1980's hand held water rocket

[rstaff3]

I'm sure everyone has at least seen these things as they were made when I was a kid and exist to this day (although from what I see the new ones are really poorly made). I found a couple that my kids had. I seem to remember the launchers gave out, so they weren't made that well in the 1980's either. Since I have no other use for these I decided to see if they could fly off my Quest launcher. I first hacked up an actual Gardena fitting and tried to adapt it. This didn't work out so well so I sprung for a few extra Quest nozzles. These are every so slightly smaller in diameter than a Gardena fitting and have an integral ring that the launcher grabs hold of. The inner throat is also larger so the base of the rocket fits better.

I would like advice on the pressure you think these can take. I don't expect hard answers, just a gut feel. Initially, I though I'd tie back the release mechanism and let it launch when the pressure exceeded the friction of the o-ring.

TIA!

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

I'm sure everyone has at least seen these things as they were made when I was a kid and exist to this day (although from what I see the new ones are really poorly made). I found a couple that my kids had. I seem to remember the launchers gave out, so they weren't made that well in the 1980's either. Since I have no other use for these I decided to see if they could fly off my Quest launcher. I first hacked up an actual Gardena fitting and tried to adapt it. This didn't work out so well so I sprung for a few extra Quest nozzles. These are every so slightly smaller in diameter than a Gardena fitting and have an integral ring that the launcher grabs hold of. The inner throat is also larger so the base of the rocket fits better.

I would like advice on the pressure you think these can take. I don't expect hard answers, just a gut feel. Initially, I though I'd tie back the release mechanism and let it launch when the pressure exceeded the friction of the o-ring.

TIA!

We has the same rockets growing up. The new ones have a plastic shaft on the pump that always breaks. The original ones were made with a metal shaft, which made them much better. It seems like the plastic these were made from was very durable, but they were made from 2 pieces that were glued or heat welded together and they would fail at around 90SPI, which is probably 3 times as much as you could possibly create using the stock pump. We adapted one back then to use a bike pump, and they always seemed to split at the seam around that pressure. The new ones are a mystery. Who knows what new rules they had to comply with? Maybe they are designed to fail sooner for safety?

[rstaff3]

Thanks for the response. I don't want a ton of performance from this and don't plan to test its breaking point. But the small volume will pressurize quite fast with my electric pump. And who knows what condition it is in. I don't see any cracks but it has clearly hit then pavement a few times.

Based on the reports I've seen, I don't think the new rockets are designed to fail at a low pressure....that's the new pump's job

[rstaff3]

20140719_104728 (640x360).jpg (215.47 KiB) Viewed 30 times

Egads...

Ignoring all the reviews on-line, I couldn't resist buying a couple of the new sets. 25% off the normal price of $2 at Big K.

As I started pumping, I thought that I could carefully squeeze the prescribed 20 pumps out of it if I was very careful. NOT. At about 10 pumps the pump shaft was bowing badly. I gave up at 12 and launched. It went a couple of feet up, and broke a fin on landing. On thy two, I got to 10 and the rocket blew it's top with a loud bang.

Yes, both the rocket and launcher are junk and not worth a buck fifty. I remember the old ones could bounce off pavement and keep flying.

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

20140719_104728 (640x360).jpg

Egads...

Ignoring all the reviews on-line, I couldn't resist buying a couple of the new sets. 25% off the normal price of $2 at Big K.

As I started pumping, I thought that I could carefully squeeze the prescribed 20 pumps out of it if I was very careful. NOT. At about 10 pumps the pump shaft was bowing badly. I gave up at 12 and launched. It went a couple of feet up, and broke a fin on landing. On thy two, I got to 10 and the rocket blew it's top with a loud bang.

Yes, both the rocket and launcher are junk and not worth a buck fifty. I remember the old ones could bounce off pavement and keep flying.

Wow! Those rockets are terrible! Thanks for posting this review of them because they look like they would actually be dangerous for a child to play with. Those are not worth 50 cents!!!

[rstaff3]

You are welcome. Even though they are about as low tech as you can get, I figured that many folks might want one for the kids/grandkids. I'm glad I was the guinea pig and will not be giving the other one to them.

[rstaff3]

For all it's worth, I flew the red rocket in the first post off the Quest launcher.

As expected, this small volume pressurized fast with my electric pump. Faster than I had hoped for. 50 psi was the lowest I could get it and I ran up to 100 psi. The performance was unimpressive and I am a little scared to run those pressures around kids. So, this will be retired. At least the old rockets are tough. My kids bounced this one off the pavement more than once before the pump gave out. The new models are not nearly as robust...at least not the $2 variety.

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

For all it's worth, I flew the red rocket in the first post off the Quest launcher.

As expected, this small volume pressurized fast with my electric pump. Faster than I had hoped for. 50 psi was the lowest I could get it and I ran up to 100 psi. The performance was unimpressive and I am a little scared to run those pressures around kids. So, this will be retired. At least the old rockets are tough. My kids bounced this one off the pavement more than once before the pump gave out. The new models are not nearly as robust...at least not the $2 variety.

The old ones were made from a very strong plastic. It would be interesting to find out if they were made from PETG or something.