Monday, February 6, 2012

Diono vs Sunshine Kids

In 2011, Sunshine Kids Juvenile Products changed their name to Diono. Their seats stayed mostly the same, with some changes made to add a booster mode. However, the Radian has changed alot over the years and it can be quite confusing, especially with retroactively increasing their rear facing weight limits in 2008. Here is a break down of the major differences in the seats. Along with the weight limits, I'd like to note there are height limits as well, which I do not have listed here. ***Sunhine Kids/Diono says some of their seats can be used up to the full 65/80 pounds with LATCH if your vehicle was made after Sept 2005. However, I feel it's important to point out that most vehicle manufacturers also have a weight limit for LATCH, and you should abide by that as well.

Diono Radian RXT
- Rear facing 5-45 pounds. Forward facing up to 80 pounds. Booster mode up to 120 pounds. ***Diono says LATCH can be used up to 80 pounds in harness mode if your vehicle was made after Sept 2005.

Diono Radian R120- Rear facing 5-45 pounds. Forward facing up to 80 pounds. Booster mode up to 120 pounds. ***Diono says LATCH can be used up to 80 pounds with the harness if your vehicle was made after Sept 2005.

Diono Radian R100- Rear facing 5-40 pounds. Forward facing up to 65 pounds. Booster mode up to 100 pounds. ***Diono says LATCH can be used up to 65 pounds with the harness if your vehicle was made after Sept 2005.

Sunshine Kids Radian XTSL- Rear facing 5-45 pounds. Forward facing up to 80 pounds. Has adjustable headwings. ***Sunshine Kids says LATCH can be used up to 80 pounds if your vehicle was made after Sept 2005.

Sunshine Kids Radian 80SL- Rear facing 5-45 pounds. Forward facing up to 80 pounds. ***Sunshine Kids says LATCH can be used up to 80 pounds if your vehicle was made after Sept 2005.

Sunshine Kids Radian 65SL- Rear facing 5-40 pounds. Forward facing up to 65 pounds. ***Sunshine Kids says LATCH can be used up to 65 pounds

Sunshine Kids Radian XT- Rear facing 5-40 pounds. Forward facing up to 80 pounds. Has adjustable headwings

Sunshine Kids Radian 80- Rear facing 5-35 pounds. Forward facing up to 80 pounds. Seats manufactured after Sept 1, 2008 can be used up to 40 pounds rear facing.

Sunshine Kids Radian 65- Rear facing 5-35 pounds. Forward facing up to 65 pounds. Seats manufactured after Sept ,1 2008 can be used rear facing up to 40 pounds.

3 comments:

Rebecca said...

Hi.

I have a tall 27 month old son and a chunky/heavy 4 month old son. My 2 year old is in a forward facing car seat, my 4 month old is still in a rear facing seat. I want them both to be safe. Can you recommend a carseat for my two year old? Is a rear facing one going to be too restricting for his legs, as he's very long? (3ft+).

Can you also recommend something for him to wear instead of a thick coat, to keep him warm? I always either use his coat or nothing at all and I'm not happy with either way.

Thank you,
princessrebec@live.co.uk

Robin said...

I'm so glad I came across this today! I was about to order a new Radian since my 2 1/2 y/o weighs 36 pounds & according to the manual for his Radian XT RF is only up to 35. Your blog post just saved me $300!!! Now to keep him under 40 for as long as possible, lol.

Rob said...

Great comparison, well done!