Review of the Flexible Flyer “World Of Fun” Swing Set
As of this writing, there are 375 customer comments and 155 answered questions for the Swing-N-Slide Outing Play and Swing Set. I’ve read the customer feedback, and then condensed the results into this review. I hope that this helps you when shopping for a play set.
Best Fea​tures
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Item Specifics
The Swing-N-Slide Outing Play and Swing Set is recommended for children 3 to 11 years old, and it can hold a total of 800 pounds. However, older children and adults could use it as long as they are not above the weight recommendations. This product is made from cedar, and therefore naturally resists rot, decay, and insect damage. This play set includes a play fort, a rock wall, a climbing rope, a wave slide, 2 belt swings, a trapeze bar, a Built-In Sandbox Area and a safe entry ladder. There are also some added accessories, including a steering wheel, telescope, safety handles and more. The swing chains are UV protected, and have a soft rubber grippy plastic coating that helps prevent the chains from getting too hot. This product meets or exceeds ASTM safety standards.
About the Company
Swing N Slide has been around since 1985. Their goal and desire is to create quality and fun products for residential properties. They sell many Swing N Slide swings, slides for playsets, Swing N Slide playsets, and Swing and Slide accessories. To see all of their products, visit their website at swingandslide.com.
Assembly Make Take a Few Days – Organization Is Key
The Swing-N-Slide Outing Play and Swing Set is not one of those that will go up in a few hours according to customers who have put it together. I’ll share what I found to be the best explanation of how long it may take to put together. This customer also shared a tip of keeping similar sized screws in labeled ZipLock Bags.
The customer shared, “Let me start by saying wow a lot of parts. I wish someone had explained how to start to save time. You must, and I repeat, must empty all the boxes first and categorize all of the wood parts. Second, take the time, can’t stress this enough, find all the bags that has screws and bolts put all of the same screws in Ziploc bags and label them what they are. You will spend way too much time double checking the skew numbers and going back in trying to measure. It’s worth the time to do this. For example, have a bag that says “1-1/2 inch deck screws”. This will save you hours, because not all of the hardware that goes to a particular section is in that section box. You will find them in a bag in another box within another box. That’s why I say, take the time to open every box and lay out every part. Once you’ve done this, it’s actually not too hard and you can just follow the instructions step by step. It will take two men about two to three days working four to five hours a day. But the finished product is absolutely gorgeous. Great quality and your kids will enjoy it for years to come. My boys absolutely love it they are two and 4 and weigh about 25 + 35 pounds respectively. Definitely worth the money if you want to take the time to assemble yourself.”
Hard to Follow Set Up Directions
Perhaps the reason that this swing set takes so long to set up is because the directions are hard to follow. Here’s how one customer explained it, “The instructions are VERY poorly written and outright wrong on several occasions, so be prepared to read the instructions and then scratch your head for a while. Then at the end of the step, you will realize the instructions were wrong and you have to undo everything you did in the last step and calculate the correct steps to take on your own. In some cases, this means re-doing an hour or two of work.”
May Be Difficult for Young Children to Climb Ladder
If your child is not ready to use a ladder correctly, the Swing-N-Slide Outing Play and Swing Set may be too advanced for him or her. A customer explained it this way, ” If your children are still small enough that they can’t climb a ladder safely, then there is no way for them to climb up into the structure and use the slide or hangout under the roof. I built stairs for my daughter so she could climb up into the structure.”
Not Good for Areas That Have High Winds
By looking at the Swing-N-Slide Outing Play and Swing Set, you may be wondering how the roof will hold on. It sounds like this is not a good play set for areas that have high winds.
A customer explained, “We have had numerous rain storms this past year with admittedly high winds. The first storm took off the monkey bars and the slide while lifting the entire swing set and throwing it into our tree. As you can imagine it already looked horrible. Then add a couple more storms and the whole frame is broken, many of the slats have come off, and needless to say the slide, monkey bars, and rock wall are useless. I am very disappointed and it has now become so unsafe that I won’t let our children near it. It only took about 6 months to be destroyed…I would strongly suggest finding a different and better quality swing set especially for the price!”
Weatherize It
If you want this swing set to last, you really should put some stain on it. This wood will eventually rot if not properly taken care of. Even though it arrives with stain on it, there were a lot of complaints of the staining coming off after just one year.
Questionable Wood Quality
The description says that this swing set is made form imported Cedar. Normally, Cedar is a quality wood type, but there were a lot of complaints about this swing set being of poor quality wood. Here is one of those comments, “Be careful while running the nails into the wood, it might crack the wood, even the big and thick ones. Grown ups, DO NOT play in this, this is strictly for kids, as it’s not sturdy enough. The whole set sways when I tried to swing in it. It’s a bit risky. Very cheap wood.”
Fair Price
For what you are getting, the Swing-N-Slide Outing Play and Swing Set is a fair price. It’s not bargain priced, yet it’s also not too expensive for what you will be receiving. Here is one of many similar comments about price, “My kids love it and it looks terrific in our back yard. Overall, I think it’s a GREAT deal for this price.”
Weight Limit
There is an eight hundred pound weight limit. This is about average for the size of this play set. The weight limit is made to support several children at once.
Pros
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Cons
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Swing-N-Slide Outing Play and Swing Set Conclusion
The Swing-N-Slide Outing Play and Swing Set is an averaged price swing set for what you are getting. I would not recommend this swing set for areas that get high winds. Even though it did have a majority of positive feedback, there were some concerns that I came across. First, it may take at least two people several days to assemble it. It should help if you keep the screws organized. Several of the comments from customers recommended going through the screws and categorizing them in plastic baggies. There were also a lot of reports of the directions being hard to follow.
Common Questions
Here are some top questions that I found for people considering buying the Swing-N-Slide Outing Play and Swing Set.
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