Cosco High Rise Booster Seat..The best car seat yet....

Disenchanted with my 3-in-1 car seat since my daughter had reached the appropriate weight to use a booster, I decided to ditch the dead weight and pick up a lighter booster.

I found the Cosco High Rise Booster Seat at a local store. After many investigation, I decided to take the leap, make the purchase and then try to live with the decision.



What You Need to Know About Boosters

Booster seats are intended for children that have outgrown a toddler seat. Toddler seats can be cumbersome to navigate especially in smaller vehicles.

A booster generally consists of a seat with no back. Although there are "high back" boosters that are an entire seat. Some have front panels that the seat belt rests against, some do not.

The Cosco High Rise Booster Seat had everything I was looking for, and it is a name I have come to trust.



What's in A Seat?

Hopefully not yesterday's lunch. The High Rise Booster is just that a seat. It has no back, so it fits snugly in my 99 Escort's bucket seats. It also fits well in larger vehicles such as SUVS and Trucks.

It is simple to put together, simple to install, simple to use. That is all I was looking for, safety and simplicity.



Construction

The Cosco High Rise Booster Seat is made of high quality plastic. It is durable yet lightweight. The fabric is not bulky but it is comfortable.

The seat base is around 13 inches wide at the back but gets wider towards the front, so no matter your childs age they will be confortable in this chair.

The accessories with this seat are very well made and they have passed the MAGGIE test.

The MAGGIE test is where MAGGIE uses the product for three days-in the car, out of the car-she drags it, throws it, takes the covering off and on, puts the covering on the dog, and the cats, then she submerges it in water, milk, coke, candy, food, you name it she does it.

If it can withstand her abuse for three days you know it will at least live long enough for her to outgrow it.



Material

The seat cushion and arm rests are all separate pieces that are removable for machine washing.

The material consists of 75% urethane foam and 25% polyester fibers. There are three pieces that must be applied to the seat.

*The seat's pad
*Two Arm rests

The plaid material consists of charcoal grey, black, white, and red colors. The plastic base is solid black.



Features!

This being such a small booster I didn't expect so many extras! This booster has a retractable cup holder that will hold juice boxes, coke cans, bottles, or small base sippy cups. When you are done using it flips back inside the booster. It is easily opened by a protruding piece of plastic on the right side that says below it "push." That opens the holder.

The right side has a black mesh storage pouch. It is large enough to fit snacks, a few small toys, or stickers-my dear Maggie mentioned not to leave that out! The mesh compartment is FIXED-meaning it is attached to the seats material and is not removable.

The High Rise Booster Seat has arm rests too! They butt up against the back seat of your vehicle. I am guesstimating they are 7 inches long and 2 inches wide.

They come with matching arm rest covers that are equally as comfortable as the seats padding.



How it Works!

The booster seat is to be used in the back-seat with a lap and should belt. The lap belt goes directly across your child's lap.

The shoulder belt fits across your child chest. If your child is not big enough in length, this seat has an optional shoulder positioning strap to keep the shoulder strap from strangling your kid. It is made of nylon and has two clips, one to keep the strap fixed under the seat and one to thread the shoulder strap through. It is amazingly easy to use.

The back-seat of your car is what they will lean up against. Since this seat has no back. This makes it very easy to remove this seat from one car to another.



Weight Restrictions

This seat is for children who weigh at least 30 pounds up to 100 pounds. I liked the idea that it was safe for children that were smaller in weight and also useful for children that are larger in size.

Most seats are restricted to 80 pounds. This is not the case with this seat.



Assembly

There are a few things you have to do before using this seat. The seats cushion needs to be attached to the pegs underneath the seat to keep it in position. This took me about 1 minute.

Then you then take the elastic strap that attaches to the mesh pouch and attach it under and around a few pegs. This took less than 30 seconds.

The arm rest pads were a little more difficult to figure out, but once I did (after I read the instructions) it took me around 10 seconds to get them on.

The optional shoulder belt positioning strap took me 2 minutes to install. The positioning strap is W shaped, the shoulder belt slips right in.

TA-DA you got yourself a booster seat!



You Should Know

*This seat is for use in motor vehicles ONLY. Not planes, not trains, just vehicles!

*It is extremely light weight.

*This booster is very sturdy and it will be passed down after Maggie is finished using it.

*After a year, it still looks brand new.

*The material is attractive, comfortable, durable, and machine washable.

*The material also stays cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Since it a poly blend it does not retain moisture. Keeping the seat a comfortable temperature year round.

*There is no exposed plastic except that of the cup holder.

**This booster is endorsed by NTC- National Troopers Coalition**.



Will your vehicle belts work with this auto booster?

(Taken from the Cosco owners manual)

*This auto booster must only be used in vehicles with appropriate belts that can be tightened securely.

*Belt systems which will not work with this child auto booster (or sometimes any child car seat) include, but are not limited to, the following:
-Do not use with any automatic/passive vehicle seat belt. (An automatic (passive) 2-point belt has no lap belt. You must install a lap belt to secure a car seat.
-If your vehicle belt is too short, contact you car dealer for a seat belt extender.
-If the belts come out of the center of the door or side panel or middle panel of the vehicle seat cushion (so they come forward of the bight), you must move the auto booster to another seating location.



MaggsMomm's Thoughts

Honestly when I first looked this seat over I passed it up. After much investigation and comparison shopping, I eventually went back and bought this seat.

It was reasonably priced, it was made of better materials, and had a cup holder and a place for storage.

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You can find more information on the NTC @ www.ntctroopers.com

Or if you are looking for Cosco products visit: http://www.djgusa.com/

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Overall I highly recommend this booster seat to my friends and family and I wouldn't hesitate to give one of these as a gift to someone I loved dearly. It gets four stars!

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© MM 2002