ElencoSnap Circuits Battery Eliminator

I dunno - batteries just seem very 1960 to me. Since I bought the Snap Circuits 750 kit for myself, and knew I would not be "consuming" it very quickly, I just didn't want to fool with batteries. So I bought this.As a battery-alternative for any of the Snap-Circuit kits? 5-star. Necessary? No - not at all. If you prefer fiddling with batteries, you'll be fine. And, in all honesty, using a battery to introduce the concept of a power source to a young mind probably has advantages upon which I'm unqualified to comment. And I don't know anything about teaching kids to respect plugging things into walls. So far, every project I've built includes the on/off switch anyway, so as long as the user is disciplined enough to turn it back to "off" between projects, it isn't like anything here is going to suck a battery dry really fast. It offers 3V, 5V, and 6V configurations (Some of the advanced projects require higher voltage.) Writing this review, I plugged it in an laid my tongue across the ground and 6V contact. Very mild but DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME! (;I was clear on the "power supply" concept already, so I bought this for convenience. I just won't be taking the kit on any camping trips. And a very few of the projects require 2 independent power supplies; I'll have to scrounge around for a battery to do them. Which is fine - you get the battery-holder component in the kits whether you by this plug-in power supply or not. (I got 2 in the 750 kit..I suspect some of the lower level kits ship with 2 as well.)So - it's up to you. You get exactly what you think you are getting here, and its every bit as durable and high-quality as the rest of the Snap-Circuits product line. But the kits work just fine without it - although batteries are not included.

Poorly Designed product.The purpose of this product is to use it as replacement for battery holders of any Elenco snap circuit kit.As an enthusiastic Elenco snap circuit user I own many kits and know come of them some with 3 Volts holder some with 4.5 Volts.There are bigger kits which come with two 3 Volts holder. Hence 6 Volt replacement is required.In theory this battery eliminator can be used with any of these. Instruction (poorly written) indicates how to configure for 3 V, 6 V and 5 V configuration.Multiple negatives on this products makes it difficult to understand which one goes with which. Few simple design changes could have made is obvious and user should not rely on reading manual again and again. Since many of 6 Volt circuit in theory can perform with 3 Volt supply you will not blame battery for underperforming circuit and keep diagnosing elsewhere. Assuming you know if circuit is under performing (Like flying saucer is not going up.).Worst is if you make a mistake connecting a 3 Volt circuit with 5 Volt or 6 Volt configuration, you may blow up delicate components like LEDs. Since there is no obvious way of proper connectivity built in design itself. You need to keep instruction handy. This is the problem if you don't use Elenco kits frequently it's very easy to forget.Also in all the big Elenco kits where two 3 V holders are supplied. You are required to replace one 3 Volt holder with one 3 snap wire. Fine but this extra 3 snap wire should have been supplied with this product. If you are choosing to make such a circuit which already consumes all supplied 3 snap wires, you just can't use this product without creativity thinking to reconfigure circuit on you own with leftover snap wires, if you can't, switch back to battery holders and dig into old trunk to find spare AA batteries you paid to eliminate. Watch your kids getting frustrated.Since I own multiple kits I could borrow 3 snap wire from other kits. This may not be possible for every household. Also since I use snap circuit every other day I do remember which way to connect without reading manual again. But again may not be possible for everyone without finding that one page manual.I suggest Elenco to make following design changes.1. Supply extra 3 snap wire.2. Common (-) terminal will eliminate any confusion. Mark 3 and 5 Volt at other end.3. The 3 snap wire mentioned in (1). It would be better if it is permanently connected to 6 Volt. (Not exactly 3 snap wire but something that is flexible to rotate is fit as a replacement of second battery holder. I can envision but can't type.). Make it impossible to connect to 6 V terminal directly.If it's too difficult to redesign. At a minimum please4. Add a page at the end of each of your manuals (guides) which come with kits. The page should indicate how to eliminate battery holder in that kit in various configurations. These guides are handy. Users are actually making these circuits hence can't miss that page.

9 year old son received this for Christmas.... as soon as he opened it and got out the manual he was hooked. He sat and did the first 12 projects that afternoon. He loves to build, see how things work and even commented that these were like Legos that DO STUFF. He is making the connection between what he is building and what it creates. I also purchased the AV adapter (battery eliminator) bc another poster mentioned how fast you would burn thu batteries otherwise, that was a wise decision bc I can tell he will be spending hours upon hours with this. He has even gone back to the first couple of projects and built and explained them to his 6 year old sister. He next section of science at school is electricity and magnets and he is looking forward to taking this to school for a demonstration. I have had to remind him several times to actually READ the instructions and the objective of the lesson/project instead of just building from the picture so that he understands the lesson before moving on. It's great that many of the projects ask a question at the end to get the kids to connect what they are doing to some of the electrical components in use in their daily life, we've had some good discussions, and I have learned quite a few things too!

I bought  Elenco Snap Circuits SC-750R Student Training Program , and based on other reviews here, ended up buying this one as well. I think it is an absolute must and really wish they would have included it at least in one of their pricier kits. Oh well, I would highly recommend this accessory because my kids are all into building projects with their Snap Circuits (including AM and FM radios that we use as a normal radio to listen to some music/news etc.) and without this, I would have probably gone through many many batteries in last 3 weeks.One note of caution: all circuit diagrams are using the batteries version for power source, so in projects that take two sets of batteries (part B1 vs. this being B6 in their kits), unless I help them, kids (age 8 and 6) are typically lost on how to make it work with only one of these. Sometimes they just end up using batteries as power source for such projects.

My 9 year old dropped his battery piece om the floor and it broke (Also I didn't want to buy batteries constantly) so I got this for him for his 9th birthday! He is SO happy to be able to plug in his circuits and not be asking for more batteries all the time.

Arrived in good time and is as described

Great product came in very handy..couldn't imagine what it saved me on buying batteries

Worth every penny. No need to use batteries on the Snap Circuit kits.

can make all the projects without batteries. works great.