For years, I’ve looked at inflatable water slide / bounce house things on Amazon and wondered if the cost is worth it. Last year, I ended up renting an inflatable slide from another mom in the area and the kids had a BLAST.
Sometimes, it’s hard to tell if the inflatable will be too big or not big enough. You know the kids are photoshopped into the ad photos.
I also really wanted to get one that was a decent size but not TOO expensive. Often, reviews say inflatables get a hole in them after a few uses. I didn’t want to spend $200+ to only get a few uses out of it.
After weeks of searching, I found this WELLFUNTIME inflatable water slide with rainbow sprinkler. It seemed to check all of my boxes: a decent size inflatable for multiple kids that wasn’t too big or too expensive. I didn’t want a bounce house on it or it be too tall; I wanted to be able to reach a kid at all time without climbing on something. I also knew I needed to be able to set it up entirely by myself.
So, we finally took a chance and went for it. Read below for my pros, cons and overall review of my experience so far with this inflatable.
PROS
Below are the positives from our experience using this inflatable so far.
- The kids have SO much fun in it for about an hour or two.
- When they had friends over, it gave them a fun outdoor activity to do while the moms could watch and chat.
- The rainbow provided a decent portion of shade for the kids to play in.
- It’s a decent size for a few kids but it’s not TOO big
- A college kid played with our kids on it and she slid down the slide and played in the pool with no issues.
- It’s super cute and fun looking.
- While the set-up takes some time, it’s fairly intuitive after your first time.
- There are no spots on it that you can’t easily reach a kid, like a bounce house or super tall slide. The slide is only about 3 1/2 feet high.
- It gives you a lot of stakes and the tubing attaches with velcro so it feels securely in place.
- It’d be a different experience, but you could use this dry and the kids would still have some contained fun. Perhaps for toddlers.
- The sides are low enough that young kids can get in and out on their own. Also, I could sit in a chair on the side with my feet in the pool, if needed.
- The cost of this one was $160, which is still a lot, but most of the ones on Amazon are $200+.
- It packs up small enough for storing, but also transporting elsewhere, like to the grandparent’s house!
- It comes with everything you need for set-up: the air blower and stakes. You’ll really only need your water hose and an extension cord.
While this was big enough for one college kid plus a few little kids or about 8 kids all under 10, I don’t think it’d work for multiple teens.
Shop this inflatable water slide with rainbow sprinkler »
CONS
Most of the “cons” I have aren’t specific to this inflatable water park, but rather just using any inflatable.
- Yes, it is a big pain to initially inflate and then dry out / pack up. To be expected.
- Hose from the water is cold! Even on hot days, it was better to run the water a bit, let it sit in the pool to warm up. Then an hour or two later, the kids would play in it and be fine.
- Depending on how much water you run, the ground around it can get very soaked.
- It gets quite heavy when you go to dump out the water.
- The grass at the entrance to the slide always got muddy because of the heavy foot traffic.
- I can’t figure out how to fully dry out the inside of the water tubes.
- No matter the angle, the kids always went around to the side with the blower. Nobody tripped over the cord, but I could totally see that happening.
Luckily our yard was flat enough yard to be able to use this. And big enough — remember to measure before buying, size matters people! So this wasn’t really a “con” for us, but something to keep in mind.
My Review of the Inflatable Water Slide & Rainbow Sprinkler
Overall, I’m REALLY happy that we got this inflatable water slide and rainbow sprinkler. Yes, it’s a pain, but it also gave us hours of outdoor fun over the summer. It’s big, but not TOO big. It was expensive but not TOO expensive compared to the other inflatables out there.
As expected for any inflatable, it’s a pain to dry out and pack up. I’ve found that it’s easiest to let the pool dry out while inflated. The bottom of the inflatable gets really wet so after the top dries out, you need to flip it over and dry the bottom. Keep moving it around onto dry grass every few hours to make sure it dries thoroughly before packing up.
No holes yet, *knock on wood*! But I guess we’ll see how the inflatable holds up over the winter. Fingers crossed it’s still usable next year.
If you’ve been looking for an inflatable water slide option for your kid(s), I’ve had good luck with this one so far. Beyond the extra time burden on me, it’s been great. I highly recommend this inflatable!
Shop this inflatable water slide with rainbow sprinkler »
Extra Advice for Inflatables
Something I heard from another mom was to make sure you set up your inflatables far enough away from your house. After dumping out the water, the soaked ground can attract termites. Since the ground is wet for only a short period of time, once it dries, they’ll go looking for somewhere else — you don’t want that place to be your house!
She said the termites were very visible within hours of dumping out their water and they had an exterminator come the next day. The exterminator said it wasn’t the first time he’s seen a termite issue from water dumped out of an inflatable.
They dumped the water out after the kids used it, so it wasn’t standing water in the inflatable. It was just in the grass. Yikes! It also wasn’t this specific inflatable, but still, I had no idea this was a thing!
I didn’t personally have this experience, but passing along the heads-up from a fellow mom in case it happens to you!
Have you bought or rented an inflatable for your house? If so, what’s your experience been? Thought about buying one but haven’t yet? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Comment below.
Thanks for reading!
Leave a Reply