Rainbow, Kid Structures, or other...

[lhafer]

If you have a wooden swing set for your kids, what brand do you have?

I am looking at some Kid Structure sets and was wondering if the extra $$ is worth it. There are some TRU sets that I like, but we do NOT want to put it together.

I like the warranty on the Kid Structure sets (basically 10 year warranty on everything). Others tend to be 5 years for wood, and 1 year for hardware stuff.

We have a smaller yard, and my DH has decided that while we can get a new swing set (we currently have a small metal one that my DD is outgrowing size wise - but she loves to swing), he doesn't want to partake in the picking out and buying process.

Just wondering what everyone on here has and how they like it.

[carolinamama]

Love our Rainbow set. They were really helpful in picking a set that matched our needs and our yard size. We got a Castle set that the boys play on pretty often. We wanted lots of climbing options since they are climbers and it has worked out great for that. We've stained once in the almost 3 years we've had it and it is in really good condition. Another benefit that we love is that DH and I can climb on it too. The boys and I had a fun picnic dinner up there last week when the weather was so nice. We did look at several other options but felt like this one fit our family the best. The showroom where we bought it did the installation.

[KrisM]

We like our Rainbow, but the warranty is horrible. I've been fighting them for 3 years to replace a tire swivel that doesn't swivel. They say it's normal for it to be locked up. Yeah, right. I don't know if I'd recommend them again after this.

[lhafer]

Thanks!

I will say that Kids Structures is a Texas-based company (we live in Texas) and is comparible to Rainbow. I am not sure if there is a Rainbow showroom where I live.

Kid Structures is having a sale on their sets, and the ones I am looking at run $1700-2400 (depending on wood roof, etc) on sale. Regularly they are $2700-3800. Sale ends next sunday.

Rainbow quoted me one similar to the $1700 (sale) one and it was $2700.

The ones I am looking at are:
http://www.treefrogsswingsets.com/product.asp?PrdId=7

http://www.treefrogsswingsets.com/product.asp?PrdId=8 (wood roof)

http://www.treefrogsswingsets.com/product.asp?PrdId=9

The trouble is the shape of our yard. From the back of the house to the fence is 18.5' at it's narrowest and 25' at it's widest (near a bay window). But the yard is almost triple that length from side yard to side yard. We have a big easement (live in a deed restricted community), but just can't have permanent objects within the easement.

The one Rainbow said would work in my yard is this one - and they would switch the slide and rockwall to fit better, and they quoted $2795 for this set:
http://www.rainbowplay.com/index.php/swing-sets/package/sunshine-clubhouse-pkg-ii-with-extras/

ETA: I want at least 3 swings - 1 regular swing, 1 baby swing, and 1 2-person glider swing. And I want something that would be great for a 5 year old and 1 year old (now) and something they can grow into.

[carolinamama]

We like our Rainbow, but the warranty is horrible. I've been fighting them for 3 years to replace a tire swivel that doesn't swivel. They say it's normal for it to be locked up. Yeah, right. I don't know if I'd recommend them again after this.

Oh that is horrible. It doesn't sound normal and it hasn't happened to ours - good thing too since DS2 could spend hours on our tire swing.

[Uno-Mom]

Yowza! Lucky kids! Can we come to your house to play?

Sprog will have to make do with a porch swing and a couple of tree stumps. :)

[lhafer]

Yowza! Lucky kids! Can we come to your house to play?

Sprog will have to make do with a porch swing and a couple of tree stumps. :)

We love company!! ;)

This is our yard and current swing set (don't mind the mess on the porch):

1595

1596

We don't use the yard at all (just the new hot tub we just got that is on the porch (and that's mommy and daddy's!!)...might as well let the kids have it for a few years!! Then we can reclaim it later! :rotflmao: But you can see how it's long and narrow.

[Tondi G]

I read something recently that said that Rainbow isn't all that it used to be. I would opt for the local company if you can.

They had this set on Costco.com but the price is right in line with what you've been looking at.

http://www.kidscreations.com/swing-sets/two-ring-adventure-wooden-swing-sets

this one is even less expensive... has no tire swing though

http://www.kidscreations.com/swing-sets/circus-2-wooden-swing-sets

[smilequeen]

We have a Cedarworks set and we're really happy with it. Ours is big b/c we have a big yard, but they are infinitely customizable. I definitely think it was worth it. I would not go with the TRU sets as I've seen them in friends' yards and they are definitely not as sturdy. But the Costco/Sams Club sets are often really good.

[bubbaray]

We have a Rainbow and are happy with it.

FWIW, you will need to seriously consider the size. From what I can tell with that photo, you will need the very smallest set and even then it looks tight. Look on the Rainbow site for the types of setbacks you need for safe use.

HTH

ETA: off the top of my head, you need at least 6+ feet of the front AND back of the swing from the max length of the swing.

[lhafer]

I've talked with a people from Rainbow, and from the Kid Structure place, and they've said they can work with the yard. There's actually 18.5 feet from the fence to the concrete porch, and that's the narrowest point. They've all said that's fine, and they've worked with much smaller yards than mine. I will go talk to them again this week.

I know there are safety zones. We won't be able to do the whole 6 feet all the way around. The ones I'm looking at are 11-12' wide.

The ones at Cosco and Sam's that I see cannot fit in my yard - they are either too big or they are not streamlined.

[JMS]

I read something recently that said that Rainbow isn't all that it used to be. I would opt for the local company if you can.


I said that, in this thread:
http://www.windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=391262

..just the messenger :)

[Uno-Mom]

We love company!! ;)

This is our yard and current swing set (don't mind the mess on the porch):

We don't use the yard at all (just the new hot tub we just got that is on the porch (and that's mommy and daddy's!!)...might as well let the kids have it for a few years!! Then we can reclaim it later! :rotflmao: But you can see how it's long and narrow.

It'd probably be a long comute from Oregon to, Texas, right? But thanks!

That's a great looking yard for a play structure. We have a big yard but it's distributed on all for sides of the house and isn't real deep anywhere. Mostly garden beds so no space for big structures. Sigh.

[KHF]

We have a Cedarworks set as well. It's really great quality, but we spent lots of $$ on it and DD hasn't really played with it that much. That said, I think DS is going to be a huge fan and we'll probably end up getting our money's worth for it.

When we sold our house, the new owners tried to write in to our contract that the set stayed, I told them if they wanted to add $4,000 to the asking price we'd be happy to....otherwise, it was coming with us. We moved it :)

You might check into the Cedarworks Play-A-Round sets. I believe BillK on here has one and is really happy with the quality. If they'd been selling them when we bought, we might have gone with that, but we caught them during the time when they had quit selling them through Sam's Club and weren't selling them direct anymore either.

I attached a picture of ours right after we got it. We really love it because it's so sturdy. The entire family can be in the play structure...lots of the smaller sets have relatively low weight limits.

[Jo..]

We have a Sam's Club set and I don't have any complaints at all. It was inexpensive compared to other sets, but is very sturdy and our whole family swings and climbs daily in good weather.

We had an awesome installer referred to us by Sam's, and I think that makes a big difference. He took extra steps such as building skids underneath it so it wouldn't sink into the pea gravel, and anchoring it deeply through the 9" of pea gravel and into the ground with huge stakes and chains (they are burried by the pea gravel so they don't show).

We are coming up on three years with the same set in the next month or two, and if we had it to do over again we'd buy the same one.

We got a large set, but they have smaller ones too. Right now they have a nice cedar set for $700 including shipping.

[lhafer]

We have a Sam's Club set and I don't have any complaints at all. It was inexpensive compared to other sets, but is very sturdy and our whole family swings and climbs daily in good weather.

We had an awesome installer referred to us by Sam's, and I think that makes a big difference. He took extra steps such as building skids underneath it so it wouldn't sink into the pea gravel, and anchoring it deeply through the 9" of pea gravel and into the ground with huge stakes and chains (they are burried by the pea gravel so they don't show).

We are coming up on three years with the same set in the next month or two, and if we had it to do over again we'd buy the same one.

We got a large set, but they have smaller ones too. Right now they have a nice cedar set for $700 including shipping.

Okay, so where can I see these sets? When I look online all I see are huge sets, sets that won't fit in my yard, and the cheapest one I saw was $2,100. That's not cheaper than the Kid Structures place for me. AND I would have to set it up. So what am I missing??

[Jo..]

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod1920145&navAction=push

if link doesn't work search for item 857824

[swissair81]

My swingset is made by Backyard Adventures. It has 3 swings- a baby swing, a regular swing (we actually have 2, but...) and we bought a 2 person glider last year. It also has a tire swing, a slide, a rock wall, some rope climb thing, and a 'treehouse'. I bought it from the Doll Hospital and Toy Soldier Shop (in Metro Detroit), but you can see what I'm talking about here: http://www.reallygreattoys.com/dh/Play_structures/Play_structures.htm

Their yard was full of different play structures, and we brought our kids to play. We discovered very quickly that the add ons make the structures very expensive, so we picked a model that was on a serious sale. We've had it for 2 summers now and my kids LOVE it. We had to do crazy things to our backyard to get it to fit though. We got rid of our cracked patio that was shunting rain water towards our house, and we had to bring in dirt to build up a level area in our yard because it slopes downward. It was crazy, but I still think it's worth it.