KidKraft Appleton Wooden Swing Set (Amazon Exclusive)

Got this on sale for $350, which seemed like a great deal. It’s been 3 months since I put it all together and so far, it’s holding up great.

Playset is on the smaller side – don’t expect something from a public park, but it’s perfect for toddlers and small kids, any under 4’6″ and 80 pounds (it’s rated for 110 pounds but kids that big are probably on their smart phones instead). Any playset that is bigger will likely cost way more ($1,500+), so this is a great deal all things considered.

My set came with all the necessary pieces, nothing broken. Cedar wood is of good quality and smells nice. Cedar is considered a softwood, but these planks seem sturdy enough. Still, be careful when you drill in screws or bolts The wood appears treated in some way as the water beads off, but I’ll see how it holds up this winter (I live in Southern California so I’m more worried about sun damage – I’ll likely need to stain/seal before each summer).

It took me and a friend about 7 hours to assemble it all – we spent an hour organizing and about 6 to build, with a long lunch in the middle that involved a lot of beer (not recommended). Required tools – socket wrench with 5/16 and 1/2 drives along with a power drill. You’ll need a Phillips drive bit and the hardware provided include a Robertson drive bit – definitely use it over anything you may already have. Most of the holes are pre-drilled and I encountered only one piece that seemed to be pre-drilled incorrectly (fortunately, I have a power drill).

Other tips – you need a flat surface. Sort out ahead of time the wood pieces by number group and the hardware size (bolts, screws, washers, nuts) together by size so they’re easy to grab – this is what took so long to organize as we figured out some of the hardware could be set up in advance (bolts paired with their washers and nuts, etc). Don’t tighten anything until the end so you can maneuver all the pieces into place, especially when you manhandle the swing portion to the main station.

Finally, take your time reading the instructions – they can be a bit confusing and if you look at it wrong, you may mix things up (I actually mirrored the whole set on accident, but that actually worked out to be a better fit for my backyard).

I modified my version in order to support installing a pirate ship wheel (basically, there are some horizontal supports you can screw on from the outside of the “fort” rather than inside) and left the back space open, taking out the chalk wall and putting a rope ladder instead.

All in all, considering how little it cost, I am happy about this and so is my son, so that’s all that counts.

El producto que me enviaron no es el que estaba anunciado, de hecho es una versión que costaba mucho menos en la pagina web.

Estoy en el proceso de armarlo y es un esfuerzo de al menos 8 horas y que debe hacerse por dos personas al menos. Es fácil equivocarse. El material se ve de buena calidad, ya comentaré cuando esté en operación.

Love the final product but putting it together was rough. Luckily there are videos of people online I googled who showed putting it together. The directions are garbage, some holes don’t match up. The wood did have a split in it prior to us putting it together but it was manageable. If you are not used to building items and are not adaptable to creating new holes, making things work etc- don’t get this set. If you’re handy and can figure it out- it’s not horrible and it took us about 7 hours to put together but we were kinda just going with the flow and not rushing to get it done. Also make sure you are building on a very flat surface it will make it easier to put pieces together accurately.

Llego en el tiempo especificado por paquetería especial. Nosotros nos llevamos dos días armando entre 3 personas. Es un juego de jardín muy bonito. Lo único que no me gustó es que un par de tablas llegaron semi fracturadas y que los columpios son muy largos. Nosotros los colgamos en el tercer eslabón para que los niños de 2 años a 3 puedan subirse. Cuando crezcan tendremos que ajustar las cuerdas porque no será suficiente altura.

So the thing was a pain to put together but ok that’s a big job. There were like 5 different bits needed, a little bit annoying but OK. At least they used those square heads those dont slip.

It was light, easy to move. The stakes provided to lock it down were pretty lame. OK but here’s the problem. The swing side is OK. The tower side SUCKS. Ok first, I took off the weak ass 6×1’s around the base and put in some beefy 2x4s. I locked them down with some self auguring stakes. That did the job as far as holding it down.

The big problem is the design where the tower attaches to the swings. It has to translate through first the main bolt to a weak ass 1 inch piece. Then it translates through several other square, unbraced joints until it hits the braces on the bottom. I’m going to need to get at least 2 more 2×4’s MAYBE 4, to brace the structure directly to the base. And those cedar pieces are expensive. Already spent around 100 bucks to stabilize it at the base – NOT counting the pegs.

NOW spending another probably $75 to brace the 1″ main post – which I wish I could also beef up –

Oh and the sad SINGLE triangle brace in the ENTIRE tower side cracked right down the middle. So yeah good thing I have enough wood to replace that.

So thanks for the extra $250. Like shits not expensive enough without having to foot the bill for your chintzy engineering budget.