Southwest YMCA

As a single dad this is the perfect place to take my son for swimming, and a little finish up with the play area. He's six, but started taking swim lessons at three. He's a little fish now. Doesn't need floaties though if he gets near dad he like suction cups to me. During open swim some of the parents simply drop their kids off while they go work out I assume. The life guards tend to be younger maybe high school so not super assertive. Sometimes you get rough play, but not often. They have two slides one for little kids, and one for larger. Great place for lessons!I go with a friend when my son's in school to workout. I feel the gym to be very clean, and properly maintained. Polite members and staff. Hot tub is great!Thankful for the facility!

Overall this is an okay gym. It has a nice swimming pool with decent open swim hours and a weight room that has just enough machines and weights to give you a good workout. It is not too much of any one thing. It is clearly not a gym for hard core weight lifters nor is it a daycare center. There are just two downsides to this particular YMCA. First and most annoying is the fact that there is a big black fellow there that will call people out and yell across the entire weight room at others. It is quite annoying and if there was another gym near by I would go there and avoid this one. In fact, shortly after I bought a membership I was in the weight room working out and had just gotten done using the hip sled and he comes over and yells at me to take "all dem weights off dare" and I was not done and he says these girls "gots to do some workin' out". It wasn't really the fact that he TOLD me what to do, but more about the incredibly rude and over the top nature of how he barked at me like he was in charge of me or something. I think maybe he might have some type of mental disability because any place other would have surely fired someone who treats customers like this. So, if you can deal with a loud obnoxious large fellow yelling from time to time and a weight room that rarely has a working air conditioner then this place is great. And the slide on the pool is fun too.

Worst gym experience I've had in a long time. Was visiting town so called asking if they had kettle bells; they responded saying they had a whole set. So wanting to get a good KB workout in, I go pay my $10 daily pass fee and go find their THREE kettle bells, up to 30 lbs... I immediately go back to the counter wanting a refund so I could go to a real gym(literally less than a minute) oh we can't give you a refund but we can give you a daily pass for later. After much frustration I try to workout there and started doing some cleans. After a couple drops of the bar(which were bumper weights and on a pad) the manager come over and asks not to drop the weights because they'll break. If you're really looking for a gym to lift and get a good workout, do not go to the SW YMCA in Topeka!!!

Great, clean facility. Everything you expect from a Y. One problem is the sound level in the gym. Has got to be over legal decibel limits. Need sound dampening tiles.

Clean, newer facility, great staff, child care while working out, swimming year round... Only thing that prevents 5 stars for me is they don't offer towels to guests - so if you're swimming or sweat a lot, bring your own! Also, bathrooms by swimming pool could use an upgrade.

They have a really nice and kind of cool looking building. The Weights and machines are in good shape, and the temperature is nice and cool, perfect for a workout. It would probably get 5 stars if that was all, but if you use the locker room it's like walking into an oven. I've gone there for about 6 or 7 years, and now they suddenly can't work their temperature controls. Quite a few people I knew from there have stopped coming, and at one person told me they switched gyms because of that. Then there's the thing with weather. We live in Kansas, so we get snow sometimes. If we had a bad ice storm or a blizzard piling up 8 inches of snow in a couple of hours, I could see maybe closing early, but last year they closed when there was less than an inch of snow. Now we have about an inch and a half. The streets have been plowed. But they closed at 3:00 in the afternoon yesterday and are closed all day today, on a Saturday no less. There are all of these footprints in the light covering of snow where people have gone up to the doors to read the signs they posted. A couple of other cars pulled up as I was walking back and I told them that the Y was closed. One guy yelled back, "WTF for"? I just said, "Wimps, I guess". A good manager would have waited until the next day to see how things were before depriving their members of 2 days of workouts. They are badly managed and there are far fewer people coming than a few months ago. I hate to see them go under, but they seem oblivious to their members comments.

On multiple occasions a certain employee (African American male about 6feet & on the bigger side) has harassed me & my group every time we go but specifically attacks me. I think he could be racist because we are Asian & it doesn't seem like he has a problem with anyone else. He always try's to cause some kind of problem. Just today I borrowed the air pump to pump the ball, the needle was slightly bent about a half inch from it's factory made so I carefully pumped my ball & returned it to another employee while another employee witnessed it. returning it in the state it was given to me to use. When I started heading towards the exit with my group he says "hey, you come here. Why'd you return it to me like this." & the pump needle was bent about 80degrees. He tried to accuse me of breaking their pump & he yelled at me to get out after I said don't try to blame it on me. While that happened the other employee that witnessed when I returned it (Caucasian female) didn't speak up and say anything! Totally outrageous & unprofessional. I will cancel my membership asap & never come back to this location or maybe any other ymca. It seems like corporate doesn't keep their employees in check. Today was the last time I will tolerate that kind of behavior & I have been harassed for months!