Customer Reviews

Elenco Electronics Elenco Electronics Discovery Planet Rock Tumbler

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

My son is very into rocks. We had a rock tumbler that was wearing out and leaked, etc so I replaced it with one that looked exactly like this. It was bought from Hobby Lobby sold under BK Scientific. My son was very excited to finish his batch of rocks that we had started with the old tumbler when we had problems with it. This tumbler ran for about 6 hours when it started having difficulty. I worked with it over a few days but could not get it to work. It takes about 3-4 weeks to finish a batch of rocks. I emailed the company as directed in the package twice. It has taken 2 months and 28 days to get a reply that told me to read the trouble shooting directions. I think that the fun potential and learning potential of this toy is great but it wouldn't work and the company didn't care.

I purchased this rock polisher for my son for christmas. He was so excited. I had read other reviews so was expecting this to be noisy and take time. What I was not prepared for was that this product does not work. I used all the premeasured stones, I even decreased the amount of stones and it would work for about 10 minutes then shut off. I got it on sale and would have cost me almost as much to mail it back for the return as I paid for it. Do not waste your money. Buy a more expensive product with proven track record. Terrible disappointment for my 8 year old! Luckily, I had a friend at work that had an old polisher her kids no longer used. The one she gave us worked great.

I really like this product. I bought this product from Toys 'R' Us and it says that it is for a child 8 and older. My daughter loves it and is very excited to get the rocks once finished. The reason for the low marks are because it takes up to three and a half weeks to get the finished product which is not very fun, but I am sure that once the rocks are done she will have lots of fun. The other mark is because we are on our first batch of rocks so I do not know how durable it is. The product is easy to use and works as advertised. There is some adult supervision required if you have a child of 8 because of the polishing powder.

My 6 year old son loves learning about rocks and even did his science project on rocks. He has wanted this rock polisher for about 6 months and he finally received it as a gift. We are extremely disappointed with the not only the product but the complete lack of response from their customer service department. First of all, the instructions are quite vague, mostly in terms of how your rocks should be after each stage and the instructions state to check the rocks daily but don't really say what you should be checking them for - and daily for 3-4 weeks is a lot of checking! Secondly, the darn tumbler doesn't even turn on. I finally figured out that the lid doesn't clamp down tight enough so we wrapped about 8 rubberbands around the tumbler and this would keep it running, but what a pain to take them all off each day to check the rocks. Thirdly, the instructions specifically say to contact customer service with any problems and not to go back to the place of purchase. Well, we have emailed them and have never received a response. So, there you have it. Don't waste your $40 - $50 on this product.

My son got this as a Christmas gift.

At first I was very disappointed. We loaded it up with rocks and turned it on but the sprocket would not get enough grip to turn the tumbler. Tried more and less rocks to no avail. Tried a fat rubber band on the center and it worked for a while until the band snapped.

Then it hit me.

The black band around the tumbler is installed inside out.
Just slide it off, flip it the other way, and slide it back on. It has teeth but from the factory they put the teeth on the inside of the band.

Once the band is flipped, it works great. The teeth on the black band grip the teeth on the sprocket and it will run just fine.

The rocks came out very smooth on the first stage of polish.
The second stage polished them enough that we didn't even bother to do the 3rd and 4th stage yet.

My son was very happy at how his "jewels" came out.

I hope this helps all the disappointed customers.

We purchased this tumbler as a christmas gift to tumble stones we acquired "gem mining" in the NC Mtns.

First, advice: to keep the belts from slipping I used a bit of baking soda around the outside of the plastic barrel, which keeps it running smoothly. Without this, it was sticking a lot and the belt would come out of its track. Having figured this out, I was excited to see some final results, but nothing good to say there. While it seemed to go through the first few weeks of course and fine grit with decent results and improvements, we NEVER got to a final product that is shiny and nice. They are dull. Only obsidian type rocks (glass like to begin with) look nice. I tried double washing, extending the final polish, lighter loads, etc. to no avail. 3 full month long polishes and no nice rocks.

I would NOT recommend this product at all. I'm looking for an upgrade!

My daughter received this for Christmas and we've started on the first batch of rocks. I've read the other reviews and wanted to leave my own comments.
First, I agree that the istructions do not say how much grit to use or what to check for when checking the rocks nor how to dispose of the used grit. I found an extremely helpful website that answers these questions and more: [...]
Second, we discovered by chance that the clear plastic dome must be on for the tumbler to work--instructions say nothing about this.
Finally, ours sounds like the black rubber band that circles the barrel is rubbing against the inside of the well where it sits. We're getting bits of shaved rubber and after a couple hours it comes to a halt. I discovered that the sockets where the ends of the barrel rest are removable. I pulled out one and shimmed it up with some bits of paper. Now it has stopped squeaking. I'll find out if it solves the problem as we complete this two-day stage of the tumbling, but so far so good.

I got this for my wife's birthday so she could do projects with the grandkids. 9 day's into the first batch, it started leaking. So, it's basically ruined! She followed the instuctions exactly & even used half of the recommended weight of the rocks. No response from the company to replace the tumbler.
Don't waste your money! If you want a toy you can look at, this is it!

This was a most successful toy, bought for a six-year old grandaughter. Tumbling the rocks takes a long time: weeks rather than hours or days, helping to encourage patience and analytical observation.

I am adding my disappointment about this product to the growing list at this site. I followed the instructions very carefully, as this was the first tumbler we were attempting to use. The barrel is made of such cheap and thin plastic that it quickly wears away at the seams. The barrel started leaking, and the mixture of water and grit that spilled out made a huge mess. Moreover, the barrel failed on our first batch of stones! We did not even get to polish a single set of rocks.