The best car seat is the one that fits your child, vehicle, budget, and lifestyle and has the features important to you. The safest car seat is the one you can install correctly and use properly on every ride! Let us know in the comment section what questions you have about this review of the Evenflo Litemax car seat. And if you want to compare car seats and let us help you find your recommended car seats, our Car Seat Buying Kits are your best bet!

Evenflo Litemax Car Seat Review (USA/Canada)

The Evenflo Litemax is budget-friendly, fits even the tiniest babies well, is easy to install, and is fairly lightweight as well! What’s not to love about it?!

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*Head to the Car Seat Buying Kits for a complete database of all car seat stats for our recommended car seats.

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✅ Seat is Good for You If:

✅ You are expecting a very small baby.

A newborn in the Evenflo Litemax car seat will fit no matter how big or small! The lowest harness height is about 4″, so the shoulder straps are sure to fit in the proper position on the tiniest of babies. This car seat is an excellent option if you’re expecting a small newborn or bringing home a preemie.

✅ You are looking for a budget-friendly option.

This is one of our favorite seats that can be found for under $150. It has an easy installation and fits babies of all sizes very well.

✅ You want a seat that is easy to install.

The lock-off on the base makes for an easy and quick installation with either the seat belt or the lower anchors. If you will be taking the base in and out of the vehicle on a regular basis, you will find the seat belt much easier to use. This seat comes with basic lower anchors that can be more difficult to detach from the vehicle than premium anchors are.

✅ You want a lightweight car seat.

The Evenflo LiteMax is one of the lightest infant car seats on the market, weighing in at just 7.4 pounds.

🚩 Use Caution If:

🚩You need a seat that is compact front to back.

This won’t be the best choice for small backseats or for tall front-seat passengers. When installed on an outboard seat, there must be at least 1.5″ between the infant seat and the vehicle seat in front of it.

️ Stand Out Features:

Seat belt lock-off on the base

This makes it easy to install and you can also use it in vehicles without locking seat belts (prior to 1996 for US/Canada or in most international vehicles).

European seat belt routing for baseless mode

The Evenflo Litemax can be installed baseless with European or American/Standard belt routing. You can find a video showing both of those methods here. The European routing method is preferred! European belt routing means the shoulder belt portion of the seat belt is routed behind the shell of the rear-facing seat, limiting its ability to rotate down in a frontal crash. This routing functions similarly to a load leg. Pretty cool, huh?!

Buckle Tongue Holders

This seat has buckle tongue holders, which is a feature that is usually only found on higher-end seats. This feature keeps the buckles out of the way when you’re putting your baby in and taking them out of the car seat. This makes it easier to get your baby in and out of the car seat.

▶️ YouTube Videos

▶️Evenflo Litemax Sport featured in 5 Things to Keep Your Baby Safe

▶️How to Install a Car Seat on an Airplane

⚠️ Quirks to Be Aware Of:

⚠️1.5″ rule

When installed on an outboard seat, the Evenflo Litemax requires at least 1.5″ between the infant seat and the seat in front of it. If this is a problem in your vehicle, try installing it in the center seating position.

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✈️ Airplane Use

The Evenflo Litemax is an FAA-approved car seat. This is a good option for travel. If traveling internationally without the base, you will need a locking clip. Contact the car seat manufacturer for a free locking clip. We have a video here of how to use a locking clip. If you travel with the base, it does have a seat belt lock-off.

For help with all things airplane travel and car seats, check out our Wheels Up Course and private Facebook group.

SITS Bottom Line

The Litemax is an excellent option for newborns of any size, including preemies! It’s a budget-friendly seat that has some of the same features you would expect to find on higher-end seats, like a lock-off and buckle tongue holders.

Other Versions of this Seat:

Evenflo LiteMax Sport (US) – no lock-off on the base, 7.8 pounds

Evenflo Litemax DLX (US)* – load leg, no-rethread harness, premium lower anchors, 8.8 pounds

Evenflo SecureMax Gold (US)* – load leg, no-rethread harness, SensorSafe chest clip, premium lower anchors, lifetime warranty, free crash replacement, 9 pounds

Evenflo Litemax 35* (Canada)

Evenflo Gold SensorSafe LiteMax DLX* (Canada) – load leg, no-rethread harness, SensorSafe chest clip, premium lower anchors, lifetime warranty, free crash replacement

*A SITS recommended seat. Recommended seats are in our Buying Kits because they have ranked high on our vehicle, child, ease of use, and features scale.

Compare Car Seats

Looking to compare car seats and narrow down the best car seat for your family? The Infant Car Seat Buying Kit walks you through our 7Cs of selection, then on to an interactive quiz, and finally, a recommended car seat list is generated just for you! If you are overwhelmed and sick of spending hours researching and reading car seat reviews like this one, the Buying Kit will guide you to Safe in the Seat’s recommended car seats for you in under 30 minutes!

Check out this Amazon Live for more infant seats we recommend and the standout features we love.

We check every day for our recommended car seats on sale, and we have all the deals here for you. Shopping in Canada? Find today’s seat sales in Canada here.

What About Seats We Don’t Recommend?

Just like anyone, we have preferences! This goes for car seats, too. If we don’t recommend a car seat, it’s not because it’s unsafe for your little one. All car seats are safe if they’re installed and used properly, are not expired or damaged, and when they’re made and sold by a reputable manufacturer and/or retailer. Click here for our full list of car seats that we do not recommend.

A note about crash-tests

How does the Evenflo Litemax perform in crash tests? 

Well, that’s a great question. We know that it passes the strict federally required testing that applies to all car seats sold in the United States. But we don’t know exactly how it performs. That data isn’t released by any official sources in the US — not by car seat manufacturers, not by government agencies like NHTSA, not anywhere! 

There are a few third-party websites that claim to offer objective crash test data for a variety of car seats. But we at Safe in the Seat don’t pay attention to that data for a few big reasons. First of all, third-party crash tests don’t actually give us meaningful data! Car seat manufacturers crash-test their products hundreds, even upwards of a thousand times. They crash test the finished product in every single installation configuration using every applicable-sized crash test dummy, not to mention a whole lot of testing at each stage of the development process too. So one or two crash tests completed by another organization just can’t give the same level of information! One or two crash tests aren’t going to represent the overall average performance of any car seat across its lifespan.

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