The aim of adding kids outdoor play equipment to your home, including monkey bars, is to create new challenges for your children. The play equipment gives your children physical challenges, that help them to build their strength and coordination. They also challenge their mind, to help them learn problem solving and use their imagination to create games with the climbing frames. The monkey bars and other play equipment will be a space they can challenge themselves, and therefore, it is absolutely crucial that the playground area is completely safe. In choosing the monkey bars to purchase for your home, the safety features of the equipment should be the first priority.

The play equipment may stay with your family for many years, throughout the childhood of multiple children. Therefore, you need the reassurance that the monkey bars are of high quality, and will always retain the level of safety that they had when you first purchased them.

Safe play goes beyond the quality of your monkey bars and outdoor play equipment. Safe play also relies on parental awareness. It is important to be aware of how your children are using the play equipment, and to have an awareness of the state of the equipment, checking if it needs any maintenance.

The team at Growplay places safe play as a top priority in all their outdoor monkey bar and kids outdoor play equipment design. The designers are parents with young children, and therefore know the importance of creating a safe space for our children. They have put together a list of safety points to consider when it comes to choosing a climbing frame. These points are integral to have, in accordance with monkey bar safety regulations in Australia.

Monkey Bar Safety Essentials
High Quality Materials

Monkey bars need to be made from high quality galvanized steel. Any other material will bend or warp quickly with use. Growplay utilizes the highest quality of steel, allowing for incredible strength, but maintaining lightness for ease of installation. 

Appropriate Thickness of Sections

In order to avoid flexing of frames, or that feeling of “wibble-wobble” frames need to be over 2.5mm thick. Growplay Monkey Bars are made with frames that are 20% thicker than other brands. This is particular important with the addition of a swing set.

Rust Protected

If monkey bars are to live in your backyard for a long time, it is important that they can endure all weather, and are resistant to rust. Rust can destroy the integrity of the climbing frame, in places that may not even be visible. This could lead to the climbing frame breaking whilst your children are play. Therefore, Growplay monkey bars are triple rust protected. Without this triple coating of galvanizing treatment, the ends of the sections will become rusty quite quickly.

Load Tested

All monkey bars need to be certified as load tested. This means that they have been tested in regards to how many children they can hold at one time, or the total weight that they can hold at once. Growplay monkey bars for kids are certified as built to hold 660kg. This means up to 11 children (at an average of 60kg each) can use the free standing monkey bars at one time.

Height Adjustable

It is important that your monkey bars are height adjustable to ensure they are within reach for children of all heights. Growplay monkey bars are height adjustable from 1.5m - 2.4m.

Safe Play Essentials

Having secured safe play equipment and play sets, such as that available at Growplay, there are a few things that parents and their children can do, to make sure that their play experience is completely safe. There are lots of resources out there for parents wanting to learn about safe play. These tips come from the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne:

• Wear rubber soled shoes on climbing frames for good grip.
• Do not use the play equipment in wet weather.
• Do not wear bike helmets on play equipment due to the risk of entrapment.
• Be aware of the safety features (as listed above) when buying play equipment and make sure that it adheres to Australian safety standards.
• Children should be within eyesight of an adult at all times while outdoors.
• Use mulch, river sand, rubber or soft grass, to create a softer landing area in case of falls from play equipment. Do not put play equipment over concrete.

More tips from Kids Safe WA, an initiative by the West Australian Government include:

• Use positive guidance to encourage children to take turns, use equipment safely and think about everyone safety.
• Encourage children to develop a set of rules they can follow.
• Play gently with no pushing or shoving.
• Look out for little children
• Remember sun safety – slip, slop, slap that sunscreen, and wear a hat
• Check the play equipment regularly before the children start playing on it.

For more information on playground safety, check out the Kid Safe website.

Play Safe with Growplay

Growplay ticks all the boxes of safety requirement of monkey bars and other outdoor play equipment, adhering to all Australian safety regulations. Plus, we back our products with a 5 year warranty to ensure long lasting quality and safety. They are also strong, easy to assemble and will last as long as your family needs them. To learn about all the options available for our safe kids climbing frames, please see our Growplay Monkey Bars webpage.