Step2 Naturally Playful Summertime Play Center

We bought this when my son was 18 months, he's almost 6 now. It is a great product that he got a lot of use out of when he was smaller. After a couple of years of stomping on the lid it began to not keep the water out, and that's pretty much when we stopped using it.

Here's the pros:

> HUGE sandbox partwill hold a lot of sand and a lot of little kids. 2 older kids would still fit just fine.

> Very durable (except for the umbrella). We just replaced it with a standard beach umbrella. However, keep the kiddos and dogs from traipsing all over the lid or it might stop keeping it dry after a couple of years like ours did.

> Table is a great size.

> Sold it after 4 years of use at a yard sale and got $35 for it. These things will last forever just about.

Cons:

> If you put it in the grass you are in for a real pain in the rear keeping the grass from under it. We live in the south, and have a LOT of spiders. LOT of spiders. The black widow is a particularly bad problem on our property, and the underside of this picnic table is a perfect condo for them. Add the grass there and it is a nightmare. The weed whacker won't fit underneath, so you have to trim the grass under the table and seat with scissors or gardening shears. Spiders,and my hands do not make a happy combination. It got to be a real pain, so we just stopped using the table part because it was always full of sand and dirt anyway.

> The sandbox did start to collect water after a couple of years. It got really really nasty as the water has no way to drain out. Even after drilling a few holes in the plastic to allow water to escape it was not much better.Keep a good watch on how your lid is fitting. If I had contacted Step 2 at the first sign of trouble they might have been able to help me.

> If you don't have the umbrella in the hole, kids are going to fill it with sand. THere is a stopper in there that prevents the umbrella from going down too far (or at least there was in my model) which also prevents the sand from going through. Now you have a problem with not being able to use your umbrella.

Hope this helps!

This was the best outdoor purchase we've made. Our 16 month old LOVES this, and it definitely fits up to 4 kids at a time. The picnic table is a great feature, although it's mostly used for pouring sand onto. I bought a small broom to sweep it off and leave in the sandbox.Umbrella feature is fantastic as well. To keep it on during those windy days, I purchased some clear flexible tubing from plumbing dept, and cut the tube and placed it around the umbrella tube, right where it sits against the top of the table :)Works perfect to keep it in place.

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We've had this sandbox for 2 years and it's still going strong.Our kids (6 and 3) love it, but there are 2 major problems with it that have led us to get rid of it.

1. There is a large interior space underneath the area that contains the sand.Yesterday we found THREE BLACK WIDOW spiders nesting in it.I was very distressed to find out that my kids have been playing within inches of the spiders. Black widows are common where we live and apparently serious bites are rare, but this was just too close for comfort. You could eliminate the danger by frequent cleaning to eliminate any webs, but the design makes that hard because you would have to empty a couple of hundred pounds of sand and turn the thing upside down (which might also irritate the spiders) to properly clean all of the crevices.Spider experts (I consulted an online spider expert forum) recommend a thorough clean each week to remove webs and I don't see how I could easily do that with the way it's designed.

2. Even though it has a lid, it still does get water inside it and it will make the sand nasty after a while.There are directions on E-How for sanitizing a sandbox, and I did clean it out, but if the lid locked somehow it would be better.I usually lean a deck chair against it when we get a storm so that the lid doesn't blow off.

So, the thing is on it's way to the dumpster.I'm sad because my kids love it and we have had a lot of use out of it, but I just don't feel like it's safe where we live (Tennessee).

If you live in an area where spiders are not a problem, go ahead and buy it, but if you are at all concerned about spiders, stay clear!!!

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My daughter loves the sandbox.The connected table works perfectly for serving "tea" or just sitting on for snack.We had no problems with assembly or durability.I would recommend this sandbox set over any others.

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This was a perfect toy for my baby. It is big and can fit multiple kids, the picnic table is so cute and the umbrella included is good quality and large enough to cover bench and table and party the sandox. I highly recommend this sandbox. The only thing is the lid is just a lid it isnt very secure, on a windy day it may blow off. but that hasnt happened yet.

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