Summer Infant Newborn-To-Toddler Bath Center & Shower
by Summer Infant, Inc.
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List Price: Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of Summer Infant Newborn-To-Toddler Bath Center & Shower
Customer Review: A word from the manufacturer
Summary: 5 Stars
From the manufacturer...Thanks for buying the Summer Infant Toddler Tub with Shower. Please know that we appreciate your purchase. So that you can get the most out of your tub, we have addressed a few of the issues noted below. Should you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at 1-800-268-6237.
1. The sling was designed to fit in a non-divided kitchen sink, as only a non-divided sink provides the room required to bathe your baby at the most comfortable angle. If you do not have a non-divided sink, you can use the sling in either the tub provided or in a standard sized tub.
2. We recommend a 20 lb. limit for the sling. Heavier babies should be transitioned to the larger plastic tub. Should your sling show signs of unusual strain, please double-check the weight of your child or feel free to contact us if you feel it is not an issue of weight.
3. Babies have no strength to support themselves, so naturally they might tend to slide down when inclined. If you find your baby is sliding down the sling, you can roll up a hand towel and place it under their legs for additional support. This is a great trick in any plastic tub!
4. If your little one needs more room in the tub, the shower unit can stand on its own outside of the tub and will work just fine.
5. In later versions of the tub we have addressed the force of the shower spray. The unit has been redesigned for a spray that is stronger, yet still gentle on baby - which is important so as not to startle them. If you purchased this product before November of 2004 and the spray stops working, you need to lower the shower handle below the water supply to reactivate the siphon effect. Once this has been done you can use it as normal.
6. If you are having trouble with the position of the spray button, you can actually flip it around, grasp the end of it and use your thumb instead.
We hope you find these hints to be helpful! Summer stands behind all of its products, so give us a call if you have any questions or comments - as both the pros and the cons only help to make our products even better!
Customer Review: Great Tub, minus the infant sling
Summary: 4 Stars
We initially bought this bath tub because we wanted a tub that we could use on our bathroom counter, not in our kitchen sink. When my husband broke the battery operated shower base (he tried to put the batteries in the wrong end...just a minor mistake), we decided to upgrade to the Spa shower by the same manufacturer. The spa shower did not meet our needs; although the tub is about the same size, the shower base does not fit inside the tub,it is outside the tub instead, causing it to be about 8" wider. Because the spa shower did not fit on our counter space, we returned it and kept our broken Toddler Bath & Shower Center.
We've been very happy with this purchase. The tub is easy to manage with one hand (and baby in other). We have opted not to use the shower spray; while a nice idea, the flow is to slow to remove the soap from our baby, and a large cup of water does the trick just fine. Beside that, when the shower spray is in the tub, our 6-week old is just too long to fit nicely. Our baby prefers to be able to stretch out in the tub and the shower spray just got in her way. We actually leave the drain hole open and position it directly above the sink, so that we have continuous draining of water. This works great so that baby is not sitting in soapy water when you're trying to rinse the soap off of them.
The only major negative comment I have is that the infant "sling" material is of poor quality. We've only used our sling for about 4 weeks now, and the material is already ripping off of the frame. Our baby is only 7 lbs, so I can't imagine what a larger baby would do to the material. The concern is that if you're not paying attention to the degradation, the material could rip and your baby could drop into the tub. Not a very far drop, but would still be a concern.
Despite the infant sling issue, I would still highly recommend this bath tub.
Customer Review: Useless shower, useful tub, manufacturer response barely adequate
Summary: 2 Stars
The biggest disapointment has been the shower. My 5 month old daughter has always enjoyed it, and it has been fun for dad too.
The tub and sling are adequate. The sling is tearing at one corner after 5 months of moderate use. It has never been used outside of the tub.
Shower Unit Defects:
* Extraordinarily awkward shape, ergonomically ignorant. It is difficult to grasp the spray head, and keep the switch depressed. Women with pregnancy induced carpal tunnel syndrome will want to avoid this shower. Some sort of trigger design would have been better.
* Two of the screws for the battery compartment in the lid are poorly located. They are too close to the pump shaft and are difficult to twist even with short, thin-grip screwdrivers. Right-angled phillips work better.
* The shower switch fails after a limited number of uses. I've had this combination for 5 months and have just received my third shower unit. Both of the previous units failed under 20 uses. There were scorch marks inside the green plastic switch housing in the spray handle, and on the black switch casing at the soldering points.
Summer Infant promptly replaced both previous units at no cost. Customer service stated that the product has been redesigned to address the defect. I have seen no evidence of that. All three shower lids are externally identical. The visible wiring is identical. The two failed switches appear identical, there are no visible part numbers.
The water containing base has been changed so that it no longer hooks over the end of the tub, and the temperature strip has the words "cold" "ideal" and "hot" inside the relevant bands.
The shower idea has great promise, the design and execution are a failure and not worth your money. The tub and sling have been useful and appear to be comfortable for my child.
Customer Review: This isn't a bad product, but it's not great, either...
Summary: 3 Stars
I was shocked when I read the other reviews and saw all the problems everyone else is having with this tub. I really haven't had any problems with the tub. The shower feature works fine, and my baby, who HATES baths, settles right down when I spray her all over with the gentle spray. One time I thought the shower was broken because I pushed the button and it only dripped water, but then I found that the hose had a kink in it, and once I fixed that, it worked fine again.Here are the things I like about the tub:
1) Gentle shower spray soothes baby
2) Sling keeps baby at a good angle and makes it easy for me to sit her up to wash her hair and back
3) Can take the shower out of the tub to make more room for growing baby
4) Shower is a great source of clean water to rinse baby, which is nicer than using the tub water and a washcloth only to rinse, especially if your baby is like mine and pees in the tub from time to time!
What I don't like about the tub:
1) Sling doesn't fit in my kitchen sink, which the directions suggest you do to bathe a newborn.
2) The tub is too short--I had to take the shower out when my baby was only 5 weeks old to make room for her legs.
3) Water temperature gage on the side of the shower is too hard to read
4) The biggest pain is in order to replace the batteries in the shower unit, you have to unscrew about a dozen very small screws to get to the batteries. But I guess this is a necessary evil so that the batteries stay dry--but it's still a big pain to change out the batteries.
All in all, this tub gets the job done. I'm not disappointed that I bought it. I have not experienced any malfunctions with the product yet, and I've used it quite a few times. I think the biggest advantage of the tub is the shower, which makes it super easy to rinse baby and wash baby's hair.
Customer Review: A great IDEA, but...
Summary: 3 Stars
I was so excited about this bathtub. A shower? FANTASTIC!! It is a nice tub and works well with my newborn but I find that it is not as comforable to use as I had hoped.
Mechanically everything works smoothly (so long as there are no kinks in the hose). The sling is great and it has a temp strip so you always know if the water is right. The shower works great and the baby, who doesn't care much for baths, is soothed by it. Sounds great, huh? However...
I have a few complaints with the tub. The material of the shower hose is not very flexible. Because it is not flexible, the hose easily kinked and created a permanent crease, thus it re-kinks quite often. I also find that the button to control water flow is placed in a way that makes the nozzle uncomfortable to hold. The basin which holds the water for the shower sets in the end of the tub near the feet. My baby is only 1 month old and already it is crowded in that zone. There really isn't enough room within the tub to accomodate both the infant and the basin (Not a HUGE problem, just set the basin ouside of the tub... this would probably lessen the frequency of kinks... however, this is where the thermostat was placed!! Poor planning!).
All in all, I am satisfied with this product and it was WELL worth the cost, just slightly more than a plain old tub. I just think there are some very simple changes that could make this tub PERFECT. Moving the thermostat to the side of the tub is simple and making the hose out of a more durable material would easily make this tub a 5 star product.
Despite the mediocre rating, I WOULD reccommend this to others.