I’ve reviewed a number of Maxi-Cosi car seats over the last year, including the Pria 70 with TinyFit, Pria 85, Vello 65, and RodiFix, and have always been impressed with their construction, user-friendliness, and, of course, safety-focused design. I recently had the chance to pick up the Maxi-Cosi Mico Max 30 infant seat from Amazon, and took the last few days off from 3 across guides to see if this was an infant seat worth buying. Let’s dig into the details together.

2015 Maxi-Cosi Mico Max 30 – What’s the big deal?

The Maxi-Cosi Mico Max 30 is an increasing rarity in the infant car seat world with its “only” 30 pound rear-facing weight limit. However, it’s actually an upgrade in height and weight limits compared to previous Mico seats and it still remains one of the lightest infant seats you can buy in the US at 8.9 pounds. Besides the increased height and weight limits, new features on the latest Mico include an anti-rebound bar present in the base.

Taking a step back for a moment, the Mico Max 30 is an infant car seat, which means it’s suitable for use as the first car seat for your baby when he or she leaves the hospital (or birthing center, or your home if you’re having a home birth). Being an infant car seat, you only use it rear-facing (which is the safest position for any seat), and once your child outgrows it by weight or height, the next best seat to transition to will be a convertible car seat so you can keep on rear-facing until you decide to forward-face your little one in either a convertible or combination car seat. The primary advantage of starting with an infant seat like the Mico Max 30 over a convertible seat is that it’s going to be a lot lighter and easier to install.

Buy the 2015 Maxi-Cosi Mico Max 30 on Sale at Amazon here.

Maxi-Cosi Mico Max 30 Limits for Weight and Height

Rear-facing: 4 to 30 pounds. Your child must be between 19″ and 32″ tall. The shell  height itself is 21″ tall, and the top of your child’s head must not come within 1″ of the top of the seat shell, which is a standard rule in most infant seats. There is a low birth weight insert that must be used if your baby weighs between 4 and 6 pounds.

Even though most states still unfortunately allow children to legally forward face once they turn 1, as a fan of The Car Crash Detective, I hope you aim for more time rear-facing, until 2, 3, or even 4 if possible, the way our fellow Swedish parents do. Why? Because rear facing is the safest position for children.

Once your child has outgrown the Max 30, she or he will need a convertible seat in order to keep rear-facing. I’ve made it a goal of mine to review the best convertibles on the market here.

Dimensions and Lifespan of the Maxi-Cosi Mico Max 30

The Maxi-Cosi Mico Max 30 weighs 8.9 pounds by itself and another 8 pounds when you add the base. It’s one of the lightest seats I’ve reviewed so far, which definitely makes a difference as your infant gets heavier. The lowest harness position is 6.5″ without the infant insert and somewhat lower with the insert in place. The shell height is quite decent for an infant seat at 21.”

The seat has an 8 year lifespan, and the clock starts ticking on the date it was manufactured. After that, you will need to buy a new car seat (and here’s why). You can find the expiration date in two places: beneath the seat itself on a white sticker, and stamped into the plastic seat back.

Due to its narrow width at 18″, the Mico Max 30 is a good choice for 3 across car seat installations in a range of vehicles.

Using the Maxi-Cosi Mico Max 30

Installation with and without base

Out of the box, the Mico Max 30 looks and behaves quite similarly to many other infant car seats on the market. I didn’t have any trouble installing it in a few cars, minivans, and SUVs I had nearby, both with and without the included base. I also had no trouble getting secure installations with the seat belt or with the LATCH lower anchors. Let’s take a closer look at the process.

Installation with base

Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind when choosing between the LATCH anchors and the seat belt for an installation with the base is that you’ve got to choose between the seat belt and the anchors; you can’t use both of them with the base. It doesn’t make the car seat safer (or any other seat safer), as the systems are designed to be used independently. Personally, I prefer using LATCH installations when I only have one seat to deal with, as it’s faster than seat belt installations, but I always use seat belt installations when installing multiple seats beside each other (such as in 3 across installations), as that gives me the most space.

With that out of the way, on the side of the infant seat, you’ll see a horizontal line embedded in the plastic. That line needs to be parallel relative to the ground (or to be precise, to your vehicle) once you’ve installed the seat. To do this, you’ll want to choose between the three recline positions available in the base. They’re spaced nicely, and I was able to find a suitable recline angle in every vehicle I tried. If you for some reason weren’t able to, the standard trick is to use a towel or pool noodle stuffed beneath the base to get the angle to fall into the safe range indicated by the recline indicator.

When you install the base with your seat belt, you can tuck away your LATCH lower anchor connectors on anchors built into the base so they stay out of the way. You can order an extra base for installation in additional vehicles here.

Installation without base

As with virtually every infant car seat on the market today, you can also install your Mico Max 30 without the included base if you use your vehicle’s seat belts. The horizontal line on the carrier serves as a guide to achieving the proper recline. While it’s more of a hassle to perform a baseless installation than a based installation, it’s a great option parents can take advantage of if they frequently travel, use taxis, or simply move from one vehicle to the next on a regular basis and don’t have the finances or flexibility to install bases in every vehicle they might encounter.

I had no trouble installing the Mico Max 30 without the base and with a seat belt; it just took my knee behind the seat to push it into toward the rear of the vehicle while I pulled the seat belt tight. You don’t have the option of European routing, so you’ve got a standard installation with the shoulder belt pressed against the back of the vehicle seat once your installation is done.

Harness, Fit, and Comfort

I tried a number of safety training dolls in the Mico Max 30 to see how the seat fit children of a range of sizes. The Max 30 did a good job with most doll sizes, and the infant insert reassured me that the seat will indeed provide a safe fit for younger and smaller newborns. I wasn’t much of a fan of the 19 inch minimum height limit, however, as there are a number of 4 pound babies who might not have that much height at birth.

The no-rethread harness of the Max 30 is comfortable and padded, and the canopy can extend dramatically, providing a generous amount of shade for your little ones. It also includes a flip-out visor that extends coverage to increase protection against UV rays.

The fabric in the seat is comfortable, machine washable, and dryer safe. Maxi-Cosi states it’s easy to remove for cleaning, and I can confirm that with a bit of work, I was able to get it on and off without needing to do anything particularly complicated. The fabric is also described as self-wicking, which means it’s designed to draw moisture and wetness away from your baby’s skin in order to keep him or her dry. This could come in handy on hot days.

I’m also a fan of the ergonomic handle that made the seat a bit easier to carry compared to the traditional handle design in most infant car seats.

The Maxi-Cosi Mico Max 30 can also be paired with Maxi-Cosi and Quinny strollers to make travel systems out of the box thanks to the in-brand compatibility. If you buy additional adapters, you can make it work with strollers from brands like Baby Jogger, Bumbleride, Mamas & Papas, Mountain Buggy, Phil & Tedds, UPPAbaby, Stokke, and Valco Baby. Susie has reviewed a number of high end single and double strollers by these manufacturers and shares her recommendations here.

Anti-Rebound Bar

Perhaps the most unique element of the Mico Max 30 is the anti-rebound bar. It’s essentially a U-shaped bar that protrudes from the front bottom of the seat (the end of the seat where your baby’s feet land) that helps stabilize the seat by reducing “rebound,” or the tendency of rear-facing seats to bounce rearward toward the vehicle seat in the aftermath of a head-on (front) or rear-end collision. It’s a feature you don’t see on many seats in the United States, even though it’s a good one. The Clek Foonf is an example of a convertible seat with it.

Buy the 2015 Maxi-Cosi Mico Max 30 on Sale at Amazon here.

Why Buy the Maxi-Cosi Mico Max 30?

When it comes to infant car seats, there are a ton to choose from in the United States today, from the safe and popular Chicco KeyFit 30 to what I consider the best infant seat on the market today, the Kiddy Evolution Pro. The best reasons to base purchasing decisions on car seats, in my opinion, involve how well the seats do keeping children safe. For me, that starts with rear-facing.

Every child, barring those with extremely special needs, such as very premature infants who might need infant beds, should start out rear-facing in either an infant seat or in a convertible seat in the rear-facing position. I prefer starting out with infant seats since they’re lighter and since you can install multiple bases to effortlessly move seats from one vehicle to the next.

Infant seats also make it much easier to transfer sleeping infants from the vehicle to the home, or vice versa. That said, no infant seat, not even the best available today in the United States, the Kiddy Evolution Pro, will get your child to age 4, which is where I believe we need to aim for when it comes to rear-facing, the way the Swedes do. To get to 4, you’re going to need to switch to a convertible seat somewhere along the way; I’ve reviewed plenty of these here.

However, even though it won’t get you to 4, the Mico Max 30 will get you started, and it will do so while making it easy to achieve a safe installation, which is key when you consider how many car seats are improperly installed each day. I also like the fact that the Mico Max 30 is an extremely light infant seat, that it includes a no-rethread harness to make harness adjustments easier, and that it’s approved for airplane use by the FAA.

I’m also a big fan of the infant insert and of how easy it makes it to achieve a safe fit for premature infants and small babies. I do wish it had higher height and weight limits, but for that, you’ll need to look toward the Kiddy Evolution Pro, which leads the field by a large margin there.

I heartily recommend the Maxi-Cosi Mico Max 30, and you can buy it here in an incredibly wide range of colors, including Atlantis Green, Autumn Orange, Blue, Blue Base, Devoted Black, Grey Gravel, Moon Birch, Mosaic Blue, Pink Berry, Purple Pace, Red Rumor, White Collection Devoted Black, and White Collection Pink Berry. You can buy an extra base here. Canadians can buy the Max 30 here.

If you find the information on car safety, recommended car seats, and car seat reviews on this car seat blog helpful, you can shop through this Amazon link for any purchases, car seat-related or not. Canadians can shop through this link for Canadian purchases.