Are Rotating Car Seats Worth It?

For decades, not much has changed in the basic way convertible car seats work—they’re installed rear-facing or forward-facing, and they stay in that position until you move them. But recently, a growing number of models offer a new feature: rotation.

The idea is that a caregiver can rotate or swivel the car seat towards the door to help get a squirmy, resistant kid settled, and then rotate the seat back to a rear- or, in the case of some seats, forward-facing position for the ride. When it’s time to take the child out of the car, caregivers again rotate the seat towards the door and unbuckle the child.

It may sound convenient, but after trying four rotating car seats, we’ve concluded that the seats themselves are more complex, less straightforward to install, and have more things that can go wrong than conventional models. Plus, they’re much more expensive than regular convertible seats from the same brands and, generally, heavier.

The promise of an easier in-and-out process is appealing

Getting a squirmy baby or kid properly buckled into a car seat can be a struggle. And when you switch your growing child from an infant bucket seat to a rear-facing convertible car seat, the limited space between the car seat and the vehicle’s seat can often make it tough to lift the child into the seat and buckle them in (though with some models, like two of our convertible car-seat picks, the Graco Extend2Fit Convertible and the Clek Foonf, this process doesn’t feel as cramped).

Plus, many babies and kids will sometimes resist a ride in the car—we’re looking at you, toddler who goes into surfboard mode. So it’s easy to understand why the idea of a car seat that brings a kid into an easier position for an adult to manage has appeal.

Pediatrician Alisa Baer, co-founder of The Car Seat Lady, pointed out that rotating seats can help families with rear-facing kids preserve access to the third row in vehicles with captain’s chairs in the second row; a rotating seat placed in a captain’s chair can be spun out of the way so someone can pass by it and access the center aisle. She said that might help parents with these vehicles decide to keep their kids rear-facing longer, which is safer. (Baer is quick to add that she is not a fan of captain’s chairs and almost always recommends the bench configuration when choosing a three-row vehicle.)

For these reasons, parents may be tempted by the rotating feature. It’s likely easier to secure a child in a car seat when it’s facing you, especially if you’re used to strapping your child into an infant seat while out of the car.

But these seats have significant drawbacks

Although rotating car seats may sound like a superior choice, we found that they have some key problems.

We tested four models from different brands, seats we judged to be the best options of about a dozen models available. (We ruled out seats that had obvious shortcomings, like a low forward-facing weight limit, an extremely large footprint, or especially poor online reviews.) Though a handful of infant-only rotating models are available, all the seats we tested were convertible and all-in-one styles, which can accommodate infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.

We evaluated the rotating car seats using the same criteria that inform our picks in all of Wirecutter’s car seat guides: their installation, safety, and user friendliness. However, the process of testing rotating seats proved to be significantly more frustrating than testing standard convertible seats—these seats are even more unwieldy to handle and difficult to install than regular convertible car seats, which are not exactly known for their ease of use.

Rotating seats are also more prone to complications, like getting stuck and not rotating at all. And they’re more expensive—the ones we tested averaged about $400—than nonrotating seats from the same brands. In our experience with higher-end seats like the Clek Foonf, which costs around $550, you can often easily see and feel that you’re paying for high-quality parts—steel frame, fabric without flame retardants, easier install mechanisms—but with rotating seats it seems like you’re paying a lot for the rotating function and not so much for the parts. Each rotating seat we tried fell short of the minimum bar that it would take for us to recommend it.

They may be worth it for those with mobility challenges

For most parents, a rotating car seat isn’t worth the extra money when compared with a regular convertible car seat. But for a caregiver or child with certain mobility issues, the hassles of these seats may make sense. For example, a parent who uses a wheelchair or who is too short to comfortably reach a rear-facing seat in a larger car may find a rotating seat particularly worthwhile, as may older adults (like grandparents) who have experienced strength challenges with loading children into standard car seats. In such cases, we highly recommend expert installation, as installing any of these seats is much more of a challenge than installing most standard convertible car seats.

But they have some potential safety concerns

Of the four rotating seats that we tried, the Evenflo Revolve360 Slim was the most straightforward to install and use. Unlike most convertible seats, the Revolve360 Slim has two pieces that come apart—a base and a seat—which may be a source of issues.

Soon after we completed our testing, three Evenflo Revolve360 seats—the Revolve360, the Revolve360 Extend, and the Revolve360 Slim—became the subject of an audit query investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (the only car seat audit the NHTSA opened in the last year). The NHTSA is looking into at least six crash incidents in which the Revolve360’s shell (what the company calls the seat) reportedly separated from its base. At the time of publication, it is unclear if these incidents were caused by improper installation or if the seat itself has flaws.

“At this time, we recommend that families currently using Revolve360 review and follow the instructions provided in the product manual for the proper installation and use,” Evenflo’s vice president of marketing, Amy Magee, told Wirecutter in a written statement. “All information available to Evenflo indicates that a properly installed and latched Revolve360 will perform safely as intended.”

One of the features we liked about the Revolve360 Slim was the simplicity in turning it: You pull up one of two levers on the side of the headrest, and it swivels smoothly and easily. In comparison, the other seats we tested felt like they needed more force to get them to turn. You can also utilize the rotating feature when the car seat is installed to face both the rear and front, which is not the case with all rotating car seats. The Revolve360 Slim was also the only rotating seat we tried that would still fully rotate once we put a backless booster in the vehicle’s middle seat.

To install the car seat for both rear- and forward-facing positions, remove the seat entirely from the base and route the seat belt or LATCH strap (LATCH stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children, a system that lets you attach a pair of metal hooks on the car seat to a set of anchors built into the car) through the base’s LockStrong belt tensioner (a lever that pushes onto the strap). Then pull the strap tight, secure the tensioner, and click the seat in.

When installing the base with a seat belt, we couldn’t close the LockStrong belt tensioner after tightening the seat belt, and we had to call in a stronger person to help. The stronger person then struggled to open the belt tensioner to uninstall the base.

Things were much easier when we installed the Evenflo Revolve360 Slim with the included LATCH straps, as it wasn’t as difficult to use the belt tensioner and get a tight install. The big issue with this method is that the LATCH weight limit is lower than the seat belt limit—only 35 pounds rear-facing and 40 pounds forward-facing, while with a seatbelt you can go up to 50 pounds and 65 pounds, respectively. (This lower weight limit for LATCH is why the instructions say that a seat belt install is the preferred method for installation.)

Like other seats in this category, the Revolve360 Slim is fairly heavy at 28.5 pounds (our top pick from our guide to convertible car seats, the Graco Extend2Fit Convertible, weighs 19 pounds and costs about $150 less).

Other revolving seats we tested

The 30-pound Cybex Sirona S not only rotates, it slides back and forth. In order to rotate the seat, you have to slide it back on its base (unlike the Evenflo Revolve360 Slim, the two parts don’t detach), which is a bit challenging with a heavier toddler or preschooler buckled in. The other problem with the Sirona S’s sliding is that you have to push the car seat back on the base and out of the way of the belt path in order to install it. But while we were installing, the whole seat kept sliding back into place, interrupting the process. We also struggled to get a tight install.

But once you do get the seat installed securely, you don’t have to do it again; to switch a child from the rear- to forward-facing position, you simply rotate the seat forward and slide it into place. However, when forward-facing, you can’t use the rotating function to load or unload a child because you need to attach the top tether, which is connected to the seat; on the Revolve360 Slim, the tether is attached to the base. The Sirona S can accommodate a rear-facing child up to 50 pounds, and a forward-facing one up to 65 pounds. It’s the only rotating seat we tested that comes with a load leg to absorb some of the initial impact in the event of a car accident. However, for those who need to fit three car seats across, we found that when we put a backless booster in the middle vehicle seat next to the Sirona S, the seat wouldn’t fully swivel because it bumped up against the booster.

The Graco Turn2Me 3-in-1 Car Seat is a 30-pound car seat that can accommodate kids in a rear-facing position up to 40 pounds, forward-facing up to 65 pounds, and as a high-back booster up to 100 pounds. Installing the seat rear-facing felt a bit like maneuvering levers inside a pickle jar, as we struggled with the internal lock-off. Unlike the other rotating convertible seats we tested, the Turn2Me has a different installation method for forward- and rear-facing. The forward-facing method was equally frustrating, since we couldn’t get a tight install. (Unlike the Revolve360 Slim, this seat does not separate from a base). Like the Sirona S, the rotating feature can’t be used when the seat is installed forward-facing, due to the top tether, which is connected to the seat. The Turn2Me would also not fully rotate with a backless booster in the middle seat next to it because as it turned, it hit the booster.

We tested the Evenflo Revolve360 in 2022 for our convertible car-seat guide (it had a different model name then, but a company rep told us that’s all that changed). The 30-pound seat can be used rear-facing until a child is 40 pounds, forward-facing up to 65 pounds, and then as a high-back booster until the child reaches 120 pounds. Like the Revolve360 Slim, this one also has both a base and a seat that you separate to install, then put back together to use; it’s one of the models being looked at in the ongoing NHTSA investigation. During testing, the seat got stuck in a rotated position in the base. We contacted Evenflo’s consumer care and had a video consultation with a technician, but we still couldn’t get the seat to move without the assistance of a much stronger person. We also had major issues installing it in a Honda Odyssey—the seat belt’s fabric loop obstructed the locking mechanism. (Seat belt installation is the preferred method, though the seat does come with LATCH straps; these have a lower weight limit than the seatbelt—35 pounds for rear-facing and 40 pounds forward-facing.)

This article was edited by Amy Miller Kravetz and Kalee Thompson.