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Hydro newb
04-07-2011, 10:03 AM
This is my first post so be nice lol :D
I know not a lot of people have tried aluminum plates. and I was reading up on the pros and cons of aluminum and it seemed like a field that needs some experimenting on. Running to the local dollar store, I picked up some lint traps made of aluminum wool. Having read up on the subject, I know aluminum can only use baking soda as an electrolyte. I haven't done an LPM test yet but would ballpark it to be around .5 lpm.. I was just wondering if anybody had tried a setup similar to this. I am currently running this generator in a 2002 Saturn SL2 and now the worst gas mileage I can get is 40 mpg and the best was about 47.8 with no 02 sensor mods and no EFIE.

Also I would also like to bring up the though of stainless steel wool as an electrode. The aluminum wool was supposed to have corroded far too quickly to be used as a "build and forget" generator, but I've been running this one for about two weeks now and I've only noticed very slight browning of the positive wool bunch. The water has remained quite clear with very little discoloration. We have a bubbler and injected it directly into his air box right above his filter so it doesn't get filtered but still has enough room to mix with the air.

lhazleton
04-07-2011, 10:53 AM
I think you ought to do some serious research.Nobody uses aluminum plates or anything aluminum on anything concerning HHO.
If the electrolyte is clear after running 2 weeks in that setup, the mix must be incredibly weak. If there was any real production, the water would turn into nasty crap from the aluminum deteriorating.
If there is no way of measuring the output, where does the .5LPM figure come from?
The reason you don't need any electronic mods is because there is nowhere enough hydroxy being introduced to change any sensor readings.
You should post some pictures & specifics if you want some help.

Hydro newb
04-07-2011, 05:07 PM
The .5 lpm is a complete guess, I would assume about a quarter lpm or half lpm just based off looks. Do you think I should ramp up the amount of electrolyte in an attempt to get some more hydrogen? Cause we're seeing a definite increase in gas mileage (from 35 to 48) without any more. Do you think we'll see a larger increase from more HHO? I think there's a curve to how much HHO you produce and where your 02 sensors etc are kicking in and becoming tricked. If we make any more it might trip the somethings wrong sensor in the computer and we would see a drop from the 48 mpg we're seeing. I'm not sure how much more we can see out of the saturn even with 02 sensor mods and an efie etc.

What kind of specifics are you looking for? I just wanted to post saying that aluminum isn't all that bad from my experience at least in wool form. We're seeing a huge boost in mpg and power and also just as a statement of how little hho you really need to see results

myoldyourgold
04-07-2011, 05:45 PM
If you are getting those kind of gains you should leave it as it is. Document what you are doing and present it here with some pictures. Measure the production with a bottle in a bucket if you have nothing else. I am sure lots of people would like to know exactly what you are doing. There is some videos on Youtube that show quite good production with aluminum and NaOH. Might even be some using baking soda. I do not think baking soda is a good choice. You might be making some harmful gases. Be careful. Do some research on this forum about the use of Baking soda.

Hydro newb
04-07-2011, 07:17 PM
Thank you gold, That's what I thought lol. From what I've been told anything but baking soda will pit/ eat the Aluminum extremely quickly. And according to this: http://www.hhoforums.com/showthread.php?t=2168 the only other gaseous byproduct of baking soda is Carbon Dioxide which isn't harmful. I will take some pictures tomorrow and hopefully put a youtube video up :)

Also, from what I've seen here: http://physics.info/electric-resistance/ aluminum is much more electrically conductive than stainless steel. Again this is all in theory right now I just wanted to know if anybody else had tried it and gotten results similar to ours.

So far there are no major drawbacks to our setup (other than the zip ties seem to be a little iffy lol) but the wool hasn't corroded all that much (the positive is a bit brown) and there's a layer of brown rust looking sludge on the bottom of the jar but we've put about 600 miles on it so far and its still kicking fine.

myoldyourgold
04-07-2011, 07:32 PM
So far there are no major drawbacks to our setup (other than the zip ties seem to be a little iffy lol) but the wool hasn't corroded all that much (the positive is a bit brown) and there's a layer of brown rust looking sludge on the bottom of the jar but we've put about 600 miles on it so far and its still kicking fine.

This is a little out of my realm but my understanding is that you can make hydrogen by just putting aluminum in NaOH. It is a chemical reaction and the aluminum gets eaten up making the gas. No electricity is needed. The problem is that to make the aluminum takes a lot of power so there is a net loss if you look at the whole picture. Your aluminum will disappear pretty quickly. I will let one of the chemists explain all this to you. I can just tell you that your mileage is great. How you are making the gas has a lot to be desired. If the mileage is accurate then this is interesting.

Darrell
04-08-2011, 06:19 AM
I put a pop can in elite once and with in 1 hours it was gone. It did produce allot of hydrogen though. I am not sure that I would use aluminum as plate materail it could cause a spark or something during the break down process.

"D"

Hydro newb
04-08-2011, 06:31 AM
So far baking soda seems to be running cool and producing just fine after 600 miles. We plan on building a much more productive cell out of other materials involving more neutrals and SS. Possibly a drycell but it looks very complex. This was just our "is hho a hoax" test and I think it turned out very well all things considered.

How much HHO do most people put into their cars relative to engine size? We're putting in a minuscule amount and seeing very nice numbers. I'm beginning to think that perhaps many people are over hydrogenating their engines....
The way I see it, right now I have no 02 sensor mods or EFIE and getting about 50 mpg. If I bump production up to lets say 1lpm for my 2.0 liter saturn, I'll have to get an EFIE (and frankly I don't understand them quite yet lol) and figure out how to trick my o2 sensor and maybe get 60 mpg... maybe. I definitely plan on trying out more production later, and trying to do all these things, but for now we're seeing wonderful results off of a VERY simple system.
I just wanted to put out there that perhaps aluminum isn't the absolute worst metal in the world for electrolysis.