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 Revolve Extend 3-in-1 car seat.
Evenflo Revolve Extend Car Seat Review (USA/Canada)
If you are looking for a swivel car seat, the Evenflo Revolve Extend may be right for you! This seat offers a decent newborn fit, so it could be used from birth if you want to skip the infant car seat stage. It has a tall harness height, so it’s a long-lasting option for rear and forward-facing. And it offers high-back booster mode as well! This seat can swivel in all three modes of use, making it a useful accessibility tool for caregivers or children with disabilities.
Type
A 3-in-1 car seat that can be used rear-facing, forward-facing, and in high-back booster mode
When
From birth or after you’ve used an infant seat for a few months
Age
Our recommendation: Newborn until the seat is outgrown (average 9/10 years old)
What you need to know before you go.
Rear-Facing Seat Stats
- height limit: 17-48″
- weight limit: 4-50 pounds
- head height rules: at least 1″ below the top of the headrest
Forward-Facing Seat Stats
- height limit: 28-49″
- weight limit: 22-65 pounds
- head height rules: ears must be below the top of the headrest
High-back Booster Stats
- height limit: 44-57″
- weight limit: 40-120 pounds
- head height rules: ears must be below the top of the headrest
Other Seat Stats
- width of seat: 19.5”
- weight of seat: 29.6 pounds
- crash replacement policy: Replace after any crash. Evenflo Gold program will provide a replacement after a crash if you register your car seat!
- expiration limits: 10 years
- harness: no rethread
- lock-off: no
✅ Seat is good for you if:
✅ You want to rear-face as long as possible.
The Evenflo Revolve Extend allows children to ride rear-facing until they’re 50lbs or 48″ tall. That makes it one of the longest-lasting rear-facing car seats on the market! If you have a toddler in the upper height or weight percentiles, or if you simply want to max out the safest way to ride, this seat fulfills that requirement!
✅ You want one seat that can work for multiple children of different ages/sizes.
Thanks to the swivel feature, the Evenflo Revolve Extend can switch seamlessly between rear and forward-facing without needing to be reinstalled. Just spin the seat around! It’s also easy to adjust the harness settings to fit kiddos of different sizes. If you need to accommodate multiple children and prefer to use one seat to do it, this seat offers a convenient solution!
✅ You would prefer to have a swivel seat.
Swivel seats are novel and amazingly convenient. If the swivel feature appeals to you, this long-lasting, user-friendly car seat just might be the right choice!
✅ You or your child have a disability.
For families that have difficulty loading their young passengers because of a physical disability, a swivel seat like this one can be a game changer! Parents lifting a disabled child into the car will have an easier time loading when the child’s car seat can face the vehicle door, especially as the child gets bigger and heavier. And, caregivers with any mobility limitations might find it easier to safely load and buckle their young passengers in a swivel seat, too!
From an accessibility standpoint, the Evenflo Revolve Extend stands out from other swivel seat options because it can rotate in rear-facing mode, forward-facing mode, and high-back booster mode — meaning the accessibility benefits last throughout the seat’s whole lifespan! Since most other swivel seats are outgrown earlier and/or only swivel in rear-facing mode, the Revolve line of car seats can be the best fit for any family member with a disability.
🚩 Use Caution If:
🚩 You have tall front-seat passengers.
The Evenflo Revolve Extend takes up a good amount of space when it’s in rear-facing mode. It might not fit well if the backseat space is cramped or if the front seat passenger needs to adjust the front seat all the way back. We have fit it in vehicles as small as a Toyota Camry as long as the caregiver wasn’t above average height.
🚩 You need to fit 3 people in one row of the vehicle.
This seat is too wide at 19.5″ to work in a 3 across configuration. Also, when it’s swiveled into a sideways position for loading or unloading, the backrest of the car seat eats into the space of the center seat. Because of this, it can’t usually swivel if it’s installed directly next to another car seat. Check out this blog post for our recommended car seats for three across situations.
️ Stand Out Features:
Swivels
This seat swivels in all 3 modes of use. When you install with the seat belt and top tether from the start, you won’t have to change the installation until you get to booster mode! This is one of the best options for caregivers who want one seat to transport different-sized kiddos because changing from rear to forward-facing mode is so easy.
LockStrong Arm on the base
The Evenflo Revolve Extend is easy to install thanks to Evenflo’s LockStrong Arm, found on the base. This mechanism tightens the seatbelt or latch strap to help you get a tight installation effortlessly! If installing with the vehicle seatbelt, you’ll still need to lock the seatbelt as your final installation step — the LockStrong arm doesn’t actually lock the belt for you. But this cool feature does make it super easy to get a rock-solid, tight installation every time!
anti-rebound bar
The base of the Evenflo Revolve Extend has an anti-rebound bar (ARB), an added safety feature that can reduce the secondary movement of the car seat, called rebound, during a crash. When a crash occurs, the car seat will move forward, towards the front of the vehicle, and rotate downward. And as we all know from high school physics, every action has an equal and opposite reaction — so after that initial movement, the car seat will rebound, or “bounce back” towards the backrest of the vehicle seat. The ARB minimizes this bounce-back effect, helping limit the car seat movement and your child inside it! ARBs may also limit the side-to-side rotation of the car seat in a side-impact collision. Overall, they’re a great feature to have on a rear-facing car seat!
SensorSafe chest clip (Gold version only)
Some versions of this seat come with the SensorSafe chest clip. This unique chest clip communicates with an app on the caregiver’s phone to provide four types of information: if the child is too hot or too cold; if the child has been buckled in for too long; if the chest clip is unbuckled; or if the child is still buckled in the car after the vehicle has been turned off. These alerts can bring major peace of mind!
Registering the seat gives you a lifetime warranty and free replacement in the event of a crash (Gold version only)
If you decide to go with this seat, make sure you register it! After registering the gold version, you have a lifetime warranty for this seat, and Evenflo will replace the seat for free in the event of a crash. If you don’t get the gold version, you should still register the seat so the manufacturer can alert you in the event of a car seat recall.
▶️ YouTube Videos:
⚠️ Quirks to be Aware Of:
⚠️ What happens if my swivel seat gets stuck halfway?!
Uh-oh, you tried to spin your Revolve from rear-facing to forward-facing, and it stops when facing sideways! What now?!
There’s an easy solution! The car seat can turn sideways in any recline setting, but it only rotates to forward-facing when it’s in the maximum recline setting. Return the car seat to its locked rear-facing position, and use the lever on the back to recline it all the way. Now you’ll be able to swivel it into forward-facing mode!
⚠️ Lock that swivel seat in place, every single drive.
The Evenflo Revolve Extend must be locked into either the rear or forward-facing position for every ride. It can’t be left facing sideways when the car is moving — even if the car seat is empty! Make sure to always rotate the car seat into place before you hit the road.
✈️ Airplane Use
The Evenflo Revolve Extend is an FAA-approved car seat. But it would be one of our last choices. It’s very heavy and requires 2 different pieces for installation which means more to carry on the plane. For help with all things airplane travel and car seats, check out our Wheels Up Course and private Facebook group.
SITS Bottom Line
As long as you don’t need 3 across and you have adequate space in the back seat, this is a really cool seat! We love how easy it is to install and how simple it is to change from rear to forward-facing modes. The ability to swivel in all modes makes this a great option for caregivers with children with disabilities or for caregivers who have disabilities themselves! Overall, we think Evenflo has taken feedback from the original Revolve seat and made this version even better!
Other Versions of this seat:
- Evenflo Revolve Extend Gold*- SensorSafe chest clip, lifetime warranty, free crash replacement
- Evenflo Revolve Slim* – no booster mode, 16.7″ wide
- Evenflo Revolve* – 40″/40-pound limits for rear-facing
*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 Convertible 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 this seat plus more convertible 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 Revolve Extend perform in crash tests?
Well, that’s a great question. We know it passes the strict federally required testing for 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 that compares car seats. But we at Safe in the Seat ignore that data for a few big reasons. First of all, third-party car seat 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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Great review! I’m always looking for ways to ensure my child’s safety while traveling, and this product seems like a great option. Love that it has a 5-point harness and can accommodate children from 4-11 years old. Will definitely consider purchasing this for my little one!
Hello! Pregnant now and looking at this seat. How can I find the measurement of the seat front to back while in furthest recline RF mode so that I can determine how it will fit in our cars without purchasing the seat first?
Thank you!
You won’t be able to find an accurate measurement because how much space it takes up front to back varies based on your vehicle’s seat slope. I would say you need a minimum of 33″, possibly a little more
I’m wondering if this car seat has adjustment to the level of recline when in rear-facing mode. It looks pretty far reclined. Any feedback there? For context, we currently have Chicco NextFit Max seats and we like the adjustability range for level of recline for our two kiddos that are rear facing. Thank you!
This seat can be more upright than this. In the pictures, it was reclined for a child under 20 pounds.
I bought this car seat and I love many things about it. The base install was easy and it’s super tight! However, once the rotating portion of this seat is in, it feels way less sturdy. If you jiggle it, it wiggles substantially. Is this not worrisome? Am I doing something wrong?
Considering returning it.
Thanks!
Had the same concerns after confirming that I installed it correctly. Reached out to Evenflo directly and asked, and they confirmed that the wiggle is normal even when locked into position. As long as the base is sturdy, the shell has some range of motion that is normal (more than other car seats that I’ve had). Not sure why they don’t list this on their FAQs, as it is very obviously different than other car seats.