you can use the travel system or stroller frame (+adapters), and you do not have to wake the baby up.
Also, 10 years is a long period, and we all know that kids are masters in making a mess. Another question to ask before buying One4Life is how this seat is going to hold on after endless messes like throwing ups, poop accidents, food, and drink spills. Ok, covers you can wash and change if necessary, but with padding/buttons/systems, the story can be different. Also, all the brands are always trying to make their car seat safer, so after a few years, there may be better products on the market.
Overall, if money is not an issue, and you don’t mind researching and shopping after a few years, we recommend buying all the seats separately – infant, convertible, and booster. As we all know, all-in-one products are often comfortable and save you a lot of money, but are rarely as good as the products would be when bought separately.
Britax One4Life car seat has a ClickTight technology, which makes it easy to install the seat properly. You just need to place the seat rear or forward-facing position. It should be flat on the vehicle’s seat with no side overhang more than 3″ over the vehicle’s seat edge. In booster mode, it is not allowed to have any overhang, and the base of the seat should fit entirely to the vehicle’s seat.
The next step is to recline it to an appropriate position (red big round-shape button) and squeeze ClickTight buttons to open the panel or ClickTight door as some may refer it. We will use the word panel, but you will know they are the same.
Once this is done, thread the seat belt throw the correct seat belt path (green for forward-facing and blue for rear-facing), buckle the vehicle seat belt, tighten the seat belt as much as possible and ensure the seat belt is not twisted. To finish the process, close the panel. The well-installed seat should not move more than 1 inch if you try to move in from one side to another.
It is only allowed to install it to the car seat that is located forward-facing. Side- or rear-facing seats are not allowed. The safest place for a child’s car seat is the vehicle’s back seat. However, if you still need to install it to the front seat, then the rear-facing mode is only allowed when there is no passenger’s airbag. To be entirely sure, we recommend contacting the vehicle manufacturer or seller and reading the vehicle owner manual.
We also recommend checking Britax One4Life users manual and next installation videos:
Rear-facing harness mode using ClickTight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpHoWhQTync
Rear-facing harness mode using LATCH:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yelFKPyfADQ
Forward-facing harness mode using ClickTight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUN_XWXayGY
Belt-positioning Booster Mode using LATCH:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBgxRAyBD5w
As mentioned above, Britax One4Life is suitable from birth to the age of 10. To fit perfectly, the child should be on the following weight and height range :
Rear-facing harness mode weight/height – 5-22 lbs / less than 49”. Harness straps should be in the closest position below the shoulders, and the top of the child’s head must be at least 1 inch lower than the top of the headrest.
Forward-facing harness mode weight/height – 22-65 lbs / less than 49”. Harness straps should be in the closest position above the shoulders, and the tops of the child’s ears should be lower than the top of the headrest.
Belt-positioning Booster mode weight 7 height – 40-120 lbs / 44-63”. Booster mode is only usable in recline position B, and the tops of the child’s ears should be lower than the top of the headrest. The lap belt should be low across the child’s upper thighs, and the shoulder belt should be straight across the child’s chest.
To get more information about weight/height ranges and proper usage of the seat, we recommend reading the user manual, which you can find here:
https://us.britax.com/media/13023005/p12403200-a-user-guide_-one4life_-us-arb-1-2.pdf
One4Life has designed with many features that are helping to get the most comfortable and safe ride.
As mentioned, it has 15 headrest positions which you can change by squeezing the harness and headrest adjuster at the top of the headrest. This allows you to find a proper harness fit for all of the stages. It may be necessary to raise or remove the vehicle’s headrest if it is disturbing to position the Britax car seat headrest correctly.
One4Life car seat has 9 different recline positions. It also has a recline position indicator, which is good, because you will know if the position is correct. However, it still may be impossible to get the right angle, because all the cars are different, and the angle of the seat varies a lot. If you have a vehicle with deep seat inclinations, then they allow (in the user manual) using a rolled towel or pool noodle to get the proper recline angle in rear-facing mode.
It also has an infant insert, which is usable with a child under 20 lbs.
Luckily they have designed covers that you can wash and dry on the machine. However, if you intend to use it for ten years, we recommend buying Britax waterproof seat liner. It will come handy with a toddler who is potty training but still may have little pee or poop accidents. It is much easier to wash the seat liner than to remove the whole cover, and besides, it will last longer and look nicer. It will cost you $20-30, which in the long term, is not too much.
The shell and the harness should be cleaned with a sponge by using soap and water and should be dried with a towel. It is not allowed to iron, bleach, or use any abrasive cleaners.
Harness buckles you should wash only with water. After washing, it is required to check if the buckles work correctly and click sound appears when fastening and unfastening the buckle. It is not allowed to use the soap because it may damage the buckle. It is also not allowed to soak it or use any solvents/lubricants.
The cup holders you can wash in the dishwasher or by hand with soap and water. To remove them for washing, you only need to grasp them and twist 90 degrees.
Britax One4Life has several safety features to mention. It conforms to all applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standards(FMVSS 213).
This car seat has a V-shaped Tether, which is essential in the case of a crash. It will reduce and slow movement during the crash. The V-shaped tethers should be slid down the side of the vehicle seat. In a few cases, it can be necessary to buy a tether extender. If the tether is not in use, it has a storage place on the back of the seat.
The fundament of the seat is a high strength steel frame. It will help to reinforce the structure of the seat and keeps it stable.
It also has a red plastic system on the sides of a seat. It is called SafeCell technology, and it helps in absorbing the crashes energy.
This Britax all-in-one car seat also has an anti-rebound bar (ARB), which is also helpful in case of a crash. It keeps the baby seat from bouncing into the back of the vehicle’s seat. It is only meant to use in rear-facing mode, and you must remove it for the forward-facing ride. To place the anti-rebound bar, you should squeeze the ClickTight button to open the panel, set it to the two openings, and attach elastic bands. To release it, open ClickTight panel, Unhook the elastic bands, and press the red buttons (you can find them on the sides), and pull the bar away.
Britax One4Life is certified to use in the airplanes with harness mode. To see for installation instructions, we recommend reading the users manual.
As you need only 1 seat, you may think that it will be quite pricey, but Britax One4Life price is in the same range as many of the infant or compatible seats. It will be a worthwhile investment as you only have to make it once. Overall, it saves hundreds of dollars you would have to spend on an infant, convertible car seat, and booster seat if you buy them separately.
The price varies depending on the seller and sometimes cover color but is usually in the range of $350-400. If you buy it without an anti-rebound bar, it will be on the lower end of the mentioned range; with an anti-rebound bar, it will be on the higher end of the range. You can also buy an anti-rebound bar independently with $50-70.
General specs:
Interior Product Dimensions:
All-in-one category is relatively new, and that’s why there are fewer options in this category. All-in-one seats transform from rear-facing mode to forward-facing mode. Some of them will have both options – highback booster and backless booster, others have only highback or backless booster option available. Luckily, we have compared Britax One4Life with three this category represents – Graco 4Ever 4-in-1, Evenflo EveryStage DLX, Maxi-Cosi Magellan 5-in-1, and we gladly would give you a short overview of our findings below.
Like Britax One4Life, Graco 4Ever is also meant to be used for ten years and is the one and the only seat you will ever need. It is quite similar to Britax One4Life in many ways. They both have a similar weight range, and both are usable until a child is up to 120 lbs. Graco 4Ever is usable as a rear-facing harness (4-40 lb), forward-facing harness (22-65 lb), highback booster (30-100 lb), and a backless booster ( 40-120 lb). Similarly to Britax, Graco has machine-washable seat covers and comfortable cup holders.
They also have some differences:
Evenflo EveryStage DLX is also one of the all-in-one category car seats represents, and it is doing it well! It is usable for 10 years and 4-120 lbs (just like Britax One4Life and Graco 4Ever). It is a 3-in-1 seat – infant, convertible, and booster. The rear-facing mode is usable for 50 lbs. It is longer compared with Britax One4Life (40lbs) and Graco 4Ever (40 lbs).
Child specs:
Specs:
Maxi-Cosi Magellan is also the all-in-one seat that grows with your child. It is also usable with a child up to 120 lbs, which is approximately ten years.
Some of its main advantages are next: a quick and easy installation process; integrated seat belt lock-offs; patented air protect side impact system; one-click LATCH connectors; a unique harness system; 3 adjustable torso height positions; seat padding; easily removable cover with zipper, etc.
One of the great things about Maxi-Cosi Magellan is that it comes with a lifetime warranty!
Specs:
It has a child fit 5 stages:
There are many different car seats on the market, and making the right decisions can be challenging. There are infant seats, harness seats, convertible seats, booster seats with a high back, and backless booster seat models. You can install them with LATCH or belt? Some of them are 2-in-1; others are 3-in1, 4-in-1, and even 5-in1. What do these terms mean? Which is the best? Which is the most comfortable? Which is the safest? Where to take all of the money required? How long will the new seat last?
If all these questions are depressing and overwhelming, then this Britax One4Life seat is perfect for you. You will have to make one purchase, you will have one user manual, and no worries that kid is growing too fast and soon there will come a need to buy AGAIN a new car seat. That’s why we believe that all-in-one car seats are the best time and money savers.
Of course, they have some disadvantages that we discussed earlier. Like the heavyweight, bulky design and the fact that you can not transport the sleeping baby in and out of the car.
Overall, we believe it is a convenient seat to consider buying!
This information is provided for educational and entertainment purposes only. We do not accept any responsibility for any liability, loss or risk, personal or otherwise, incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, from any information or advice contained here. ParentingNerd may earn compensation from affiliate links in this content. Learn more about how we write ParentingNerd content.
