Joie Baby i-Spin 360 review

On the lookout for the best car seat for your baby? The Joie Baby i-Spin 360 is a 360° pivoting protector that rides rearward longer, forward safer and even turns to mum and dad for luxury loading. This i-Size safety seat makes travelling always a joy and riding ever so relaxing. With safety features like the auto-engaging side impact protection panels, rearward-facing longer usage, new test dummy technology, ISOFIX-only installation, and a better-fit formula for peace of mind, life with small children is less work and more fun.

Better yet, you can now buy the Joie Baby i-Spin 360 in a new fabric as part of Joie's Cycle Collection, where all the products are made from recycled water bottles. As well as the i-Spin 360 (which is made with 33 recycled bottles!), the cycle range includes the Joie Versatrax, Mytrax pro, i-Snug 2, i-Trillo and Ramble XL.

Who tested the product?

To help you decide whether or not the Joie Baby i-Spin 360 is for you, we got our mum testers, and Mother and Baby SEO Executive and dad tester Tim Ferid, to try, test out, and review this car seat.

What was it tested for?

We wanted to know how easy this car seat was for our parent testers to install in their cars, as well as how easy it was to use and how easy theythought it would be to clean. We also asked for thoughts on comfort, safety features, compatibility, age suitability and whether they thought it was worth the money!

Joie Baby i-Spin 360 overview

Testing the Joie Baby i-Spin 360

Dad tester Tim found the car seat to be heavy but very easy to install in his five-door car. He said, "It is a
simple push fit into the two isofix, it has a very sturdy feel once installed correctly. If you do need to remove the seat from the car it is easily achieved by pressing the two release buttons." Tim points out that there are two settings on the front of the seat, 0-15 months and 15 months+. The 15 months+ setting allows the car seat to swivel the entire way round, whereas the 0-15 months only allows for rotating 2/3 of the way round. Tim says, "If this is installed in a three-door car you need to have the
setting set to 15 months+ to be able to swivel the seat the entire way round, enabling you to get your baby into the seat. This is no problem whatsoever, but worth noting."

Our mum testers really liked the 360 spin function of this baby and toddler car seat. "The integrated ISOFIX is super easy to attach, much quicker to install than a seat belt version," says mum Laurie. "The 360 spin, enables me to turn the seat to the door which means I don’t have to bend and put my head inside the car to put my daughter in the seat. This feature is an absolute godsend as I am quite tall and often bang my head putting my daughter in the car seat. I find that I can also put my daughter in the seat more comfortably. It’s much easier for us both."

"I personally think everyone needs one of these," agreed Rebecca. "I suffer from back pain and using this to turn my child and get them out of the car with ease was a lifesaver. It’s 100 per cent made my life easier and I don’t actually know if I will ever be able to go back to a normal car seat now - I may have to purchase one for my other car too!"

"I would recommend the Joie I Spin to fellow mums as it makes your life easier and enables you to get baby out of the car seat easily by rotating it towards the door. This saves you from leaning into the car and hurting your back or getting baby out in between the headrest and car seat," added Rachael.

Dad tester tim says, "Once installed it's easy to turn the car seat forward-facing to put baby in". He thought this was a great feature for when the child gets bigger and may fight the car seat, but also for a baby that may not be particularly happy about going in, saying "(you're) able to maintain that eye contact and reassurance when putting them in." He agrees with the other mums that the 360º seat rotation offers effortless ins and outs and says "(it'll) make every trip that little bit easier." Tim also appreciated the on-the-go recline featyure, saying "(it's) the smart way to get a restless passenger dozing off - useful for babies that nap in the car!" He also noted that the Simple Swivel™ turning activator is always within reach for easy rotations - super smooth and easy to use.

Our mums all agreed that the Joie Baby i-Spin 360 is built very well and looked enjoyable to sit in, with Natasha commenting: "My daughter enjoyed sitting in it and found it very comfortable." She also says, "I like that Joie has a good safety testing record, which gives me confidence that my little girl is safe and secure in her seat. She enjoyed sitting in it."

"It has been really well designed," Jemma agreed. "It is not only stylish but also really safe. Being a first-time mum and with the number of car seats on the market, the Joie i-Spin 360 sold itself. The fact that it is so easy to install, comfortable for my little boy and has many other great features, I would definitely recommend it to fellow parents. The Joie 360 is an excellent product with excellent features."

Tim also agreed that the car seat appeared to be enjoyable for his little one, saying, "Our baby seems to prefer this to his original car seat now, and I think that’s due to being more comfortable and supported in there."

The fact that the car seat can be used from birth to 4 years of age also meant that our parents believed the i-Spin 360 was good value for money. Tim affirms this, saying, "lasts such a long time it’s worth the money"

Final thoughts

"I would recommend this product to other mums because it just makes life that little bit easier in so many ways," says Jade. "It’s stylish and practical and brings great comfort to your baby. It’s easy to install in your car and seems really safe, sturdy and chunky. I’ve really enjoyed using this car seat and would definitely buy one."

"If I could change one thing about this car seat, it would just be how heavy it is to transport from one car to another. Obviously, if you only had one car then this would never be a problem it’s just quite heavy and chunky. I know a lot of car seats aren’t the lightest but that would be my only criticism of this car seat!"

Rebecca also didn't have much she would change. "I found it a bit tricky at first to differentiate the levers underneath for tilting the seat unit back and turning the seat into 360. But after a week or so I knew what I was doing and I found it really really easy - perhaps not putting the leavers so close to each other would make it a bit easier, but that’s all."

Ellie Kirwin-Jones is an Editorial Assistant for Mother & Baby. Ellie has been published by the likes of Heatworld, Heart, Gloucestershire Live, and ITV West Country.