I used to love my radian80, but now my love is dead (rant)...anyone else?

[Chamsia]

Bought the sunshine kids radian80 for ff dd a few years ago.  Loved it, raved about it, even influenced some other parents to get it themselves.

Then baby boy came along.  Switched him into it out of a bucket a year ago or so.

It is SO WEIRD rf!!!  Uber-reclined, which encourages sleeping at all the wrong times, and even gagging when the poor dude is sick.  Like last week, when he puked all over it.  The cover is ridiculous to remove--I had to call the company and it still didn't come off like they said it should.  And it's not machine washable---hello?!?!?  And it weighs a thousand pounds!!!

They sell some styrofoam (!) attachment to make the rf angle less weird.  Really?  I have to pay--for styrofoam of all things--to correct your design flaw?  Ugh.

Can someone out there remind me some great things about the radian?  The thought of keeping him rf in this thing forever, like I'm supposed to, is so irritating.  I wish someone would give me their old Brittax or something!

Sorry to be such a grump.  It's been a long week...

[~Adorkable~]

Well I will say the angle adjuster I just got to lessen the recline of our new radian is not styrofoam, it is a very firm close cell foam, and it does work well.

That said I have one of the new models and am thinking of returning it over the (tug tug tug) tightening system, it is so annoying to tighten, I keep thinking I'm going to get used to it but I have had two of them a month now and hate that feature more today that ever. It seems like it would be less of a problem FF but with 20-23lb 13m twins that day is a loooong way off.

[Chamsia]

Oh yeah I forgot to whine about the awful tightener.  Is it really that difficult to make it easy to work?  All the other brands manage somehow!

Good to know the adjuster works.  I may have to get one even though I hate to spend on a carseat that's so annoying...

Yeah, and ff is a million years away now with the new recommendations and all the statistics and what not.  Sigh.

[DahliaRW]

I sold my radian and bought a CA.  It overreclined in my van (this was before the wedge).  Liked it other than that.

[xekomaya]

My love for it (I have an XTSL) was dead the first time I tried to travel with it. I threw a complete adult tantrum in the parking lot of the airport at 7am after 12 hours of travel with two small kids, a stomach bug and about 26h with no sleep. That thing would NOT install safely RF in the VW Passat that came to pick us up. I ended up rethreading the whole thing and letting my son sit FF for the drive just to have him in a safe install.  I don't know why they think it is a good idea to have the tightening strap pull from only one side. I can never get that thing tight enough. I love my Britax but I never realized how much I loved it until that day. 

ETA : Oh yeah and the cover is super annoying! I couldn't figure it out - DH managed to get it off the one time we had to. DS had puked allllllll over it and it was so horrific to clean. I needed a toothbrush to scrub vomit out of all those little dimples in the fabric. ugghhhh.

[marsupial-mom]

I just got one and compared to our last carseat I am in love with the Radian. It's the only carseat that will allow my tall 2 year old to continue riding rear-facing. Nothing else matters right now.

Although nothing else matters, there are other features I like:

- the tether for rear-facing

- the latch clips are easier than my old carseat

- the child ID sheet that's included by the harness tightener

- the narrow base