#024 - MadStu's Water Powered Van - Cell 4 - R.I.P...

[rfengr]

lol, he said "Ab-me-ah" ! 00:52 :)

[GamerGuy51]

jeeze, your van looks like a time machine, with all of the stuff in it....wheres the flux capacitor?

[MadStu1978]

Hehe :)

[danielhattie2000]

i think that the fuse going was a sign. lol and what are you using for an electrolyte?

[MadStu1978]

hehe, well the fuse blew because the electrolyte concentration was too high. After the fuse blew, I took it out to inspect it and water the electrolyte down some more. On inspection, it was still ok, it wasn't until later that day that it blew up, hehe, wish I had an under bonnet cam ;)

I'm using Pottassium Hydroxide in distilled water as electrolyte :)

[steven123tw]

PLease look at my water fuel cell on KYMCO125

I got better one for you!your container and stainless steel plates set is not strong enough!

[MadStu1978]

Thankyou steven,

I couldn't see very well, but it looks like you have a water filter housing being used for your cell? They do seem quite popular. In my latest cell I have used very thick PVC pipe.

[H2inICE]

Keep it up m8 great work

[MadStu1978]

Thanks mate :)

[MadStu1978]

hehe, good idea. I'll be implementing SidYoung's suggestion on cell 5. It's basically a 30mm hole with a plastic bag over the top. It's airtight until there's a blow out. Both SidYoung and ZeroFossilFuel have shown this working in some of their latest videos.

Thanks! :)

[MadStu1978]

Hehe, thanks.

RSVP will be sent tomorrow, sorry for being late!

[klekampcd]

What kid of MPG were you getting, or at least what is your base line and with your cells?

[MadStu1978]

Hi, you can take a look at my website for live information.

As it stands, at this moment, my Baseline is 37.3 MPG, and the average with HHO production is 39.7 MPG - that's a 6.4% improvement - HOWEVER - That's NOT with cell 4, I have only measured 2 times with cell 3.

Cell 3 made 500ml HHO in 2 minutes 30 seconds. Cell 4 made 500ml in just 33 seconds! I was expecting about 20% improvement, however, it went POP.

I'm waiting on some parts to arrive to begin Cell 5 (an even better one!) :)

[miked826]

Do a search for daddyo44907 on youtube. Very very good HHO information on his page.

[MadStu1978]

Cool, I've subscribed to him now :)

[clark714x4]

Keep it up madstu. I'm working on my 5th generator. I found that my last generator burned up do to a short. This next cell will be very well built. Also I'm finding that after running your cell for an hour or so, change the water, it helps keep the amps down.

[MadStu1978]

Sometimes I drive for 14 hours straight, stopping only for a few minutes to refuel, load and unload so mine needs to be able to cope with long running periods.

Building a PWM may help in this regard, but it's probably beyond my capabilities at this point.

[miked826]

Do a search on ebay for "pwm dc speed controller". The are pre-built and relatively cheap. They can increase hho output by as much as 300% as well as control the heat.

[MadStu1978]

D3 gave this description, which sums a PWM up really..

"A pwm is a good way to control the output of a cell without affecting its efficiency. Say you build a cell that can crank out 10Lpm with a pwm you can control that production, from 0lpm to 10 and anything inbetween, its kinda like a dimmer for a light"

So a PWM will not increase HHO output, it will only control the output to your requirements (and DC input of course).

[miked826]

But did you know that the HHO gas produced off PWM is not the same as HHO produced off straight DC current? It's 3 times as explosive as regular HHO hence the 300%. Don't ask me what video I learned that from. Ive watched way too many!

[miked826]

On my cell I was pulling 5 amps for 2 hours straight in my kitchen and it got so hot it boiled the water inside overflowed my bubbler. If it's going to be in an engine bay, it has to have air cooling just like the cars engine. Im going to mount it in front of my radiator or hook a transmission oil cooler to the cell and mount that in front of the radiator. Low amps or high amps, it will eventually overheat without cooling.

[MadStu1978]

Hopefully Neutral plates should help that though right? Getting the voltage between the plates down should prevent heat build up.

[miked826]

That will be my next test as to whether or not

it merely slows down the heat build up or actually controls it. I have 2 cells now. One with neutral plates and one without. I'll be doing the test in me Stationary Laboratory....my kitchen.

[MadStu1978]

LOL :D

The problem I have is that I don't have a power supply, other than my van, to run it constantly.

And I can't really leave my van running for hours, someone's bound to pinch it, or neighbours will start shouting at me because of the noise, and plus the cost of Diesel too!

I'm thinking about buying a big, burly, battery charger, but they're expensive. I used to have a 12V power supply when I was a teen and had a CB in my bedroom. Might be in the loft at my Mum's house.... Hmmm....

[miked826]

I bought a 15 amp digital battery charger for 30 quid at an auto parts store here in L.A.

With that I'm now able to simulate in my kitchen what happened in my car everytime I drove with it. HAD it been in my car at the time....it would have flooded the bubbler and then straight into my air intake!! You will have much bigger problems if youre driving up the M1 and you get water shot into your air intake at 70mph! Something for you to think about mate. I know I'll be thinking about it know. LOL

[MadStu1978]

hehe. In my first 3 cells I had made a "water trap" to stop just that from happening - and it worked too - it was just a bubbler with no water in it, lol, then any water that does go into it will drop to the bottom and the gas will continue up through the top pipe.

As pointed out to me though, this was just a little bomb full of explosive gas, so it's probably not a good idea.

Still working on that one...

[MadStu1978]

Good idea, but will make things difficult to install and to periodically inspect, no?

[deltahho]

Keep Up the good work. Try and find the good from the bad its all a learning experience. Kind Regards Delta.HH-O

[MadStu1978]

Thanks. And yeah, I'm learning all the time about what I can and cannot use.

Stu :)

[waynedavisband]

you have come along way and I appreciate your enginuity from little to nothing to what has the makings of a good cell best of luck

[MadStu1978]

Hehe, thanks a lot :) I had a lot of late nights though!

[BrokeMotorsports]

That is too bad - it looks like you were getting some good output from that cell. Like the others have said, dont give up!

[MadStu1978]

No, not giving up.

I've pulled it apart and will be cleaning it up and doing this cell - just a bit more professional, lol.

[SmartScarecrow]

nothing even close to like that has EVER happened to me ( yeah right !!! ) ... looks like you had a spark inside you container that did indeed go pop ...

grooves in your acrylic will work to keep your plate spacing even. but cutting them will be a pain in the butt. a cut guide and your dremel like tool should do it if you are carefull.

if you have a look at the most recent build ZeroFossilFuel did, it will answer many questions. his setup is similar to what you are shooting for.

[MadStu1978]

Yeah, just my luck he released it just 3 days after I'd done mine already, lol!

[miked826]

Scavenge everything you can from the old cell and before you reinstall the new one in the van, test it outside the van for HOURS mate, then take everything apart and see how everything is. You need to test the effects of heat, amps, KOH ratios, over a long period of time to simulate what it will go through when you stick it in your van and drive all day on it. All your readings will go up dramatically as time goes by. YOU CAN DO IT MATE! Get back on that horse!!

[MadStu1978]

Thanks mate, I'll try to do that.

I'll probably use something else to hold plates together - this didn't work out so well, hence the problems.

But whatever I decide, I'll not give up and will be continuing a new build very soon.