Customer Reviews

Banzai Falls Original Water Slide

5 star:		(112)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(35)

 

 

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...

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!

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.

Well, we purchased this product because it looked like so much fun. After bringing it home and setting it up (which was extremely easy) and after 3 hours of my 7 year old (60 lbs.) enjoying herself, the climbing wall holes began to tear apart at the seams, causing the product to not hold much air which in my opinion poses a drowning risk. She had a really good time on it for the 3 hours, but for the amount of money we spent, the product should be more durable/reliable.

I would suggest trying something else because my daughter was terribly discouraged by the faultiness of it.
It is basically usseless now. (...) You can not repair the seams...

DON'T BUY ONE! You and your children will be very disappointed.

Hesitated to buy this product because of price. The packaging was very misleading, had several children playing on the slide. When my husband and I set the slide up, there was no way the number of children on the box would safely fit on the actual slide. The slide also did not last but one month before we had to start fixing holes. This item is supposed to withstand the heat and outdoor elements but instead by the end of summer it dry rotted. We have had several water "activities" we have bought for the kids, and with the exception of the pool this was the most expensive and the most disappointing mainly because the children absolutely loved it. We have contacted the the manufacturer with our concerns, we are not a family that has $[...] to spare every summmer to throw away, but they have not attempted to return any contacts. Just wanted to let any other families know who may not have $[...] to throw away. Thank you for the opportunity.

I was so excited to find this after going to all the WalMarts in my area all day Sat. It was the last one! We bought this to use for my son's upcoming 5th birthday party and put it out this weekend to test it out. It was not even up 10 minutes when the water hose popped open at the seam. Then the footholds started ripping around the edges, leaving big holes and partially deflating the slide. We only had three children on it for a total of about 2 hours. For this price, it really should be more durable than this. We were really disappointed and ended up returning it immediately with no problem (although the WalMart manager made some snide comments about "Lend"-mart that she didn't think we would catch). After seeing these other reviews, I will not be looking for another one.

My son asked for money for his birthday so that he could purchase one of these slides. That was all that he wanted. So we lucked up in getting one b/c there were only 4 left after 2 days of being stocked.

We went directly home and set it up. Everything was so easy. The kids slid down it one time and the part where the water hooks up to the slide -BROKE/POPPED. We tried the patching kit - it wouldn't hold. Everytime we hooked the hose up to it; it would break again. So, we too, put the water hose at the top of the slide so that the kids could continue playing on it for a little while since they had only slid once.

We took the slide back to exchange it for another one, and we have yet to find another. Everywhere we have looked, they have been sold out. Who knows if the next one we find (if we find one) will hold up without breaking. Now I have a 6 year old with birthday money that he cannot spend on the one thing that he wanted - which is not inexpensive at all. They are definitely not worth the price put on most of them.

I do not recommend this product at all. It is not durable at all. We had two of them and both broke. The hose connector broke on the first one and the second one got a tear and went like a runner so the slide deflated and wasn't safe to use.

The slide itself was very fun and we had a blast on it but it is a very dangerous for kids if it break as easily as our two did.

we got the newer slide without all of the seam problems. it was great for about a month then all of the sudden it got a hole under neath the nylon at the end of the slide. then it ended up ripping there because of the force of the kids coming down. other neighbors had the same problem. THE SLIDE NEEDS TO BE LONGER! the end of the slide cannot take the force of the kids coming down the slide.
maybe in the next ten tries they'll get it right while everyone keeps forking over money for poorly made slide. it should've been done right the first time for how much money they cost!

We used the water slide for the first time yesterday. It was surprisingly easy to set up. Thank goodness for the reviewer who recommended not turning the water pressure on too high. There were 4 kids taking turns on the water slide for about 3 hours. They ranged in weight from 40-60 pounds. By the end of the 3 hours the foot holes were starting to rip at the seams. Not just one or two foot holes, but most of them. Even though the directions says the weight limit is 200 pounds, I would be cautious to let anyone over 60-70 pounds play on it. The kids had a blast, and got very tired. I just wish the manufacturer would make this product more durable. For the price, I would not expect it to come apart after only 3 hours.