As we travel around the Midwest bringing life back to Aquatic Features, we encounter a lot of Aquatic Play Structures manufactured in the late 90s and early 2000s by a now defunct manufacturer called SCS Interactive. Most of their Aquatic Play Structures have 26″ diameter tube slides attached to them, which are made out of plastic. All of these slides have a common problem – they are made out of plastic rather than fiberglass. The plastic fades and cannot be restored or recoated, and it breaks and cannot be repaired.
Several years ago, Fischer Bros developed a retrofit slide to replace these plastic slides, either as a straightforward project or as part of a complete restoration of the Structure. The retrofit slides are made out of fiberglass, which offers several distinct advantages over the original plastic slides:
- Any color may be selected for both the interior ride surface and the exterior surface of the slides.
- Fiberglass is much, much stronger than the original plastic, and if any defects occur over time, it can be repaired.
- In ten years or more when the fiberglass has begun fading, it can be recoated, which was impossible with the original plastic slides.
- The ride is more comfortable, due to a higher standard of manufacturing accuracy with the slide joints.
- These slides are much safer. We have observed that when the original plastic slides break, it tends to happen suddenly, with a large split that develops unexpectedly. Fiberglass is inherently a better material for this application, as it has fiber reinforcement so that any potential breakage would be incremental and easy to observe and repair.
Call Andrew at 608-769-5790 to discuss whether your plastic slide is a candidate to be replaced with the fiberglass retrofit we have developed!