Evenflo Revolve 360 vs Cybex Sirona S Comparison

You’ve decided that a revolving convertible car seat is a good idea for you and your little one. And you’ve narrowed your search down to these two rotating car seats: the Evenflo Revolve 360 Gold vs Cybex Sirona S. In this comparison post, I handhold you through all the salient features of each car seat so you can pick the winner with confidence.

Related: Best Rotating Car Seats

Both swivel car seats offer a 360-degree rotation, and you’ll love how easy it is to load and unload little wiggly guys.

But who wins the contest in the final analysis? It’s the Evenflo Revolve 360 Gold, and I devote the rest of this resource to demonstrating why. 

Having considered the differences between the Cybex Sirona S vs Evenflo Revolve 360 above, I find that the Evenflo wins hands down.

Evenflo Revolve 360 vs Cybex Sirona S Comparison

 

Definitely the Evenflo Revolve 360 Gold. Because it spins somewhat better, its tether design lets you rotate the car seat while in the forward-facing position without getting in the way. What’s more, the base is detachable for easier cleaning, something that’s rare in the convertible car seat world. Additionally, it features 2 removable and rotatable cup holders which are also dishwasher safe. As for the seat padding, it’s plushy and machine-washable as well as dryer safe. And the best part? It’s actually cheaper than the Cybex Sirona S.

Related: Detailed Cybex Sirona S Review

What’s a Revolving Convertible Car Seat and Do You Need One?

A revolving convertible car seat is a regular convertible car seat that revolves 180˚or 360˚degrees. These seats tend to be more expensive than regular convertible or all-in-one car seats, but that’s because they make parenting easier in some way.

With a rotating or swivel car seat, loading and unloading baby is a breeze. When you want to get baby out of the car, simply press a button or other mechanism and rotate the the seat towards the door.

Cleaning a car seat that swivels is also easier than cleaning a regular one. You can easily clean the seat without necessarily getting it out of the car.

Another reason you want to consider this kind of car seat is that it’s easy to use. It’s both rear-facing and forward-facing, and when the time to switch from one mode to the other comes, you don’t need to uninstall the car seat. All you need to do is press a button or work a handle, and the car seat turns to forward-facing.

Drawbacks? They’re heavy. And this because these are convertible car seats and these ones are typically big and bulky. But that’s not saying that all rotating or regular convertible car seats are big and bulky.

Plus, most are pricey, but there are many car seats that don’t offer this rotational technology that cost way more. The final drawback is that rotating car seats take up tons of space and if you have a small car, chances are that you may not be able to seat another child in the backseat.

Pros and Cons of a Convertible Car Seat That Rotates

Before I dive into the actual comparison of the Evenflo 360 Revolve Gold vs. Sirona Cybex S, below are the specs and features of each contender.

Specs, Measurements, and Features of the Evenflo Revolve 360

Specs

• Rotation: 360˚
• Lifespan of the Car Seat: 10 years from date of manufacture
• Maximum Weight Limit Rear-facing:4lbs-40lbs
• Maximum Height Limit Rear-facing:17″-40″
• Lower Anchor Weight Limit: 35lbs
• Forward-facing Weight Limits:22lbs-65lbs
• Forward-facing Height Limits: 28″-49″
• Lower Anchor Weight Limit Forward-facing: 40lbs
• Booster Mode Weight Limits:40lbs-120lbs
• Booster Height Limits:44″-57″
• FAA-Approved? No

Critical Car Seat Measurements

• Product Weight:29.6lbs (base 11.9lbs+seat shell:17.7lbs)
  
• Width: 19.5″ at the widest point
• Highest Harness Height: 19″
• Lowest harness height: Without insert 9.5″
• Lowest harness height: With insert (folded) 6″
• Lowest harness height: With insert not folded 8.5″
• Seat width:11″
• Seat depth: 11.5″
• Crotch buckle positions: 3 positions at 3″, 4.5″ and 6″

Features

• Optional foldable body insert that fits even preemies (super cool!)
• Adjustable headrest
• Anti-rebound bar? No, but it has an built-in mechanism that performs similarly
• Seat lock indicator (red for not ready and green for ready)
• Cup holders that are dishwasher safe
• Premium-quality lower anchors
• Belt-positioning arm, LockStrong
• 2 rotation handles on the top of the seat shell; only one handle needed to swivel the seat
• Seat shell sits on a base and rotates 360 degrees

Features and Specs of the Cybex Sirona S

Specs

• Rotation: 360˚
• Lifespan of the Car Seat: 10 years from DOM
• Maximum Weight Limit Rear-facing:4lbs-50lbs
• Maximum Height Limit Rear-facing:17″-49″
• Lower Anchor Weight Limit: 30lbs
• Forward-facing Weight Limits:22lbs-65lbs
• Forward-facing Height Limits: 28″-49″
• Lower Anchor Weight Limit Forward-facing: 35lbs
• Booster Mode Weight Limits:No booster mode
• Booster Height Limits:No booster mode
• FAA-Approved? Aircraft-approved in Canada but NOT in the United States

Critical Car Seat Measurements

• Product Weight:31lbs
  
• Width: 21″ at the widest point
• Highest Harness Height: 16.5″
• Lowest Harness Height: 7″ with the insert & 8″ without insert
• Seat depth: 13″
• Crotch buckle positions: 3 positions at 5″, 6″ and 7″

Features

• Optional infant insert
• LSP: Linear Side Impact Protection
• SensorSafe system
• Load Leg/anti-rebound bar
• Adjustable headrest
• Car seat rotates on a base that stays installed in the car

To make comparing these two rotating car seats easy to follow, I’ll pick one comparison element at a time and analyze it to decide who wins.

Ease of Installation

You can install either swivel seat via LATCH or seatbelt, but I found that the Evenflo Gold installs easier than the Cybex Sirona S. One factor that makes installing the Evenflo easier is its wide open belt path.

Your hand won’t get scraped or hurt when routing the belt. Hubby can even put a hand with a watch in without a problem: that’s how spacious the belt path is. Learn how to install the Evenflo 360 Revolve Gold with the seat belt and LATCH here. BTW, the manufacturer recommends doing the install via the seatbelt for this car seat.

Since the Sirona S has a narrower base, it’s not surprising its belt path is narrower than that of the Evenflo Gold 360. And this did make installation via the seatbelt a tad more challenging compared to installing the Evenflo.

I’ve fought with quite a few car seats including some from Graco, and it can be extremely frustrating especially when installing in a tight backseat in sweltering-hot weather.

Product Weight

Weight isn’t a super important consideration when it comes to rotating car seats. Because this kind of car seat mostly stays in the car post-install.

That said, the Evenflo Revolve Gold 360 weighs 29.6 pounds vs. 31 pounds for the Cybex Sirona S. Even though the Evenflo 360 wins in the weight department, it’s a small win and it doesn’t make the this option better than the Sirona S.

Weight Limits Rear Facing: 4 Pounds for Both

Both options have a minimum weight limit of 4 pounds, which is as low as it gets. This makes each of these choices good for carrying tiny newborns, but the Evenflo is the better option as far as accommodating the tiniest of tots.

Why? Because while the two contenders use a newborn insert, that of the Evenflo is foldable. Being foldable makes the insert to fit smaller babies better compared to that of the Sirona S.

BTW, most convertible car seats have a minimum weight limit of 5 pounds.

As for the maximum weight rear-facing, it’s 40 pounds for the Evenflo versus 50 pounds for the Sirona. Most comparable options have a limit of 40 pounds, which means that the Sirona S scores BIG in this respect.

Height Limit Rear Facing

For the Evenflo, the height limit rear-facing is 17″-40″ vs. 17″-49″. This means that you stand to get a bit more use out of the Sirona S rear-facing. But a maximum height of 40″ or higher rear-facing is way higher than what you get with a typical infant car seat.

Most rear-facing-only car seats have a max height of 30-32″, so both the Sirona S and Evolve 360 offer extended rear-facing.

If your baby grows faster than average weight-wise and height-wise, you can expect them the the Sirona S to fit them better for longer compared to the Evolve.

The Sirona S wins in the weight and height limit department (rear-facing).

Weight Limit Forward-facing

Both contestants have a forward-facing weight limit of 22lbs-65lbs. No one trounces the other in this respect, and 22-65 pounds as good as it gets. Clearly, neither choice beats the other as far as weight limit forward-facing.

Height Limit Forward-facing

Both swivel car seats have a forward-facing range of 28″-49″ As you can see, the Sirona offers the same range forward-facing that it does forward-facing. I’d have expected the Sirona S to have a higher number, but things are what they are here.

With either rotating car seat, you should be able to carry your child forward-facing until they’re read to use the booster car seat.

Note: Evenflo says that parents should turn the seat forward-facing at age 2 while Sirona recommends changing to forward-facing seating at age 1.

You don’t want to forward-face the car seat this early though. Why? Because reputable organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics encourage extended rear-facing seating arguing it’s safer than forward-facing during this phase of a kid’s growth trajectory.

Harness height differences: The maximum harness height of the Evenflo 360 is 19″ versus 16.5″ for the Cybex Sirona S. There’s a likelihood your child might outgrow the forward-facing mode before they’re ready for the booster seat. If you’re for a forever car seat for your LO, going with the Evenflo makes more sense.

Lower Anchor Weight Limit

Installing most car seats via the lower anchor/LATCH is easier than through the seatbelt. However, there’s the little issue of lower anchor weight limits.

For the Evenflo Revolve 360 Gold, the lower anchor limit rear-facing is 35 pounds and 40 pounds forward-facing, which is what it is for most similar car seats. The Sirona S has a limit of 30 pounds rear-facing and 35 pounds forward-facing.

If you install either seat via LATCH, you’ll have to uninstall and re-install via the seatbelt at some point down the road. So, why not install via the seatbelt from the get-go? Actually, the manufacturer recommends installing via the seatbelt.

Watch this video to learn how to install the Evenflo 360 Gold. And watch this video to learn how to install the Cybex Sirona S. Be sure you understand how the belt tensioner and the EasyLock bar work together to lock the seatbelt as this can be somewhat tricky.

Top Tether Use

Since both car seats have the forward-facing mode, they come with a top tether. One unique thing about the Evenflo is that you need to use the tether in both modes (but not in the booster mode).

The base of this seat installs one way ONLY, and this means that using the tether rear-facing and forward-facing is similar. And the tether doesn’t get in the way in either mode, not even when you’re rotating the car seat. This is GREAT!

One con about the Cybex Sirona S is that in the forward-facing mode, the tether gets in the way every time you rotate/swivel the seat. Parents didn’t like this, and Sirona have the following answer to the question whether parents needed to use the top tether forward-facing:

The Sirona S convertible car seat includes a tether for forward-facing use and typically, CYBEX recommends the use of tether when installing a car seat in a forward-facing position.  The Sirona S innovative load leg feature, however, like a tether, is designed to reduce seat movement in the event of a crash,  so use of the tether is not required in forward-facing mode for this seat when using the load leg. Importantly, the Sirona S meets or exceeds applicable U.S. federal safety standards both with and without the tether, and with and without the load leg.

Car Seats for the Littles reviewed this guidance and didn’t find it satisfactory. The organization advises parents and caregivers to ALWAYS use the tether in the forward-facing mode leg load or no leg load.

Without a doubt, the Evenflo Gold 360 wins as far ease of use of the tether forward-facing. I also like that the brand recommends using the tether rear-facing.

BTW, why is using a top tether forward-facing important? According to Safe Kids Worldwide (PDF) a top tether prevents a forward-facing car seat from “tipping dangerously forward” during a crash. And this could help reduce the risk of brain injury.

Using the Evenflo in Canada

If you’re using the Canadian version of the Evenflo 360 Rotating Car Seat, you MUST attach the top tether when installing in the forward-facing mode. If you choose to use the swivel feature, you’d have to loosen the strap or undo it once you load baby and then re-attach it. In other words, using this car seat requires doing more. But car seats like this are supposed to make life easier, right?

Booster Mode

The Sirona S lacks the booster mode while the Evenflo has it. This mode is accessible for kids in the 40-120 pounds. A 57″ child should fit in the booster mode as per the seat’s specs. However, I’ve found that 65-pound kids standing 52.5″ fit well in the booster mode, but they may not be able to ride comfortably in this mode for much longer.

If this 52.5″ child fails the so-called 5-Step-Test, you’ll have to get a real booster car seat for them. In the final analysis, the Cybex Sirona S not having a booster mode isn’t much of a disadvantage. Because you’re going to need to purchase a dedicated booster seat before the child can fit in the regular adult seatbelt anyway.

Seat Padding Quality and Infant Inserts

Both products have plush-padded seat covers, and the same goes for the infant inserts. Speaking of inserts, both choices have optional inserts for supporting weak newborn necks and heads.

A newborn insert makes fitting newborns in infant or convertible car seats easier and safer. But it turns out that not all newborn inserts are created equal. I hadn’t seen any foldable infant insert before I set my eyes for the first time on the Evenflo Gold Revolve.

Because this seat’s infant padding folds, fitting a really tiny baby (even a preemie) becomes much easier. In other words, the Evenflo 360 is the option to bring to the hospital if you have a teeny-weeny baby.

Recline Angle Indicator

The Evenflo comes with a black recline ball and a recline stripe with a white section and a black section. The black section of the stripe is for 20-40 pounds kids while the white part is for adjusting the recline angle for 4-20 pound passengers.

The Cybex Sirona S features a recline ball as well. When installing this car seat, you must make sure that the recline ball is well within the red range and when doing a rear-facing install, this ball needs to be in the blue range. Take a look below.

Reclining these two seats is pretty easy and recline angle indicators make mistakes easy to avoid.

How Does the Seat Rotate?

Both car seats spin smoothly on a solid base, but I found that the Evenflo 360 swivels a tad better. There are two white handles on either side of the seat shell. Pulling up either of these handles allows you to swivel the seat with the other hand until it locks in place.

BTW, you know the seat’s locked in nice and safe when the seat lock indicator located on each side of the 360’s base turns green. The Cybex has a seat lock indicator as well.

It’s amazing that you can rotate the Evenflo 360 Revolve without the tether getting in the way as it often does in most comparable car seats. The tether is on the base and not on the shell as is the case with the Cybex Sirona S and most rotating options.

Cupholders

The Evenflo 360 Gold comes with cupholders on either side of the seat shell. These cups are rotatable and plug into two permanent holes in the shell.  You can remove the cups, but not the holders. BTW, the widest portion of the Evenflo Gold 360 is at the cupholders.

The child seating in the Gold 360 can use one cupholder while another kid stores snacks in the other one. In comparison, the Cybex Sirona S features 1 cup holder. Also, this feature could be improved as it’s easy for a child to pop off the cupholder.

Crotch Buckle Positions

Each product features 3 buckle positions so that you can customize harness fit to an appreciable extent. In case you’re wondering, there are no weight limits/restrictions whatsoever on the buckle positions.

The correct crotch buckle position to work with is the one that places the strap closest to the child. BUT you should use any position that’s under the passenger.

Safety Features

Both are safety-certified for use in motor vehicles, but neither is FAA-approved for aircraft use in the US.

Each option has a steel core and built-in mechanisms/tech that make the seat even safer. One safety feature these two products have is a load leg/anti-rebound bar. The Sirona S has an adjustable load leg which doesn’t work too well BTW while the Gold 360 has a built-in anti-rebound mechanism.

These mechanisms are designed to slow down the car seat as it rebounds/bounces back into the backseat after frontal impact, reducing risk of injury to a certain extent.

The other safety feature both have is the top tether. But there’s one feature the Cybex has that the Evenflo Revolve 360 lacks: the SensorSafe technology.

SensorSafe is a mobile-accessible feature (via Bluetooth) that improves child safety in various ways. If you leave baby in the backseat, if it gets extremely hot in the backseat, or baby opens the chest clip, you get a notification via phone or receiver in the vehicle’s OBD portal.

The latest versions of the Sirona S don’t require you to connect to any kind of car receiver, which is nice.

Ease of Care

While both are reasonably easier to clean, the Evenflo wins because you can actually remove the shell from the base. This is a unique feature of the Evenflo, one that you rarely find in convertible car seats of any kind. You can easily lift the shell off of the base for easier access during cleaning.

Both options have machine-washable plushy covers (please don’t wash the harness ). I like that you can hasten the drying process of the 360’s padding using a dryer on a low-heat setting. This gets the seat ready for use sooner.

FAA Approval

The Evenflo Gold 360 ISN’T aircraft-approved in the US. But that shouldn’t be a deal-breaker because the car seat is too heavy for air travel anyway.

As for the Cybex Sirona S, it’s NOT plane-worthy in the US, however, you can use it without issues just across the border in Canada since it’s approved for aircraft use there.

Longevity and Car Seat Expiration Date

Both expire 10 years after date of manufacture, but since the Evenflo is an all-in-one spinning car seat, it can be one-done-purchase for some. In terms of sturdiness and build quality, both are solid car seats that meet all the required safety guidelines.

Cybex Sirona S vs Evenflo Revolve 360 Gold: Which is Better?

Both are good rotating car seats, but the Evenflo 360 is a better buy in many respects.

First off, the Evenflo Revolve Gold 360 is cheaper, spins slightly better, and revolves without the tether getting in the way because it attaches to the base and not to the shell.

Also, the Evenflo 360 is an all-in-one rotating car seat that can serve a tiny passenger right from the newborn phase all the way to booster-ready age/maturity.

Both have adjustable headrests, but the Evenflo offers a higher maximum harness height, which means a child is less likely to outgrow it before they’re booster-ready.

Also, the Gold 360 features 2 cupholders vs 1 for the Sirona S. And its cupholders feel and indeed are better quality that Sirona S’.

Also, the Evenflo is easier to clean because its shell is detachable from the base. Simply remove the upper part and clean up all the bits and pieces hiding in the base. And its seat cover is dryer-safe while the cupholders are dishwasher safe, which also applies to the Sirona S.

However, neither car seat is FAA-approved in the US. But this isn’t a problem because the car seats are quite heavy. For traveling, get a lightweight FAA-approved car seat.

The Evenflo Gold 360 lacks Sirona’s SensorSafe technology, which its competitor has.

It’s now official: The Evenflo 360 Gold came out on top. Grab it and let’s show a little kindness to your tired back. No more hunching over getting baby in or out of the car!