4M Water Rocket Kit

Brand: 4M
Manufacturer: Toysmith
Model: 4605
EAN: 0793631314973
Category: #6531 in Toy (Science Kits & Toys)
List Price: $24.99
Price: $19.49  (127 customer reviews)
You Save: $5.50 (22%)
Dimension: 4.00 x 8.50 x 11.50 inches
Shipping Wt: 0.55 pounds. FREE Shipping (Details)
Availability: In Stock
Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
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Product Description

Blast off into the heavens with the 4M Water Rocket Kit. The 4M Water Rocket Kit uses the power of water pressure to blast its rocket up to 90 feet in the air. The kit contains all the parts required to transform a recycled soda bottle into a functioning water rocket. This kit is ideal for young science enthusiasts, especially those interested in rocketry and space flight. Detailed instructions for use and care are included. Adult supervision recommended. This kit requires the use of a bicycle pump (not included).

Features

  • Pump not included.
  • Kit contains 1 plastic bottle, 4 fins (One for spare), 1 fin support, 1 bung, 1 bung connector, 1 pump connector, 1 extension plastic pipe and detailed instruction.
  • Recommended for children ages 14+
  • Construct your own rocket
  • See how the rocket flies, Blasts over 30 feet
  • Mechanics kits are innovative, inspiring and full of action
  • Kit includes all required parts and instructions
  • Educational kit that demonstrates a science principle

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Top Reviews

Best toy of the summer and a great way to make friends
by tk_in_sea (4 out of 5 stars)
September 2, 2013

My son wanted a "rocket set" for his 5th birthday, but couldn't really explain what he meant, so research led me to this. I've got a few cautions about it and I'll get to those, but there's plenty of great stuff about this toy.
1) We can consistently launch this rocket about 4 stories high. It makes a great rocket sound and takes off like, well, a rocket. It's a blast, a huge performer. You know how you worry that things won't be as cool in practice as advertized? This is way cooler! Very exciting every time.
2) Scientific method. We've been forming hypothesizes about whether more or less water would make it go higher and then discussing how to measure and what environmental factors (wind) might impact the results. Got the brain working while we're having fun.
3) I can't imagine a toy being better at helping to make new friends. Every time we launch it up at our play ground, all of the kids and some of the parents get involved, ask questions, want to have a turn. We form launch teams, recovery teams, fueling teams, etc. Our boy has met some kids this way who are in his Kindergarten class that starts this week. He'll start school with a few friends in his class because of this toy. Can't really ask for more than that in a toy!

Now a few tweaks and warnings:

I am a road cyclist. Road bikes have smaller valve stems than regular bikes and things like wheelbarrows and cars. So, I happen to have pumps for both standards, but assumed that this was designed for the standard bike pump valve. The valve that comes with the rocket is too small to get a seal with the standard pump, but we get a better one with my road bike pump (Presta valve). The rocket launches by building up pressure from the pump and the water, so this is pretty important.

With the presta pump, some air still leaks out. I have one kid hold the joint when we launch, but we still loose a little air that way. It's working for us, but this could be better implemented. I may work to modify ours at some point. I'm sure even with a standard pump, you could get this to work, but it might take some tweaking.

All in all and amazing fun, safe and sneakly educational toy that has brought kids together and formed new friendships...all for $20. Can't beat it.
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We emptied the playground!
by Jacob J (5 out of 5 stars)
July 1, 2017

Great fun my son loves it. When the kids saw it on the soccer field the playground emptied out and all the kids came to watch and launch the rocket.
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A Little Science, A Bunch of Fun
by Trent Doubledown (5 out of 5 stars)
June 30, 2017

I bought this to use with my 3 year old and she loves it. Very easy to put together and she had a blast every time it launched.

It comes with the bottle, screw for the bottle, the fins, 2 adapters for the bike pump, the tubing, and the plug for the bottle. After a quick setup and a little water, we were good to go. You just put a little water in the bottle, plug the end, then pump the bicycle pump about 3-5 times. We used a pump that you can put both feet on while you are pumping. The launch requires 30-40psi depending on how much water you put in it. Once you get the right pressure, it launches and uses the water as its propulsion. Just like the box says, it does launch about 30 meters high (90+ feet).

The instructions also included a couple paragraphs explaining the science behind the kit (action v reaction). I thought this was pretty neat. It never hurts to learn something while having fun.

We had asphalt and concrete nearby so the bottle and fins did get scratched when they landed on either one of those. Otherwise, I think you can get hours and hours of fun from just the one bottle without it wearing out. We will probably be testing out some different bottles to see if there is much of a difference in the launch or flight. I'm also thinking the bottle needs some tape for weight at the top so the fins don't hit the ground first.

I was worried it would use a bunch of water and the fun wouldn't last long. However, we filled up a gallon jug and that was good for about a dozen launches or more.

Overall, I would highly recommend this product. Yes, you can probably make it yourself, but for a ready-made kit, this is well worth the cost. The kit is meant for kids 8+, but it is definitely a fun thing for younger than that if there is proper supervision. Unfortunately, my 3 year old could only pump a few times before the pressure was too high, but I don't see older kids having any trouble with it.
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It's a blast
by Amazonian Anderson (4 out of 5 stars)
May 7, 2014

This thing is pretty awesome for what it is. (A pop bottle with a few plastic thingers.) I imagine you could make it yourself easy enough, but for the price it's not worth the hassle of spending an hour at Lowe's figuring out what fits together. For extra velocity, we tapped the bung in the bunghole (ha ha) with a hammer. Check out the video.
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Simple construction that actually works
by TL (5 out of 5 stars)
June 3, 2019

I liked how the KISS principle was utilized to construct the water rocket. I was once a judge at a high school science fair where there was a water rocket competition, and had the opportunity to inspect many unique pressurization and release ideas, but this has to be the simplest method yet. A single hole stopper (plug), provides a means to seal the bottle and to pressurize it through the stopper hole. When the pressure is great enough to expel the stopper the water is blasted out of the bottle and it launches. No O-rings, washers, release paws, pull chords etc. As a result, my 7 year old grandson, can fill the bottle, put the stopper in place, stand the rocket on it's tail fins, pump pressure into it with a tire pump, watch it fly, and do it again and again all by himself while I supervise for safety reasons. The more firmly the stopper is inserted into the bottle neck the greater is the pressure required to expel the stopper, and this greater pressure propels the bottle rocket higher. We have achieved flight times of greater than 10 seconds, and heights well over the advertised 90 ft when his father pressed the stopper in as much as he could. As for my grandson he is very happy even though when he does it , it only flies to about 50 feet. This is a great science toy for learning. I posed the question " How high would the rocket go if we did not put water in it ?", My grandson promptly said " it will go higher because without the water it is lighter". When the rocket launched all that happened was loud pop, and the rocket went up about 12 feet. This sparked a conversation about how a rocket works. But it also introduced him to the scientific method . The net result was that we all had a great time. Money well spent. Would recommend .
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A simple blast
by Chewie (5 out of 5 stars)
August 3, 2019

This was a fun highlight for my daughter's birthday party. It's simple to assemble and get going. That being said, be sure that when you have small kids around make sure they don't stand too close and are all paying attention.

You don't really need a full bike pump for this. I was able to use a small portable basketball pump (e.g. Spalding 12" Dual Action Pump). If you have the stopper sealed tightly, you may need to do about 4-6 full pumps with the Spalding pump to get it to finally launch. That being said, if you are using a hand pump, make sure that while pumping it won't pull the bottom of the rocket and knock the rocket over. So if you are having kids do the pumping, I recommend that the parent holds the pump itself in place while the kid pushes the pump handle so there's no chance it will tug on the tubing and knock the rocket over.

I've seen this thing shoot up to what must have been at least 70' (maybe even 100'). When it depletes its fuel (water), it will come back down relatively quickly without a parachute, but it's as light as an empty 2-liter bottle of soda would be, so it's even fun to try to run and catch it.

When launching, it's best to be in an open field (especially if it's windy) so that the bottle doesn't get stuck in a tree or go over a fence into the neighbor's house, etc. We've launched in an open parking lot before, too, but be careful since the area where the plastic fins attach may eventually break if it lands on a parking lot too may times.
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very high (aprox around 300-600 ft on our best launches) and really
by dora santos (5 out of 5 stars)
December 30, 2014

This water rocket is by far one of the coolest (age appropriate) boy's toys i have seen in a long time. My 8yr old son absolutely loves it and should provide entertainment value to him (and of course myself!) for many years to come! costs nothing to run and maintain as you're only using replenishable items; works with most standard size bottle threads, a little water, and some elbow grease to pump the bicycle tire pump.
***Warning***

this rocket will fly very, very high (aprox around 300-600 ft on our best launches) and really, really fast if done right!.. so be careful to launch with adequate space as not to land on a neighbors house or car (did both of those in the first 4 launches lol). the rocket was literally barely a spec in the sky and was airborne for nearly 10-20 seconds before returning to the ground. figure out the right proportion of water to air for the bottle and snug the plug up tight for a high launch, add more water to the ratio or loosen the seal at the plug to keep closer to the ground at launch.

kit includes all necessary components, except for bicycle pump, to work out of the box. also includes 1 extra fin in case of damage, although in my opinion you risk losing the whole bottle and fin attachment assembly before breaking a fin. i would have much more preferred a whole extra bottle attachment/fin assembly (esp since they are a cost effective mass produced item), tho the absence of one just means you have to be more careful of wind and surroundings as not to lose the rocket. kit uses a very standard 1/8" hose and barb system available at any local home improvement store if you wanted to extend the hose to create more distance between you and the rocket when launching, prob max 10-12' distance with the items out of the box

at under $20, which you can barely buy a decent lego set for that price, i would highly recommend this product to any child over 7 that has a solid interest in rockets, science, physics, or just being a typical adventurous boy!

five stars solid
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Great experiment, great height, great fun.
by Dan (5 out of 5 stars)
June 28, 2015

I bought this kit after my 6 year old daughter and I built rockets/cars powered by diet Coke and Mentos. The kit includes the air tube, the rubber stopper, the fins and ring to connect them, and a plastic bottle. Many people complain that a rare pump is needed. I agree it was odd that the manufacturer used that type of valve, but luckily for me I have a bike pump that has different attachments. The hose is long enough that you will not get wet during the launch. Upon filling the bottle to the suggested marker (there are three lines on the bottle that can be used to launch the rocket to different heights), I started pumping air into the bottle. Within five to seven pumps the rocket took off, and cleared the height of my four story apartment building easily. The trajectory, assuming you launch it from a flat surface, tends to be straight up and almost straight down. The instructions recommend you avoid places with trees, cars, and powerless, I highly recommend following this as a launch we did that wasn't on a flat surfaced nearly missed a power line on the way back down. As mentioned above, there are different line markings on the bottle. We used these markings to get test the difference of air-to-water ratio in relation to how high the rocket launched (finding the amount of water that produces the best result). I will say this was educational, as I was able to discuss with my daughter pressure, propulsion (at a very basic level), and part of the concept of equilibrium...this is what happens when daddy is a nerd. In addition, we took our Knex car that we built and used with our diet Coke rocket, and it propelled the car a fair amount of distance. Lastly, it does work with any plastic bottle that has the same opening as the supplied bottle. We used 1-liter and 2-liter bottles as well and they worked.
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Excellent Introductory Kit for Rocketry
by Alain (5 out of 5 stars)
March 25, 2019

Fist off, you must level set your expectations with this kit. This will not orbit the earth but will hit about 50 to 80 Feet. The kit is a perfect intro into rocketry that is safe and fun for younger kids. We used it with a 3 and 4 year old.

This is easy to set up and launch. It took us 3 minutes from unboxing to launch, and launch it did. The only note i have is to make sure to insert the plug as tightly as you can with out crushing the bottle and start pumping.

We loved it so much we plan to buy more to give as gifts.
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Lots of Fun, Educational, Incredible Value
by Dean D. (5 out of 5 stars)
January 9, 2016

This toy was the star of Christmas morning. I bought my kids video games, books, and some science-related toys (such as this), and when Christmas came they abandoned their screen time to play outside with this rocket (in other words: mission accomplished!). With no wind, we were able to get away with launching it from our sidewalk. If there is mild to moderate wind, you will need more space to launch and retrieve it.

It didn't take long for my boys to start experimenting with the water-to-air ratio to try to get a higher-flying rocket. Every time they tried something new I would say "what's your hypothesis?" and they would tell me what they thought was going to happen and we would compare it to what actually happened afterwards. The fun from this thing is infectious and pretty soon neighbors were walking over to see what was going on and cheered when the kids launched it. I took slow-motion videos (I attached images from one of the videos) and we watched them to see what was happening in detail. My kids will launch this thing as many times as I will let them (eventually I have to corral them back inside to wash hands and eat dinner...).
"Assembly" took about 60 seconds and I was slightly worried about bike pump compatibility after reading a few reviews that mentioned having issues, but, it comes with both Presta and Schrader adapters so no matter what pump you have, you should be covered. They might have modified the kit after reading negative reviews about only including Presta. I might have to buy a new bike pump actually because for the time being my kids have completely hijacked mine.

Bottom line: this thing is great fun. My kids have gotten hours of enjoyment out of it and show no signs of slowing down. We have shown cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and everybody loves it. For the price, you really can't go wrong.

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