Top 10 bounce House Safety Tips: Edmonton Bounce Houses

Hi everyone. This is Yanick from The Big Bounce Theory and today we’re gonna talk about the 10 best bounce house safety tips. Here’s a quote before we start: never follow anyone else’s path. Unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost and you see a path, then by all means follow that path. It’s always great to have fun on a bounce castle, but you have to put safety first. That’s why today we’re gonna talk about the 10 best bounce house safety tips. So number one, never slide down face first. There are many reasons why you don’t want to slide down face first. I would say the main reason though is because when you go down the slide, there’s usually a wall at the end of it. And if it’s a dry slide especially it’s not as far away as a water site would be and therefore you can easily break your neck going down this slide. And this is not something that you want at any events. And there’s also, the other reason is because you’re just gonna burn your face. Once you hit you, you once, once you hit the bottom, you’re gonna get face first onto the vinyl and then this is really gonna burn your chin, your nose, cheeks and everything and it’s not fun at all. 

Never Climb a Bounce House

Tip number two, never climb on the outside walls. Why? That sounds fun, right? Yeah. Well, it’s very dangerous because you can fall on either side of the bounce castle, 50% chance you’re gonna fall on something that’s inflated, but 50% of chances that you’re gonna fall on the ground and it hurts. It does. I know that I’ve seen it and it’s really not fun to see. And of course it’s, it’s a party pooper for everyone. You know, I never see someone enjoying falling down on hard ground. And also it can, it can be at pretty high heights, which can be dangerous. And you know, it can break your neck, it can break a leg, it can break anything. It’s very, very simple to break something on your body ’cause it’s so soft, right? The second reason why we don’t want you to do this is because our equipment, we take care of it. And we don’t want any damages to be done to the inflatables. They’re not made to be sitting on the sidewalls as attracting. It is, it is not made for that. It is not a seat for you to supervise your friend going up or down the slide. It’s not made for that at all. It’s just a safety so that you don’t fall out of the bounce castle. So please don’t use it as a seat or as a pillow to sit there or whatnot. Tip number three, never go in with shoes on. Why? Right? Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking too. Well, there’s many reasons for this. First of all, it’s ’cause you can easily damage a bounce castle. You wouldn’t know that, but there could be a little rock stuck under your shoe and as you jump, it’s just gonna poke a hole in it and that easily, it can literally create a, a rip about a foot long, just little, little needle that goes in and you jump right on the right spot. It’s gonna open the hole inflatable up and you, you can literally fall into the unit and break a leg, break an ankle, whatever it is. It’s very dangerous. And also, if it does rain and you have shoes on, it’s so slippery. 

No Shoes in the Bounce House

First of all, we don’t want shoes in there if it rains, but if there were to have any water in it for some reason, and you have shoes on, it becomes a slip and slide. And this is the, the last thing that you want to do is break an ankle, break your foot, you know, or even again, break your neck. ’cause You can fall, backward, fall weirdly. And that’s it, that’s done right? It can be that easy and also it just creates a lot of dirt in the inflatables for no reason, but it’s always most recommended to bounce either in socks or naked feet. It’s just, that’s the best way to do it. And also for us, it’s the easiest way to clean it because, you know, it’s just normal wear and tear if you want. So it’s, you pass them up in there, you know, some products and then you’re good to go. But with shoes, you can have dirt, you can have sand, you can have rock, you can have so many things going on with shoes and it’s just, it’s not what we want. So tip number four, make sure it’s always staked to the ground. This is on us. If you see that error inflatables have no stakes on, you should let us know as soon as possible because this is a pretty major safety issue. If there’s any wind gusts coming, this can be very, very tragic in an instant. And this is not what we’re looking for. We look at having, you know, our staff doing the work that they’re supposed to do. And if they’re not doing it, we need to be made aware as soon as possible so we can fix this issue and make sure that everybody is safe in the bounce castle at all times. Even if it’s a super nice sunny day and there’s no way at all, you never know what could happen and what could go wrong just as much as going up the slide. But if you have six or seven kids at the top of the slide and for some reason they think it’s fun to try and tip the bounce castle, well there you go. You can have a pretty big tragedy happening right there. And they can get stuck in the castle. They can injure themselves. This is really not a good idea. So if you ever see inflatables with no stakes on, please give us a call at (780) 993-7569.

All Bounce Houses Need To Be Staked to the Ground

More happy than coming back and making sure that everything is safe to operate. Tip number five, take down, if it’s too windy, this is a very important, crucial step in making sure that every kid and adult is safe at an event. If the wind is too strong, you must take down, you must stop the blower, open all zippers and all tubes and make sure that it goes down very fast because the wind does not excuse itself and it will blow away. And this will create a tragedy because it basically becomes an air balloon and it can go far. I’ve actually seen one of my units blow away about 250 feet and luckily there was a big row of trees that were about a hundred feet high and the castle was stuck about halfway into the trees there because the customer, and it was fully staked down as well. We had all the stakes. The stakes were basically like that l shape because they were all bent. So even with stakes on, that’s how you know that, you know, y Bond’s castle is not safe in this kind of temperature, so you must take down as soon as possible I guess. Luckily we were able to take it down because there was a roof of trees there, so we just had to shake the tree a little bit and it ended up falling. And of course this unit was damaged and you know, it, it’s just, it’s not something that you want to get to when you go pick up a bounce castle. It’s just a very big safety issue and it’s just not fun. And also, why would you keep playing in a bounce castle if it’s super windy? Usually if it’s windy, there’s usually a storm coming in as well. So you wanna be prepared for that, not just the bounce castle, but any tents that you might have there, chairs, tables, anything that could be flying away. You want to remove those from the outside area to make sure that when the storm does come in, it is safe for everyone. 

Never Exceed the Bounce House Weight Limit

Tip number six, never exceed the weight limit. This is very important to remember that all bounce castles’ maximum weight limit is 500 pounds and it must be respected very, very well because if you don’t, the bounce castle can literally blow up. Think of a balloon. If you jump on a balloon, obviously you’re too heavy for a balloon, right? So it’s gonna blow up. It’s the same thing that will happen with a bounce castle except it’s on a larger scale. It’s like a giant balloon that explodes. It’s very dangerous because you don’t know from where this balloon will explode from, therefore bounce castle technology ensures that the air can escape the unit. If there’s too much weight on the unit at the same time, that’s when it just can’t release enough air at the same time like all at once. And that’s what causes the unit to blow up. This has actually happened twice to us for some event that we were not supervising at. So backyard rentals and we came back and luckily the FLA ball had blown up from the back side of the unit, but it’s still very scary. It could have blown right in the middle of the bouncing area and that could literally send a kid flying out like the, you know, there’s lots of pressure because otherwise it would’ve blown up, right? So you really want to make sure that you always keep it at under 500 pound weight limit. And some of our units also have a 300 pound weight limit. So make sure that you keep an eye on this at the time of booking. We mentioned this very clearly on our website for every single unit for what’s the weight limit. So please be cautious of this at time of booking. 

Do Not Use Bounce House in the Rain

Tip number seven, never use it in the rain. There are many reasons why the main one though is it is super slippery and it’s very dangerous. A slide, that’s okay if it’s a water slide, you’re sliding down, you’re not bouncing on it. But the bouncing area, it’s very slippery. It’s imagine if you’re in a school and then they up the floor and they put that little stand there saying slippery four, right? It’s just as slippery as that. So it’s like if you bounce on something that’s uneven, but it’s just as slippery as that. It’s so dangerous. You’re gonna break an ankle, you can easily break your neck. There’s just so many things that can go wrong. It’s very, very not good to jump while there’s rain. Light rain could be okay if it’s a hot day because it will dry within seconds of hitting the bounce house. But if it gets a bit heavier rain, which is very massive. The reason number two is because their units, they’re obviously made like I spoke in the tip number six is that the air can escape the unit, right? So that the air can go out and everything. And that’s the same concept with the rain. If it, the air can escape, the rain can go in. So if you leave a bounce castle open in heavy rain or just any kind of rain, the water will eventually get inside of the inflatable and that will basically flood the unit. And that’s somewhere that you and I can’t access. It’s impossible to get there, right? It’s the air that’s there and that’s it. And it’s made for that reason. So if the rain gets there, any kind of water gets there, the unit can wait up to 5,000 pounds. If you leave it there for a long, long enough amount of time and if you know it rained a lot, this thing will have to stay there for weeks until the water can evaporate. Because there’s not, there’s not five ways to do it. It’s literally you just leave it up, keep it blown up, all the water evaporates over time. But also what can result from that is mold. And again, you can’t access the inside of the inflatables. So if there’s mold that starts in the unit, this unit is dangerous for not just kids, but everyone that’s around the bouncy castle, right? So we want to avoid this at all costs. So that’s why when it rains, we want the unit to be folded in half all the time, no exception: in half.

Bounce House Protocols for When it Rains

And the bottom of the unit is okay if it’s in the rain, ’cause this is sealed, it’s properly sealed, the floor of the unit is sealed. But anything that’s inside of the unit, this is not sealed, it’s made for the air to escape. So you wanna make sure you fold in, in half like a sandwich, make sure everything is tucked in, you don’t see anything from the inside. And then when the rain stops you can just put the blower right back on, keep enjoying and still dry. So tip number eight, always have parental supervision on site. This is very important, especially if it’s a backyard party. You think that your kids are safe because they’re in your backyard and they’re having fun while you’re having a drink with your friends inside the house. But that’s usually when the most injuries happen. Why?

Supervise Bounce Houses at All Times

Because kids think that they’re invincible and they’re gonna start doing crazy stuff while parents don’t watch them. So you always wanna have at least one adult that can keep an eye on them and make sure that they’re playing safe and they’re still having fun. Another reason as well is if there’s any change in the weather. If you’re not keeping an eye on your kids or you know outside and you’re just hanging out with your friends inside, you won’t be able to know if there’s a, you know, wind gust that comes in or even some rain that’s coming in a thunderstorm, anything like this. So that’s why you want to stay close to the bounce castle at all times. Wanna make sure that it’s safe for everyone to enjoy it as much as it’s safe for everyone to enjoy any activities that are all outdoor at your event. For any large event such as a public event, corporate events and such, we always ask the client at the time of booking if they have planned supervision. And we’re one of the only companies in Edmonton that offers a large amount of staff supervision for all of our inflatables. Like this year we just did an event with 40 staff on site and the client literally told us that they came with us because we were able to have that many staff to supervise inflatables. So it’s a big headache that clients don’t have to deal with and I think that that’s what makes people happy with it. And we, for us, it’s easy for us to basically have 40 staff on site. Because we always have events with lots of staff, it’s very easy and we can be sure that they’re gonna be on site because we know that they’re punctual otherwise we wouldn’t keep them in their company.

Never Use Water on a Dry Slide

Tip number nine, never use water on a dry slide. There’s multiple reasons for this. The, or the main one, I will mention two of them, but the main one is because the dry side doesn’t have a long enough landing pad at the end that you can slow down with hit without hitting the bumper at the end. So if you put wet, if you put water on the unit and you actually use it as a water site when it should be a dry site, you’re gonna hit the bumper so hard that it can cause a lot of damages to your, to your own body, but you can also get right past it and just jump right in the air and fall on the ground. Which again, you can break a lot of bones that way. So this is very, very not recommended, well not recommended it’s actually prohibited to do this because it’s, it is not made for that. It’s made to be slid on dry and it must remain dry. And the second reason we mentioned this earlier is because the dry slides are not made to have water. So that means that the seals are not heated seals, they’re just normal seals, which the water can get, get, can infiltrate into the unit and it can flood the unit over time. And that, you know, because a lot of damage such as extra weight is unable to move the unit at the end of your event. So it could, could sit down on your grass for two weeks and burn your whole grass. It’s just that simple, right? It’s just not made to be wet, please don’t use it. Wet tip number 10. The final tip is always book a unit that is for the recommended age and not older, younger. A lot of people come back to us and ask us if this is the right age group.

Contact The Big Bounce Theory for Your Inflatable Rentals

And we always have to clarify because if you book something that’s too big for someone too young, they just, they may not even be able to get to the top of the slide or they may not even be able to get through the obstacles or, you know, the bouncing area and whatnot. So you want to make sure that when you book a unit, you know the age group that it is made for, where most of our small obstacles of course usually recommend an age group from about five up to adult age. And we also have some of our smaller units, the smaller combos, which can be from one up to 5, 6, 7 years old. Please just keep an eye on the website when you book. Look for those descriptions and tips on our website. It’s there for that. Make good use of it. And so that way we can make sure that you enjoy your event, you’re happy with what you book. And we hope to see you next year. Thank you for watching everyone. This is Yannick from The Big Bounce Theory and we’ll see you next time.