OT - Cedar Works or Rainbow Play Systems?

[goldenears]

Anyone have playsets from either of these companies? We are considering buying a playset for our DDs this summer and are interested in any feedback you can give us.
Thanks!

 

[RBZMuller]

We have a rainbow system and our son and his friends, some known some unknown just love it.!! The quality and construction is excellent. When we boughtours they were having a great sale that included free installation. I think it was end of season though.

 

[bellebud]

i have cedarworks. It really is splinter free because it's white cedar and the wood is *soft* (a splinter piece would just bend, not stick in the skin). we've had it for 6 years now. it wasn't cheap, but we felt it was well worth it because of the no splinter thing, and zero maintenance (no doing anything to the wood, ever!) That's my kind of playset!

 

[WDWorBUST]

I can't comment on either of those brands (they were definitely out of my price range)....but we just purchased ($1200) and installed an awesome one from Sams Club (I can't remember the brand). We put it together ourselves and it was really very easy. A couple of places I had to read the directions several times to make sure I understood what it was saying - but all the holes, etc lined up and we had extra hardware. It took us about 22 or so hours to put it together (Of course I do need to seal it still - we just finished last night). It is very sturdy and DD absolutely loves it. Here is a link to it

http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=378422

Just thought I would throw that out there.....

 

[monorailsilver]

We just bought our 2nd swing set last August for our 3 monsters..um..wonderful & non-whiney children.

We bought this:

http://www.swingsetsource.com/residential-swing-sets/wood-swing-sets/monkeyplaysetiv.cfm

Our old swing set was a wooden one from Walmart that we purchased in 2002 & in 2007 the wood boring bee's got the better of it so my oldest (then 6) did not want a wooden one (that & the fear of splingers).

We saw this one online & we also saw it at one of the Rainbow dealers here in CT.

So we got it instead. It was a heck of a lot cheaper too but DH did have to build it & with a then 6, 4 & 1 1/2 yo helping..there were lots of curses.

But my kids love it & I don't have to worry about their fingers with the wood.

Oh & a friend of mine has a huge Rainbow one & my kids love it-the telescope is faded & as are a few other things & it is only 2 going on 3 years old.

 

[DebRMN]

we have a Rainbow playset & it is great. We have had it 3 years now (got it when my youngest were 2 1/2)
They play on it all the time now, including my youngest.

It could use some staining maintenance(from weather fading)

 

[tanyaandallie]

We have a rainbow and we LOVE it!!!!

 

[sara74]

We have a Cedarworks and it is awesome!

What I love the most about cedarworks is that we worked with a designer (they can work with you on the phone and computer at the same time and you can both work on a design and see what each other is doing in real time) to come up with a set that worked for us 2 years ago and could easily be transformed to work as the kids keep growing. We have added accessories over the last 2 years, in fact we are adding one tomorrow! And it seems that when we add or change something the kids have a whole new interest in the thing! I can't say enough good stuff about Cedarworks. My only regret is that the new stuff is even cooler than what we started with - if money were no object I'd scrap our old set and start over just because it was so fun!

 

[pumpkinpatchmommy]

We just put together the swingset we ordered our kids from Kids Creation.
(type in "kids Creation Swing" in an MSN search engine.)
It wasn't as bad as I thought! If the weather would have cooperated, we'd had it up last week! The wood has similar features as the wood from CedarWorks, but I felt you got more for your money. Look online and compare. Besides, I had an issue with the freight company. The owner called us back and personally toke care of the problem. Customer Service is great! The only comments I have are these:
1. When you build one online, it shows a "scoop" slide. They no longer carry that slide, they now offer a "wave" slide. (However, if you prefer the "scoop" like we did, just leave it off your order and then order it seperately. We ordered our from PlayNation.)
2. If you get a 7 foot and a 5 foot tower, there is no wood railings where they connect. I asked additional wood to go there. (It was left out, so I am calling next week to get it sent out. This was probably my fault since I changed my order 3 times the last week.)

Really, for the features and the money, I think they are a smart financial option to Cedarworks.

**No I do not get any endorsements form them!**

Good luck no matter what you choose!

 

[tinkandpan]

We have a creative playthings one which is similar to the rainbow products and I have been nothing but satisfied with ours- we have had it for over 5 years now.

 

[goldenears]

Thanks for your responses. We are open to all diff. playsets, but have heard great things about both Rainbow and Cedarworks. We actually visited the Cedarworks factory last summer while on a camping trip up in ME. We like that the cedar is splinter free. The thought of getting a splinter makes me cringe. Playsets in general just seem so darn expensive.
What components do you think your kids enjoy the most (i.e., slide, swings, climbing wall, etc...)?

 

[bellebud]

on our cedarworks we've had for about 6 years now (or is it 5??), my kids (who are now ds6 and dd8) enjoy the swings a little, the yellow rings (the trapeze thing that hangs where a swing would and has 2 yellow hand rings) a lot, the tower and ramp to climb into it a lot (we didn't get the tallest tower, but got the widest), they also love climbing up the regular straight slide a lot, and we didn't put the ceiling tarp on and just have the 3 metal bars across the ceiling, and now the kids are tall enough to jump up and hang from them. I never missed having the ceiling thing off - I felt like it was just another place for wasps and spiders to nest. DH just this past weekend took off the rock climbing wall and is going to take it apart and do something else w/ the wood (I don't know what - just a fun project w/ ds) - the kids never, ever used that rock climbing wall, and that was definitely the feature I thought for sure they'd like best. they like rock wall climbing when we're at a fair or something, but they didn't like this one. The only thing I would do differently is have a 'bridge' from one area to another - I think the kids missed having that.

We recently ordered a zip-line kit, and dh is having a fence company come put poles in and we're attaching it to the playset... the kids will take off on the zip line from the top of the slide and zip about 40 feet! I'm so excited!!

anyway, we also loved working w/ our cedarworks rep on the phone and i loved assembling it on the computer. very good company!!

 

[Crisgw]

We have a Rainbow and love it! It's durable (well, so far, on our 3rd year) and has everything we need!

 

[mccathy]

We're getting a Rainbow Tuesday! I cannot wait!
While in the showroom our son really liked the rock climbing walls - and the telescope. He's only 3 and a half so can't really swing by himself yet.

 

[Vavasmon]

Our Rainbow is 10 years old this month. It has lasted very well (DD has almost out grown it at 12.5). It was well worth the money we spent. We did replace the ropes on the disk swing and the rope ladder about 4 or 5 years ago. I don't ever remember removing a splinter from her or any of her friends. When she was smaller the steering wheel in the "castle" (canvas tent) portion was very popular. They still use the disk swing from time to time. Sadly, her feet now touch the ground when doing the monkey bars

 

[jacksmommy]

We have a Rainbow system as well. Our son just turned 2 and here in NC we can play outside almost all year long. We've gotten a lot of good use out of it already and we look at it as an investment. We love that it can grow with him and we can change out the accessories as he grows as well. It is incredibly well made and has been worth every penny.

 

[Katy Belle]

We bought the "kit" and the wood from Home Depot and my DH and his brother built it. It took most of one day and they are both pretty "handy." That was 7 years ago and its still going strong. We've never had any splinters. It was a lot cheeper than Rainbow and we have had ZERO issues with it. We even moved it across the world and reassembled it. We will sell it when we move.

Good Luck!
Katy

 

[goldenears]

We haven't checked out Home Depot, but have one close by, so we can look into that too.

Those of you who have a Rainbow...do you need to do anything to the wood over the years (i.e., stain it, etc...)?

 

[squirrlygirl]

We have a rainbow and stain it every 2 years with the recommended stain. DH sands it down quickly in spots the kids touch before staining, and we've had no splinters. The set looks brand new (4 years old) except our disk swing has faded. He also does a bolt check every spring.

The kids (currently 7 and 5) love the disk swing and the slide. The slide has handles on it to help the kids walk up it (we were told when we bought that they did this because the kids will walk up it anyway, might as well help make it safe!) They're starting to outgrow the sandbox, but we have a picnic table that installs in that area, so I think I'll have DH put that in this summer. I'm also thinking of adding some monkey bars off one side.

My favorite part? The rainbow can handle adults! (and children as big as adults!)

 

[pepperderr]

I checked out this thread because I am hoping to find a new swing set for my boys. I would love a wooden one but we live on a hill so the yard slopes. I think there is no way we could get a wooden swing set together on the hill. A metal one would probably be hard too but we already have a metal one so we know it can be done.

I wanted to post this link since I know some of you said you have rainbow swings http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml06/06166.html It is a recall about the swing seats.