Anyone ever BUY a bounce house?

[bisous]

With the purpose of using it for birthday parties?

I have four kids. The oldest is probably on the old side of using a bounce house (he's 12) but he'd still like to jump. :) The youngest is just 2. We do lots of parties. Usually cheap parties at home. It would be so incredibly easy if we just had our own bounce house to use for these home parties! Renting them can be expensive. The most expensive party we ever did was a bouncy place. It was fun though. :)

I'm just wondering if anyone has ever done this and how it worked out. Was it expensive? Did it break? A pain to set up? Did the kids get sick of it?

We have a huge extended family and most of the other family members have pools. It would be fun to have something that the kids could really look forward to at our house too.

TIA,

Jen

[elbenn]

We have a bounce house. We had a littler one and after a few years it wore out so we got another one. This is the one we have: http://www.amazon.com/Blast-Zone-Superstar-Inflatable-Moonwalk/dp/B0015DEDEK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459376763&sr=8-1&keywords=bounce+house+superstar I bought it at kohls with a coupon. It's easy to set up. It does take up a bit of storage space when it's not set up.

[bisous]

We have a bounce house. We had a littler one and after a few years it wore out so we got another one. This is the one we have: http://www.amazon.com/Blast-Zone-Superstar-Inflatable-Moonwalk/dp/B0015DEDEK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459376763&sr=8-1&keywords=bounce+house+superstar I bought it at kohls with a coupon. It's easy to set up. It does take up a bit of storage space when it's not set up.

Thank you! That looks like a good one. These rent out for $100 per party so I'm just trying to figure out if I'd come out on top by actually owning one. I have such crazy busy kids and a very large extended family. I'm thinking we'd use it a lot!

[newnana]

Disclaimer: we haven't. We do have a set of friends that has and think it's pure brilliance.

Their basement is large enough that they can leave it out if they want to and use indoors. Their's has never been outdoors. They have had it for at least 7 years and you would never know it. Because it has been indoors and is so easy to just plug in and turn on or stuff in the bottom of an unused closet when not in use, it gets used incessantly. Multiple kids and parents have used this thing for ages, not gently. Terrible freezing cold and kids indoors? let them burn off energy in the bounce house downstairs. Sleepover? Plug it in! Couple of minutes needed to get the sillies out? You betcha.

It makees me want to buy a bigger house with a giant basement just for this purpose. I'm only kind of kidding. That thing has been worth it's weight in gold and for as long as it's held up has only cost pennies per use at this point.

[scrooks]

We bought one similar to this http://www.walmart.com/ip/14662929?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222227000506093&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=t&wl3=40330013192&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=58472728969&veh=sem
We bought it for a family reunion. We have used it probably 6-8 times for various birthday parties and family functions. It was worth it for us.

[Tenasparkl]

My SIL bought one that's similar to the Little Tikes one posted above and it was great to have at a family event. It wasn't the same quality or as large as the ones that we get from rental companies for parties, but I'm sure it would be fine for home/family use.

[AnnieW625]

Thank you! That looks like a good one. These rent out for $100 per party so I'm just trying to figure out if I'd come out on top by actually owning one. I have such crazy busy kids and a very large extended family. I'm thinking we'd use it a lot!

Look on Craigslist, but I never paid more than $75 for one including tip. I will pm you the company we used. Think about where you are going to store it too as they are pretty big when not blown up. Also if you were going to use it at the park inquire if the park will let you and whose insurance will be covering it.

[army_mom]

We have had 2. We bought a smaller one (a wizard castle from Kohls) we used for inside use when our daughter was smaller but sold it when we moved and were given a much bigger one from my aunt (which she bought used in CL). We have used that one all the time. We had it in a tarp we could just pull in and out of the garage for use. At the end of the season we fold it up tight and store in the garage and it's not all that big. Just beware that once that things comes out every neighborhood kid will be at your house! Now that we are having a third child I am thinking of getting a smaller one again for indoor use by the two littles when they are old enough!
If you plan on using it for a lot of kids at once just make sure you get one that is big enough for the amount of kids. Ours is maxed out at about 4-5 kinder/first graders so is on the smaller side.

[3isEnough]

Yes - we've had 2 and they re worth every penny. I made a mistake in buying our second one in that I only paid attention to the width and depth dimensions and not the height. It was a little too short for my oldest DS (10 at the time) so the top bent over too easily with him and a few friends in it. Even despite that we've been very happy with ours and they've gotten a ton of use.

[teresah00]

We have a blast zone from kohls that I price matched (walmart) and they let me use a 15% coupon. I got the biggest I could fit in our family room s the couches pushed back against the walls. The kids love it (3, 5, 8 and 10) and can all jump at the same time. If it was for parties and outdoors I would try to get something slightly bigger. I haven't used it at parties bc I didnt want to have to supervise the number of kids (lots of little ones and big that wouldn't look out for the smaller).

It's a little heavy to roll up and store, but I manageable. I usually keep it out for a week or two, then store it for a bit.

[gatorsmom]

We had one for a long time that we loved. It was bulky to store until my Dh thought of buying a new, clean extra large trash can. We used to roll it up and put it in there. That was a great way to store it.