Banzai Falls Original Water Slide

by Banzai

Product Features

• Nominee for Toy Of The Year award (2006).
• 10H x 18x10L x 5W inflatable water slide
• Included blower motor features GFCI for extra safety and convenience
• Water slide weight limit: 200lbs
• Banzai is the ultimate name for water slide fun!

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 29 x 15.2 x 26 inches
• Shipping Weight: 55.2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B0001A868C
• Item model number: 01903NP
• Manufacturer recommended age: 5 - 15 years
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #128,919 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
  • #43 in Toys & Games > Sports & Outdoor Play > Pools & Water Fun > Lawn Water Slides
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (198 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The original blower-powered slide. Take the plunge down this huge 18 ft 6 in long inflatable water slide. Banzai Falls Water Slide inflates in less than 2 minutes with the included continuous-airflow blower motor and easily attached to any hose. Heavy-duty Dura-Tech construction ensures lasting strength and durability while the constant airflow helps to resist small tears and punctures.

Product Description

Slide into cool fun during warm weather with the ultimate in water slides. Setup takes less than five minutes. Simply roll out the slide, attach the water bags and blower and flip the switch! The giant water slide inflates in less than two minutes. Connect the garden hose and watch your aqua park come to life with a cool water spray.

Features:

• Heavy-duty Dura-tech construction ensures lasting strength and durability for years to come
• Arch top, wall and rails are constructed of PVC-coated 420D Terylene for strength and support
• Slide surface and pool area are constructed of PVC-coated polyester tarpaulin that allows children a fun and slippery sliding experience and prevents damage to the landing area of the slide
• Climbing wall made of PVC-coated Terylene. Net has been used to create an extremely strong climbing wall surface, and each foothold is reinforced with a second layer of ultra-strong material
• Water bags are attached at key points around slide to ensure the stability of the structure
• The water bags are reinforced with nylon mesh at the point where they attach to the slide to prevent them from tearing away under stress
• Ground stake loops are sewn in at two points on the blower-powered water slide bottom instead of one point to increase strength and durability
• The included 12" blower motor has a GFCI switch for maximum safety and convenience
• A carrying case is also provided for easy storage after play
• Inflatable size: 228"L x 60"W x 120"H

Includes one inflatable Banzai Falls Water Slide, one 12" blower, 10 ground stakes, two anchor bags and a repair kit.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

248 of 270 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BUYER BEWARE!!, June 14, 2004

By 

Jimmy Ray Purser "zabricab" (pleasant prairie, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:1.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Banzai Falls Original Water Slide (Toy)

What could have been the coolest toy of the summer is now the Edsel of toys. So you saw the commercial and knew your kids would love this. How can you go wrong! Puncture proof, made of nylon, comes with its own blower and sets up in less then two minutes! (...)! I'll buy that and my kids will have the coolest dad on the block. (flashback...think Steve Martin in Parenthood when his son is graduating college...)

But no...(flashback...think Steve Martin in Parenthood when his son is in the Bell Tower...)

What a piece of junk. Here is a day in the life of this product.

Day One:
1200: Unboxed, unrolled and set up
1215: First kid down the slide. Smiles everywhere, kites flying, birds singing, it's a great day!
130: First leak. Seam busted at water inlet. No problem. Kids need a break. Repaired seam. Things are still good.
132: Seam busted again. Hmmm...Repaired seam with an old Navy trick. All you need is a vinyl patch, 6' of binding cord and 10 years in the US Navy. Worked!
225: Another seam busted. Repaired with same patching method. I am wondering...what is going on here...
320: Yet another seam busted. This time right next to the water inlet valve. Uh-oh... Cut the adapter off and reattached. Works!! Man, I did not realize that eight 6-10 year kids could do all of this...or could they...
445: Four steps on the climbing wall have ripped out. Nylon steps! Wholly smokes! All kids to the scales...I need to weigh you porkers. Hmmm...nope all average weight.

448: The pool area has a hole in it too! What is this thing made of! Cardboard!!!!
450: Deflate slide and dry out.
505: Contact Amazon for a RMA number to ship this very poorly designed product back.

When I ordered this product there were no reviews. Now there are (at this writing) 33 and all of the reviews are negative. Save your money. It is a way cool toy, if only it would work...if only...

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too much $$ for disposable toy, May 29, 2006

By 

Melissa (Lovely Northwest Georgia) - See all my reviews

= Durability:1.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:1.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Banzai Falls Original Water Slide (Toy)

We bought the waterslide for my son's 11th birthday last May. It was great, everyone loved it, had a great time with it all summer.

At the end of summer we let it dry out, rolled it up, stuck it back in it's box and stored it inside all winter.

It's May again, so I went out and got the waterslide set back up. Everything looked great, it filled up, water flowing good.
Until my kid got it, and it nearly folded in half with him. When he slid down into the pool, his bottom hit the ground!
He said "I think I got too fat for it!" (He doesn't weigh even 100 lbs.)

It couldn't even be something as easy as a hole needed patching.
The problem appears to be with the mesh material panel covering the top of the end of the pool at the end of the slide. There are no holes or tears in it, yet air is blowing from this area like an air conditioner!

I've emailed the company for repair or replacement, because otherwise there is NO WAY I'll spend another several hundred dollars to buy a toy that won't last any longer than this thing did!

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic way to enjoy a hot summer day, June 30, 2006

By 

Brian Andonian (Plymouth, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Banzai Falls Original Water Slide (Toy)

My wife and I were contemplating purchasing this slide for a couple of months. The high price had us concerned, plus we worried about durability since the early reviews were quite bad. The slide went on sale at Meijers for $249 so we jumped on the deal.

Initial setup was easy. 1)Stake the slide to ground like a tent in the four corners. 2) hook up the spray head to the top of the slide (velcro attachment). 3) attach the blower to the inlet and turn it on 4) attach the two water weights to the sides of the slide and turn it on 5) connect the water to the spray head.

The slide was an immediate hit. My two kids (ages 5 and 6) played on the slide for several hours before inviting some friends over. They ended up playing on the slide until about 7pm. It was an immediate neighborhood attraction.

The only issue is that the "receiving" pool at the bottom of the slide is just not long enough. As several people have mentioned, the kids hit the end wall with a pretty high force. Luckily, there have been no sprained ankles yet, but this is a concern. Especially if there is not a lot of water in the pool. It is possible for older kids (13 years) to fly out of the end of the slide, which could be dangerous, and it has happened once.

It is essential to enforce the following rules: 1) only one person at the top of the slide at any time. 2) no one goes down the slide until the person in the pool has exited. 3) everyone must exit to the left of the pool to avoid tripping over the power cable and blower inlet hose.

Taking down the slide can be a chore. First you must drain the pool by deflating the slide. I then turn the blower back on and let the slide dry out for 1 or 2 hours. Water will collect inside of the slide, so it is important to let the deflated slide dry out for several more hours.

Also, the slide is very heavy (80 lbs or so) after it has been used since it will be wet. there is simply no way to get the slide back into the nylon bag that came with it. I went out and purchased a 30 gallon storage container to store the slide in.

I hope I have not scared anyone away. This is a fantastic water slide, and will provide hours of enjoyment. It takes a bit of care and safety rules to fully enjoy it. I think the key to durability is not letting people abuse the slide, and making sure to dry it out before storing it. Also, keep a close eye on the older kids - they tend to experiment with it.

Finally, the material that the slide is made of is much better than I had envisioned. While not quite the same quality as a professional bouncer, it is close to that quality.

Update, 7/6/07:
After using the slide a total of about 10 times through August of 2006, the seams finally did start to come loose. This resulted in a "sagging" pool area, and generally weak structure since there was so much air escaping. some amount of air leakage is necessary, otherwise the slide would explode, but too much and you have a weak structure.
I did finally get through to ToyQuest customer service (after dozens of attempts) and spoke to a rep. who told me to send in the label from the old slide, and they would send me a new one, which they did. By this time it was early September, and we decided to keep the new slide dry until this year (2007). We have not yet tried the replacement slide, but we will do so as soon as the weather warms up.

The bottom line is, you need to be careful with this product. Kids like to jump off of the top and into the pool, or bounce off of the slide and into the pool. This is probably what caused the seams to fail. It is very hard to convince a bunch of 7 year olds that they need to just be calm and slide down with their feet in front of them. But that is what you must do to keep this slide from falling apart.