Some of these RC boats reach speeds up to 18 mph!
One of them is even an amphibious vehicle that goes on water & land.
Most importantly, ALL of these RC boats are budget friendly.
You won’t be putting a hole in your wallet with any of these.
When you run out of things to do at the beach (if that’s possible) it’s always nice to have a few beach toys handy.
After saltwater use be sure to rinse thoroughly with fresh water.
This will prevent corrosion. Another way to make sure your RC boat lasts in the ocean is to try your best to keep it from capsizing. When capsized the saltwater will be able to get to the electrical components easier.
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The 5 Best RC Boats (Summer 2019)
- Babrit Tempo – Check Price
- UDI 007 Voyager – Check Price
- Terrain Twister – Check Price
- SainSmart – Check Price
- Venom – Check Price
There were A LOT of RC boats that we considered for this review, but some of them didn’t make the cut for a few reasons.
All of the RC boats beneath the ~$30 mark either didn’t work properly, broke easily, or just didn’t perform as you would expect.
This post will be about boats under the $100 mark, but also above the $30 mark. If you’re looking for an RC boat beneath $30 that performs well and lasts then you beat us to finding one.
These are all intended to be under $100, but prices always change. The links to each product will update within the post and may vary. Some could be $105 at times, and some could be $25.
Just keep in mind that the ‘beneath $100’ won’t be exact depending on pricing fluctuations.
What We Compared
RC boats are hit or miss beneath $30, so as stated above we kept it above that mark.
Between our findings and what we found on the web some of the common issues seemed to be around battery life, and just overall quality.
Something else worth mentioning are false reviews.
As in purposely reviewing something to hurt it’s reputation? No..
We thoroughly went through the reviews of others over these boats and found that some people were not properly using the RC boats correctly.
Make sure you read all of the instructions over your RC boat before using it.
Aside from that we looked at controllability, and also speed.
To some…speed is the most important aspect.
Make sure that you only charge these RC boats the recommended time to charge. If you go over the recommended you could fry the battery or cause a loss of performance from less output.
Don’t charge overnight and forget about it.
Let’s dive in..
Babrit Tempo RC Boat
The Babrit Tempo RC Boat is one of the fastest ones from this list!
In addition to being fast it has a few really cool features.
If you hit a wave on the water and your RC boat goes upside down that’s not cool!
What do you do then? Your boat may be 100 yards out in to the ocean/lake and you may not even be dressed to get in to retrieve it!
The Babrit Tempo RC boat has a great ‘automatic capsize recovery’ feature so you can avoid that.
On the controller you push both triggers (left and right) forward, and then you pull them back.
Doing this will put the RC boat upright so that you can keep having fun!
Babrit Controllability
This RC boat is FAST!
Now obviously if you are an RC boat enthusiast it may not be fast for what you are use to seeing, but we found it to be.
18mph is what the Babrit will reach!
You can stop on a dime with this RC boat, or you can continue at your top speed and do a hairpin turn.
Regardless, you’re not going be doing any wide turns with any of these RC boats within the list.
The cool part about this is you don’t need a HUGE body of water to have fun with these. When you’re not by the ocean, or a lake you can use these RC boats at a local pool (given it’s not crowded and you won’t hurt anyone), or a local pond.
Obviously most will want to have a larger body of water so you can push the RC boat to the limit, but if you only have a small body of water it won’t keep you from having fun with the Brabit or any other in the list.
Babrit Battery Life
The battery life here was great as well.
The tempo RC boat was intended to only last 8 minutes we found the battery to extend well beyond that (sometimes touching 16 minutes or twice the life of the amount stated).
Although 16 minutes doesn’t seem like a long time in general, that’s a heavy load on a small battery and it churned out a lot of consistent speed for us when we used it.
And on top of that – the remote control has an LCD display that shows the current battery life, and also has a low battery alarm so you know when to bring it back to shore.
Babrit Overall Quality
We liked the Babrit Tempo! It’s made of high quality plastic (not the cheap stuff).
When we slammed this thing into a few rocks and ran it into the land coming out of the water (whoops) it held up nicely and didn’t even crack.
The hull is completely waterproof so you know you aren’t smoking the boat up the first time you go crazy with it.
Nicely built.
We mentioned people not properly using their RC boats. Make sure that the Babrit (the big one or the small ones below) are actually in the water before you deem it ‘broken’.
The propeller will not spin unless it’s in the water.
It’s a safety feature.
UDI 007 Voyager RC Boat
The voyager RC boat had a different look to it, but had virtually the same performance as the Tempo (large size) above.
Voyager Controllability
The Voyager RC boat runs at 18mph, and is extremely nimble.
Just like the Babrit Tempo already mentioned the Voyager can handle the same hairpin turns and can run really well on a straightaway.
No problems here on performance, but one thing we didn’t like (more of a preference than anything) was the style of controller.
The controller is a trigger style throttle controller with direction control on the side of the controller.
Not as great as a side by side stick controller, but again it’s up to you, not us.
Voyager Battery Life
The battery life is expected to be around 7-9 minutes, but we think that’s more on the low side (like the Babrit).
Let’s say it only does lasy 7-9 minutes though.
The cool part about the voyager is there isn’t a need to purchase an extra battery!
It comes included!
Voyager Overall Quality
The quality here is top notch for an RC boat underneath $100.
The hull removes so that you can easily access the internals (the battery for recharging / replacing with your other one).
SZJJX Terrain Twister RC Boat & Car
The terrain twister was one of our favorites.
The terrain twister is probably less of an RC boat, and more of an RC tank that can also be driven on the water.
It’s an amphibious RC vehicle so that it can be used on water or land. The really cool part?
It’s not just for flat surfaces on the land. This thing can go through dirt, gravel, snow, grass (tall grass too), mud, wet sand, and anything else land!
Instead of using tires like a normal RC car would have it has 2 pontoons with corkscrew cylinders that allows it to ‘weave’ its way through rough terrain!
Terrain Twister Controllability
What can’t the terrain twister be driven on?
It’s made to be all terrain which is very cool. You don’t have to worry about your RC car going into the water, or your RC boat coming up on the land. There aren’t any boundaries.
We did notice is this isn’t as fast as the other RC boats above.
Because it doesn’t have a fast propeller pushing the vehicle forward it can only go so fast with corkscrew cylinders.
On land this thing runs 3mph going forward, but goes about twice that speed if you run it side to side (easier for the cylinders to roll rather than crawl).
Terrain Twister Battery Life
Not only does the terrain twister come with an extra rechargeable battery, but the runtime is about 20 minutes.
The 20 minute playtime can be turned into 30 if you are on easier terrain. So if you are on water, or flat surfaces where it’s not going to be as tolling you will see an increase in play time.
If you are mainly on gravel or mud where the battery is having to work hard then the play time may be less than 20 minutes.
Terrain Twister Overall Quality
The quality of the terrain twister is exceptional. The pontoon corkscrew cylinders are rock hard so you don’t have to worry about ‘dinging’ them up, and the plastic is made to be ran into different terrains.
So don’t worry about avoiding certain areas with this toy to keep it ‘safe’ and have fun with it!
SainSmart H101 RC Boat
The SainSmart H101 RC Boat is very similar to the Babrit Tempo (first one listed).
SainSmart Controllability
The SainSmart is one of the fastest RC boats here (neck and neck with the Babrit and the Voyager) it reaches 18mph in any direction, and is super agile.
This RC boat comes with an ‘anti-tilt’ hull so that you can almost put this boat on it’s side when doing a circular turn to make it even tighter.
SainSmart Battery Life
Does not come with an included battery like the voyager, and the terrain twister.
The battery life on the sainsmart is roughly 8 minutes. If you are running it full blast the entire battery it won’t last but around 8, but if you let off a little it will last longer. It all depends on the stress you’re putting on the battery.
SainSmart Overall Quality
Similar quality to the RC boats above. We did like the style of this rc boat over the Babrit Tempo, but that’s completely preferential. We didn’t find any flaws with the ABS plastic whatsoever.
Also, one of the cool features is the sainsmart has a water-cooled motor to make sure that you’re not overheating it, and will last a long time for you.
UDI001 Venom
The only difference here in the Venom and the other RC boats (with the exception of the terrain twister) is the speed, and the style.
Venom Controllability
The control is great just like the others. The venom RC boat can’t touch 18mph, but it can touch 15mph.
You won’t notice a huge difference in speed here.
Venom Battery Life
7-9 minutes is to be expected here.
It does comes with an extra battery as well so you can expect anywhere from 15-20 minutes if you go through both batteries.
Venom Overall Quality
Made of high grade ABS plastics to ensure that this RC boat won’t break or split on impact just like the others. We did like the venom overall.
Most noteworthy is this RC boat ALSO says you can’t use on saltwater, but as mentioned above if you aren’t capsizing the whole time, and you’re caring for your RC boat with fresh water afterwards you should be just fine.
