Raining Pineapples Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 Hi! I'm looking at buying the zometool STEM+Educator kit from the homeschoolbuyers co-op. https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/Zometool-STEM It's $420 and I don't want to spend that much without hearing from those who have used it. Is it worth the money? It contains everything needed for their kits that I was going to buy eventually anyway. We have purchased the Crazy Bubbles kit and the Ice Crystals and Stars. I like the looks of the DNA and the virus kits for when the kids get older. The pieces have a lifetime warranty-so I imagine it will last through highschool- especially with the biochemsitry kit.... Is it worth spending the money? Any one buy the large kit or their Math Creator series and can give me a quick review/ personal opinion on it? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 It's soooo cool. BUT we have had so many pieces snap the ends off. According to the company. We must all be using it wrong because they never break when using them right. Whatever. The last time I took them out I wouldn't let the kids touch them to attach them because I was so scared more would snap. Even with me using it as carefully as I could having read their spiel about the "right" way, they still snapped. So I say... Disappointing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raining Pineapples Posted October 28, 2014 Author Share Posted October 28, 2014 Thank you Farrar. That's good to know. Did you contact the company and ask for replacements? I'm wondering how they are about honoring the lifetime replacement warranty. We haven't had a problem yet with the bubble kit, but they are not constantly taking it apart and putting it back together. It does look really cool, but it's a lot of money to spend to wind up disappointed. Maybe I'll wait until they've used the ice crystal one and played with it a bit before deciding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 It's soooo cool. BUT we have had so many pieces snap the ends off. According to the company. We must all be using it wrong because they never break when using them right. Whatever. The last time I took them out I wouldn't let the kids touch them to attach them because I was so scared more would snap. Even with me using it as carefully as I could having read their spiel about the "right" way, they still snapped. So I say... Disappointing. Ditto. We have it and I love it and it gets a ton of use, but we do have the same problem. I would buy it all over again because I think they are worth it anyway, but for the price it is annoying they aren't sturdier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 We have the Creator 1 box and so far we have two strut ends broken ends both by my 8 year old. My 9 year old is extremely patient with the struts. It's very pricey though and I bought that set because it was on sale at Amazon. My boys keep running out of pieces with the Creator set even if only one child was playing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 I haven't contacted them about the warranty. I felt like I was being really patient with the struts and when we build simple things, it is usually okay, but when you try to build anything complex, it all goes to pot. There's so little room to maneuver your fingers. The statement on their page implied that maybe they wouldn't honor the ends being broken since it's all my fault anyway. I think designwise it just would have made SO much more sense for them to be made as solid pieces without those ends. Why do that? I don't know if I would buy it again, honestly. At this point we don't have enough pieces to do some of the things I'd like and I saw that even with the Creator 1 set that they were just crazy expensive without being able to DO that much without getting much bigger sets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted October 29, 2014 Share Posted October 29, 2014 We've broken about 10 of the struts also...and the ends get stuck in the sphere-thingies. Then, you have to get a pen or needle and push the broken ends out. Arrrgh!! Those things are not for small children. They need to be really careful when they take stuff apart. If you buy one of the smaller Creator kits, look on their website, they have a free ebook with geometry activities in it. My kids went through that book about a year-two years ago. Edited to say: we have Creator 1, too (I think) and they pretty much need to take turns or they will run out of pieces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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