Rainbow Play System on a Budget

[DisneyToddlers]

Hi, We have a 3yo and a 5yo. We are going to look at Rainbow Play Systems tomorrow. We will be looking at some of the least expensive models, but hope to buy something that the girls will use for many years. We would like it to be somewhat compact. It doesn't have to be the smallest, but not a sprawling model either.

Any suggestions on how to get good deals on Rainbow sets? Also, what are the good less expensive models? If you have pictures of your own basic models that would be great!

Thanks so much!

 

[katied]

Just noticed last week that the Costco by us is carrying a Rainbow play system. Seems pretty compact. Cost is $1,000.

I haven't done any cost comparison, so I don't know about that compared to other options. We're just starting to think about this ourselves.

 

[Perditamarie]

Buying a discontinued or "floor" model and hauling away/assembling yourself can save you $$ if you want to put in the time. They are spendy, but truly rugged esp w/gobs of kids (think neighbors!!) ((okay, grown ups too!!)playing on them.

 

[skip323]

I definitely wouldn't rule out purchasing one used through craigslist or something like that. We have a rainbow set and have had it for 3 or 4 years. Purchased it used. Went to our local Rainbow place and purchased the stain. Stained it and tightened everything up and it has been the set of choice for lots of kids in the neighborhood. Very sturdy and the cost was a fraction of what we would have paid new. I think we paid $200 or $250 for ours. We also listed on craigslist to find a couple of folks to take it down from the original owner's home and set it up at our home. It is one of the smaller sets but is just perfect for our two girls who are now almost 9 and 10.5. The original owners wanted to get rid of it because their kids were 11ish and 12ish and were more interested in having a trampoline.

 

[DisneyToddlers]

OP here, good suggestions about a used one or Costco, but I should have mentioned that DH definitely does not want to assemble it. We have to have the professional installation.

 

[Kellydelly]

Is your husband handy? For a fraction of the cost you can make your own, sturdy set that will last a long time. My husband bought a kit/plan from Home Depot and built one for our kids almost 8 years ago ($650 in lumber, stain, and the kit). It still looks great and it's very solid . We stained it, so the wood still looks nice. I would not buy the cheapest Rainbow set, I don't think you'll get a very nice set for your money.

 

[clh2]

OP - I can certainly relate to not wanting to install/assemble the playset!

We sold our Rainbow a coupel of years ago...DD is now 16, but we had it for 10 years...until DD was about 13, she would go up inot the clubhouse area and read on a nice summer day!

The Rainbow in my neck of the woods between now and around Memorial day will have various promotions...demos for sale, free installation or $$$ off. We still have a ton of snow on the ground, so probably a little early for the "big" sales. I would ask the sales rep when the best time (for a bargain) will be for a set.

Gool Luck - i loved having the playset. There are no parks near our house.

 

[DisneyToddlers]

I definitely wouldn't rule out purchasing one used through craigslist or something like that. We have a rainbow set and have had it for 3 or 4 years. Purchased it used. Went to our local Rainbow place and purchased the stain. Stained it and tightened everything up and it has been the set of choice for lots of kids in the neighborhood. Very sturdy and the cost was a fraction of what we would have paid new. I think we paid $200 or $250 for ours. We also listed on craigslist to find a couple of folks to take it down from the original owner's home and set it up at our home. It is one of the smaller sets but is just perfect for our two girls who are now almost 9 and 10.5. The original owners wanted to get rid of it because their kids were 11ish and 12ish and were more interested in having a trampoline.

I just saw where you said you had advertised on Craigslist to have some people take it down and reassemble. Were they general contractors, Rainbow installers doing work on the side or generally handy people? I would want to make sure everything was as secure as possible and DH and I wouldn't really know how to check that out 100%. Thanks!

 

[Melrosgirl]

Your least expensive bet would be 1) used, 2) end of the season sales (fall), or 3) the costco set. The costco set I saw looked like they use different products than the ones in their showrooms. (it wasn't redwood, etc.). Still nice though, but different than the showroom versions.

 

[Mommee]

OP here, good suggestions about a used one or Costco, but I should have mentioned that DH definitely does not want to assemble it. We have to have the professional installation.

Check with your Rainbow store-ours will disassemble/move/reassemble for a fee, even if you didn't buy the set from them.

 

[Melrosgirl]

When we moved, Rainbow came out and took apart our system and then brought it over to our new house, 3 miles away. It was fast and easy, but cost $500 just to do that.

 

[skip323]

I just saw where you said you had advertised on Craigslist to have some people take it down and reassemble. Were they general contractors, Rainbow installers doing work on the side or generally handy people? I would want to make sure everything was as secure as possible and DH and I wouldn't really know how to check that out 100%. Thanks!

We just advertised for handy folks to do it. We were going to have the rainbow company do it but it was expensive and we were truly trying to go as discounted as possible!!! We had a lot of people that responded to our listing and a couple mentioned having disassembled and reassembled these sets before. We just went with some of them. we advertised for $100 but they did such a great job and it took them quite awhile so we paid $150 plus ordered pizza and pop for them to eat. Worked out great.

 

[mamaLori05]

We purchased ours off of Craigslist. It was only 1 year old!! The original owners were moving and couldn't take it with them. I would definately recommend Craigslist. We got an awesome deal on it. We took it apart and reassembled it ourselves (actually my DH did all the work), and he didn't find it all that difficult at all. However, I know rainbow does it for a fee as well.

We did originally look at the less expensive models like the one at Sams club. It just wasn't the same quality as the other Rainbow's. Everything on it seemed "cheap", and we just weren't sure it was going to last as long. Even the swings and such were made of a cheaper chain. Take a good look at it before you purchase one. They are still nicer than a lot of other wooden sets we looked at, but not something I could see our kids playing on as long as the other sets.

 

[kalliyan1]

OP here, good suggestions about a used one or Costco, but I should have mentioned that DH definitely does not want to assemble it. We have to have the professional installation.

We just bought and assembled the one from sam's club. When we purchased it the check out person told us that if we wanted to, for and extra $300 we could have had it delivered AND installed. We choose the bonding route and built it ourselves w/our older kids.

 

[Binnie]

We bought one at Walmart last year early in the season for like $800. I was thrilled because I was ready to buy the Costco one at $1200, or one built by a local builder that does them (which is an awesome choice, if you can afford it).

It's perfect for us, just a house, 3 swings, and a table (under the house). It has the ladder, slide, and rockwall, too. DD loves it.

 

[bigmama67]

We have just put down a 50% deposit on a swingset by Creative Playthings and I believe they have locations all over the country. They include assembly and free delivery (within 25 miles, of course we are 27 miles from the store and so we are paying an extra $50...sigh). We are getting one of last year's closeout models for $1299 plus tax and the extra delivery charge, and adding a toddler swing as our daughter will only be 18 months when we get it. I haven't seen it anywhere else for less than $1499. I was actually looking at this model last fall and now it's $200 cheaper!

It has a rock wall, a picnic table, a clubhouse, monkey bars, a slide, swing, glider, and trapeze rings (where we will put the toddler swing in their place for now). It's only 15x17 feet.

We were more comfortable with getting a new one but Rainbow is out of our budget, and this has a 10 year warranty (the ones at BJ's have only 5). We are having it delivered May 1 and with a 7 y.o. DS and 1 y.o. DD we hope and expect that there will be many years of happy use ahead!

So I highly recommend going to creativeplaythings (dot) com and putting in your zip code - check them out!

 

[stitch34]

I went through this oh, 4 years ago I guess since we've had our set!
Needed quality, and someone to assemble it. Price was definitely an issue, but did have to pay the price for quality. We are hoping to get at least 10 years out of it.
Have had friends get sets from Sams Club, BJ's - and a couple years later oh, they looked terrible and hadn't held up well at all!

Looked at Rainbow. Got a better price from Playnation. See if any near you maybe and check out to compare. Still pricey, but came out cheaper for us.

Your best bet is the one from Costco. Would have done that myself, but had no one to assemble it.

We got the Playnation Kingdom, basically with rainbow I think they call them Castle models? The tire swing underneath is a big hit. Really the main features my three kids use are the swing, trapeze, tire swing and the deck, whatever you call it, up top. Go basic with the swings maybe - can always add on a different swing. We switch out all the time between regular swings, trapeze and glider swing. Rock wall, eh, never really use that.

It was in early March we were shopping for them, and I know various swingset dealers were running specials then for the start of the season.

 

[auralia]

home depot carries very nice "disney" endorsed ones mine was under 1000 and had all the wood precut you do need to add 4x4's though we arn't terriblly handy and we put it up ourselves in a week working off and on when we had time you can go to homedepot. com and customize your own but keep in mind the price you see in the cart ... it will be cheaper than that at your actual home depot. we also added a big tornado slide to ours (that was the most expensive part). The same kind of set up from rainbow would have cost us at least 5000$... rainbow is well done but WAY over priced. they quoted me 4000$ on sale for just a sad little play set that was very dissapointing if you plan rainbow and you don't do the sams club build it yourself one plan on spending no less than 3000$ and more like 5000 to 6000 if you want something that is actually of decent size.

 

[DisneyToddlers]

OP here. Thanks so much to everyone for your suggestions. It's all helpful. We went to look at sets yesterday. We called some friends yesterday from the showroom, and they said they were looking to sell theirs (5 years old)for $1,000. So now DH says he CAN unassemble and reassemble it! Too funny. Rainbow said that the warranty does not transfer, though. Those of you with used sets and no warranty: are the replacement parts/ repairs pricey? And how often do you need replacement parts? Anyway, it's an option now, but I wish we had the warranty! We are still thinking of all the options.

 

[skip323]

We really have not had to replace anything....at least not anything major! Our biggest expense (outside of the actual purchase and paying folks to assemble) was 2 cans of the stain...which made the set look brand new!!!

One time I think dh wanted to replace a couple of screws he just went to Ace or something...it was not at all expensive.

We have had ours set up for a good 3 years or more. Not a single problem