Chicco KeyFit 30 Infant Seat and Base- Adventure(Green/ Beige)

I did a lot of research on infant and convertible car seats before my daughter was born. We have a small two-door car, so I needed a narrow car seat that wasn't going to take up a huge amount of space. The Chicco Key Fit 30 fit the bill! (Although I did purchase the Extreme pattern, not the Adventure) It is a wonderful car seat, easily comes in and out of our small back seat and my daughter loves it. She is also a tall and slender baby, so the 30" height limit is great, as she would have grown out of other infant car seats already (at 6 months she's 25 inches and just 14 lbs). We were also involved in a car accident just a few weeks ago and the car seat kept my baby amazingly safe. While the rest of us were in pain from the accident, my baby was all smiles. Sadly we have to replace the original seat, but will be buying the exact seat again. If you have a small car and want a well made, safe car seat, the Chicco Key Fit 30 is the one for you!

I spent my entire pregnancy trying to decide which car seat to purchase; I made the right choice. The seat is light enough that even with a C-section and a 9 lb baby I don't have trouble carrying her around, the straps loosen and tighten easily so we can get her out even when she is sleeping and perhaps the best thing about this seat is that it easily and QUIETLY snaps into and out of the base in our vehicle. We can get the baby in and out of the car without waking her! With our first child our infant carrier was nearly impossible to attach to/remove from the base and were constantly waking the baby because of the difficulty getting the carrier off/on the base.

The cover material leaves a little to be desired (it is kind of rough) but it seems to clean up well.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend this car seat.

The seat is easy to use, looks great and it has a great safety rating. However, after a couple of months in it, my infant broke out into raw, red, oozing painful sores wherever his skin touched the carseat. Apparently, contact dermatitis to the flame-resistant chemicals they use in some carseats is a growing problem.
As soon as I put a cover in the carseat, my baby's horrible rash cleared up immediately.
When I contacted the company to let them know, they got back to me (a week later) and offered me a new set of soft goods -- the exact same thing that hurt my baby the first time. Not impressed.

I bought the Chicco Keyfit 30 carseat for my daughter who was born last August. Out of all the seats at Babies R Us, this seat got my attention b/c it's such a great looking seat and it had more padding than any of the other ones. It was super easy to install using latch and my daughter fit into it well. At first, it seemed worth the hefty price.... Then, after only a few weeks, I started noticing a chemical smell in my car. I finally discovered it was this carseat and replaced it with a spare seat I had on hand. I immediately called the company to inquire about the toxic smell. The customer service rep. agreed to send another seat out to me and said that sometimes the fire retardants used in manufacturing can cause the smell. I decided I didn't want another Chicco seat and was able to return it to BRU for a refund. The covering on the Chicco Keyfit is more "plasticky" and not cotton fabric like the Snugride I used with my son 3 years ago. I know some people prefer that type of fabric for easy clean up etc... but in my opinion, cotton is much safer. I'm not sure what the deal was with my particular seat, maybe the heat in the car caused the off-gassing of the chemicals.. Toxic fumes, whether from the fire retardants or the plastic materials can be very toxic and hazardous for infants especially. You all should research what's in conventional crib mattresses too and you'd be surprised. Everything else about this carseat was great...but not worth the risk b/c of the chemical smell.

I love this car seat. My baby likes to sleep in it, it's so easy to take in and out of the base, and it lasts much longer than it's smaller -to 22 lb- counterparts. It's suitable from birth because it comes with its own newborn insert. It also ranks high in safety ratings, which explains why its a little heavier than most. If I had to improve it, I would give it a bigger sunshade and make the synthetic fabric more breathable, as my baby gets a bit hot and sweaty when he sits in it. All things considered, I would recommend it to a friend.