Vinyl Works SLA A-Frame 48 to 56 Inch Adjustable Above Ground Swimming Pool Ladder Entry System with Slide Lock Barrier and Handrails, White

The item was delivered. At that point 5 stars. I opened the box to check the contents and first thing I notice there are absolutely no instructions. I hate to think the manufacturer wants their customer base to guess at how to put together an item that has those same customers relying on the safety and reliability of said item. Just dropped to 4 stars. Would have been 3 stars, but I'm pretty good at figuring out how some things go together and work. Then I see a part is broken off and laying in the box (too bad the instructions couldn't have laid there with the broken part. It was a part that made it possible to lock the sliding ladder up to prevent unsupervised children or unwanted gusts from accessing the pool. Fortunately that part could be put on the inside of the pool and the other locking mechanism (on the outside of the pool) was still intact. Still holding at 4 stars, just barely. Then almost immediately I learned there are NO (Zilch) packets or bags of hardware necessary to correctly and safely put the ladder together. Even though I'm good at figuring things out the fact there is no hardware drops this item to 2 stars. I know I could have run to the local hardware store and purchased the various items (only guessing at what items are required) but after spending more than $220 for a complete ladder, I refuse to be the patsy. I'm not all that interested in the instructions (which would be nice) I am EXTREMELY interested in the hardware required to build and utilize the ladder safely and properly. The broken part; could have been the ex-baggage beaters making the delivery. Instructions: possibly available online. I'm very disappointed in this purchase.UPDATE. Was immediately contacted by the seller who made every effort to rectify the issue of missing components. The ladder is a really good ladder. Yes, somewhat difficult to put together, with or without instructions. (was able to download from website) Took about 2 hours overall. It is a very stable ladder, and heavy enough to not float off in the pool. Will have to secure it to the pool though, but mostly because of the way people pull back on the rails when climbing up. Not an issue since every ladder we've had over the last 10 years has had to be secured. I did use nylon lock nuts on the assembly so there will be no issue with the nuts coming loose.

I bought this ladder for our Intex pool to replace the metal Intex ones which rust quickly. Overall I like this ladder; it seems sturdy and I like the ability to slide the ladder up for safety and security although the plastic tab was broken off and in the bottom of the box----seems packaging could be better to prevent this in the future. I did not realize what this tab was for until the ladder was already completely assembled, and of course, we had already designated the other side as the "inside pool" side . But as we do not have little children I doubt I would use a padlock regularly anyway. It would have been a major hassle to box and ship back. I believe the instructions are good with many pictures but it still took us 3 hrs. to put together because we had the handles and the lower feet turned the wrong way, and we also had trouble getting the base feet on. The height is perfect; we placed the height at 54 inches because our pool is 52 inches deep. It sways a little when getting in but not a problem, and heavy enough to not float even when the boys are romping in the pool.

This is a nice ladder. I was a bit concerned about this being all plastic at first. I was not sure that it would be very sturdy at all until the last piece bolted in. From there, it was quite sturdy but until that last sliding ladder piece went in, I was a bit worried. I like that this ladder has the ability to slide the steps up to keep the neighbors out while we aren’t home. The only thing that I wish could be improved would be that some clarification in the instructions be made about the screws and which holes be left open. It’s a little confusing and caused me to have to remove some and redo the issue. Took me an extra 15 minutes to figure out why I’d run out of screws and then had to reassemble it correctly. It’s great now. And it’s held up well to a ton of kids and my wife getting in and out of our little pool.Would definitely recommend this to anyone in need of a ladder that holds more than a 50 lb kid. The wide step is plenty big enough to sit on and each step is sturdy and stable.

I bought this ladder to replace the crappy ladder that came with my Intex pool as it is unstable and doesn't have the feature where you can remove the steps so a child can't climb into the pool without you looking. Now, I have spent the past 2-3 weeks putting things together so I know how to follow instructions (even ones that are just pictures with no words) and these were the WORST instructions by far. They were not clear at all and the pictures they included were not helpful at all. The next problem I had with this ladder were the screws. They not only just kept consistently screwing around in circles when you try to "tighten" them, but the placements of some of them made them ridiculously hard to screw the nut around. Then I finally get to the part where I just have to put the base on the step, and it doesn't even fit. The holes didn't line up, I even tried using a rubber mallet to try to gently tap it into place and that didn't work. For the price of this ladder, the instructions should be a lot clearer, the screws should actually be able to tighten and maybe even come with hardware to help put it together. I have bought cheaper things that came with the hardware to put it together. I can't rate on sturdiness or stability because I never put it together and just returned it, but from the looks of it, it didn't seem like it would be very sturdy or stable, especially considering the screws can't even tighten.