Selwood Childrens Playset

Hi all

I have recently bought a playset from a company called Selwood. Now the wood used is Chinese Cedar. It comes pre stained with a light covering of a water based stain.

The stain is for colour only. The wood has not been treated for protection etc.

The owners manual says that I need to "seal" the wood once or twice a year. So the plan is to seal the seperate wooden pieces before I put the playset together, so at the moment its sat in the garage.

Now I have searched forum after forum and all the brand name products like Ronseal, Cuprinol and Thompson's water seal seem to be slated by the "professionals".

So my question is what product would you suggest I use. Ideally I am looking for a "clear" product and oil based. I do not want to alter the existing colour as it looks nice the way it is so a stain/sealer combo would not be ideal. Also I am going for oil based just because I have been told that oil based is way better than water based, is this true?

Many thanks

yes, use a clear decking oil. try a samll patch first, but much better for the wood than a stain