Wooden swing set brand recommendations?

[Karenj2]

We're planning on getting a swing set for our DD (almost 2), that we want to last through her and whatever child might be next.

I like a design from Swing-n-Slide, DH likes one from Gorilla, but do you have any recommendations?

 

[graceesmom]

We have Sun Ray which is a division or Rainbow when Costco had their contract with Rainbow Play Systems. We've had it since DD was 18 months (she will be 6 in June). It has held up very well and she still plays on it all the time.

I think Costco now sells Gorilla and maybe another brand too. I noticed Costco had up to $900 off the Gorilla sets if you decide on that brand.

 

[Blackbeltdisneygirl]

My husband worked for two years for Rainbow (through Playground World), and we have an insane swingset from them. It is fantastic. My hubby morphed 3 different sets into one massive set. It is worth $30,000, and we didn't pay a dime for it b/c of Rainbow's fantastic warranty program. People would call and have them switch out a scratched slide, and we would take the slide home b/c they couldn't resell it. Someone ordered a green swing, then decided they wanted yellow instead...well, you get the idea. Customers gave him sets they were gonna tear down b/c they moved into a house with one, and they didn't have kids. Then Rainbow gave us all the knicked, unuseable pieces, so now I have a custom set. My point in telling you all that is: even though their sets are pricey, they have a great warranty on the sets, so if there are any problems, they send their people out to replace the pieces. I am not sure what I am going to do now since one of our swing beams got damaged in our move. My hubby let it down too fast and it snapped in half. Now that he doesn't work for them (he found work in his field again! Yay!), We can't get free parts. I may actually have to invest some money in this monster!!! Anyway, my kids have a blast on it, and even the older kids' friends love playing on it. It keeps them busy for hours.

Good luck finding what works for you!

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

DH and I have been going back and forth about the decision to finally invest in a quality wooden swing set like a Rainbow or Gorilla set as our small metal Brighton one from Toys R Us probably won't make it through another year . My only concern is that my oldest two children (almost 10 year old twins who are tall for their age) won't be interested in a swing set that much longer and won't get much out of it. I know it would be great for our younger two kids who are 3 and almost 5 years old; but I wonder if we missed our window of opportunity by not getting a nice wooden set when my older two kids were smaller? I don't mean to hijack the thread, but would it be a waste of $ getting an expensive swing set when you have older kids in the family?

 

[Blackbeltdisneygirl]

DH and I have been going back and forth about the decision to finally invest in a quality wooden swing set like a Rainbow or Gorilla set as our small metal Brighton one from Toys R Us probably won't make it through another year . My only concern is that my oldest two children (almost 10 year old twins who are tall for their age) won't be interested in a swing set that much longer and won't get much out of it. I know it would be great for our younger two kids who are 3 and almost 5 years old; but I wonder if we missed our window of opportunity by not getting a nice wooden set when my older two kids were smaller? I don't mean to hijack the thread, but would it be a waste of $ getting an expensive swing set when you have older kids in the family?

I have seen 15 teenagers on ours at once. As a sensei, I sometimes host karate events at my house, and once we watched a movie on the side of our house. Teenagers were all over the thing. We hosted a charity yardsale once, and I couldn't keep them off of it when they were supposed to be selling! My older kids play on it constantly, and when my nephew is over, my son and him have wars on it. Of course, it has three different main sections, so it is sort of like a house on stilts, so it is prime war real estate. I often joke that we could live in the swingset if we needed to. Gotta consider your options in this economy, right? Heehee. I think your kids will have fun on it. We even drilled a hole in a beam above a slide, and shove a hose through the hole. Then we attach two extra "warranty" slides together, and make a water slide out of it. My hubby and best friend (a guy) both have been known to rocket off of it. So fun. Since I am talking about the slides, we also use them as really large sleds. They hold like 7 kids at once!!! Recycle, reduce, reuse, ya know.

 

[dhardawa]

We had a Toys R Us set for a few years and it was garbage. Two years ago, I bit the bullet and bought the Rainbow set. It was pricey, but it was a great decision.

 

[wallawallakids]

Rainbow or Cedarworks. We had a rainbow but sold it with our house when we moved cross country I have been looking at new ones and I have been really impressed with Cedarworks and now I can't decide!! Both are expensive in my mind but both hold up great. Rainbow is made out of redwood so it is a darker wood. You don't have to seal it, but I wish we had. I think it would have held up better. That is one thing I liked about Cedarworks. They use cedar. So again, you don't have to seal it. It turns a gray weathered color after a while. My friends have one and they have had it for 7 years and it looks great. Good luck!! I think I am going to wait till fall for a sale. Lol.

 

[mjkacmom]

I have seen 15 teenagers on ours at once. As a sensei, I sometimes host karate events at my house, and once we watched a movie on the side of our house. Teenagers were all over the thing. We hosted a charity yardsale once, and I couldn't keep them off of it when they were supposed to be selling! My older kids play on it constantly, and when my nephew is over, my son and him have wars on it. Of course, it has three different main sections, so it is sort of like a house on stilts, so it is prime war real estate. I often joke that we could live in the swingset if we needed to. Gotta consider your options in this economy, right? Heehee. I think your kids will have fun on it. We even drilled a hole in a beam above a slide, and shove a hose through the hole. Then we attach two extra "warranty" slides together, and make a water slide out of it. My hubby and best friend (a guy) both have been known to rocket off of it. So fun. Since I am talking about the slides, we also use them as really large sleds. They hold like 7 kids at once!!! Recycle, reduce, reuse, ya know.

I have to agree. Our 9 year old Rainbow still gets used by the teen crowds here a lot!

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

I have seen 15 teenagers on ours at once. As a sensei, I sometimes host karate events at my house, and once we watched a movie on the side of our house. Teenagers were all over the thing. We hosted a charity yardsale once, and I couldn't keep them off of it when they were supposed to be selling! My older kids play on it constantly, and when my nephew is over, my son and him have wars on it. Of course, it has three different main sections, so it is sort of like a house on stilts, so it is prime war real estate. I often joke that we could live in the swingset if we needed to. Gotta consider your options in this economy, right? Heehee. I think your kids will have fun on it. We even drilled a hole in a beam above a slide, and shove a hose through the hole. Then we attach two extra "warranty" slides together, and make a water slide out of it. My hubby and best friend (a guy) both have been known to rocket off of it. So fun. Since I am talking about the slides, we also use them as really large sleds. They hold like 7 kids at once!!! Recycle, reduce, reuse, ya know.

Thank you for your feedback on this. Your swing set sounds awesome! You should post a pic of it I am going to look more into the Rainbow sets and see what our various options are.