I've had this for a couple years now. My son likes it a lot. I'm not crazy about it.
- There is no way to keep the sand and water separate - I realize that's a "no duh" thing but there really is no point to having a divided table. The whole table will be soupy wet sand in no time. Even if you have a very careful child the sand and water will get mixed up when they pour sand/water through the funnels. The wet sand is a mess and it takes awhile to dry out. I just put sand in both sides and I don't intentionally add water.
- The cover is not waterproof. When it rains, the table gets an inch or so of water in it and the cover protects the rainwater from sun... so the water just sits in there. Heating up. In the dark. With dead bugs in it. There are drain plugs on the bottom of the table, but they are under the sand. If there is a lot of standing water I tip the table over to dump out the water (and a bunch of sand). Word of warning: I sewed a layer of vinyl underneath it. Don't do that, the moisture trapped between the two layers isn't a good thing. Eventually the cover blew away (I'd put it under one of the legs while the sand was drying out). Now I just keep the table in a sunny spot on the porch and it is usually dry (has some debris mixed in, but it's dry).
- The cover does not protect the table from insects. They can get in from the sides, and there is also a big hole in the center of the table (like for an umbrella).
- Don't put gravel in the table. I bought a bag of sandbox sand thinking "sand is sand". The chunks were too big to go through the funnels and the trays were a muddy mess.
- Sand in the table isn't great either. I cleaned out the gravel and bought a bag of play sand (very fine, neon colored) that works with the funnels, but it also clogs up the moving parts. The wheels on the cars don't turn, the spinners don't spin, the tippy thing is jammed.
- Rice works okay (had the table indoors for awhile), but then you can't use water.
- Water-only provides optimal performance, but then you don't have a sandbox. If you don't have a bathtub or room for a kiddy pool this table would be great for playing in the water.
My son still likes the table a lot. Compared to a regular sandbox it's smaller, and it's raised. So it can sit in the corner of a small porch, it's pretty easy to move around, you don't have to buy as much sand (I bought a couple bags, used half a bag to fill the table and so I have plenty of extra sand to replace/restore), and your kid(s) won't be sitting in a pile of sand (although they can still dump it on themselves). My son likes the funnels and cars, and moving sand from one side to the other.