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| Compass I-410, Blue Sky
| | Reviewed by: Baby Gizmo Senior Editors |  | | Mom Rating:
(3 Reviews)
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 | Title: The Best Infant Car Seat on the Market. Period.
Best: Safety, Style, Extra Room and Plush Fabric, Great Price and Incredibly Light!
Worst: Not as Compatible as Graco SnugRide (sniff)
Full Review: see below
| Lowest Price: $129.99 (from 1 sellers) |  |
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|  | | Full Review: Compass, a new company that debuted in 2003 with the first folding booster car seat, has quickly become one of the industry leaders in safe car seats. Their newest infant car seat, the Compass I-410 and I-420, is our absolute favorite.
First, the impressive safety features. Compass seats test above and beyond the government safety requirements. EPS energy-absorbing foam - the same kind used in bicycle helmets - and a deep side wing design provide true side impact protection (we like the deep side wings over the inflatable head wings of the Britax Companion). Compass uses Indiana Mills SafeGuardŽ LATCH hardware. The stay-in-car base has a seat belt lock-off, two separate, adjustable LATCH belts for the tightest possible fit and our favorite feature, a height-adjustment dial.
Compass prides itself on never skimping. While many manufacturers just use pieces of foam glued to the plastic shell, Compass lines their entire seat with the EPS foam. Instead of just standard plastic, the shell of the I-410/I-420 is made of high impact polypropylene. And they use metal in key places that other companies use plastic. The Compass I-410/I-420 features metal seat-to-base attachments, metal handle hub hardware, and unbelievably, a padded aluminum carrying handle. We've read the historical recall reports and know how often plastic carrying handles fail on infant car seats. We applaud Compass' progressive use of stronger materials on a product we use and abuse daily!
So is it comfortable? Our test babies said yes! Compass uses premium, triple layered fabric. The infant seat includes a large sun canopy. And we love the new, modern, solid colors!
The Compass is also extremely mom-friendly. You never to have to thread and re-thread harness straps (really!). The entire cover easily snaps off for the wash, and shoulder height harness adjustment is made from the front of the seat with no cover removal at all. Not just convenient, but mistake proof!
But wait, there's more! The Compass I-410/I-420 is built for bigger babies and longer use, with a weight and height limit of 22 pounds and 30 inches. But unbelievably you get the extra room for baby, side impact protection, steel handle and hardware and plush fabric for a mere 7.5 pounds!!! Yes, that's right, the Compass packs the most punch and delivers the lightest load!
Compass also recently lowered their retail price, so the I-410/I-420 costs about the same as a Graco SnugRide. Sadly, the Compass isn't compatible with as many strollers and their own strollers aren't the greatest. We were elated to learn that Compass had teamed up with Inglesina and the I-420 was made to match the fabulous Zippy stroller. We're hoping other stroller manufacturers get on board with Compass and make compatibility kits because this is the infant car seat moms want! Of course, if you get a Compass now, you're going to be a pioneer and not be able to clip your car seat into that many strollers, but hopefully, if enough of us rise up, we'll get Graco-compatibility on what is, in our opinion, a superior car seat!
NOTE: The I-410 and I-420 are identical except that the I-420 was made to match the Inglesina Zippy.
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