Car seats - retractors vs manual

[Olivia]

Hi, we're trying to choose a car seat and were told that manuals are better than retractors because there is less chance that the belt will jam or break. Is there really such risk with retractors? Are they really a waste of money? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[Bronte Pot-Pot]

I went with manual based on the advice of the ambo that installed my baby capsule - plus I am a control freak and didn't like the idea of a "machine" deciding how tight the belt should be - was worried it would "break down"

Bron

[Cheeky Little Monkey]

I have a Safe and Sound retractor one and have had no problems with it so far. Its easy to use and easily adjustable.

[MummyCharmzy]

I've only got manual ones but I've only ever heard bad things about the retractors not working properly. So I'll only ever buy manuals in the future as well.

[bingo]

I have a retractor and hate it. Even after it retracts we have to reach around the back and manually tighten the belt anyway.

[Tam-I-Am]

Neaby - a manual retractor is when you manually have to tighten the baby's seatbelt in their car seat. An automatic one is when you press the button and it automatically retracts to the correct tension - or that's the theory at least.

We have a safe n sound car seat with a manual retractor, I have trouble tightening it, its very hard to do, but I wouldn't have an automatic one for the reasons that the others listed - they are notorious for not working, and they are more expensive, as well as the fact that I wouldn't want to rely on some mechanism to decide what tension the seatbelt should be.

[Rhoxie]

I have one retractor and two manuals - the retractor is the hardest to use. The button doesn't get stuck very often (unless sand falls into it) but it doesn't (and has never) worked very effectively. As a pp said you still have to reach behind the seat to pull the straps tight from behind. It works really well when the seat is vacant but as soon as there is a child in it the retractor is hopeless. I prefer the manual (pull the strap) version.

[Elfin]

I definitely prefer the manual ones. We did have a retractor and I was always struggling with it, the tension was never quite right. So we got rid of it. Haven't had any problems with the manuals.

[Rockett]

We have a manual one,because we heard the retractor ones are a pain,and can snap back too fast against baby.We haven't had any problems with it.:thumbsup:

[Bubble*Crazy]

This is how naive I am ... we bought a retractor seat with Tayla 6 years ago & I've just realised why they call it retractor & the diff between this & the manual adjustments :rolleyes: Doh! :o

Anyway, we didn't have any major problems with the seat (from memory), but we did have to, on occasion, manually pull the belts from behind to tighten, but also had to protect the baby when tightening as they did occasionally "snap" tight.

[Tam-I-Am]

Thanks Tam, Silly me Lol.

No worries! Glad to be of service :laughing:

[shanz]

We were all for the retractor,until we went car seat shopping,fortunately the sales assistant had two young kids and was pregnant with twins so she was a fantastic help,even though she ended up selling us a cheaper seat!!
She pointed out the difficulty that can be had with the retractors not working properly PLUS you cannot have the seat belt comforters on a retractor.(the little cushy padded bits) and if you live in a warmer climate it is better to have these as the seat belt itself gets quite warm and if the bubba has not much on ie singlet etc the seat belts can burn them but the comforters keep it safer. So that made our minds up,we paid $60 less to get the added comforters!! makes good sense to me!!

[angel_one]

i have one of each, i love both, the retractor one is so easy to adjust when baby decides to make it difficult to get his little arms out of the strap as all i have to do is push the button and pull the straps, whereas the manual one i have to lift the little thing and pull, put it this way i never adjusted the straps on dds manual chair untill she out grew the current size, where as ds straps are adjusted on a daily bases, cause it is just so easy to do!

[little mermaid]

I have had both and now have the Meridian AHR seat but I got the manual one as I had alot of trouble with the retractor one I had.

[PhAnToM]

We have the Safe'n Sound Platinum Retractor car seat.
We bought it in 2002 for DD and now use it for DS. We haven't had any problems with it. It's also nice and comfortable. :thumbsup:

[FourAngelKisses]

I brought a safe n sound retractor car seat 9yrs ago and we are still using it for Matthew. I just pull the belts at the back of the seat then push the button, no probs. :D