Great, if you avoid the OshKosh cover
Written: Feb 17 '03 (Updated Mar 30 '03)
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Pros: Well padded, sturdy construction
Cons: Cover that launched a thousand headaches
The Bottom Line: Get the NON-OshKosh Titan 5, or get the cover replaced on the OshKosh variant, and you have a nice 4 to 4.5 star car seat.
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| kengrubb's Full Review: Evenflo Titan 5 Comfort Touch |
My wife and I purchased the Evenflo Titan 5 because of the Evenflo name, our excellent experience with the Evenflo On My Way infant car seat, and superb seat padding. With only a few caveats, this could be a 4 to 4.5 star car seat. The path through which one routes the seat belt is a little tricky, and it helps to have long fingers and slender hands.
Changing the recline/upright position isn't a problem so long as your child isn't in the seat asleep at the time you change the position. Recently my wife and I were forced to find out just how easy or difficult it is to do when there's a sleeping 25 lb. toddler in the seat. I would have to say it's extremely difficult to nearly impossible for one parent alone unless you're incredible strong and dexterous. With relative ease working together, my wife and I managed to switch the seat from the upright to recline position all without waking our toddler.
The tether proved to be a slight snag. The tether that came with the car seat was not long enough to reach the tether attachment point in our Saturn S Series Wagon -- not exactly the Goliath of the automotive world. That it came up short only by about 6 inches was more than a little frustrating. As such I had to order a longer tether -- one perhaps intended for use in a full sized SUV or van as it had more than sufficient length. The installation instructions for this longer tether were not entirely clear, and it did not attach exactly as the original attached to the car seat. But after 10-15 minutes of trial and error, I figured it out. I seem to recall the price of this longer tether being around $15.
Overall installation and removal are good to average and seem on par with other car seats. No major problems beyond the normal quantity of superhuman strength required to get a car seat securely attached in a vehicle without Latch points. Only real problem I even run into is in attaching and detaching the tether. Either the clip on the tether is overly short or the tether point in Saturns is overly thick. There's a near ideal angle which I have to see to achieve, particularly when detaching the tether. I have done it in the dark using the cargo light, but I would not recommend it in darkness. We only have one vehicle, so the car seat remains there for much of the time. The tether detachment problem would either become tiresome or one would master it if one had to remove the car seat on a daily or weekly basis.
The recline position seems near ideal. As such, we left our at that position for most of the time we've used the Titan 5. We took our son on several extended weekend, 300+ miles one way, trips to see the relatives. He would remain his normal self playing, observing and sleeping. Based on feeling the padding of car seats on display in stores, and our son's overall reaction to riding in the car seat, I would rate comfort a 5 for the Titan 5. That is it's greatest attribute.
Despite being a front- or rear-facing car seat, we've only used it front-facing. Our son is of average weight but very much above average height. There are 4 sets of shoulder strap slots to accommodate a growing child. We started at the third set, but later moved to the fourth and tallest set. Our son's height will probably soon grow him out of the Titan 5. A fifth set of shoulder strap slots could extend the usable life of this product.
My wife will often curse the five point harness, but my insistence upon it has prevailed. I've read other reviews, here and elsewhere, that Evenflo's straps are infected with Gremlins causing them to twist up and become unmanageable. While the straps on the Titan 5 will at times twist a 1/4 to 1/2 a turn and require untwisting, I have NOT seen them jam up or require any high degree of skill to untwist. I think my wife and I battle our own seat belts twisting more than we do those of the Titan 5.
The adjustment at the base to tighten and loosen the straps does require a little oomph to loosen it whereas it can be tightened up more easily. In either case, it requires a conscious effort. One cannot simple reach back and give either strap a slight tug. I would characterize the force required as adequate and appropriate. No one wants his or her child to be strangled by casually tightening up the straps too tight. Likewise one would not want their child launched out of a car seat with loose straps during a collision.
The very serious downside to this car seat is the OshKosh cover. OshKosh makes many fine products, but this cover mated to this car seat is a disaster. Very simply put this cover does NOT fit this car seat. Several times over the past 6 or 8 months I've removed the car seat from my vehicle, and removed the cover from the car seat, just to look at it one more time in a futile attempt to figure out what I've done wrong in attaching the cover to the car seat.
One could become suspicious that water soluble materials were used in this cover. After washing the cover for the first time [per the instructions, all by it's lonesome on a gentle cycle] a one inch long rip appeared in the material. We air dried it rather than risk further damage in the dryer, but since the rip did not seem to affect the fit of cover to the car seat, albeit a lousy fit from the beginning, we continued using the cover with the car seat.
After washing the cover for the second time, the cover was all but completely unusable. More than half of the elastic had separated from the cover. We had to literally tie the cover to the car seat at several points just to keep the padding in place.
Naturally, we called Evenflo and they offered to send us a replacement cover at no charge. Although we were told it would be several weeks, the new cover arrived in just 2 days -- a huge credit to the customer service department at Evenflo. We were also told that the OshKosh cover had been discontinued. A wise choice in my humble opinion.
The non-OshKosh cover is a dark blue fabric, and the cover fits the car seat like a glove. It became VERY obvious to me, after receiving and installing the non-OshKosh cover, that something went terribly wrong between Evenflo and OshKosh in coordinating the specs and dimensions of the Evenflo Titan 5 car seat when the OshKosh cover was designed.
In short, if you are considering the Titan 5, it's a 4 to 4.5 star car seat with the non-OshKosh cover. With the OshKosh cover, it's at best 3 stars, and I'm really being overly generous with that third star. If you have the OshKosh cover, do yourself a huge favor by calling Evenflo and having them send out a replacement cover. The OshKosh cover is in need of a recall.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 75 + 15
Age Range of Child: 12 to 36 Months
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Epinions.com ID:
kengrubb
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Member: Ken Grubb
Location: Puyallup, WA, USA
Reviews written: 16
Trusted by: 0 members
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