I have already written about the best harness to booster car seats and so I am not going to include seats of that description within this post, even though they can be used as high back boosters.
None of my recommendations for the best High Back Booster Car Seats come with 5-point harnesses. If your child is still small enough to benefit from a harness to booster car seat, I recommend that you read this post instead. A seat like the Britax Frontier, for example, can accommodate children up to 90 lbs in weight and 58 inches in height within a 5-point harness.
So, this post is simply about those high back booster car seats that use the vehicle seat belt to restrain your child rather than a harness. These seats are much better than backless booster seats and I recommend that your child avoids using a booster seat without a back for as long as possible.
IIHS Booster Seat Evaluations – “Best Bet” Ratings
All of the seats recommended within this post have received a “Best Bet” rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
This means that they have been thoroughly tested by the IIHS and found to “provide a good belt fit for typical 4 to 8 year-olds in almost any car, minivan or SUV.”
Whilst the IIHS does not carry out comprehensive crash tests on these seats, their Best Bet ratings provide some reassurance to you that a particular seat is likely to fit your child properly.
Bear in mind that a vehicle’s seat belt is primarily designed to fit an adult passenger and so a Best Bet booster seat needs to be able to position that seatbelt such that sits across their shoulder and lap in an appropriate place. At the end of the day, a properly fitted seat is much safer than an incorrectly fitted seat.
So, if you choose to buy one of the seats mentioned below you are unlikely to encounter fitting problems.
High Back Booster Seats – Top 3 Picks
1. Clek Oobr
The Clek Oobr High Back Booster Seat is a high quality premium product that combines ease of use with impressive safety features. It comes with a rigid metal substructure and large side wings in both the headrest section and the back section. These wings are designed to provide enhanced side impact protection in the event of a collision.
The maximum child weight and height limits are 100 lbs and 57 inches. Whilst these limits are fairly standard for high back booster seats, and will be fine if your child is of average size, taller children would be better advised to look at one of the other seats that has more generous overall limits.
The Clek Oobr’s main selling point is its “Elemental Safety System”.
There are 5 parts to this safety system:
- Rigid LATCH connectors
- Magnesium metal backframe
- Headrest connected to the frame with strong steel posts
- Deep padded side wings
- Energy-absorbing layer
The combined effect of these 5 features is to improve your child’s chances of avoiding serious injury in the event of a side impact collision.
You can learn more about the Elemental Safety System from this video:
The recommended retail price of the Clek Oobr is $299.99, but you can often find big discounts online.
Check Latest Price of Clek Oobr
2. Chicco Kidfit
The Chicco Kidfit 2-in-1 Belt Positioning Booster Seat is a cheaper option than the Clek Oobr, but has the same maximum child height and weight limits of 100 lbs and 57 inches.
One of the unique features of the Chicco Kidfit series of high back boosters is that the DuoZone 10-position head and shoulder side impact protection system means that they head and side wings adjust as 1 unit.
Usually, high back boosters have an adjustable head rest, but the main body part of the seat remains in a fixed position. The can leave their shoulders exposed over time. With the Chicco Kidfit, the body part moves in unison with the head rest as your child grows.
The main features of the Chicco Kidfit booster are:
- DuoZone 10-position head and shoulder side impact protection
- SuperCinch LATCH attachment and tightener
- ErgoBoost contoured seat with double foam padding
- 2 soft-sided cup holders fold away when not in use
- 2-position backrest adjusts to mimic vehicle seat position
- Removable backrest for use as backless booster
If you want a good quality high back booster seat for under $100, this is the seat that I would recommend.
If you want a seat that comes with a snack tray and a cover than can simply be “zipped” off when you need to wash it, or you simply want to be able to change the look of the seat fabric after a while, you should check out the Chicco Kidfit Zip model instead.
Here is a video review of the Chicco Kidfit Zip Booster Seat
Check Latest Price of Chicco Kidfit
3. Peg Perego Primo Viaggio Flex 120
The Peg Perego Primo Viaggio Flex 120 is the most flexible high back booster seat on the US market today.
It is certainly not cheap, but you really do get a lot of safety and comfort features for your money.
There are 2 very big plus points with this high back booster seat:
- The 4D Total Adjust Technology;
- The Maximum Child Height & Weight Limits
4D Total Adjust Technology
Highbacked booster seats often only come with a couple of recline settings and the other other adjustments that you can make are moving the headrest upwards as your child grows.
The Peg Perego Primo Viaggio Flex 120 seat, however, can be adjusted in lots of different ways to help ensure that it always fits your child perfectly.
The seat’s “4D Total Adjust Technology” means that it can be adjusted as follows:
- 5 vertical headrest positions
- 3 vertical upper backrest positions
- 3 width adjustments for side wings
- 5 recline positions
If the various collision protection parts of the seat are able to be adjusted to fit your child as they grow, this means that they are enjoying the maximum possible protection at all times, and not just when they initially start to use the seat.
The ability to adjust the width of the seat really is a novel idea. Not only does this help to ensure a safe fit with some children, but it also makes it easier to fit the seat into your vehicle when used in the narrow 17-inch mode.
The seat weighs just 14.8 lbs, and its width can be adjusted between 17 and 20 inches. At 17 inches, you would be able to fit 3 in a row within a standard-sized family vehicle.
Child Height & Weight Limits
The maximum child weight on the Primo Viaggio Flex 120 is a massive 120 lbs.
The maximum child height is an equally impressive 63 inches.
These height and weight limits are significantly higher than most other highbacked booster seats, including the other seats mentioned within this post.
Unlike the other 2 recommended seats, the Primo Viaggio Flex 120 seat cannot convert into a backless booster,
Its very generous maximum height and weight limits, however, mean that you can safely use it for much longer than the others and your child might well be able to transition straight from this seat to using the vehicle seatbelt without a child seat.
The Primo Viaggio Flex 120’s Other Features:
- Energy-absorbing foam in headrest and side wings
- Aluminium re-inforced backrest
- 2 Integrated Cup Holders
- Soft Expanded-foam Covers
- 12-year Lifespan
- Stylish Fabric Color Options
- Can be Transported in Folded-up Position
- Can be Stored in the Folded-up Position
- Made in Italy – High Quality Components
Find detailed images of the full range of adjustments here.
Here are some videos about the Flex 120 Seat
Check Latest Price of the Flex 120
Get in Touch
If you have any questions about the subject of the Best High Back Booster Car Seats, please just leave a comment in the box below. If you have found any other great High Back Booster Car Seats, I would love to hear your recommendations.
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