My son will be turning 2 in April and I am wanting an outdoor wooden playset for him this summer. I have been looking at the Gorilla playsets. Any experience with those? What other brands are preferred? Are they suitable for a 2yr old? Thanks
We got a Rainbow - if you ever move, you can move it with you; and it is easy to add additional "big kid" things like monkey bars, and you can switch out toddler buckets for sling seats.
We love ours!
My son turned 2 last January and we installed a playset during the summer. He needed some help (confidence) to play on it some of the time but he enjoyed it. I would make sure that the set you get has actual steps (flat wood) and not just bars (round) to get up to the slide, etc.
Rainbow has 2 different lines. The ones that you get from a Rainbow store and those that you can get from Cosco, Sam's, Toys R Us and I think maybe Lowe's (Rainbow Playgrounds America). There is a significant cost difference between the two lines. They claim that there is a difference in wood and the warranty is different. You can register the Rainbow America ones for free to get a 10 year warranty.
We opted for the Rainbow America as we were not willing to pay the price of a Rainbow. We have been very satisfied. I also have an infant and I did not like the full bucket swing seat that came with the set so I found a used Rainbow full bucket and switched it out. We found someone on Craigslist that installed the playset for about $200. Good luck!
We got ours from Cosco. It was $1200.00 and worth every penny! It's not like the rainbow brand that has just the tent on top, ours has an actual little house with a roof. My son loves it!
We installed a wood set as well, it was a hand me down, so not sure the brand. The family had upgraded to a larger set as their children grew. The new set was great for older kids, but definately intimidating for a 2 year old. If you are planning for a growing family, it's a great idea to think in stages. Get a small simple set now, and upgrade to a larger set as they grow. Your might be lucky enough to find someone to hand you small set down to as well.
A lot of times Menards will have the them on sale. They give you a list of what you need and instructions. It does require a lot of assembly, but they're well worth it. My dad has one and we're building one this spring. If you don't want to go the wooden route, there are some plastic ones that are made for toddlers. We had one and it was ok. My dd is on the small side and she could never use the swing on it though.
