We bought this a few weeks ago and has been one of the greatest investments for our kids. I will say I disagree with the reviews that it takes 30+ hours to put together. My husband and I did it together and thought around 15 hours. If you get yourself organized and follow the directions in order you will be fine. We weren't missing any hardware either. We also got a smoking deal on it and only paid $600!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This product is really nice. I assembled the entire play set by myself, so if you are out there and you have no help, it is doable. I was concerned about my 20 month old not being able to climb the ladder, she climbs it just fine, I do stand beside her just in case though. I did make several mistakes when building it though. I would build so far until I realized that something wasn't right, then I would go back and fix it, which was easy enough, just time consuming. The only thing I would change if I was a engineer at Lifetime is install another step or two at the top of the ladder. In fact, I may contact them on trying to get a couple more.

This playset is wonderful! My girls absolutely love it. It took about 10 hours for my dad & husband to put it together. Instructions were easy to follow. Excellent quality & worth every penny. I feel like this thing will definitely be around for our grandchildren.

We picked it up and as we were putting it together we noticed two main support beams were bent . Sams let me return the bent poles and replaced them. Saved Christmas for my daughter. Also the play set is as advertised . Pretty good play set !

Purchased online from Sam's. Arrived on time. Me and 2 very handy buddies, all armed with impact guns (and cold beers) took 6hrs and 45min to assemble. Texas...end of June...no shade...SO HOT! Nothing hard about the assembly. Just hundreds upon hundreds of seemingly endless connections. Recomendations: 1. I wouldn't go at this alone as there are a few cumbersome parts to assemble where you need 4 hands to make it work. It would also take 12-16hrs to do alone. 2. I also wouldn't recommend going at this without an impact. Just too many bolts to screw in by hand. 3. Remember to leave the bolts a bit loose on the section you are currently working on. You'll need the extra play as some of these holes don't line up perfectly. Nothing that some brain power and sometimes a little bit of violence cant handle. At the end of a very long, hot and hellish day...this is a VERY nice playset. Sturdy and well designed. Looks and plays great! Totally recommend purchasing this set. If you don't have help with the assembly, hire a pro. It'll be worth every single penny. Tough assembly process but hey...we all love our kids, right?

Very nice playset; worth the money. Large tower accommodates multiple children of differing ages. Sturdy and will definitely survive the elements better than a wooden set. DRAWBACK: assembly. This is a professional grade playground and whereas it's great quality, it does require substantial skill and effort to assemble. My flight mechanic Airforce friend and I took 2 days on assembly. We each needed a full complement of tools -- multiple steps require you to drill your own holes in metal and heavy plastic. Of course, with all pre-fab stuff, holes & hardware didn't line up well causing us to really have to push and pull to get things screwed together. Hard on hands & backs!!! Either pay the price to have it assembled or get 4 knowledgeable people WITH drills to help. HIGHLY recommend reading the instructions first then get enough help to split up the assembly: 2 people on lower playhouse, 2 on swing-set frame, 2 on upper deck/slide etc. If not, it's definitely a pain to assemble. I would not do it again.

I have a 7 and 3 year old who absolutely love the playset. However, because the way the ladder curves my just barely 3 year old has real hard time climbing up and has fallen through twice, luckily we have rubber mulch to protect her fall but would be nice if Lifetime had multiple options of ladders or stairs to allow independence for young climbers. Given time 3 year old will learn to climb herself but for now mom or dad must assist and spot her.

The product is sound and sturdy. Unfortunately the design implements a lot of slot holes at the beginning stage, which makes sense because it would be harder to put together without them. However, the variance caused creates issues towards the end of assembly where the design doesn't line up well. We weren't able to screw through the floor into the the metal struts because the intended plastic to screw through had no metal to dig into it. The struts are less than half an inch across so if while putting it together if every nut and bolt isn't sitting perfectly in the center of each slot the variation causes tremendous issues. I just bought additional components to insure the structures integrity. Next issue, the age recommendations do not match the attention required to play on the equipment. The photos show children around 6-8 playing with it set up on a grass lawn. Without cedar chips or sand YOUR CHILDREN WILL BREAK THEIR LEGS if they fall from the top level. It's a lot higher looking in person when a 3 year old is up there. So don't leave your kids alone on it unless you've set up a base to soften landing. They do warn about it in the manual... which you get after you buy the product. Finally, with some of the poor design features when building the thing, I would advise hiring someone to put it together. You could work a few hours overtime and save yourself money and a headache. Let someone who has done it 90 run through it. Then you save the trouble of being off by a tiny bit when you screw in the slot holes or when you're bending metal parts to meet their joining platform. Sidenote: you need something to soften the landing at the bottom of the slide as well. Our 3 year old needs someone at the bottom because the descent is too swift and a nice well kept lawn does nothing to reduce impact.

Putting together the platform for the tower you have to bend some of the parts to make them fit. These particular pieces of the pipe are really flimsey pieces of metal. I had to bend one so far that is split in half. You then have to level the legs and this bends those pieces even more. The paint chips around these bended pieces and leaves in open to the element to rust. The swing set pipe is very solid but the side bar is the same as the ones I discussed before. This makes that part of the swing set not a strong as you think it should be. There is no side to side stability as well. If someone was to run into it from the side the whole thing would bend over. I think this swing set should be more sturdy. I have contacted the manufacturer with quick response but all of my complaints about the broken parts have been shot down. I have asked for a replacement pieces but they are claiming it is not broken when the picture that I sent clearly shows that it is. The whole project was very upsetting.

I live in Michigan and I was concerned about a wood swing set being able to handle the harsh weather changes so I specifically wanted a metal swing set. I found the Lifetime Adventure Tower Playset online and after thoroughly reading the reviews, I pulled the trigger. While the swing set looks awesome and my kid loves it, I am extremely disappointed that it is rusting already - we assembled it less than 2 weeks ago. I would not recommend purchasing it.