Britax Römer DUALFIX car seat review

While looking for another car seat for monkey number two, I realised I’ve never written about our current car seat, which we’ve been super happy with since day one. It’s the DUALFIX rearward/forward facing by Britax Römer.

What we were looking for

When it was time to choose a car seat, the most important feature for us was safety, of course. It had to be rear-facing, as we now know that’s the safest way for a baby to travel until the age of four—or possibly longer.

Practicality was a close second. We wanted:

For it to be easy to put the baby in.
For it to go from birth to three-four years (when we'd have the second child—we couldn't possibly imagine he/she would arrive much sooner ;-).
For it to be rear-facing but to still have the possibility for Oliver to travel facing forward, if we ever want him to.
For it to have the ISOFIX mechanism, which most cars are now equipped with.

What we found

After lots of research, we decided to trust the German brand Britax Römer and opted for the DUALFIX model, which was exactly what we wanted.

The 90 degree rotation does just that: you can turn the seat facing the door, put the baby in, and lock it back into position. So convenient!
It's 0+/1 category, so it goes from birth to 18kg, with a special insert for newborns (look how diddy Oliver looked on his third day of life… I almost can't believe we'll soon have another one like that!)

You can choose to keep the baby looking backwards until the end of its use (when the baby weighs approximately 18kg) or you can switch to forward facing when the baby reaches 9kg (not recommended). Oliver—now 16 months old and 11kg—is still facing backwards and we're looking into another rear-facing car seat.
It's got ISOFIX with a foot prop that rests on the car floor for extra stability and safety.

A few worries before buying it

We were a bit worried it wouldn’t fit in our Golf 7. It is a tight fit—especially because we’re tall and we need more leg room on the front—but it works just fine.

As everybody was telling me how convenient a MaxiCosi is, I was also worried about not being able to take it with me. But given that it’s not recommended to live a baby to sleep in the car seat for long periods of time, we decided to try and make due without that feature. Maybe I was lucky or maybe babies simply adapt and get used to what parents do, but since Oliver was small I always moved him to his pram/bed asleep and he’s just learnt to continue sleeping.

I have never missed the famous MaxiCosi, but as I’ve never tried it and many mums swears by it, I have no idea if it would have made my life much easier… What’s your experience?

Britax back seat mirror… a must!

We also bought the Britax back seat mirror, which I honestly couldn’t live without: it’s always relaxed me to be able to see Oliver, to know when he’s falling asleep, why he’s crying and that there’s no real emergency, and, now that he sometimes snacks in the car, that he’s not choking. It’s made my life so much better and I will definitely be buying another one for my second child.

Britax summer cover: so helpful!

Finally, since the temperatures have gone up tremendously in the summer, I noticed that Oliver would cry when I put him in the car and would come out of the seat soaked. So, although I was a bit sceptical, I decided to buy the Britax Summer Cover and it’s really made a difference—Oliver seems a lot more comfortable, doesn’t cry because of the heat anymore and he doesn’t come out of it sweaty. Great purchase!

All in all, the Britax Dualfix car seat is one of those purchases I’d recommend over and over again, like my beloved Stokke Xplory pram or the all-time favourite Babybjörn High Chair: purchases for life (baby’s life, at least!).

You can see here all the products I’ve reviewed.