Update on materials used in making the hydrogen booster
Article from: July 23rd, 2010
After a couple weeks of running the diy hydrogen booster in my car, I have noticed some very important things and found a few problems.
At first, the lid kept coming loose. It is very hard to work the lid down tight on a brand new pvc pipe and threaded cap. It may seem tight, but it is not screwed all the way down. After driving the car a bit, the vibration will work the threads loose some. The cap kept coming loose on me. Oddly, this caused the hydrogen booster to suck out all the water from my backfire suppressor. All the water drained into the main h2o booster tank.
So, I kept tightening the lid after every use and refilling the hydrogen booster tank with the correct level of water. Finally, after a few days, the lid was on tight and all was well.
Then, I noticed that at the end of each day the gas production was minimal. I would open it up, clean everything and add new water and potassium hydroxide and drive on. After a few hours of use the gas production was down again. And the positive terminal on my cap was starting to get melted.
After many hours and days of tearing it apart and putting it back on again, I found the problem. Using stainless steel spatula handles is not a good idea. It is very hard to get a good contact between the spatula handles and the stainless steel plates. There was a tiny little point on the positive side that was arcing. This was causing heat to rise up the spatula handle and into the screw terminal, which was melting my hydrogen booster lid. Eventually the arcing would burn out the contact point and limit current flow and gas production. Each time I opened the booster and cleaned it, the tiny contact point would be moved to a new position, allowing better gas production for a bit until it burnt out in that spot.
I bought some heavy gauge stainless steel wire and some stainless steel crimp on electrical connectors. The wire is about ten gauge. I used the stainless steel wire and crimp on connectors inside my diy hydroxy booster between the stainless steel plates and the stainless steel screws on the lid of the booster. Now, the hydroxy booster is running well with no problems.
About the Author
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Troy Reid |
