I got 2 of the Megatech H2O's for my son and I. I ordered them from Hobby's Etc and received them quickly, kudo's to Hobby's Etc. They arrived in nice packaging that serves as carry cases. The boats look pretty nice. Decent quality. They feel pretty sturdy, as if you could bang it around and not worry about breaking anything. Very good water tight seal system. There is a tupperware type seal under the hull and The top hull has a lip that seals over the bottom of the hull. It does not appear that water will get in. It has a nice oversized rudder. However it is not a surface drive boat. It is the unerwater type drive. The radio is one of those stick types that are generally used for planes. I really didn't like that part. In my opinion it should have been a pistol grip.
After unpacking and examining the boats, I noticed the batteries were not identified with markings. The book said nothing about the mah. So I called megatech to find out. After being on hold for 15 min or so I found out they were 800mah nimh batteries. So I charged them with my Duratrax Ice charger. Nice peak chargers always give you a better charger than those cheap wall chargers. If you have a nice charger you can always cut the connector off the end of the cheap charger with about 3 or 4 inches of wire to spare for a charger adaptor. Anyway after charging the batteries I did a dry test. The rudder worked fine. When I tried the throttle, I noticed the prop was wobbeling. I studied it for a moment and realized the prop shaft was slightly bent. This wobble is not good no matter how small. Wobble means friction and that means less speed and shorter run times. I called Hobby's etc and they sent me to Megatech. Megatech told me to send the boat in for inspection. I would of course have to pay for shipping. That is very poor customer support in my opinion. the shaft is only $4.99. It would cost me at least double that to ship the boat. I argued with no avail. I will order the shaft after I cool off. Well we charged both boat batteries up and headed to the nearby pond. The boats ran nice. They are slower than the zigzags, I have one of those. they claim 15mph out the box, I say more like 10mph. My 5 year old son was having a blast. He was intemidated by the zigzag before cause it was so fast. But he loves the H2O's. While we were running his battery slowed down way before mine did, his boat had the wobble with the bent shaft. When the boat slowed down it was only another minute and it shut off. I had to push it in with my boat. We found out that the boat must have a shut off. Cause the rudder still worked strong, but no prop movement. We brought them to shore and I Charged both of them, one on my hobbyzone car charger and the other one on my Duratrax ice charger. We put them back in the water and had more fun, untill his battery died again. This time when I was pushing his boat in, my battery died!! Now what we thought. I'll post how we got them back in the next post. Generally they are nice boats and my son loves them. Just remember to bring them back in the moment you notice them slow down. Or you will be stuck like we were. Or have a retrieval boat with you, which I forgot that day.

After you cycle the batteries a few more times they should last a little longer and possibly give you more time to get back to shore. I know what you mean about MT customer service. I had their House Fly helicopter, not a very good product or service. Great review, makes me glad I got a Turbo Vee.

Hi Raz,
Thanks for the comp. I always cycle the batteries 3 times before I ever run them I have a duratrax Ice charger. I bought these boats mainly for My son and I to play with. The is only 5. I also have the Villain EX and the Shockwave 26. Both are pretty nice boats. I also have the Zig Zag and Kyosho Mini Z formula boats. The Villain EX being much nicer. About having more time to get back to shore. These boats have some sort of voltage cut off. When they quit thats it. The only thing that works is the rudder. And believe me swishing the rudder from side to side doesn't move the boat at all. If you take these boats to a pond you better have a retrieval boat.
PS How fast is the Turbo Vee? Have you made any mods? Do you have a thread on it??

questions: what kind of battery does the H2O use? is it possible to build a custom pack out of AAA rechargeables? also, is there any improvement/mods you can do to the H2O to make it faster?

I would think about replacing the esc then so you have time to get the boat back. I know some do have a low voltage cut off which is okay for a car or even a plane but in a boat? That would make it tough to get back where I go, it's the bay and only 54 degrees. I'm still want to hear how you got the other boat back though.

Sorry about taking so long. Been a little busy.
After my sons boat went dead, I tried to start pushing his back with my boat and suddenly my boat went dead. His boat was about 8 or 9 feet from shore. Mine was 10 or 11. I was just going out past his enough to make the turn to push it back when it went dead. We sat their in disbelief for a few moments. We though what can we do, we forgot to bring the retrieval boat and there was NO wind at all. Talk about teaching your son a lesson the hard way. Anyway my first thought was that the rudders were still working. I thought since the boats were facing the shore where we stood, that we could move the rudder back and forth to kinda paddle back to shore. So we tried that for a moment and it only made the boats turn away from shore. So we quit that instantly. I went to the opposite shore to look for a dead branch. I found one about 7 or 8 feet long. I brought it back and tried to reach the boats but it was about 1 foot too short. On the way back I noticed that there were some 4" X 4" post with holes in them with a rope that was strung through the holes to keep people from walking though that area, the rope was about 25 feet long. I cut the knot out of one end of the rope and pulled it all the way through the last pole. I took the rope to the shore and made a loop on one end. By this time the boats had floated out about 2 more feet. How I do not know. On my first throw I missed the boat, second throw I over threw the loop but the rope landed on one of the boats. I pulled it slow and the boat moved one foot closer to shore before the rope slipped off. It only took 4 or 5 more throws to get the boat close enough to pull it in with the branch that I had tried earlier. When I got one boat to shore all the splashing and waves of the rope had pushed the other boat out about another 4 or 5 feet. Luckily I had my Hobbyzone airplane car charger with me. I quickly went to the car and hooked the boat battery to the charger. After about 20 minutes the battery got pretty warm and I didn't want to wait any longer. Did I mention it was getting DARK and there were no lights on this pond!! I took the charged boat down to the water and began pushing the other boat back in with the freshly charged one. It took about 20 or more bumps to get the boat back in. After I got the second boat in I couldn't wait to write this story in RCUniverse. As a lesson that I hope everyone will learn from.

Lucky for you there was no wind alright.

having the same problems with shutting off-i bought one of the original ones,right after they came out,made famous by the katie couric ad,right about that time-got it out in the middle of the river and it would shut off-I called them and was told"battery"-so they sent me a new one but same problem,charged on a MRC delta peak 969 charger,and I know what I'm doing.I'm in touch with them emailing trying to get to the bottom of it but until I do I ordered a AAA NIMH 1000Mah 6volt pack from "onlybatterypacks.com"-$21.95 includes a connector and shipping,and I had a deans connector put on,which added $1.50,wanted a deans mini but they don't offer them(had good luck with their other packs-its a hard configuration to find,most 6volt packs use bigger batteries,1000mah biggest I could find in NIMH AAA size(thats the cell size of the stock bat)