discouraged

[doug2168]

i recently built an imitation smacks booster. i used the stainless steel plates from some old desktop hdd's i had laying around that were dead anyway. i'm limited in funds and this is why i've done this.

anyway, i made a 3" booster, 12"long from sch 40 pvc, made 2" x 4" plates, used handles from stainless utensils for leads, stainless bolts for terminals, and installed a 40 amp relay, 30 amp breaker, 10 ga wire, amp gauge and kill switch for safety purposes. this is on an 05 honda civic.

during testing i ran 45 min tests with a plate configuration similar to smacks which was +nn-nn+. i had very little problems with this. i had brown gook the first run and than very little afterward. heat was not much of an issue but i don't have a thermometer that goes as high as 150 degrees F. the unit ran hot to the touch but could be handled and held afterward.

i finally got around to installing it in the car yesterday. i went over all of my stuff and noticed i had nylon spacers in between my negative lead and the supposed negative plates. i removed them. setup the electrolyte. drove for a while, got back home and noticed the unit was very hot with brown in it again. i went back to trying to find more info on heat. i had started off @ 7 amps cold and when heating up it slowly creeped to 20 amps. the plate setup was now +n--n+. whereas during testing it was +nn-nn+. why brown gook and so much heat?

i'm now back to a plate setup of +n-nn+. i have not seen this one anywhere. i've seen +nn-nn+. i guess i could always add another plate to the mix and do that.

i use sodium hydroxide that also has sodium nitrate in it. it's called "Drain Out" and i got a small bottle of it from Wally World.

any help, suggestions, constructive criticism or comments are welcome.

tia

[bagrman]

Try going with +nnnnn-, the gook is from the not so good ss you used. 316 has a high chromium content and runs cleaner.

Latr
Bagrman

[Ronjinsan]

Hey Doug

Try running your cell with baking powder and vinegar until you are happy with it, then go and buy some proper Sodium Hydroxide to do your final tests. The draino crap has other additives like nitrates which are not healthy. Remember, PVC pipe is a very poor conductor of heat, so your temperature inside is not accurately reflected outside. In fact it will appear cool to the touch but in fact its very hot inside. Of course if you are sensible with the electrolyte you should be OK. It sounds as if you have a variety of types of Stainless as Bagrman points out, its best to get a good one and stick with it. Get 10 plates cut and its all over...may cost a few bob but worth the investment in terms of hassle! Your plate config is odd....bacially it just means that you will produce more at one end than the other, the end with the one neutral will hog the power more. Cheers, Best of luck

[doug2168]

morning results......

set things up last night before going to bed. i left the plates as +n-nn+ and dropped enough electrolyte in to start a 5 amp draw. drove my one hour to work this morning. stopped half way through real quick to check the heat and it was cool as a cucumber. i watched the current draw the entire trip and only got to maybe 12 amps. production was low at 5 amps. obviously the higher the draw the more production. i did feel it in power of the engine.

i will try the +nnnnn- config tonight and go through all the same to see what the result is. i really want to keep the heat and current down as low as possible. i'll get some straight sodium hydroxide in the next few days also. where can you get that from? a plumbing supply store or what?

one other question is about the O2 sensor. i read in the water4gas document that sometimes creating a "mini oven" on the sensor works to trick the computer into thinking different and you can do this instead of the extender or EFIE. has anyone tried it? did it work?

i'm a former aircraft mechanic and i'm having a time trying to understand the O2 concept. when an engine runs lean you dump more fuel into it. the fuel also has a cooling effect on the engine also. so does the HHO make the engine run cooler or hotter? i'm leaning towards cooler because for one it's water in gaseous form and two it's a fuel. why would the O2 sensor tell the computer to dump more fuel than?

my first test yesterday did improve my MPG by 3 MPG but i went a little heavy on it because i enjoyed the power increase. i'm not out for power....i want more MPG. the power is nice though.

thanks for the replies. i enjoy the forum.

[Ronjinsan]

Instead of +nnnnn- try +nn-nn+ that works very well! If you do have a couple of extra plates though add 2 more Neutrals and you problems are over!

[doug2168]

Instead of +nnnnn- try +nn-nn+ that works very well! If you do have a couple of extra plates though add 2 more Neutrals and you problems are over!

ok, so you're saying go to +nn-nn+ which is seven plates. i have room for that. i'd love to add two more as you say to have my problems solved but, i don't have a long enough nylon screw and can't seem to find any. i have a friend who works for Fastenal. i'll ask him today if he can get me some. no one seems to carry any. i got my nylon screw from Lowe's and i believe i got the longest one they had.

i appreciate the help with this. i will make the one more plate and see how it goes. i'm sure it'll do well seeing how i "sorta" had it like this from the beginning. thing i had done though was instead of a negative plate i had
just the negative lead in the electrolyte.

[Ronjinsan]

Why dont you use a different approach to putting your plates together! I use hard rubber spacers for my gaps but I dont bolt my plates together.

Attachment 64

I use this config with SS bolts and nuts at the terminals and cable ties to hold the plates together (Blue lines) Dont need plastic bolts and nuts!

[Fishhook]

Hello. New to this forum. I am buying/building my first unit and will have a lot of questions. On plate configuration, I am concerned with 1)Optimum plate spacing. 2) Optimum plate surface area/size, and 3) Optimum number of plates. I am in the Automotive repair field, and can expose a lot of folks to this technology, but I definitely need to have my "ducks in a row" I drive a lot, and have several of my own vehicles in which I already keep detailed MPG information. One car, a '99 Lincoln, even calculates MPG in real time. That car gets 29.4 highway MPG at 59 miles per hour in ideal traffic situations.

I can fabricate most anything here, so that's why all of the questions about the HHO generator configuration.

Ultimately, I would think that everyone would want to keep some sort of HHO liters per amp-minute, or liters per amp-hour charts.

I have seen multiple partitioned cells like Gorilla Power "KONG". I have seen single cells with two bolts for electrodes. I am really curious as to the IDEAL configuration. LOAD ME UP with info folks! My ears are OPEN! JTS

[bagrman]

Got to do the home work, go to youtube and punch in hho generator. Check out one of the posters zerofossilfuel he is way into this and has over 90 videos on different plate set ups. His ideal has been +nnnnn-nnnnn+nnnnn-nnnnn+, the thought here is that the gaps cut down the voltage evenly and the power needed is between 2-2.3volts so in an auto system this works out. Heat is your enemy. your basically making a dead short, a pwm helps control the heat and you can adjust the frequency to allow for best production. An EFIE controls the 02 sensor.

Latr
Chris

[doug2168]

Why dont you use a different approach to putting your plates together! I use hard rubber spacers for my gaps but I dont bolt my plates together.

Attachment 64

I use this config with SS bolts and nuts at the terminals and cable ties to hold the plates together (Blue lines) Dont need plastic bolts and nuts!

seems like a very feasible setup. i did actually think about it but discounted it due to thinking i'd better use what already seemed to work. now, why didn't i use all the other suggested stuff? that disease going around a lot lately...."lack 'o money!"