Tested: The Best Booster Car Seats, According to Experts
Chicco/Evenflo/DionoCar and Driver
We here at Car and Driver are the acknowledged car experts, and our readers trust us for insight and advice, but one great thing about being an expert is the friends you make along the way. So when it came time to evaluate child car seats, we were glad to be able to rely on the expertise of our friends at the Good Housekeeping Institute (GHI) of Good Housekeeping, which like C/D is a Hearst publication, and share their knowledge with you.
For over 120 years, Good Housekeeping has been testing, evaluating, and rating consumer products. The GHI recently updated its car seat rankings for 2022, and here are its choices for the best car booster seats for kids.
Best Booster Car Seats
While they may have outgrown their child car seat, that doesn’t mean it’s safe to let your kid loose in the back seat just yet. It’s time for a booster. Booster seats help keep kids safe by readjusting their seatbelt placement to the proper spot rather than across their bellies and necks, which could cause harm in an accident. Booster seats come in a variety of styles, colors, and sizes so you can easily find one that fits your lifestyle and vehicles.
This roundup of the best booster seats for your car is based on lab-tested picks, category expertise, and real-life consumer feedback. Good Housekeeping testers and editors road-tested a dozen booster car seats to evaluate safety, ease of use, and proper fit. To find the best booster seats, the Institute also considered ease of installation, angle and harness adjustments, ease of cleaning, dimensions, and fit. Testers then used these boosters in a variety of vehicles.
Here are Good Housekeeping’s picks for the Best Booster Car Seat. Car and Driver has paraphrased their findings to reflect our purposes here.
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BEST OVERALL BOOSTER CAR SEAT
spec sheet
Dimensions
17.5 x 22 x 27.2 Inches
Weight range
40–120 pounds
Height range
38–63 inches
Mode
Highback to backless booster
BEST VALUE BOOSTER CAR SEAT
spec sheet
Dimensions
17 x 19 x 27.5 inches
Weight range
22–50 pounds as harness car seat, 50-110 pounds as booster
Height range
28–57 inches as harness car seat, 44-57 inches as booster
Mode
Highback booster
MOST COMFORTABLE BOOSTER CAR SEAT
spec sheet
Dimensions
16.5 x 18.75 x 32.75 inches
Weight range
40–110 pounds
Height range
38–57 inches
Mode
Highback to backless
BEST BOOSTER CAR SEAT WITH SEATBELT POSITIONER
spec sheet
Dimensions
20 x 19 x 25.5–33 inches
Weight range
40–100 pounds
Height range
38–57 inches
Mode
Highback booster
BEST BACKLESS BOOSTER CAR SEAT
spec sheet
Dimensions
15.5 x 17.5 x 8.64 inches
Weight range
40–100 pounds
Height range
43–57 inches
Mode
Backless booster
BEST LUXURY BOOSTER CAR SEAT
spec sheet
Dimensions
6 x 17 x 28 inches
Weight range
40–100 pounds
Height range
38–57 inches highback, 40-57 inches backless
Mode
Highback to backless booster
BEST THREE-IN-ONE BOOSTER CAR SEAT
spec sheet
Dimensions
19 x 17.4 x 26.5 inches
Weight range
22–65 pounds harness, 40-100 pounds highback and backless booster
Height range
Up to 49 inches harness, 43–57 inches highback and backless booster
Mode
Harness booster to highback to backless
BEST ALL-IN-ONE CONVERTIBLE BOOSTER CAR SEAT
spec sheet
Dimensions
27 x 21 x 28 inches
Weight range
4–40 pounds rear-facing harness, 22–65 pounds forward-facing harness, 40–100 pounds highback booster, 40–120 pounds backless booster
Height range
Up to 49 inches harness, 43–57 inches booster
Mode
Convertible
BEST BOOSTER CAR SEAT FOR BIG KIDS
spec sheet
Dimensions
26.5 x 17.75 x 25 inches
Weight range
25–65 pounds harness, 40–120 pounds booster
Height range
34–49 inches harness, 44–63 inches booster
Mode
Harness booster to highback booster
The Good Housekeeping Institute’s engineering and parenting pros tested a dozen booster seats over the past year using a combination of in-Lab and at-home tests with both expert and consumer reviewers. We perform tests to evaluate car seats based on their ease of installation, perceived kid comfort, ease of getting kids in and out of the car, advanced features, harness adjustments, height and weight limits, stability, and more. Good Housekeeping works with real parents to test booster seats in a variety of vehicle sizes and types.
Do You Need a Booster Seat?
Booster seats do a great job of providing a safe way for bigger kids to ride around in the car before they’re ready to sit directly in the seat. Depending on your state’s car seat laws, children may be required to use a safety seat until they’re large enough to sit in the car with the seat belt secured at the right areas of their body. Unlike other car seats, booster seats help by ensuring that the seatbelt is positioned correctly on your kid to provide safety without injuring them.
A child is likely ready to sit in the back seat without a booster seat once they are tall enough (usually 57 inches), old enough (at least 8 years old), and the seatbelt is positioned correctly on their body. The shoulder strap should go across the center of their shoulder and chest (NEVER over their neck or face), and the lap belt should go over their upper legs or hips. If they don’t meet these requirements, a booster seat will be necessary.
Check your local regulations to ensure your child meets height, weight, and age requirements before transitioning them out of a booster.
Highback booster seats offer shoulder and head support similar to a car seat. Rather than a harness, they use your vehicle’s seatbelt to clip your child in. The booster appropriately guides the seatbelt across your child’s chest and over their legs at the top of the thighs. When your child is big enough that they no longer need the shoulder guide, they may be ready for a backless booster seat. Many booster seats transition from highback to backless, which usually means they have a larger height or weight range and can be used for longer.
You can also purchase a convertible car seat, an all-in-one that adapts to be the only car seat you ever need to buy your child. Convertible seats can be used as an infant back-facing car seat, then a forward-facing car seat, and finally a booster seat.
What to Look For When Shopping for a Booster Car Seat
Height and weight limits: All booster seats come with minimum and maximum height and weight specifications. To ensure proper seatbelt placement and optimal security, make sure your child fits within those ranges. Seat adjustments: For the safest and most comfortable ride, look for a booster seat that offers neck or back height adjustments. Some models also feature width adjustments to offer a more custom fit.Easy cleaning: Regardless of age, spills happen. Luckily, like many infant and convertible car seats, most booster seats offer removable machine-washable seat covers and padding.Design: Many seats come in a range of colors and patterns to choose from, as well as accessories like cup holders and snack trays that allow them to keep their items close.Safety: If you want to get even more information on your seat, check its safety ratings on IIHS.
Why Trust Us?
With a combined 206 years of automotive publishing experience, Hearst Autos—Car and Driver, Road & Track, and Autoweek—knows cars better than just about anyone. The Gear Team is committed to delivering honest evaluations, hands-on tests, and product reviews driven by decades of knowledge and experience. We get our hands on almost every product, tool, and piece of gear we feature; we evaluate gear on its own merits, and tell you the truth.
If we can’t get our hands on the gear, we rely on the combined wisdom of our writers and editors, as well as auto experts we trust. We’ll never say anything is “the best” if we wouldn’t recommend it to our friends or buy it ourselves, and we won’t claim we’ve tested something if we haven’t. Learn more about our product testing here.
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