Written by Terry Smith

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Best Kids See-Saws Reviewed

This article was last updated on August 7th, 2021 at 3:54 am

With new restrictions being placed upon us due to the covid-19 outbreak, we are going to be spending more and more time at home.  If you have young children, you’ll already know that they’ll become restless if they don’t get to spend some time playing outside, and at the moment the only place they can safely do that is at home, in the garden.

So, how can you turn your garden into a place your children want to play in for longer than 5 minutes at a time? Well, if you can’t take them to the park, why not bring the park to them, by installing a garden swing, slide, or that classic, playground icon: the see-saw?

You don’t even have to step outside to go and buy one, you can simply read our reviews of the best kid’s see-saws available online, and then click the links we have provided for you. How easy is that?

Table of Contents

We have reviewed see-saws for a variety of ages, from toddlers to older kids, and have tried to find products that offer the customer good value and peace of mind. So, without further delay, here are the best kid’s see-saws available at the moment.

 

Comparison table: Best Kids See-Saws Reviewed

ProductWhat We ThinkPrice

Dantoy 3 Persons Rocker and Seesaw

  • SPURS IMAGINATION – The themed characters help children to use their imagination for endless games...
  • HOURS OF FUN – Designed for up to 3 persons
  • SAFE and DURABLE – Strong and safe plastics are used to make sure this product is made to last...
  • PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT – Staying active whilst playing means your children strengthen leg and core muscles and improves their balance...
  • MADE IN DENMARK – Designers and manufacturers of high quality toys in Denmark for more than 5 decades...

Hedstrom SeeSaw

  • Chunky blow moulded seats
  • Robust steel powder coated frame
  • Assembled size: H60 x L194 centimetre
  • Orange and blue rotating seesaw
  • Fully rotates through 360deg

Hedstrom Roundabout Seesaw

  • Adjustable length bar
  • Blow moulded chunky style ergonomic seats
  • Shaped handlebars for added safety
  • Robust powder-coated frame
  • Assembled size L194cm x H60cm

TP Spiro Spin Seesaw

  • The fast spin, soft bounce seesaw that delivers 360 degrees of spinning fun...
  • Pneumatic soft impact wheels cushion the bounce
  • Ergonomically designed saddle seats for a really comfy ride
  • Develops balance and co-ordination skills
  • Stable base design, supplied with ground stakes

Little Tikes Whale Teeter Totter

  • LITTLE TIKES CLASSIC SEESAW
  • EXTREMELY SAFE - Features easy-grip handles
  • IMAGINATIVE & HANDS-ON PLAY
  • ROBUST CONSTRUCTION - Durable build will last for years to come
  • SEATS 1, 2, OR 3 CHILDREN

Gym Dandy Teeter-Totter Home Seesaw

  • COLORFUL DESIGN – Brightly colored powder coated finish with padded grip handles to prevent calluses even after hours of...
  • BUMP ABSORBER – Reinforced with a bump-absorber mechanism that allows for comfortable play by reducing impacts...
  • "HIGH-QUALITY MATERIALS – This playground is made with premium-quality steel and the finest plastic...
  • SAFE & ERGONOMIC DESIGN – This fun and pleasurable play set is designed with a single fulcrum for a...
  • COMFORTABLE SEAT PAD – Gym Dandy provides elongated soft cushioned seats for users...

For children between the ages of 3 and 6 years old, you can’t go wrong with the TP Spiro spin seesaw. Not only does it go up and down like a regular seesaw, but also rotates around the central axis, adding new dimensions of fun.

The TP Spiro features large pneumatic wheels that are fitted beneath the seats of the seesaw, and these serve a number of purposes. Firstly, they help to absorb the impact of the seesaw bouncing, secondly, this force is then used to bounce that side back up, and finally, the wheels help to turn the seesaw around. I thought this was a great idea, and it really does work and adds to the fun your kids will have on the seesaw.

These wheels come deflated, but there is a pump in the box with an attachment in the handle for you to pump them up. I did find the wheels a little bit fiddly to attach due to the screws being quite short, but I soon got the hang of it, and the whole seesaw took around an hour to assemble.

In addition to the pneumatic wheels, this kid’s seesaw also features large, high profile handlebars. I really liked these as they allow for the children to sit comfortably while adding an extra element of safety. The handlebars have soft grips on them so your kids will be able to get a good grip even when wearing gloves in chillier weather.

In the centre of the seesaw are three swirl shaped legs that act as the base, and once they are anchored down, they are actually very stable.

The blue, powder coated, steel frame feels very solid, as do the plastic seats which have been designed to be ergonomic to provide comfort.

With a modern design and feel, this kid’s seesaw is one of our favourites for children aged 3-6. The makers of the seesaw claim that kids up to the age of 8 can use it but I think that would only be the case for quite small eight-year olds. For smaller children though, this thing is so much fun, and I highly recommend it.

Dantoy’s 3 person rocker seesaw is a great choice for toddlers, with its smiling crocodile design, and compact size of 106.7cm x 40.6cm. The seats of the seesaw are ridged for safety to stop sliding, and also look like the child is sitting on the crocodile’s nose, which of course they love.

What’s clever about this kid’s seesaw is that it can be used by only one child and they can still rock it back and forth if they sit in the middle seat, of which there are three. If their friends come to play, then there is enough space for all three of them to sit on the see saw together and have some good, social skill building, fun.

This versatility is something I liked about Dantoy’s product, as some children might not have access to play with other kids, and this seesaw still allows them to enjoy the experience.

The 3 persons rocker and seesaw is solidly built out of high quality, moulded plastic, and gives no reason to worry about pieces breaking off, even with three toddlers climbing all over it at the same time.

I did see a bit of a problem when it was used on a hard surface such as a patio though, as there was some sliding around of the toy. On grass, or on carpet, it is perfectly fine and very stable.

Priced at just under 25 pounds, this is a good buy if your child is still very young, as they will get a good few years’ play out of it. This toy is solidly built from a Danish toy company with a good reputation, and is built to last.

When looking at the product page for this kid’s seesaw on Amazon, I saw that the recommended age was 3-10 years. Let me just start by saying that there’s no way a 10 year old could play on this seesaw, so don’t be misled by that.

That’s not to say that this is a bad product, because it isn’t. In fact, it’s a pretty good one, only the age range I would realistically give it would be between 3 and 6, maybe 7 at a push.
If your children are between 3 and 7, they will no doubt love playing on the Hedstrom seesaw. It features comfortable plastic seats, and large padded handles to hold on to while bunching up and down.

This is another spinning seesaw, that can rotate 360 degrees, and it is possible for your kids to pick up enough speed to make it really fun without being dangerous. However, if someone is helping to push the seats around, it can start to wobble if it goes too fast, so it’s best to avoid this.

The seesaw looks really nice, with a dark blue, powder coated, steel frame and orange seats playing off each other well to create an eye catching colour scheme. The steel used feels strong too, and I doubt your kids will be able to cause damage to the structure of the seesaw, even with rough play.

Assembling the seesaw was fairly simple and straightforward, and once completed, the toy stood 60cm high and was 194cm long.

One thing I wasn’t that taken by, was the metal rods with rubber stopper under the seats. I thought they could have been made a bit shorter than they were, or even been replaced with pneumatic wheels like the excellent TP Spiro model instead.

There should also be something to anchor the seesaw down, if you ask me. It is fairly stable, especially with smaller kids playing on it, but when older kids get it moving quickly, it feels like it should be anchored. Saying that, it would be easy to buy some metal pegs and pin the base down yourself, so perhaps I’m being a little harsh. At the end of the day, this is a decent product for the price.

This is another cracking product for your young ones, being very similar in design to the Dantoy crocodile rocker seesaw we reviewed earlier. The whale themed teeter totter comes to us from the Little Tikes company, who are a trusted brand, and have been making quality kids toys for many years. This experience shows in the overall quality of this kid’s seesaw, which feels incredibly robust and makes me think it will last for years to come.

Just like the crocodile seesaw, the Little Tikes Whale seesaw can be operated by just one child alone, or can be played on by up to three children at the same time, as long as they don’t weigh more than 23kg each.

This kids seesaw is lightweight at around 4 kilograms, and very easy to get rocking back and forth, yet will never topple thanks to a very wide base. The handles on this product are also a step up from the ones found on the Dantoy crocodile, and these, along with the wide footrests, raise the bar on safety a little in comparison. 

I would say this is an ideal kid’s seesaw for children between 1 and 5 years old, but not older than that unless they were always playing on it alone. There is no assembly required with this product, which is definitely good for the parents, and this also means that there are no small parts that could be a danger to small children.

If you’ve got more than two children and you don’t want to hear them fighting over whose turn it is to play on the new seesaw, this product from Hedstrom might be right up your street.

Unlike most seesaws, this one features 4 seats set in a cross pattern, fixed to a central axis that allows the seesaw to both bounce up and down and rotate through 360 degrees.
Although made from the same powder coated steel as the other seesaw we reviewed by the same company, this four seater model seems more stable for some reason, although I would still anchor the base legs down to be safe, as you can pick up some speed with practice on this.

The plastic seats and handlebars are the same design, colour and materials used for Hedstrom’s two seater seesaw, and thus they are good quality, and solid, like the rest of the product.

Unfortunately, it also shares the metal rods under the seats which I really don’t like, but that’s just my opinion, and it wouldn’t be too hard to remove, shorten, or modify them I suppose.

Assembly was easier than I thought it was going to be, however I did notice one of the pilot holes for the screws didn’t quite line up and I was forced to drill another one, rather than have things misaligned. This could just have been a one off though, and wasn’t too badly misaligned, so I won’t judge too harshly.

Once fully built, this seesaw measures 194cm long, so make sure you’ve got enough room to house this in your garden, and don’t forget that it needs that amount of space in every direction as it spins.

This model can take 4 children that weigh up to 45 kilograms each, but I wouldn’t like to take it up to the maximum. I would say this is an excellent seesaw for kids aged between 3 and 7.

Children always love it when you can engage with them during playtime, but with most kid’s seesaws that just is not possible due to weight and size restrictions. Can you imagine trying to climb on the crocodile seesaw we reviewed with your toddler? Not a good idea. If you don’t mind paying a bit more for your kid’s seesaw, you can actually buy a product that allows for people of all ages to play on it. Namely, the Gym Dandy home seesaw.

Thanks to some top-quality materials being used, such as the premium quality steel frame, this seesaw can take up to 300 pounds in weight. Now that’s a strong kid’s toy. What’s more, the seats are not the usual plastic ones you find on most products, but large, padded, fabric ones that are very comfortable to sit on. You will have to remember to cover the seats with plastic or similar when it rains though or they’ll get soaked.

Beneath the seats there is a bump absorber, that thankfully isn’t too long and doesn’t stop you from having fun. Large and strong handlebars are situated in front of the seats, and these have soft material on the ends for a better grip, and also to stop your hands from getting cold. Even though this is a very strong kid’s seesaw, it isn’t very large and will only take up 218.44 x 86.36 x 85.09 cm of space in your garden. It is comparatively heavy at 17.24 kilograms though. Still, this extra weight just adds to the excellent stability of the product.

Easy to set up, great fun to play with, and very strong and stable. If you don’t mind spending the extra for your kid’s seesaw, this one comes highly recommended.

Kids Seesaws Buyer’s Guide

Here we take a look at the factors you should be considering before parting ways with your money for a kid’s seesaw.

Price

Because the vast majority of kid’s seesaws have an age and weight limit, their use is limited and your child will eventually outgrow it. With this in mind, you should think about how much you want to pay based on how many years you think you’ll get out of it. That being said, please don’t scrimp and go for the cheapest product available, as most of these have questionable build quality and safety.

Size

You need to be aware of how big the seesaw will be when fully assembled, and make sure that you have enough space in your garden to house it. I would never recommend placing a seesaw on a hard area like a patio, so ideally, you need enough space on your lawn for the seesaw, or be ready to put jigsaw mats down or something similar for safety reasons. 

Seesaws have age ranges, but in advertising I find that the maximum age is often exaggerated, so you should cut off a couple of years from this. For example, a kid’s seesaw that is said to be good for children aged 3 to 10, is probably going to be better for 3 to 8 year-olds, in reality.

Maximum weight

Often, with seesaws that are built for children older than toddlers, there will be a maximum weight. Now, what you have to check is that if that maximum weight is per child, or overall, as that will make quite a difference to who can safely play on the seesaw. For example, the four seater seesaw we reviewed earlier is advertised at 45kg per person limit, whereas the Gym Dandy seesaw says it can hold a maximum of 300 pounds overall.

Stability and safety

Read up on the feedback from customers to see what they say about the stability of the seesaw when under operation. Some products come with pegs to anchor the product down, while others don’t, but I would always recommend anchoring down any seesaw (apart from plastic teeter totter models) just for safety’s sake.

Other safety features to look out for are good sized handlebars with grips, and nice footpegs when dealing with seesaws for toddlers.


About Terry Smith

I’m Terry Smith from gardentoolbox.co.uk, a professional landscape designer, hobbyist gardener, and barbecue fanatic with 20 years experience building and restoring. So as you go through my site you'll watch me document some of the professional garden installs I make as well as the major projects I take on at home. While sharing those experiences and guiding you, I'll be recommending some great tools I use to enable this along the way so you can really buy in confidence. Always feel free to pop me a message: info@gardentoolbox.co.uk

View all posts by Terry Smith