Fisher-Price Zen Collection Cradle Swing
by Fisher-Price
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List Price: Our Price: $165.49 You Save: $54.50 (25%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $163.99 (click here) Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of Fisher-Price Zen Collection Cradle Swing
Customer Review: Great swing. Ambiguous instructions
Summary: 4 Stars
I will agree with the previous reviewer that the assembly instructions leave a bit to be desired. In particular:
1. The infant seat legs can be installed backwards (and it looks like it would take a screwdriver plus a lot of elbow grease to ease the locking "tabs" back out to separate the parts again -- I was lucky and guessed right the first time)
2. There's some white foam wrapped around the inner support bars of the seat frame that have a "do not cut" sticker on them. That does NOT mean "find some other way to remove this packing material besides cutting it off".. those styrofoam pads are supposed to STAY on the bars (as cushioning since they are right next to the baby under the seat material), so DO NOT REMOVE THEM at all. The tubes are white (i.e. don't match the rest of the swing) which makes it look as if they don't belong in the assembled product at first, so it would be easy to mistakenly rip them off in the initial frenzy of unpacking.
3. Yes, the mobile plug has 3 prongs and the socket has 4, but push firmly and everything snaps together fine. The mismatch prevents the mobile from ever coming back out. Fortunately, you can't accidentally install this part backwards. :-)
As for the swing itself, it's great! I didn't think we'd really use the removable infant-seat feature, but it comes in really handy: when kiddo has a wet diaper, I can just pick up the entire chair off the swing (with baby strapped into it), walk to the room with the changing table, and put him down while prepping the wipes and new diaper. The built-in, foldover blankets are a nice touch. The "Zen" music is just new-agey versions of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and a few classic pieces, but is still less jarring than standard baby-gear music.
Switching the swing direction from side-to-side to fore-aft direction is best done by picking up the infant seat out of the socket, rotating it, and then reseating it. It is possible to rotate the chair without picking it up, but it takes a fair amount of force and would be quite jarring to any child who was actually seated in the chair during that operation.
The swinging action is smooth and quiet. There's just the tiniest bit of sway in the frame itself with each swing because of the slight gap between the legs and the sockets in the motor housing where they snap in. It doesn't bother me (i.e. there's no accompanying rattling noise and the swing is still rock-solid), and could probably easily be remedied by shimming the gap with some paper.
The mobile doesn't move on its own. And the stripe pattern on the parasols is not reproduced on the bottom which seems a bit silly to me. (i.e. you and I see a high-contrast pattern from the top, but the baby just sees a uniform brown disc of plastic from beneath -- whose visual acuity is supposed to be stimulated here anyway?) It is nice that the mobile swings out of the way. Getting the baby in and out of the swing is a breeze.
Overall, very happy with this purchase. The design, materials and operation are solid. I withhold one star because the assembly instructions really don't cut it.
Customer Review: Originally Disappointed; It's Worth 4 Stars Now
Summary: 2 Stars
I was severely disappointed in this swing at first, but after a few fixes, it's much better. I've included my original review with updates:
1. The seat base has a strap that isn't shown in the instruction diagrams, so you don't know whether that is the front or the back of the seat base . . . until you've already attached it to the swing base and are putting the rest of it together. Then, you find out that strap goes in the back (this will make sense when you put it together - put the strap in the back). Not a big deal, except that I've already attached it to the swing base, and it turns out the huge orange Warnings are now at the front of my once-beautiful, most-expensive-on-the-market swing . . . and once you click these pieces together, IT'S PERMANENT, so I can't turn it around. I don't even know why screws are included, because even after I removed them, this sucker doesn't come apart. So I can't put the huge orange Warnings facing the back (I only need to read them once, I don't need them in my face forever). If anyone finds a remedy for this, please feel free to describe it in the comments.
UPDATE: Many thanks to the reviewer who recommended acetone nail polish to remove the print. Worked like a charm!
2. When you go to attach the toy bar, it has 4 prongs. The opening that it's supposed to go into has 3 divets. It won't go in. So there's a big hole at the top of the swing where the toy bar is supposed to go.
UPDATE: Finally got it to go in after about eight tries.
3. I pre-ordered this swing before it was released and it just arrived today. Already, I'm upset to see that the immediate post-release price is $30 less than what I paid for it. That's what we get for giving Fisher Price early sales and being their guinea pigs on finding out if the thing works??
UPDATE: Many thanks to the commenter about the Amazon refund on price difference. I contacted Amazon and they refunded me the difference.
There are some great things about it:
1. Great colors and luxurious fabric.
2. The seat rotates, so baby can swing front-back or side-to-side.
3. The seat comes off the swing, so it can also be a regular portable baby seat (it's not a bouncy though).
4. Adjustable swing speed, volume control, and choice of sounds.