Thames & Kosmos CHEM C3000

The weeks leading up to the holidays, my ten-year-old son was very interested in a toy catalog featuring this product. I decided to buy it for him, because of his one day dream of becoming a chemist. On the day he received the kit, he was very happy. Later that day, our family preformed an experiment from the included booklet. The experiment was supposed to turn regular paper brown, and it did not work, we decided to try another but all the other experiments required extra chemicals. So, I called chemical companies asking for the required chemicals but they said that they wold not send "dangerous" chemicals to "civilians" So I told my eager son the bad news, and we didn't use the set ever again for four years. four years later, My younger son tormented my now 14-year-old son about being "ungrateful" for his gifts. Now we have recently brought the set upstairs. The kit was hurting my wife's eyes. We then looked at the labels, and found then the tubes covered in "WARNING" and "CAUTION" sings. Plus, the box was absolutely covered in dangerous mold. And my son now despises chemistry.

This is a good chemistry set. It has a manual with in-depth instructions and explains the why's and how's of chemistry. I am a chemistry major so I was able to understand it easily, but I think anyone with a real interest in chemistry will understand it too. I would not suggest it to anyone who has not ever had a chemistry set or has absolutely no knowledge of chemistry, but for anyone who has some background it's great. The only drawback about it is that a LOT of the experiments require hydrochloric acid which is understandably not included for safety reasons. However, I was able to get the acid at Home Depot. This is one reason experience is recommended for this set...If you get the acid you will need to dilute it to the set's standard through titration, and that isn't something you can just pick up and learn real fast. DEFINATELY a great help if you are studying chem in school. Highly recommended for the up and coming chemist!

There are a lot of raw materials that are not included in the kit. Lab book is confusing and hard to follow

We use this set for our homeschool. Not as exciting as perhaps an old-days chemistry set, but really gives you a good foundation IMHO.

Very good kit. However,it does not contain all the materials needed and the required additional solutions are almost impossible to get hold of these days (like sodium hydroxide - lye, because it is used by crack labs). Since these solutions are needed for many experiments and are illegal to mail, a large part of the experiments are not possible to do. This is a significant drawback.The experiments need close adult supervision and involve open flames, boiling solutions, hydrochloric acid, etc. and are not for younger children or the fainthearted parent. There is limited explanation in the manual about chemistry, so a supplemental text or course would be best to get an understanding of why the reactions happen.That said, our daughter loves the kit and it is complete, well organized and of excellent quality.

Truly pathetic excuse for a chemistry set... no chemical formulas at all.I am truly disappointed with this poor excuse for a chemistry set. It is all colors and flashy things, nothing really is explained. There are no chemical formulas (even though it is targeted to older children who could perfectly understand something in a much simpler way things as the decomposition of water 2 H2O -> 2H2 + O2 rather than the OVERLY LONG and TRULY BORING text that goes along with each experiment and really explains very little or nothing at all. Wow! I know this is no longer the 1970's or 1980's but I really miss my chemistry set from back then. This chemistry set is really worthless.This is my second T&K set (the first one was a physics set). I am really dismayed how poor they are in terms of actual explanations of the science behind the kit. It is so DUMBED DOWN that is extremely boring since at the end of the experiments you really gain no knowledge of what happened since the text only describes what you see.I will *never* buy any T&K kit again.

We got this for my sons 11th birthday, we had been wanting a chemistry set. We compared sets and looked at reviews and decided this one was a good one. We are very pleased with this set, it arrived safely, and is very well stocked. The directions are easy to follow and the experiments interesting and educational. It is definitely not the same chemistry set *I* had growing up. I'd buy it again and/or recommend it with no problem.

When I opened the CHEM C3000 kit, I was dissappointed: There were far fewer chemicals than what I was hoping for. Specifically, tanic acid (or something similar to it) was NOT in the kit. On the other hand, I would still give the kit an average rating: It has an excellent manuel, and everything in the manuel works!