Opinions on Swing Sets/ Play Systems (Rainbow Brand?)

Try Merry Time Play Systems ( www.merrytimeplay.com). They have a store in Highland Park. We bought one a few months ago and my son loves it. They deliver it and install it within an hour. It comes stained and sealed. It is comparable to Rainbow except WAY cheaper. We bought the Horizion system with two swings and monkey bars. It's solid and a great deal. We looked at Rainbow, but it was way out of our prices range, and Merry Time is currenly running a 40% off Spring Sale.
My neighbor has a play set by Backyard Adventures (www.backyardadventures.com). I don;t know anything about them, but he really is pleased with his.
Good Luck!
R.

my kids wanted a swingset also and I priced out the Rainbow systems and found them too expensive. Instead I went to Menards and designed my own playset with what my 4 kids wanted. I have 2 forts, 2 slides, rock wall, 3 other climbing activites, 6 swings, sand box and a water cannon on it. It only cost me about $700 in materials. My problem was finding someone to build it. I too am a teacher but in high school and I had some boys in my classes who worked construction and built houses. I showed them the plans and they built it in 3 days for a cost of $600 split between 4 of them. That was 3 years ago and the swingset still looks like new. Search around for a handyman or someone who wants a side job to build it. Your local high school may also have a building trades class that may have students who are skilled enough to build the set. The instructions are easy to follow.

Good Luck!

We have a Rainbow playset and our son really enjoys it. We received free delivery and installation at the end of July last year and also bought a "Factory Second". It has some blemishes, but if that doesnt bother you, its worth going that route...great savings!

Well if you want to save a little money I have a suggestion. If your husband is handy you can build it yourself. We went to a local hardware chain(lowes, menards, or homedepot) and bought a kit. The kit comes with the swings and all the climbing equipment and then you pick a slide of your choice. This will run under 200 dollars. The kits includes step by step instructions and even tells you all the wood you need to buy. All the nuts, bolts, and other things are also included in the kit. The wood should run you under 600. (depending on the size of set you build). After its built you stain it and its done. My husband and his friend built ours in one weekend. If you do want to purchase one rainbow is the best ones. We searched many companies and they seemed to be the best. I hope this helps a little.

We purchased the Rainbow Clubhouse a little over a year ago. We got it at The Swingset Store in Lake in the Hills in February. We got a good deal on it because it was a floor model and they needed to get rid of it because the next year model was coming in the next week. So, we bought that floor model, and we had them take off the rock climbing wall and put on monkey bars. They did that for very cheap. We didn't want the rock climbing wall because I felt it was too dangerous for little kids (we had a 3 year old and one on the way at the time). The guy at the store said that older kids use it as a sled ramp, which did not thrill me. We made sure we got one that had 3 swings. Most kids, I have found, use the swings. So, we wanted enough for our 2 kids and a friend. They installed it for us for free (which is what we needed since we didn't have the time to do it ourselves). The store personnel were a pain to deal with, and not very customer friendly. We ended up calling their Naperville store and got a price quote, cheaper than LITH. The LITH store wouldn't honor it at first, and then called Naperville and told them to retract their offer. In the end, my husband played hardball and they waited a few more days to see if it would sell. It didn't, so they gave it to us at our price (the price Naperville quoted originally). So, it was a pain, but is worth it. It is well constructed. You need to stain it every year (a pain), but you do that with any wood playset. My only worry is splinters, but again you get that with any wood set. My kids, ages 4 & 1, love it. We put up a sheet of wood on the top clubhouse over the monkey bar hole so that my 1 year old would not fall off. Good luck!

We purchased a Rainbow Playset for our 2 kids (age 6 yrs, and 3 yrs) in April of this year, and they have already enjoyed it so much! ...and so have the neighborhood children! We priced around before making that much of an investment financially, even considered building our own with a kit from Menards, but determined that the quality of wood supplied from Rainbow, along with a lifetime warranty, was worth the price in the long run. We got the Castle Series with the big race tire swing, and my kids have really had a lot of fun on it. If you have any other questions, you can email me at ____@____.com Good luck with your decision! Karen

Hi J.,
I searched everywhere for a playset my kids would love and that we could afford. We finally decided on the set at COSTCO. The major downside, you need to install it yourself. Surprisingly it took my husband and I a day and a half to complete the job. It wasn't very hard just time consuming. It was worth our time to same the extra $$$. The set is made by Rainbow but it uses a different name and they sell it cheaper through Costco. The model they have this year is very nice. We don't plan on moving in the next 10 years and I run a home daycare so we will probably use it into the ground! Good luck!!

Hi,

We had a rainbow play system at our last house and while it was cool and the kids enjoyed it - it scared the beans out of me. We spent loads of money on it but failed to foresee the dangers of the "open" top area. I never worried about the kids falling of the "rocks" or climbing rope but ALWAYS worried about them falling off the open top playhouse. I would definately look into buying one that has sides at the top! If you have a Sam's Club memebership they have a huge playset that looks amazing for about $1500.

Good luck!!!
M.

For Installation/ Assembly of a playcenter in Chicagoland and Wisconsin call National Installation ###-###-####. Fully insured company with great rates. They can also move used systems for much less money than the "Name brand stores"

Hi,

Well, we just went through the same scenario and swore that there wasn't much of a difference between Rainbow and the others. We went to four fencing companies that also sold playsets, Menards, Lowe's and finally the Rainbow store. I took my husband with who is very handy and he said that Rainbow was definately the best built system. They use thicker and better wood and really secure brackets, which is probably why they are so expensive. We actually ended up buying a used Rainbow system on craigslist.org. It was the King Kong model which Rainbow sells for $9000, but we got it for 1/3 of the price. Rainbow systems last forever, but once your kids outgrow them, what do you do with them? Lots of people just resell them. Rainbow took down the set, moved it to our house and re-installed it in our backyard in one day. It was a great way to get a quality playsystem, but we were able to save a lot of money. And we play on re-selling when we are finished with it. The person we bought it from said their kids used it until they were 11 years old.

Also, I tried everything and found that Rainbow offers some promotions from time to time, but not much of a discount, not even in the winter months. I even called their corporate number and they didn't budge on the prices either. Craigslist or ebay seemed to be the only way to save some money on a Rainbow system.

Good luck