Rainbow Play Systems

[eeyore#1fan]

So I just put down a downpayment on a Rainbow Carnival Castle. I am buying the display model and with delivery and installation the total was just over $2200. The only negative that I feel about this model is that it's made out of pine instead of redwood, but that also makes it slightly more affordable. It does come with a 15 year warranty so that makes me feel a little bit better. Does anyone here have any experience with Rainbow. Do you think I got a good deal?

 

[mamaLori05]

We bought a rainbow swing set last year. Do I think you got a good deal? Well, I'm not sure. We looked for over a year, and it looked to me like they ran "sales", it was always the same "sale" price no matter what % off it was. At one point we had two sales flyers from them with two different %'s off, yet the identical playset on both flyers was on "sale" for the same price. Totally confused us.

Anyway, I did a lot of searching online and ended up finding a 1 year old Supersized Rainbow Castle package III fully loaded (the thicker and taller beams with the rock wall, yellow spiderweb looking climber on opposite side of rock wall, monkey bars, trapeze bar, slide, 3 swings, rope disk, and tire swing) for 2800 on Craigslist. The sellers were moving and weren't able to take it with them. We did have to dissassemble it and reassemble it on our own, but it really wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be. Took me and my husband (while still watching our 2 and 4 yr old) about 4 hours on both ends. We left it in larger chunks for transportation and just used a pick up truck and trailer. They are hard to come by on Craigslist, but if you are patient you can find even better deals on larger sets.

With that said, I LOVE the Rainbow products! We did a lot of research on swing sets, and they were the sturdiest and built the best. If your kids are younger and going to be using it a long time, it is definately worth the money. We talked to a lot of people who owned Rainbow's and they told us that even their 13/14 year olds were using them still once in a while.

 

[Melrosgirl]

We've had our Rainbow Castle for 7 years. Highly recommend it. It's the main playset all the kids in the neighborhood use (that's a good and bad thing). It's very sturdy.

Only downside to it: Carpenter Bees like it. They are basically the only "insect" that goes after redwood. Rainbow does (and has) replace the wood if needed. The bees basically drill holes in the wood if you don't get to them in time.

 

[mrudman]

What makes it a good deal is if you're happy with the price you got, and if your kids are happy with the set,

When we were researching on a playset to get, the rainbow systems were just too expensive for me..

We went to Sams Club to look at theirs, and ended up buying a really nice one from them for $1050. This was 5 yrs ago, and the set still looks as new as the day we bought it (other than where dd's and their friends have chalk-drawn inside the "clubhouse", lol).

It's made entirely out of redwood and cedar, and all 4x4's and 4x6's (same as the rainbow systems).

It has a 3-spot bar which we have 2 swings, a trapeze, a 2-person glider, a rope disc, and a rope ladder that we swap out depending on what dd's want on it, a really nice rockwall, stairs on the back, open patio up top, roofed clubhouse up top, monkey bars, a nice slide, a patio down below, and a sandbox.

DD's are now 9 and 7, and still play on it, even in the dead of winter, lol.

 

[eyeheartgoofy]

We purchased a Rainbow All American Funhouse at Wal-Mart last spring - it is also made of pine. We paid right around $1000 for the set with taxes, etc.

The set is very nice looking, was fairly easy for my husband to put together (it took about a week of evenings with minimal help from me holding beams in place), and is very sturdy. I'm very pleased with the set and would not hesitate to recommend a pine Rainbow system. We will probably have to stain it this year or next, but that is fine with me ... I figure we only have about 3-4 years of swingset play left in our kids, so I really couldn't justify the price of a cedar set in my mind.

 

[andrews_dad]

Anyone know if warrenties are honored if they are re-purchased at Craigs list?

 

[ceecee]

We looked at them as well. We only had one child and decided she would only use it for 4-5 years since she was 4 at the time. We got one at Sam's Club for $650.00, DH made some enhancements to it with a wooden roof over the playhouse, a periscope and steering wheel and some extra holds near the monkey bars and he added a wooden floor under the playhouse so we could put a picnic table there. We treated it for the first two years and last year when we sold the house, it was one of the things they liked best. So it held up really well for the last 10 years. The rope ladder did break with the weight of several kids, but it wasn't used that much anyway.

 

[cats mom]

Anyone know if warrenties are honored if they are re-purchased at Craigs list?

Nope, lots of very specific language in the contract stating that it applies to "original retail purchaser" only.

FWIW, we had ours for about 7 years and never used the warranty for anything though.

Ours made one move with us. It was a corporate relo, and they were willing to pay, so why not? But when we moved ourselves, we decided to get rid of it instead of dealing with the added hassle and expense. We offered ours free to anyone who would come remove it... so there are definitely deals to be had out there.

 

[disneyluvnmom]

we have had our Rainbow Play System for about 3 years now and love it. I got a deal with a "last years demo" basically the one they had on display in their lot. It was about this time of the year, so ask if they can work you any deals on demos. There were some pieces of wood that needed replaced and they had all of that done before they delivered and set it up.

I do have one question about treating it. We have not treated ours, what is the recommended product for treating the wood?

 

[LisaRN97]

We got one 2 years ago and the girls love it!! I particularly like the Rainbow ones because they can hold 500lbs. My Dh and I and the girls can play and swing all at the same time and we have no fears about it breaking (we are not near 500 lbs though). They spend every bit of the day on it, even in the winter!!! You can't go wrong!

 

[teacup princess]

If you wait until spring/summer, these playsets are often put in the paper as free if U haul, at least in our area. We've gotten several for ourselves and the cousins this way. People with older kids do their spring cleaning and just want to get rid of them. Free is my favorite price.

 

[mickeymaker2003]

We did a build it yourself one from Menards. I think we ended up spending about $1,300 for a Playstar system. We bought the largest one we could without having monkey bars (our yard isn't very deep so we didn't want monkey bars to protrude into it). It is all treated wood with 4x4 posts. We have:
3 swing spaces (all with heavy duty-commercial grade swing anchors and swings to hold 350 pounds each)
a five foot heigh platform that is about 4'x6'
a deep 10' long wave slide (reinforced to hold more weight)
a vertical rock wall to climb with a knotted rope.
a grey plastic rock wall of holes to climb (full height of the structure)
a rock wall of steps for easy access for smaller kids (reinforced to hold more weight)
a periscope
a telescope
a steering wheel
a wooden roof (tarp roofs don't last long in our climate)
the slide extension to make a waterslide
a fire hose with water to wet to slide for using it as a waterslide
in the area that was intentended to be a sandbox, we put in a railing with a hinged door and a floor, so it is now a little enclosed patio that has a plastic picnic table on it

We are putting in a two person glider by Swing N Slide to share a spot with a swing (the glider mounts on top of the beam and the swings are bottom mount) so we can switch between a swing seat and the glider. I found it half price at Target.com when they had their AOL sale before Christmas.

My daughter loves it and so do the neighbor kids. The most expensive parts are the plastic pieces (walls, slides, swings, etc).

 

[juliedufourfr]

We bought a rainbow swing set last year. Do I think you got a good deal? Well, I'm not sure. We looked for over a year, and it looked to me like they ran "sales", it was always the same "sale" price no matter what % off it was. At one point we had two sales flyers from them with two different %'s off, yet the identical playset on both flyers was on "sale" for the same price. Totally confused us.

Anyway, I did a lot of searching online and ended up finding a 1 year old Supersized Rainbow Castle package III fully loaded (the thicker and taller beams with the rock wall, yellow spiderweb looking climber on opposite side of rock wall, monkey bars, trapeze bar, slide, 3 swings, rope disk, and tire swing) for 2800 on Craigslist. The sellers were moving and weren't able to take it with them. We did have to dissassemble it and reassemble it on our own, but it really wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be. Took me and my husband (while still watching our 2 and 4 yr old) about 4 hours on both ends. We left it in larger chunks for transportation and just used a pick up truck and trailer. They are hard to come by on Craigslist, but if you are patient you can find even better deals on larger sets./QUOTE]

Hello mamalori05,

we have found the rainbow playstructure on craigslist for our daughter!
Now we have to go disassemble and reassemble it. The lady who is selling it urged us to hire somebody because her husband couldn't do it by himself
Unfortunately we do not have the budget to hire someone so I was very relieved to read that you were able to do it on your own.
Is there any recommandation you could give us to ease the process? what tools did you bring?
Thank you!

 

[DISdreamin']

we have found the rainbow playstructure on craigslist for our daughter!
Now we have to go disassemble and reassemble it. The lady who is selling it urged us to hire somebody because her husband couldn't do it by himself
Unfortunately we do not have the budget to hire someone so I was very relieved to read that you were able to do it on your own.
Is there any recommandation you could give us to ease the process? what tools did you bring?
Thank you!

Wait until you see how many pieces there are! We have a two-plus-car garage and the entire floor was covered with pieces for the set before the guys came to put it together. Make sure you get good pictures of it beforehand, including all the little joints where the various beams come together.

I wouldn't relish having to take our set apart and reassemble it, but I also think we could do it. It just wouldn't be easy or quick.

And BTW, I love our set, but I think in retrospect I wish we'd gone with something more budget-friendly. Our kids don't really use it enough to justify what we spent on it.

 

[juliedufourfr]

We already went to check it out and it is one of the smallest structures so hopefully there won't be too many pieces. I am more worried about the disassembling part as we don't want to stay in the backyard of those people for ever. Then we can take our time to reassemble it slowly..
Thanks for the idea of taking pictures!

 

[mamaLori05]

If you wait until spring/summer, these playsets are often put in the paper as free if U haul, at least in our area. We've gotten several for ourselves and the cousins this way. People with older kids do their spring cleaning and just want to get rid of them. Free is my favorite price.

FREE??? That is AWESOME! Definately not free around here. 10 yr old ones sell for about 1,000, and they sell quick!

 

[mamaLori05]

We bought a rainbow swing set last year. Do I think you got a good deal? Well, I'm not sure. We looked for over a year, and it looked to me like they ran "sales", it was always the same "sale" price no matter what % off it was. At one point we had two sales flyers from them with two different %'s off, yet the identical playset on both flyers was on "sale" for the same price. Totally confused us.

Anyway, I did a lot of searching online and ended up finding a 1 year old Supersized Rainbow Castle package III fully loaded (the thicker and taller beams with the rock wall, yellow spiderweb looking climber on opposite side of rock wall, monkey bars, trapeze bar, slide, 3 swings, rope disk, and tire swing) for 2800 on Craigslist. The sellers were moving and weren't able to take it with them. We did have to dissassemble it and reassemble it on our own, but it really wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be. Took me and my husband (while still watching our 2 and 4 yr old) about 4 hours on both ends. We left it in larger chunks for transportation and just used a pick up truck and trailer. They are hard to come by on Craigslist, but if you are patient you can find even better deals on larger sets./QUOTE]

Hello mamalori05,

we have found the rainbow playstructure on craigslist for our daughter!
Now we have to go disassemble and reassemble it. The lady who is selling it urged us to hire somebody because her husband couldn't do it by himself
Unfortunately we do not have the budget to hire someone so I was very relieved to read that you were able to do it on your own.
Is there any recommandation you could give us to ease the process? what tools did you bring?
Thank you!

No, you definately don't need to hire anyone. Like I said, my husband and I were able to do it while watching our 2 and 4 yr old in about 4 hrs on each end. My husband did most of it on his own, I just had to help hold pieces when disasembling them (and keep the 2 and 4 yr old out of his way). We have a ford ranger pick up truck, and attached a trailer behind that. We left pieces in bigger chunks, while still making sure they would fit in the trailer and truck. I followed behind in our other car with the kids. I know we started with the swing section, then took off the slide, then monkey bars, and then took apart the castle section. Here are the tools he used:

Set of sockets, ladder, vice grips (newer ones with good sharp teeth for getting stuck bolts unstuck), drill, hammer, screw drivers, plyers, and wd40. Oh and a camera to take pics as you take it apart so you can see how it goes back together. Glad you found one!! Our kids LOVE it so far!

 

[buzz5985]

Bring along a piece or two of chalk to number the pieces. Then take pictures.

 

[autumnl78]

julie-
i sold rainbow sets for 8 years for one of the top dealers in the country. we swapped to wood play last year. the reason? in 08 rb's quality starting spiraling downwards and its price up, in 09 it was even worse. it wasnt worth the drama. and woodplay is a awesome quality and better priced than rb. as for your take down reinstall heres some more info.
if you have a impact wrench take it. you will need deep well sockets. take several boxes of bags to put the hardware in by section. when you get to the swing beam leave the bushings and swing plates on, take off the cross member and scissors the aframe legs. the rails are pre-assembled as are the deck sections. leave the slide rails attached to the slide as well. take the tarp boards and just wrap them in the tarp. if your truck it big enough leave the centers connected to the main beams and top joists.
when you put it back together take the time to power wash it, let it dry completely and seal it w/ a transparent oil based water sealer in redwood color. do this yearly as you will have no warranty, prior to 08 rb didnt MAKE original owners do this but its now part of the warranty. the fact of the matter is staining it keeps it looking good as well as sealed and protected. also inspect the wood for carpenter bee holes, these are perfect circles that go into the wood then turn to a right angle where the female lays eggs in the spring. if you find these holes, fill the holes to almost the opening with a wood putty or expanding foam, at almost the end of the hole take a ball of tin foil and put it in the hole then finish it off w/ wood putty and stain to help prevent the bees from coming back.
take the time also to clean your rungs. you will want to do this, and clean the swings every 6 months. mr. clean magic eraser does wonders for this. the hardware should be tighten and the wood inspected every 6 months as well.
as for the where the pieces go in all honesty if you know the year and model from the original owner just call corporate rainbow and they will email you a pdf manual.

 

[mominwestlake]

We bought our Rainbow playset in 2002 and it is still in great shape. We do stain it- about every other year. We got the Monster version which is a little higher than the standard plus our "fort" was supersized. This is a great swingset. Even my 15 year old and her friends will swing on it. It is very strong and sturdy. We have gotten carpenter bees a couple of times and I am happy to know what to do with the holes now.