Estes Hydrogen Fuel Rocket

It appears to be an older model but all the parts are there and much lower price than new.

I tried to make this rocket work 3 times, in vain. I rebuilt the rocket 3 times, to no avail. This was frustrating for me as well as my son, whose gift it was.Michel Denarie

I believe I understood the directions well enough. New batteries, fill level, mixing of the fuel, o-rings, wait for tone..... but we tried over and over for a launch and got none! Quite a disappoinment to a 6 year old and definitely to a 38 year old as well. Will give it another try but not sure what I could have missed. Maybe rockets are best left to NASA.

generator didn't work

Excellent hydrogen rocket! Need to assy some parts, {easy}.Superb learning tool for a real world fuel. Needs Citric acid(Healthfood store or chemical supply or Estes)[5M x better than Bush's plan....think here now....]Friend and I both have one for 2x the fun.[OK Arnold S.- I want my H2-O2 fueling station and my Terminator too now, not in 2010-ref Hydrogen Highway Plan for Calif. .....where are all the other states?(49 others?) Are their brains working? How many more American dollars need to go to the Middle East and other countries for Oil when we can be smarter, not just richer?]

I purchased one of these despite the negative reviews because it looked like fun. Its very well built for what it is. Well design, with strong plastic. Easy to assemble and ready for blast off. But I rushed and got the IGNITION COIL wet while saturating the fuel chamber with water. Be warned. BE VERY CAREFUL not to wet the ignition coil or you'll be out of luck until it completely dries (much longer than the 15 estes says it will take). THey should have included a funnel and tube for fueling. That aside, this is a great toy. After 3 failed launches, I blew off the coil with compressed air and hit it with a hair drier. Next launch WHOOSH. Went at least ten stories. After than six more perfect launches before we quit for the day. THis is a well made item, just make sure you don't wet the ignition coil! Go slowly!

NOTE: this is for a similar system that has only one rocket in the kit and one LED; maybe called the "1876"? Looks like the same thing...I got one of these for Fathers Day, and had several unsuccessful launch attempts. If I'd written this last week, it would have gotten 1 star. But with the following caveats, it defied gravity 5 times today, although the first was only a 6 inch liftoff that left everyone rolling on the ground.1) The orange battery caps seem to pop off their threads, sending the batteries sliding out. Fixed this with nylon cable ties (shouldn't have to do this- bad design!)2) When screwing the tanklike thing onto the base, you have to turn it hard UNTIL IT STOPS. You have to turn it past the first detent that feels like the end; there is another! If you don't turn it to the FINAL "click" detent, it will run the LED, give you a launch beep, but there won't be any H2 to ignite :( Of course now I see that others have noted this here also... oops.3) When making H2, bubbles will appear nearly constantly. When not working (in my case because of item #2, you may still get occasional bubbles as the pad gets wet, but don't get your hopes up until you see a nearly constant stream...Now that it works, I like it! Still working on better range; I'd guess I got 60-70 feet today, but I don't think there was enough fluid in it...

My son absolutely LOVES this thing, but the battery life leaves a LOT to be desired.It uses a set of 6 D-cells, which need to be alkaline types due to the high current drain (I measured about 4A while generating the hydrogen, and 5-6A to heat the ignitor coil). Using a fresh set of cells, figure on getting 12-15 launches before the batteries start to go flat, and when they do, misfires become the rule rather than the exception. At ~$8 for a set of batteries, this thing can easily cost as much or more per launch than the standard model rockets, but only achieves a fraction of the altitude.I ended up modifying the launcher to run from an external 12 volt battery (motorcycle battery), and it will now run all day without draining the wallet. Estes should offer a rechargeable battery pack or 12V cigarette lighter cord as an option.The other problem is the igniter system. It uses a nichrome wire coil that gets heated to ignite the hydrogen. If the launcher gets moved, liquid can splash onto the coil and prevent ignition until the coil gets heated a few times, or dried manually with a q-tip.