The Intex Rainbow Ring is a toddler play center rather than a swimming pool: a small inflatable slide, a ring-toss game, a ball-toss game and a rainbow sprayer that arches over the water, with two pools holding 46 and 54 gallons. Bob Vila tested it with toddlers, named it the best baby play center, and found children 3 and under enjoyed it most. Expect to spend a while inflating its many separate chambers, and bring your own air pump.
Full review
A play center built around games, not swimming
Bob Vila's tester set the Rainbow Ring up for a group of toddlers and named it the best baby play center in its tested roundup. The draw is the activity list: a small inflatable water slide, a ring-toss game with four inflatable rings, a ball-toss game with six plastic balls, and a rainbow sprayer that arches over the pool once a garden hose is connected.
Bob Vila reports that children 3 and under seemed to enjoy it most, although a 4-year-old in the test group also had fun, especially with the ball toss. Three to four children can play in it at one time.
Sprayer and slide in practice
The youngest testers did not love getting sprayed in the face on the way down the slide. Bob Vila found the fix was simple: turning down the water flow from the connected hose lowered the spray.
Setup takes patience
Bob Vila called the play center simple to set up, but filling its numerous individual air chambers took a while, and because no air pump comes in the box the testers used their own small pump. The wading pool holds 46 gallons and the main pool 54 gallons, and the whole unit spreads to 117 by 76 inches, so it needs a clear patch of lawn.
Strengths
- +Built-in water slide, rainbow sprayer, ring-toss and ball-toss games, per Bob Vila
- +Sprayer strength can be lowered by turning down the garden-hose flow, which Bob Vila found fixed the spray-in-the-face complaint
- +Room for three or four children at once, per Bob Vila
- +Includes a repair patch
Watch-outs
- −Many individual air chambers make inflation slow, and no pump is included, per Bob Vila
- −Too small for older kids; Bob Vila found it suits children 3 and under best
How it compares
Its two pools hold 46 and 54 gallons per Bob Vila, several times the Intex Sunset Glow's 15 gallons but far below the Intex Easy Set 10ft's 1,018 gallons, and it adds a slide, sprayer and toss games that neither of those has. Like the Intex Swim Center Round Family Lounge Pool, it ships without an air pump.
Rating sources
Our 4.5 score is the average of these published ratings. Ratings marked * were derived from the reviewer’s written analysis or video transcript — the publisher didn’t print an explicit numeric score, so we inferred one from their own words. Click through to verify. More about methodology.
