Hi again y'all -
We want to try to have a birthday party for our daughter at our house next month (she will be turning 4) and invite kids she is friends with who are around the same age (3 to 5). I was thinking that I wanted to get some kind of inflatable water slide set-up (Banzai brand or similar) and would prefer to spend the money to just buy it and be able to have it for a while as opposed to just renting one. I'd like something that is decent-sized and not too small, but nothing crazy-huge (and therefore crazy-expensive) either. It also obviously needs to be safe and durable. A friend of mine has the Banzai Water Park for her kids and loves it - I've seen some others complain that theirs fell apart and split at the seams after only 1 or 2 uses, while my friend says it was probably people letting a herd of 10 year old boys go nuts on it instead of a few little preschoolers. Does anyone have any experience with this? Any recommendations for what to get or what to avoid? TIA!
Did a lot of research on this because of hearing how the Banzai brand is hit or miss as far as durability. Ended up getting one from Blast Zone (this company seems to have some good products) called Pirate Bay (has slide, mini bounce house, wading area) - have had it for about a month now & was worth every penny. My 7, 5, & 3 year olds play on it constantly. I also won't hae to rent an inflatable for my daughter's b-day party this summer!
We have the Bonzai Water Curve one ($600 from Walmart). We've had it for a couple months, and it's survived well in the TX heat! I agree w/your friend that it's probably bigger kids going crazy on it. We had some neighbor friends over, and they were CRAZY. It was a mad house trying to keep them somewhat in order (for the sake of the little kids). My kids are all little, and there is no seam damage. It would be fairly easy to fix, though. We really like ours.
I bought one a few years ago for about 350.00 from Target. We have used it multiple times each summer and it has stood up with just one small hole. I just looked to see if they had the one we have and they did not. Someone is borrowing it so I can't go look for the actual brand. I really like being able to have something like that we can use for parties.
I have a friend that bought one of the $300 ones from Walmart SEVERAL years ago. It was at the end of the season and discounted from $400 I think... anyway... it was huge and had a "hump" and they used it a couple of times a year every year. They ended up with some duct tape patches on it in a few places (along the outside, not the sliding area) over time. They finally retired it this summer after their grandson's 2nd birthday party. They bought it the end of the season before my daughter turned 7 the following spring (I know because they brought it to OUR house and let us use it for her party alongside the swimming pool), so for 4 years I think, they used it. They seemed to have been happy with it for what was spent. Prior to that, they too rented for single occasions sometimes, and that adds up.
i have a 3yr old and a 5yr old and we just picked up a banzai double waterslide on craigslist. the kids love it and it handles them when they are rough. i saved a ton buying it used. a 9 yr old tried to use it and she was definitely too big even though the slide supposedly holds 400 lbs. they are definitely made for younger kids.
We bought the Banzai double sided slide, (the one with 2 slides side by side) about 5 years ago, and our kids used the heck out of it! We used it every summer, almost on a daily basis. We had up to 15 kids using it at once, and NEVER had any issues with the inflatable. It cost about 400.00 originally. The only issue we ever had was with the rubber hose, which was an easy fix. It was not wanting to stay together after 3 yrs in a spot where the tubes were supposed to connect. My hubby put one of those ties that tighten up really strong on it, and it lasted well after that. We had times when it got left outside to dry, and then it rained, so a couple weeks later we would blow it up again, and it would have a musty smell. I would scrub it down with bleach for our pool, and the thing would be sparkling clean again, smell gone. Just this year ours finally was damaged beyond fixing. :( It had been left outside again (originally to dry, but then it was rained on etc) so the hubby set it up on our trampoline so he could mow the lawn. Well, we forgot it was out there, and a month or 2 later we went out to get it and blow it up to clean it again, and a family of either squirrels or mice (we have a dried out retention pond behind our house so there is all kinds of wildlife), had been living under it and had chewed several holes all through the thing. There were way too many to try to patch. BUMMER! It was really our fault, but I guess we can't complan after over 5 years of tons of use. It was sooo worth it. I would buy a new one, but our kids are 8 and 10 now, (the youngest) and we usually rent the 20 to 22' tall ones when we have parties now anyway, so our teenagers and the adults can go on them too. (our old one had a weight limit of 250 lbs) To me, it was a wonderful investment, and I don't regret buying it. At the time our youngest were 2 and 4 yrs old, and couldn't swim, so even going into the pool everyday wasn't an option, but the water slide was! I would highly reccomend it! I got such great use out of ours! Good luck!
