Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this after reading the good reviews and had high hopes of entertaining my twin 6 year olds with this over the summer. I'm not disappointed, but I do want to weigh in on a few points. First, this is a pretty well built inflatable: the large wedge at the high end of the slide is on par with bounce house thickness and strength. The rest of the slide is closer to a typical (but good) inflatable pool. There's quite a few pieces on it that require individual inflation: On the underside there's the large wedge and then a "landing pad" under the middle. On the top there's two pieces to the arch, there's an inflatable "door mat" at the front of the wedge, and then the slide/pool rim is one piece. I bought the AIRHEAD AHP-120 Air Pump 120 volt to inflate it, since I wasn't sure my smaller pump would be enough The Shrunks Jetaire Pump. I would highly recommend a pump to help inflate this or you'll probably pass out on a hot day trying to get this set up. The first time I set this up I didn't see the "landing pad" so I didn't inflate it until the second time. We've used this for maybe 5 hours this weekend over two days. Nothing deflated significantly between each day, so I don't think there's any weak areas at present. I plumped it a little for the second day and it was fine. You definitely need access to a water hose for this product. You don't need a lot of water for this to work, but a steady stream and more water dispersal is best. You may need to fiddle around with the hose tucked into the top of the slide to help the water flow. This unit uses less water than a sprinkler set for the same amount of time, and since my grass was yellowing this seemed a good alternative to running through sprinklers. The hose connection leaks a lot, but it's not a deal breaker. My two kids are 6 years old, just about 48" tall. This slide was a lot of fun for them, but judging from their size I would think that once they hit 7 they'll have to think of more creative ways to play with this since the ride down will be a bit short. I think just turning 5 would have been an optimum age for them to get this for the most use (gauging physical ability, likelihood of falling off the top, etc). I like that the bottom of the slide holds just a few inches of water so there's been no hesitation from the kids about landing in it. Using the included inflatable boards makes for a faster ride than trying to slide down without them and the head first, lying down position makes it more exciting. I tried three alterations to this slide's standard use. First, I put a pop up shade shelter (Picnic Time Summerwinds Portable Pop-Up Sun/Wind Shelter) around the bottom of the slide pool because it was really hot and sunny. It kept the bottom of the pool cool and they could hang out there when they weren't going up and down. I did this knowing that I don't care what happens to the pop-up shelter since it's so hard to fold back up. Second, I used this with the "landing pad" on the underside deflated the first time and inflated the second. This actually had an effect on the play. Inflated, the landing pad plumped up the slide, so the kids went faster and hit the bottom edge of the pool harder. It also pushed the water into a smaller and shallower pool on the bottom and lifted the drain holes a bit so that the water drained out faster. When I did not inflate it the kids did not hit the back rim of the slide and ended their ride in the pool itself. The pool filled up with enough water to almost be a wading pool (few inches deeper) and was bigger (underside pad did not push up into it). So I actually liked how it worked without this pad inflated better. Finally, I deflated the "door mat" piece, tucked it under the wedge and went and got a step stool Rubbermaid 1859074 Step Stool, Large, Gray and Red for the kids to use to climb up. I don't know if I missed the point with how they expected kids to get up there, but without the stepstool they roll around more to get into position (and get closer to falling off) while climbing and ask for help. With the step stool they're just up there without much effort. The kids love this thing, and although I sat out with them the entire time they only came to me a few times per hour for water in their eyes or requests for more food/drink. What a great day.