Backyartisan Rating:
3.0 Stars
The Treasure Cove wooden swing set by KidKraft is a solid, simple, and competitively priced swing set. It is engineered to fit along a fence and achieve a low price point. We do our thing and try to suss out if it still holds up to your expectations.
The Backyartisan's Verdict
Here’s where we go into the Backyartisan ratings for each category of the Treasure Cove on a 5-star scale. We use a weight on each category to give an overall rating. You’ll see we give 30% of the weight to the aspects of the playset before you put it to use, 45% is given to how your kids will use it, and 25% to the dollar sign emojis. Let’s jump into the Backyartisan rating for the Treasure Cove wooden swing set by KidKraft.
Backyartisan Rating:
3.0 Stars
Shipping & Receiving
This review isn’t really meant to give you the lowdown on all things shipping and receiving playsets. That’s why we wrote up this particular article on receiving playset shipments to help you short-circuit the problems.
Our Treasure Cove verdict: It’s hard to state just how simple this shipping process is. There really are not many parts, it should be very well protected by a pallet, and you’ll find it very simple to offload. KidKraft has done a very good job of packaging the Treasure Cove wooden swing set to make your life easier.
Trucking Company Appointments
Almost every retailer ships these large items via LTL freight. This is extremely different from your typical ground service and generally requires you to make an appointment and be at home for the delivery. Check with your retailer to make sure that you are on the same page with them about how their shipping method works, but certainly anticipate the appointment route.
Dealing with Pallets
You will likely have to deal with an 8 foot pallet after you unload the boxes and components of your playset. The Treasure Cove comes in only two boxes, but you can still expect there to be that wood pallet for the forklift that loaded it onto the truck. The trucking company may be willing to take the pallet off your hands as they have better use for a pallet than you do.
Unboxing and Taking Inventory
With only two pieces in this shipment, the Treasure Cove proves to be one of the more simple swing sets you will deal with. There’s one long box that sits on a 7.5 foot pallet, as well as the loose slide. You will likely need to cut banding and offload by hand.
Do plan on taking pictures of the total shipment, just in case you start pulling back boxes and find damaged pieces. You do not want to end up in a freight claim no man’s land.
Box Weight and Dimensions
The one box that comes with the Treasure Cove is roughly 7.5 feet long and weighs 224 pounds. The slide component is very simple at just over 30 pounds. All in all, you and one friend can easily offload this product.
Installation
As safety is the most important part of your children’s experience on the playset, you’ll want to pay particular attention to assembly and installation. Check out our article about assembling a swing set on your own and potentially consider hiring a playset installer for the job.
Our Treasure Cove verdict: We give this a 4 star rating as it is certainly easier than your average playset. In general, there are still lots of pieces, and we’ve never quite sorted through the reason all places have to be so complex for assembly.
Tools Required
To install the Treasure Cove, you’ll need a shovel, measuring tape, drive with a few standard size bits, hammer, ratchet with various standard sizes, level, Philips head screwdriver, carpenter’s square, and ladder. Most folks should have all of these lying around the house - they are very typical tools to expect to have on hand. If not, though, your local hardware store will have any bit or ratchet sizes you need.
Ease and Timeframe of Installation
The Treasure Cove is reported to take up to 14 hours for two people to assemble, according to KidKraft’s instructions. We feel like this is a little aggressive on their part, but they are trying to sell the swing set to you after all, aren’t they? We think that in general the timeframe will be more like 20 hours.
There is a lot of screwing and bolting on this playset. It does not take someone extremely handy to put it together. You can certainly do it yourself. With that said, you may decide it just isn’t worth the amount of time and effort that you’ll have to put into it as a newbie to take on the project.
Quality of Directions
We are generally big fans of this instruction manual. They go into great detail of every piece along the way, doing so in only 50 pages. They also add color in many areas, which we have always found helpful when dealing with different pieces.
KidKraft also rewrites everything in very understandable English. In general, we think that this set of instructions hits on all cylinders.
Space Needed
The overall use zone is 30.5’ by 27’, which should give your kids the 6’ necessary to run about the system without fear of getting bonked on the head. The maximum fall height is 6’ tall, which is what you’ll want to know when coming up with your ground surfacing. This playset is relatively long given it’s play elements, as the slides come off the side of the swing set.
Stability & Durability
To get the most out of this purchase, you were going to want it to last a long time. The more years you get from your playset, the more value your children get from playing on it. Ultimately, it would also be great to be able to sell it when you no longer need it. To do so, do you need a product that has some longevity.
Our Treasure Cove verdict: Yeah, this is where we spout the maxim “you get what you pay for.” Knowing that, let’s just say you should do your best to inspect and maintain this playset for a little bit of longevity. We give it 2 stars.
Joints & Hardware
Fairly standard off the shelf hardware that goes into the treasure Cove. Nothing too beefy or heavy duty about it. KidKraft dials in most of these components so as to save you money and charge a much cheaper price for the swing set.
Wood Thickness
We do like that this crossbeam is a 4x6. That is much thicker than you would come to expect given that most everything else in the playset has a 1.25 inch thickness. On the whole, I have a few concerns with the overall construction of these components. We’ve personally seen an active boy (under the weight limit) hanging from a new Treasure Cove crossbeam and experience a little more flexing than we’d like.
Plastic Thickness
The Treasure Cove ships with two thermoformed slides, but I have found that the finish on this plastic is slightly rough to the touch. Seems to be something that might slow a child down when sliding, which may be of interest to you given the age of your children. Personally, I find it to be a little strange that it looks like a sanded surface.
Wood Stain & Finish
The Treasure Cove swing set comes across like a soft burnt orange. I don’t really go into a lot of aesthetics in my reviews, but suffice it to say I’m not a huge fan of many colors that KidKraft uses.
Weight Limits
The weight limit maxes out at 110 lbs per child and 8 total simultaneous children, ages 3-10. This seems a little light, which should give you some pause. Remember, the manufacturer never wants to undersell their product AND never wants to oversell it’s safety and use capacity. This just points towards a play set that is built for a very small group of small children.
Read up on swing set weight limits here, where we talk through what you should do about these limitations of your swing set.
Ongoing Maintenance
With the Treasure Cove swing set, you’re getting a product that is not the highest end and obviously not the highest price. I think you should really pay close attention to maintaining this playset to get the most out of your purchase. Plan on regular inspection of the playset and check out this playset maintenance article for more pointers.
In general, KidKraft does not put together a playset that lasts for decades. That may not be a problem for you, depending on the age range of your children. We don’t necessarily think that is the most sustainable approach before purchasing a swingset, but it is certainly very common.
Play Elements
Here’s our section where we go into a little bit of detail around your play elements and get into the mindset of your children who will partake.
Our Treasure Cove verdict: Well, there isn’t a whole lot to this place at, so it’s hard to really dive into much that the Treasure Cove offers. It does hit the basic elements fairly well, with two slides instead of one, and three swing positions instead of two.
Ups, Downs & Acrosses
In this section, we go into getting up and down the Treasure Cove. Not much to see here, as you’ll only find one ladder up and two slides down. No clatter bridge, no extra slide, no rope ladder, etc. this is a fairly straightforward budget swing set that happens to include a second slide.
Swings
The Treasure Cove comes with two belt swings and an acrobat bar. Obviously, this is slightly better than the cheapest sets that only have belt swings.
Social Play Accessories
Besides a door for knocking, I can’t say there’s much in terms of social play here. We typically like to see some things that draw children together, and it looks like two slides for racing might be about it.
Solo Play Accessories
Most everything in the Treasure Cove is a solo play element. Climbing, sliding, and swinging are the main attractions here.
Roof & Kit Options
Some swing sets come with various roof options, but that is not the case in the treasure Cove. You get one yellow tarp that hangs over the very top of the slide to give a little extra coverage, but there aren’t really any other kits and add-ons for this playset.
Price & Value
Now we get into the section where your wallet is concerned. Here is where we will advise about the overall value of your purchase.
Our Treasure Cove verdict: Given the play elements section above along with our analysis of its longevity, I think you can see where we’re going in terms of overall value. We do feel like this playset is appropriately priced. That just means it is average at 4 stars.
Overall Value
As we’ve previously stated, the Treasure Cove price is aligned with what you should expect out of the playset. Namely, a few extra elements than budget rate swing sets, but nothing excessive. At $1,000, it is spot on.
Shipping Costs
Shipping the Treasure Cove is not free, but you should expect free shipping in most swing sets these days. In actuality, it cost the retailer upwards of $200-$300 to ship a palletized product like this. That means the shipping cost is just baked into the product price. So your swing set really should cost $700 if purchased and picked up off-line.
Be sure to check out the retailer’s return policy, as they likely do not want to foot the bill for a return shipment given that it cost a couple hundred dollars.
Installation Costs
You can expect the installation of your Treasure Cove swing set to run roughly $400-500. That’s quite a large amount compared to the overall cost of the product, but when you realize that it may take a pro up to 15 hours to assemble, you may gladly pay it.
Warranty
The warranty offered by KidKraft is pretty weak, in our opinion. It comes with a 5-year limited warranty on wood components. There are so many limitations to this warranty, that you may not really be able to collect on anything. In our experience, KidKraft will be extremely responsive in the first few months, as that is when you’re most likely to leave a review. A few years down the line, you may find the limitations pretty stringent.
All of the plastic and hardware components come with a one-year warranty, which we find to be not very useful. Most of that stuff easily lasts a year.
Backyartisan Rating:
3.0 Stars
With all of our weighted average calculations, the Treasure Cove comes out to be exactly and precisely average. We feel like this is a fitting score for the Treasure Cove. It does some things extremely well, and hits on the right price point, but we don’t expect it to last forever and believe you’ll want to work hard at taking care of it.
KidKraft Treasure Cove is designed for a small set of small children. We feel like it doesn’t over achieve, rather hits the nail on the head.
Thank you for reading up on the Treasure Cove wooden swing set by KidKraft. At the Backyartisan, we work to give you all of the information you’ll need to make an informed decision about your backyard swing set. See you next time!
