Renewable Energy Racers Set Still Requires 6xAA Batteries – Lame!

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Joel Williams Avatar

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Renewable Energy Racers (Image courtesy Hammacher Schlemmer)
By Andrew Liszewski

Sure, there’s the whole educational side to this Renewable Energy Racers set, teaching kids that cars don’t necessarily have to run on fossil fuels, but were I ever deemed responsible enough to be a parent I’d probably pick it up so that my kids didn’t need a constant supply of fresh batteries. The set includes 3 racers which can be powered by either a windmill, a solar panel or a hydrogren fuel cell, and while the first 2 options provide about 20 minutes of racing with a 10 to 30 minute charge (depending on the conditions like wind speed & sunlight) the fuel cell only provides about 5 minutes of fun, though with just 3 minutes of charging. Pros and cons kids… pros and cons.

Sadly it turns out you’ll still need a constant supply of AAs, 6 to be exact, which are used to power the 3 wireless remotes. I mean couldn’t they each have a built-in hand-cranked generator to demonstrate the benefits of human power? Or do they have to learn that lesson from The Flintstones or The Matrix? $89.95 available from Hammacher Schlemmer.

[ Renewable Energy Racers ] VIA [ Coolest Gadgets ]

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