Fuel Cell X7 Hydrogen Powered Car Kit

by Thames & Kosmos

Product Features

• The Fuel Cell X7 edition is designed to be accessible to more users, both in terms of content and price. The manual focuses more on building and designing a fuel cell car.
• The kit has been optimized for simplicity and ease of use over thorough experimentation.
• The full-color, 16-page manual contains easy, step-by-step instructions for assembling and using the car, as well as scientific explanations.
• Assemble a working fuel cell car, discover how fuel cells work, use a unique reversible fuel cell, learn about the potential alternative energies for automobiles, learn about fuel cell car design

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4 x 14.6 x 11.5 inches ; 2.1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B001NNVVJC
• Manufacturer recommended age: 10 years and up
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #262,311 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Product Description

Build a Fuel Cell Car that Runs off of Water!The newest fuel cell car kit from Thames & Kosmos, designed for younger ages (10 and up) than the Original Solar Fuel Cell Car Kit.With this kit you can build a car that runs off of water. Learn how electricity can be used to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. Then use the stored gases to power the experimental car. This kit is not solar powered but is a great introduction to fuel cell technology.Fuel cells are a promising energy technology for the future. 16 page manual contains complete step-by-step instructions and an explanation of how it works and some history.This kit is a great way of demonstrating how electrolysis of water can be used to store electricity. The kit uses batteries to provide the electricity needed to activate electrolysis. During electrolysis water is separated into hydrogen and oxygen, which are stored as gases in small built-in compartments. Then switch the wires to run in fuel cell mode, and the gases are fed into the fuel cell creating electric power to run the car motor.Includes:Complete reversible fuel cell, Wire, Motor, Chassis, Axle, Gas collector, 4 Wheels, Tube, Battery holder, Protective goggles, Labels, Bag of small parts for fuel cell, Bag of small electronic parts, Experiment Manual. Not included, but required: 1 quart of distilled water, 2 AA batteries, philips screwdriver, scissors

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A tad disappointing..., January 9, 2009

By 

Heidi the Homeschool Mom (Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews

= Durability:1.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Fuel Cell X7 Hydrogen Powered Car Kit (Toy)

I purchased this for our 14 year old son. I thought it might be a really neat project for him, and I was able to get it 50% off online (not by Amazon this time).

The total project time took probably about 40 minutes for him to put together and "use". He gets frustrated easily, and doesn't always read the directions well after his frustration level increases, but he says the instructions to put the parts together before assembling the car were very poor. He also said the wheels were really junky. However, he did get the stickers put on, and assembled the vehicle. After watching it "work" for about a minute, it became completely boring. He and some of the other children thought it might be entertaining to chase the dog with it, but alas, it only has one very slow speed, so that wasn't fun, either. Besides, it is not durable material at all, so why break it?

Possibly we could pawn it off on somebody else for a 5-10 minute project. We laughed that it provided goggles, too, but I guess they had lawyers encourage that. The goggles were sized for a small child, even though the instructions stated that a child "as young as ten" could try this.

Inside the booklet that came with it was an explanation of how Fuel Cell cars will help the future energy issues. I would say that it was moderately educational, but I'd have rather read that elsewhere and saved my $54.50.

In all honesty, we probably shouldn't have purchased it because we have not always been happy with the Thames-Kosmos kits. I thought it looked more durable in the pictures, and I assumed at the retail price that it must have been more educational and entertaining. Now it will sit on a shelf before we debate letting one of our now-younger children "grow into it"--or before we just throw it away.