Evenflo EveryFit in the yard
All in one is a moniker that’s associated with a few car seats on the market today. This category of car seat does a few things — rear faces, forward faces, and converts to a booster seat. Many of these seats are marketed as long-lasting, some even claim to last a child for all of their car seat days. Despite those claims, most of these seats see most of their use in rear and forward facing harness mode.
The budget-friendly Evenflo EveryFit joins this small group of car seats.
CSFTL Quick Stats
- Rear facing weight range: 4-40 pounds
- Rear facing height range: 17-40 inches tall and the child’s head is 1 inch below the top of the headrest
- Forward facing weight range: 22-65 pounds
- Forward facing height range: 28-49 inches tall
- Forward facing age range: at least 2 years old. CSFTL advocates that children ride rear facing until they’ve outgrown their rear facing car seat by height or weight.
- Booster mode weight range: 40-120 pounds
- Booster mode height range: 44-57 inches tall
- Booster mode age range: at least 4 years old — CSFTL advocates that children be at least 5 years old before moving to a booster seat
- Can use LATCH in high back booster mode
- Inflatable seat belts are not permitted in harness mode but are permitted in booster mode
- Lower anchor weight limit: 40 pounds
- Booster mode height range: outgrown when the tops of the child’s ears are at or below the top of the booster seat headrest (high-back mode) or vehicle seat headrest (backless mode)
- Expiration: 10 years (found on a label on the seat, not listed in the manual)
Measurements
- Lowest harness height: 7.5 inches
- Highest harness position: 18 inches
- Booster mode: highest shoulder belt guide position: 18.5 inches
- 2 crotch buckle positions: 6 and 7.5 inches from the back of the seat pan
- Width at widest point (cupholders): roughly 19 inches across
- Expiration: 10 years
- Weight, fully assembled: 19 pounds
- Weight, backless booster mode: 5 pounds
Features
- 3 rear facing recline positions
- 1 forward facing/booster mode recline position
- 12-position harness adjustment
Crotch Buckle Rules
The EveryFit has a few rules around using the crotch buckle. We appreciate how specific the rules are.
- Rear facing — If the seat is installed rear facing, the crotch buckle must be in innermost position. The vehicle seat belt routes in front of it.
- Forward facing — If the child weighs between 22-30 pounds use the innermost slot. If the child weighs between 30-65 pounds, use the outermost slot.
In order to move the crotch buckle, you have to take the backless booster portion off of the seat.
Cupholder Rules
Evenflo EveryFit cupholders not installed
The cupholders are required in rear facing mode. We can’t really see a scenario where you’d want to leave them off since there’s exposed plastic underneath.
Harness Straps and Cover
The harness strap covers are not required. The crotch buckle has an optional pad that we found fell off quite a bit. Both the harness pads and the crotch buckle cover are fashion-specific so they may look a bit different depending on the seat’s trim level. Regardless of how they look, they’re always intended for comfort.
Head and Body Inserts
The seat includes some rather robust, machine-washable and dryer-safe head and body padding. These inserts are only intended for rear facing mode.
Assembly/Set Up
Evenflo EveryFit out of the box
The lower anchors ship in the rear facing belt path. Families who intend to use the seat forward facing will need to move those lower anchors to the forward facing belt path before installing. We found this a bit challenging because the seat pad really worked hard to get in the way at first.
Color-Coded Belt Paths
Evenflo EveryFit forward facing label
The labels are quite clear — red is for forward facing and blue is for rear facing.
Features
Lower Anchors
Evenflo EveryFit Quick Connect lower anchor connectors
The EveryFit has two different trim levels, they each have different styles of lower anchor attachments.
Our model included the QuickConnector lower anchors with LATCH guides. This type of lower anchors includes a handy pull tab to release them. This piece of webbing makes removing the anchors pretty simple, even in hard-to-reach spots. The LATCH guides are plastic pieces that slide into the vehicle seat to expose lower anchors that are hard to reach.
Lower Anchor Storage
Evenflo EveryFit lower anchor storage
The lower anchor connectors store on the outside of the seat’s shell, just below the forward facing belt path.
Recline Angle Indicator
Evenflo EveryFit recline line
The EveryFit’s recline angle indicator is just a line on the side of the seat. While there are almost as many recline angle indicators as there are types of car seats, this car seat just has a line. When installing the seat rear facing, caregivers will need to ensure that the recline angle is correct based on that line rather than a ball, bubble, or other type of indicator.
Rear Facing Recline Adjustment
Evenflo EveryFit recline adjuster and base
The EveryFit has a rather aggressive recline mechanism. When the seat is fully reclined, it’s so reclined that the seat tipped over backward on my living room floor! So I’d caution caregivers to recline the seat once they get out to their vehicle. If for some reason, that already-significant recline angle isn’t sufficient for an installation, a rolled towel or pool noodle can be used in addition to adjusting the recline angle.
Installation: Rear Facing with Lower Anchors
The seat ships with the lower anchors in the rear facing belt path so getting the seat ready to install rear facing was a matter of just releasing the anchors from their storage spots on the outside of the seat’s cover. Since many families start using a convertible or multimode car seat in rear facing mode, this storage location makes things pretty easy! In my car, a 2011 Mini Countryman, installing the EveryFit with those lower anchors was pretty simple.
Evenflo EveryFit rear facing with lower anchors
Before installing, confirm that the lower anchor connector is in the correct belt path — open the cover of the seat by unsnapping front of the cover and pulling it down to expose the rear facing belt path.
Set the EveryFit on the vehicle seat with the harness facing the back of the vehicle seat. Confirm that the recline angle is correct for your child’s age and weight by referring to the line on the side of the seat. Attach the lower anchor connectors to the lower anchors inside the vehicle.
Pull the cover back to expose part of the belt path.
Note: I did find removing the cover from over the cupholder nearly impossible. Evenflo suggests detaching that part of the seat pad that’s near the child’s bottom rather than attempting to remove the cover from around the cupholders. This should expose enough of the belt path to access the lower anchor webbing.
I pushed straight down in the seat pan while pulling the lower anchor webbing straight up to remove the slack. This resulted in a secure installation without too much effort. That’s always a plus.
Pull until the webbing is snug, then check for movement at the belt path — the car seat should move no more than an inch in any direction.
Vehicle Seat Belt
Evenflo EveryFit rear facing with vehicle seat belt
Installing the EveryFit with the vehicle seat belt brought a different set of challenges that are fairly unique to my vehicle. This means that my car is both wonderful (because it exposes these challenges) and awful (because it happens almost every time I’m reviewing a convertible or multimode car seat) for writing car seat reviews, so please take these challenges with a sizeable grain of salt.
My car has a couple of things that make it kind of odd: the vehicle seat belt is mounted fairly high behind the vehicle seat and the buckle stalks are rigid.
Translation: if a car seat needs to be reclined for a rear facing installation in my car, the seat belt tends to bunch up and I’m not able to cinch the belt down enough to get a secure installation. This is NOT the fault of the car seat, nor is it the first time I have encountered this particular struggle with a seat. The answer is to install the EveryFit rear facing with lower anchors in my car, then switch to the vehicle seat belt for forward facing installations.
Here’s how to install the EveryFit rear facing with the vehicle seat belt. Pull the seat pad up to expose the belt path. Thread the vehicle seat belt through the rear facing belt path, then buckle. Push down on the seat to remove all of the slack from the lap portion of the vehicle seat belt while pulling the belt from outside of the belt path. Once the seat is secure, slide the shoulder portion of the belt through the lockoff. If the vehicle’s manual permits it, the retractor must be locked.
We wanted to note that we find the lockoff + locked retractor advice a bit challenging. Typically, we instruct caregivers to lock the vehicle seat belt using one method — locking at the retractor OR using the lockoff on the car seat — so it’s a tad confusing that the EveryFit could, if the vehicle manual allows it (and, frankly, we’re not sure what sort of language to look for in the vehicle manual on this) use both methods.
Fit to Child
Preemie Doll
Evenflo EveryFit preemie fit
This seat is rated from 4 pounds so we put our Huggable Images preemie doll to work once again. This doll weighs four pounds and is 17 inches long. With the optional infant padding in place, our doll fit reasonably well. I did find that the optional crotch buckle padding got in the way a bit while I was putting the doll in. By the time the doll was fully harnessed in the seat, I’d put the crotch buckle pad on at least 3 times because it had slipped off. Once the doll was situated, I found that the fit was pretty solid. As always, we remind our readers that actual human babies have a slightly different, more human shape than our dolls do so we would urge caregivers who intend to use this seat with their preemie to check the fit before heading out for a drive.
Newborn Doll
Evenflo EveryFit newborn doll
Here’s our newborn doll. The doll weighs 7 pounds and is 17 inches long. I tried the doll both with and without the optional padding, it seemed like the doll fit silghtly better without the padding in place.
Actual human babies have a slightly different, more human shape than our dolls do so we would suggest that caregivers who intend to use this seat with their newborns to check the harness fit before heading out for a drive.
Crotch Roll if Needed
The manufacturer has confirmed that a crotch roll is allowed for small infants and rolled towels are allowed for lateral support. The manufacturer stated that if they’re used, towels should only placed at or below the child’s shoulders.
16 Month Old Doll
Evenflo EveryFit 16 month old doll
Normally, we include human models in our reviews because they can best show how the seat fits actual children and highlight any challenges with getting the child into the seat. However, at the time of publication, we’re in the middle of a pandemic and forced to isolate ourselves. So we’ll be doing this review with dolls and the lone human child in my house who still fits in a booster seat.
Evenflo EveryFit 16 month old doll
Our model has plenty of growing room rear facing. Clearly, we were compensating for the lack of human models in this review when it first launched by including extra pictures.
20 Months Old
Evenflo EveryFit 20 months old
This kiddo has been a very helpful CSFTL model since she was but wee. She’s blossomed into a sassy toddler who weighs 22 pounds and is almost 32 inches tall. She’s got plenty of room to grow in this seat and plenty of legroom as well.
3 Year Old Doll
Evenflo EveryFit 3 year old doll
Here’s our 3 year old doll. It’s 38 inches tall, and though human models are generally cuter than the doll, it was kind of nice to have such a compliant model.
Evenflo EveryFit 3 year old doll
This doll fits well in the EveryFit and has some room to grow yet.
3 Years Old
Evenflo EveryFit 3 years old
This 3 year old model weighs 38 pounds and is 39 inches tall. He’s still got some room to grow in rear facing mode.
Tippy Canoe
We did find that the seat tended to tip backward a bit when adjusting the harness to fit our rear facing models. We adjusted for this by being careful about where we pressed our other hand while adjusting. We’d suggest that caregivers check their installations every now and again to confirm that the seat remains securely installed over time.
Installation: Forward Facing
Lower Anchors — Moving Between the Belt Paths
Evenflo EveryFit removing elastic loop
Moving the lower anchors between the rear facing belt path and the forward facing belt path took a bit of effort. The manual includes three separate sets of instructions for this maneuver: loosen internal harness straps, remove lower anchors, and then lift pad off the front edge of the seat. Those things sound easy enough and the first two instructions were pretty simple but when it came time to remove the pad, I had some challenges. I left page 27 in the manual and headed to page 78 for instructions on how to lift the pad off the seat. There I found instructions that seemed doable at first — remove the snaps from the front of the seat, then….I got completely stuck on “disconnect elastic straps at back.”
The cover on our review seat is a very pleasing shade of black. And the seat’s shell? It’s also black. And the illustrations in the manual? Also black. So when I removed part of the seat pad to expose the elastic loops, I couldn’t see where they attached to the seat. I took pictures, I used a flashlight, but yet they hide inside a crevice. Eventually, found them on the seat pan and there’s good news! The elastic loops are fairly large and the hooks on the seat pan are also pretty large so getting the elastic on and off wasn’t too terribly difficult. Once those loops remove the seat pad from the workspace, moving the lower anchors was pretty easy. Phew.
Once the belt path is exposed, pull the lower anchor webbing to the center of the seat, then thread them back out and through the forward facing belt path. The seat is now ready for forward facing installation with the lower anchors.
Webbing Attachment
We’d like to commend Evenflo for attaching these lower anchors to the seat via a nice piece of webbing rather than a piece of plastic.
Crotch Buckle Length
Since our EveryFit arrived, Evenflo has started shipping a longer crotch buckle with this seat. If you have an early edition of this seat and would like to order a longer crotch buckle, please contact Evenflo directly.
Top Tether
Evenflo EveryFit top tether
Before starting your forward facing installation, remove the top tether from its storage spot on the underside of the seat’s shell, then either lay it inside the seating area or attach it loosely to the tether anchor on the vehicle. That way it won’t get lost during the installation process.
Evenflo has built a reminder into the top tether by making the housing bright red. We appreciate this attention to detail and hope that it will lead caregivers to find AND USE the top tether for all forward facing installations.
Forward Facing Installation — Lower Anchors
Evenflo EveryFit forward facing with lower anchors
Set the EveryFit on the vehicle seat with the harness facing the front of the vehicle. Move the lower anchors into the forward facing belt path if they aren’t there already. Raise the headrest to the highest position, then unsnap the portion of the cover that’s on the inside of the seat to expose the belt path.
Evenflo EveryFit forward facing
Attach the lower anchor connectors to the lower anchors inside the vehicle. From inside the seat pan, pull the tail of the lower anchor webbing directly up while pushing the seat directly back into the vehicle seat with your opposite hand. This counterpressure is the key to a solid installation. Pull until the webbing is snug, then check for movement at the belt path — the seat should move no more than an inch in any direction.
Forward Facing Installation — Vehicle Seat Belt
Evenflo EveryFit forward facing vehicle seat belt
To install the EveryFit forward facing, set it on the vehicle seat with the harness facing the front of the vehicle. Raise the headrest to the highest position, then unsnap the portion of the cover that’s on the inside of the seat to expose the belt path. Thread the vehicle seat belt through the forward facing belt path, then buckle the seat belt. Press down on the seat to remove the slack from the seat belt, then slide the shoulder belt through the lockoff. If the vehicle’s manual permits it, the retractor must be locked.
We wanted to note that we find the lockoff + locked retractor advice a bit challenging in forward facing mode as well. Typically, we instruct caregivers to lock the vehicle seat belt using one method — locking at the retractor OR using the lockoff on the car seat — so it’s a tad confusing that the EveryFit could, if the vehicle manual allows it (and, frankly, we’re not sure what sort of language to look for in the vehicle manual on this) use both methods.
Fit to Child
3 Year Old Doll
Evenflo EveryFit 3 year old doll forward facing
The pandemic continues, restricting our access to human models, so we’ll be putting our 3 year old doll to work once again, this time, to demonstrate forward facing mode. Our doll is the size of a 3 year old and 38 inches tall. The EveryFit provided an excellent harness fit and the doll has plenty of room to grow.
3 Years Old
Evenflo EveryFit 3 years old
This 3 year old model still weighs 38 pounds and is yet still 39 inches tall. He was able to get into the seat without any trouble, and he’s got plenty of room to grow in this mode.
6 Years Old
Evenflo EveryFit 6 years old
This is the first, but not the last, time you’ll see this 48 pounds, 46 inch tall model in this review. Though the harness fits him well right now, he doesn’t have a lot of room to grow in harness mode. That’s not a problem since he’s old enough and mature enough to start riding in a booster seat.
Converting to High Back Booster Mode
The manual has some helpful illustrations and clearly written instructions on how to convert the EveryFit to high back booster mode. Unfortunately, despite those instructions, it’s still a process that I wouldn’t care to repeat very often. Granted, most families make this conversion about one time over the life of a car seat while our review team faces this task numerous times during the course of a review so we got to live this frustration several times.
Evenflo EveryFit converting to booster mode
First, loosen the harness all the way, extending the harness to its maximum length. Then, unbuckle the chest clip. The instructions don’t include instructions around raising the headrest all of the way but we found that doing so made this process a lot easier.
Evenflo EveryFit converting to booster mode
Then, remove the crotch buckle. This step is a bit complicated because the crotch buckle can only be removed when the seat is in backless booster mode. So the process is: remove the back (the EveryFit will now be in backless mode, more instructions are below in the Converting to Backless Booster Mode section), then remove the crotch buckle, and reattach the back to return the EveryFit to high back booster mode.
Evenflo EveryFit crotch buckle storage
The crotch buckle stores on the rear of the seat base.
Unfortunately, the picture of this storage spot in the manual is dark on dark so it’s hard to determine where it should store.
Evenflo EveryFit harness storage
Next, raise the headrest and detach the velcro loops on the seat pad to expose the seat’s shell. Pull the harness around the back of the seat’s shell and thread it through the forward facing belt guides. Connect the chest clip behind the seat’s shell. While this design accounts for all of the moving parts, we find that storing the harness in this exposed manner is a little quirky.
Evenflo EveryFit high back booster
Once the harness is stored, replace the headrest pad and adjust the booster seat to the most upright position. I took this picture to celebrate the work I’d put into making this conversion.
High Back Booster Mode
Evenflo EveryFit high back booster mode
We weren’t expecting a pandemic that led to extended self-isolation so unfortunately, we didn’t have access to a doll or a human small enough to fit in this seat in high back booster mode when this review first launched. For your convenience, we converted the seat to high back booster mode and it was happy enough to model this mode for us.
Fit to Child!
6 Years Old
Evenflo EveryFit 6 years old
We were able to send the seat to another CSFTL family and the amazing models in that family were kind enough to have a seat. This kiddo is 6 years old, weighs 48 pounds, and is 46 inches tall. Clearly, he’s got some questions around the meaning of life right now but one question that’s answered here is how does the EveryFit fit in high back booster mode? The answer? It fits well!
He’s got one click of the headrest to grow here, so that backs up our assertion that the EveryFit isn’t terribly long-lived in high back booster mode.
He did have some trouble buckling but his mom notes that the issue is fairly common in their Chevy Traverse because the buckles sit quite low and are hard to access.
Top Shoulder Belt Guide Position
In high back booster mode, the EveryFit’s top shoulder belt guide position is 18.5 inches from the seat pan. That’s pretty short and we worry that families wouldn’t be able to use the seat in this mode very long.
Converting to Backless Booster Mode
Evenflo EveryFit back removed
The EveryFit can be converted to one additional mode — backless booster mode. We suggest moving children to backless booster mode when they’ve outgrown their high back booster seats. In this case, if their high back booster seat is the EveryFit, it may be outgrown by height before the child is mature enough to sit properly in a backless booster seat.
Evenflo EveryFit release handle
To make the conversion, first, lay the EveryFit on its back. Then, lift up the panel in the seat pad to expose the release handle.
Lift up and hold the release handle. Grab the EveryFit by the armrests, then pull the booster seat’s base off of the seat back. The angle makes all the difference here, once we found that sweet spot, the booster portion pulled right off. But, getting to that correct angle took some effort.
Pro tip from Evenflo: if the crotch buckle is still attached at this point, pull the base by the crotch buckle.
Evenflo EveryFit manual storage
If the crotch buckle is still attached, remove it at this point. Move the manual to the storage space underneath the base so it can remain with the seat. Once the EveryFit is in backless booster mode, please take a moment to note that it’s now a pleasingly light 5 pounds.
Converting Back to High Back Mode
Through the course of this review, I found myself needing to convert the EveryFit between modes a number of times. No matter how many times I went through this process, I didn’t find it any less challenging. During this process, one side of the harness slid back too far and got stuck, making it even more difficult to pull the backless portion away from the frame. At that point, I discovered that the help of my pandemic in-home workout assistant — a small weight plate — was just the thing to gently hold the release handle in place for a moment while I pulled the backless portion of the booster seat off. This leads me to assert that removing the backless portion of this seat is best done with two people on the job, one person holding the frame and the release handle and the other pulling the backless booster off.
Shoulder Belt Guide Adjuster
The EveryFit includes a shoulder belt guide adjuster that must be attached separately and used if the shoulder belt doesn’t fit the child properly without it.
Backless Booster Mode
Fit to Child
6 Years Old
Evenflo EveryFit 6 years old
Our 6 year old model from above is able to show the fit for a 3rd mode of use. That’s pretty amazing and shows how much use a family could get out of the EveryFit. This model remains 6 years old, still weighs 48 pounds, and is 46 inches tall. He’s on the younger side of when we’d like to see a child move into a backless booster seat but it fits him well. The shoulder belt is *right* at his shoulder so we’d probably suggest caregivers who need to use this seat in backless booster mode for a child this young/small use the shoulder belt guide adjuster that ships with the seat.
9 Years Old
Evenflo EveryFit 9 years old
This 9 year old model weighs 58 pounds and is 52 inches tall. The EveryFit also provides him an excellent vehicle seat belt fit in this mode.
10 Years Old
Evenflo EveryFit 10 years old
This kiddo is 10 years old, 49 inches tall, and passes the Five Step Test in most vehicles. Lucky for us, she doesn’t yet pass that test in my car — the same 2011 Mini Countryman that I mentioned above. Here we see her in the EveryFit in backless booster mode. It’s fairly tall for a backless booster (this is kind of par for the course for most multimode car seats) but still offers her an excellent belt fit. She didn’t have any trouble buckling herself into the seat.
Important Information: Where to Find
Evenflo EveryFit FAA approval label
FAA Approval label: the EveryFit is approved for use on aircraft when it’s in harness mode. The FAA approval label is in a tricky spot — it’s hiding underneath the front of the seat pan. So if you’re flying with this seat, take a minute to locate the label before you fly and practice exposing the label in case a flight attendant asks to see it. We had a challenging time getting this picture because the seat cover won’t stay raised high enough to expose the label without having a person hold the cover in place out of the way. Lucky for me, the pandemic includes extra people in the house so my kiddo was happy to help me get this picture.
Evenflo EveryFit manual storage
Manual storage: this seat has two storage spots for the manual. The first is on the upper part of the seat, the second is on the bottom of the seat base. That way, if the seat is in harnessed or backless booster mode, it’s easy to access the manual.
Evenflo EveryFit date of manufacture label
Date of manufacture label: the EveryFit expires 10 years after the date of manufacture. The date is stamped on a label on the back of the seat’s shell.
Overall Thoughts
In a world full of convertible and multimode car seats, the EveryFit is certainly another addition to the ranks. It falls on the budget-friendly, fairly lightweight side of things but, frankly, I’m having a hard time seeing where this seat shines. It’s perfectly adequate as a convertible car seat — it fits preemies and newborns well, it fits our older models just as well. Those things are big plusses for any car seat.
Evenflo EveryFit headrest adjuster
With 12 headrest positions, we’d expect it to fit most children quite well in both rear and forward-facing modes. But the conversion to high back booster mode is a lot of effort for what amounts to a pretty short-lived time in that mode.
Overall, we’d suggest this seat for families seeking a well-fitting convertible seat but not necessarily for families who need a long-lived booster seat or who need to convert one car seat between different modes on a regular basis.
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