Best Trampolines in Australia

Introduction

It’s no secret that most of us in Australia love the great outdoors, including spending time in our own backyards. Trampolines have been a feature of backyard fun for years and trampolines are a great way for your family to spend time playing together whilst getting a little exercise at the same time! If you have an active family or you’d like to get the kids moving, this upcoming Christmas and summer 2021/22 holiday time is the perfect time of year to invest in a trampoline or upgrade your existing trampoline.

When it comes to choosing the best trampoline in Australia, it can be a bit of a minefield, with a large number of brands offering a wide range of trampolines for sale. With so many options, how do you approach choosing the best trampoline in Australia? This article will cover that question in depth, but the short answer is, it comes down to deciding first what ‘best’ means to you and your family and then choosing a trampoline that covers all or as many of your criteria for ‘best’ as possible.

In our quest to help you decide which is the best trampoline for your family, we’ve put together this quick trampoline buying guide that we hope allows you to weigh up the many options of trampoline brands and models for this Christmas and the exciting upcoming summer 2021/22 season, so that you and your kids can safely enjoy fun family 'trampoline time' outdoors!

Choosing the best trampolines in Australia

When deciding upon the best trampoline in Australia and the trampoline that is best for your needs, the decision criteria high up on many parent’s or grandparent’s list includes:

• Safety – how safe is the trampoline overall and what are the safety features?
• Quality and warranty – what is the build quality like, how long will this trampoline last?
• Compatibility with accessories – are game accessories included or can I add them on later?
• Budget – will this trampoline fit into the budget I have allocated?

Trampoline safety

If you ask most 20-40 year olds, they will likely recall fond memories from their childhood of bouncing and having fun on a trampoline, usually in the yard they grew up in, or at a friend’s house. If you ask someone closer to 40, they will also likely recall picking up an injury (some minor, some major) as a result of bouncing on an old-school style of rectangular trampoline with exposed springs. Thankfully those dangerous trampolining days are a thing of the past as about 10-15 years ago, new, safer trampoline designs started to make their way onto the Australian trampoline scene and safety was dramatically increased.

Undoubtedly, the most important factor when shopping for a trampoline in Australia is trampoline safety. As parents we want to avoid a trip with their kids to the emergency department due to a trampoline-incurred injury - especially if you’ve enjoyed a couple of cheeky vinos on a hot summer afternoon and can’t drive to the ED! ;).

Modern day trampoline safety features include:

Spring-less trampoline designs

Spring-less trampoline designs have been created to avoid spring-related injuries that occurred in the past, such as pinching skin and fingers or feet and toes, landing on the springs directly and many more (ouchies we all want to avoid). In addition, Spring-less trampolines provide more shock absorption and better overall bounce for the jumper.

Safety net enclosure

Providing a ring of protection to prevent children from, frankly falling or jumping off the trampoline and breaking arms and legs or hitting heads (and let’s face it, wearing a helmet on a trampoline will crush both your kid’s and your own social life)! When assessing a trampoline safety net enclosure, it’s important to make sure that the entry/exit to the net closes up well, so that the risk of falling out through the entry point to the trampoline is minimised. Look for either a zipper closure or significantly overlapping flaps. In addition, depending on the type of material that the netting is manufactured from, some safety nets can be quite abrasive, creating the potential hazard of injury from the friction caused by skin meeting the netting material (think nasty carpet burn style injury). Flexible poles to keep the netting in place are an additional safety feature that prevent impact injuries resulting from kids falling or running into the poles that hold the net up and in place.

Hidden frame and soft edge mats

A traditional old-school trampoline typically has the following design – jumping mat followed by springs on the outside of the mat which are then attached to the hard metal trampoline frame, holding the whole trampoline together. A modern hidden frame design is one where the traditional frame is hidden below the jumping mat and the jumping mat has a soft edge rather than the traditional hard mat edge (in old style trampolines the hard mat edge is largely due to the metal rods that hold the springs in place).

Sun protection

Some models of trampolines include UV protection via an overhead sunshade. For obvious reasons sun shades are a good idea in Australia, especially at the peak of summer. Sun shades are either included when purchased with the trampoline or are an accessory add-on for some brands.

These are the more common safety features of the modern-day trampoline design which has dramatically improved trampoline safety. The much-needed improvement in trampoline safety is evident just by comparing the old-style trampoline design with the new trampoline design.

Visit Springfree’s Reducing Trampoline Injury: 5 Safe Jumping Rules guide.

Trampoline quality and warranty

If you want peace of mind when investing in a trampoline, you should look for an established trampoline brand with a reputation for manufacturing quality trampolines consistently over the years they have been in business. Look around online at reviews and feedback on the brands and products and narrow your search.

A quality trampoline should last you a long time but most trampolines sit outdoors directly exposed to the elements of the Australian seasons, including baking hot sunny days in summer and cold, wet rainy days in winter. As a result even the best trampolines can start to break down after many years outdoors and to be covered you want to look for a trampoline with a long term warranty that covers the key parts of the trampoline, including the frame, the suspension parts, the mat and the netting. An absolute minimum warranty you should look for is 5 years and ideally you’d buy a trampoline with a 7-10 year+ trampoline warranty.

It may cost more to buy the best trampolines in Australia, however, by investing in the best you are buying a product that will probably last many more years than cheaper alternatives and if not, you have the peace of mind of a long term warranty.

Trampoline accessories

Trampolines today come with a range of features and accessories to delight both your little and big kids! Features such as a basketball ring and backboard, sunshade, ladder, anchor kits and moving wheels are trampoline accessories that can be added on to trampolines at the time of purchase or post-purchase.

If you’re not ready to purchase trampoline accessories at the time you purchase your trampoline but think that you might purchase accessories down the track, you should consider a trampoline brand that has been designed to have accessories added to it and a brand that sells those accessories so that you don’t run into compatibility issues later on. A number of the best trampoline brands sell trampoline and accessory bundles, often in a multitude of configurations.

Trampoline budget

Despite all of the above, like any significant household purchase, different families have different budgets when looking to buy a trampoline. Here at onsport.com.au we offer our customers a range of high quality trampolines at a range of price points to suit your budget. Check out some of the best trampoline brands in Australia below for details about models and price ranges.

Best trampoline brands in Australia

We recommend the following as the best brand of trampoline in Australia:

• Springfree
• Vuly
• Plum Play
• Lifespan

Springfree trampoline

The Springfree trampoline brand was invented over 20 years ago by a parent for parents. The founder of Springfree Trampoline, Doctor Keith Alexander, decided one day when going to purchase a trampoline for his 3 kids that the trampolines in the market 20 years ago were not safe enough for his family, so he decided to build his own. This Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand went on to design and create one of the safest trampoline structures ever made using a spring-less (hence the brand name ‘Springfree’) construction and from this first construction a modern trampoline brand was born. Springfree prides itself on building trampolines that are safe, high quality and long lasting.

In mid-December 2017, Australian Consumer Group CHOICE, who independently review products, largely from a safety and quality perspective, across a wide range of product categories in Australia, conducted a review of trampolines in Australia and concluded that the Springfree Medium Round Trampoline was the only trampoline included in the trampoline review that could be recommended. The recommendation by CHOICE was as a result of the Springfree Medium Round Trampoline holding up in full to the Australian standard for trampolines (AS 4989:2015) by passing all structural, impact and safety tests during CHOICE’s testing. Visit the CHOICE Trampoline Review online (requires a choice membership to view full details).

Springfree Trampolines are available in a number of sizes and shapes from the Springfree Compact Round Trampoline to the Springfree Medium Oval Trampoline to the Springfree Large Square Trampoline.

View the current Springfree Trampoline range online.

Vuly trampolines

Australian owned and run, Vuly trampolines designs and manufactures high quality trampolines in a variety of sizes and models to suit large and small spaces around the home. Vuly has been bringing a smile to children's faces across the country for over 10 years now and pride themselves on using strong, long-lasting materials that stand up to the elements and building in safety measures to keep even the most adventurous bouncers safe when playing.

The Vuly Flare and Vuly Ultra are the latest additions to the Vuly trampoline line up. Popular Vuly accessories include the Vuly shade cover, tent, basketball set, deck and water mister. Quality assurance testing is conducted on every trampoline model, including 2.5 million recoil tests!

Shop the entire Vuly trampoline range online at onsport.com.au today.

Plum Play trampolines

Plum Play launched their first toy 25 years ago and since then have created a large catalogue of kids outdoor equipment and play toys, including a range of Plum trampolines. Starting at 4.5 foot round and ending at 14 foot, Plum trampolines are available in a variety of sizes and shapes to suit every backyard.

Plum trampolines have a broad range of trampolines and cater to many needs, including in-ground trampolines, as well as rectangular, round and square trampolines with safety netting around the outside. A Plum trampoline model that has been popular with our customers is the Plum 7 Foot Junior Trampoline Spring Safe Blue.

Browse the complete Plum trampoline range online at onsport.com.au.

Lifespan trampolines

Lifespan Kids is an Australian brand created over 8 years ago. Retailed through us here at onsport.com.au, Lifespan sell a wide range of kids outdoor and backyard play equipment and games including Lifespan trampolines. Lifespan Kids trampolines are available in two options both spring and springless.

Lifespan trampolines are available in a variety of shapes and sizes, including round, hexagonal and rectangular and from 7 foot to a whopping 16 foot!

The Hyperjump series of Lifespan trampolines have been popular and we anticipate the latest series of Hyperjump trampolines, the Hyperjump 3 to sell well over the Christmas and summer of 2018.

Shop the full range of Lifespan trampolines online.

Conclusion

As you can see from the above there are many considerations when assessing just what is the best trampoline in Australia. There are also many manufacturers of trampolines offered for sale in Australia, including the popular trampoline brands that we sell online here in Australia: Springfree trampolines, Plum Play trampolines and Lifespan trampolines. Trampolines have come a long way in their design, especially, importantly, in relation to trampoline safety and durability.

We hope this guide has helped you to choose the best trampoline in Australia for your family. If you have any questions about the range of trampolines we offer for sale, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 1300 351 461 or via email on contact@onsport.com.au.

Thanks for reading and happy trampoline shopping! Shop the full range of trampolines online here at onsport.com.au for more.