Chicco GoFit Plus Review: The Backless Booster That Clips In

The two things the Plus adds

Take the GoFit, add a pair of LATCH connectors and a release handle, and you have the GoFit Plus. Chicco’s own listing for the non-LATCH model points at this one by name, which is unusually honest product copy: the shell, the ErgoBoost contoured pan, the double foam, the two fold-away cup holders and the 40 to 110 lb window are the same on both.

So the decision is not about crash protection or fit. It is about what happens in the ninety seconds between the car stopping and your child walking away. A backless booster with no attachment is a loose object on the seat the moment the belt retracts. It slides forward under braking, it ends up tilted against the door, and every morning you straighten it before you can route the belt.

The connectors fix that specific annoyance. Nothing more, and nothing less. If you have ever arrived at school pickup to find the booster half off the cushion with the belt clip under it, that is the problem this version is selling a solution to.

What LATCH does on a booster, and what it does not

This is the part parents get wrong, so it is worth being blunt. The lower anchors on a booster hold the seat to the vehicle. They do not hold your child. Your child is held by the three-point belt running through the lap guides and the shoulder clip, and if that belt is slack, misrouted, or under an arm, the LATCH connection does nothing about it.

Boosters also do not use a top tether, and this listing does not describe one. The two connectors are the whole attachment.

Vehicle limits apply to the anchors themselves, and they vary by manufacturer and by seating position. The GoFit Plus listing does not publish a weight limit for its connectors, so read your owner’s manual for the lower anchor rating in the seat you plan to use. Some vehicles have no lower anchors in the third row or the center position, and a few have them offset in ways that fight a wide booster.

One pull, one hand: the release handle

Chicco’s quick-release design is a handle you pull to unhook both connectors at once, described as one-hand removal. If you have ever fished a hand under a booster to press two metal latches while holding a grocery bag, the value is obvious. The release is the difference between a seat that moves in four seconds and a seat that moves in forty.

It also changes how you use the seat. A booster you can unhook in one motion is a booster you will actually take into a restaurant, or hand to a grandparent, or stow in the trunk before a Costco run. The plain GoFit can do all of that too, but you are sliding a loose seat rather than unhooking a fixed one.

Two cautions. The connectors need to reach the anchor bars, and a deep bench with the anchors set far forward can make the straps a stretch. And the handle is plastic on a seat that lives on the floor of a car, so keep feet and cleats off it.

40 to 110 lb, 44 to 57 inches, and the rule that fails quietly

The Plus carries the same eligibility as the GoFit: at least 4 years old, between 40 and 110 lb, 44 to 57 inches tall, and able to sit relatively still in the same position for the ride. Adding LATCH does not change any of that, and it does not make the seat suitable for a younger or lighter child.

The sit-still clause is the one to take seriously. A backless booster has no harness, so the belt only works if the child stays behind it. A 42 lb four-year-old who slouches, unbuckles, or puts the shoulder belt behind an arm is a candidate for a harnessed seat, not a nicer backless one.

The 57 inch ceiling covers a lot of years. Thirteen inches of growing happens between the bottom of the range and the top, and the seat does not change shape once in that time. What changes is the child’s shoulders and the vehicle’s head restraint, which is why the ceiling is a height and not an age.

Belt path, buckle stalk, and the armrest slot

The lap belt threads through integrated guides at the base of each armrest, and the shoulder belt runs through a clip on a strap. That is the whole system, and it depends on the belt sitting flat with no twists. A twisted belt in a guide is a belt that will not tighten properly, and the fix takes ten seconds if you notice it.

The other variable is your buckle stalk. A long, floppy stalk can push the lap belt up off the hips, and a short one buried in the seat cushion can make the buckle hard for a child to reach and easy to leave half-latched. Neither is the booster’s fault, but both decide whether the belt ends up where the guides intended.

Before you buy, sit your child in the seat in your own car with the engine off and route the belt. Look at where the diagonal crosses. If it lands on the neck and the clip cannot pull it in far enough, the seat is wrong for that child, not the other way around.

Cleaning it, and the car it lives in

The service list is unchanged from the GoFit. Two cup holders, both dishwasher safe and both fold-away. A removable, machine-washable seat pad. Armrest covers that pop out. A foam insert that is hand rinse only, then hung to dry. The foam is the part that keeps the seat off the road for a day, so wash it on a night when nobody needs to leave at seven in the morning.

Because the Plus stays attached, cleaning is slightly easier: unhook it, carry it inside by the built-in handle, and put it back in one motion. That is a small thing that adds up over four years of juice boxes.

If the seat is going to move between two cars every week, price the second seat against the hassle and check the second-car guide before you decide one booster can cover both. And if the row is tight, a backless booster’s width is the number that decides the fit; the three-across guide has the method, since Chicco does not publish the GoFit Plus width at all.