winter mix ?

[ramcustom]

What works best in cold weather? I have tried a 50/50 mix of denatured alcohol and that still froze. i have tried a 50/50 mix of Prestone anti freeze and get very little hho production. But it does not freeze. any suggestions?

[Painless]

I'm planning to switch to a maximum allowable concentration of NaOH with my distilled water and use a PWM to control amps. Supposedly, it will take a lot lower temperature to freeze.

[coffeeachiever]

I can't remember which forum member it was that said it, but I remember they said they live in Alaska. They said that they use a 20% solution of isopropyl alcohol and had no issues. If anyone gets to test that before I do, please post the results here.

[Painless]

Check out 'AlmostHydrogen's channel on youtube, he did some tests and the results were not good.

[screwballl]

May be time for a heating element of some sort.... maybe a coolant heater, I remember seeing of the these on vehicles in the 80s where it was just a lower radiator hose chunk taken out and the coolant heater placed there. When plugged in it helped keep the anti-freeze/coolant usually around 30-40 which helps the engine warm up faster.

[Omega]

I cheated. I removed my system for the winter. It gets cold in Washington and I didn't want to do all the maintenance while it's freezing and snowing; the possibility of the generator itself freezing and breaking made my mind up for me.

[Dave Nowlin]

I'm wondering if a small 12 volt heat pad was placed against a dry cell and then carefully insulated if the heat would travel by convection and circulate through the reservior/bubbler and keep everything thawed out without adulturating your electrolyte mix. It would be great if the heating pad was 110V but then when you are parked at work or somewhere else away from home you still might experience freeze-up.

Dave Nowlin

[smid1]

calcium chloride as a solution in water is used in the agriculture industry as a ballast for farm tractor tires that won't freeze. it is extremely corrosive though. plus, you've got the potential problem of liberating chlorine gas - which wouldn't be a good thing. there are some new solutions on the market for this application ( farm tires ) that aren't supposed to be corrosive. maybe i can research this.