I shut down last night after an 1 1/2 hours when I ran out of beer. No really, I was pulling around 35 amps and producing steam. I am going to reduce my electrolyte to pull 15 amps at start up and see where that takes me. I will let ya'll know tonight. Right now I am heading to the sailboat to do some work.

 

Did you use the smack booster plate design like this?



Was the unit very hot when it started with the steam production?

 

OK.....I've started playing again and I'm trying Dave's idea now with just 1+ / 1- @ opposite ends and w/ no bs I was pulling 1amp.....after adding a total of 16tps of bs I'm still only pulling 5amps and gas production is slooooow. So I'm going to let this run for a while and then I'm going to try the layout below:


Results to follow............

 

Well after 20min. amps have dropped to 2amps and gas production has nearly stopped. In my setup I do not think 1+ / 1- is enough.....or maybe the corrosion is a factor but they have not been in water really for that long.............So off to the next test as in the diagram above.

 

Have you looke at the electrodes yet? I wonder if you have lost surface area.

Even a build up of corrosion could cause reduced output.

 

Ok....after running for 30min. with the connections above in previous post I finally filled a 1.89l bottle.......wow, pretty good LOL

2+/2- w/ no bs = 3.5-4amps after adding 8tps of bs = 11amps and test began
after 30min amps dropped to 5amps......that sucked!

Keeping in mind I'm using tap water right now and baking soda as an electrolyte and yes the water is dirty brown but I'm fine with that for testing. If all gets dialed in I will change to ss rods and a different electrolyte most likely KOH, just trying to keep cost down to prove concept. But in doing that I believe ss will produce the gas faster. But then again Parkland in another thread was using coat hangers and produced enough gas to be beneficial. So I should be getting a better result even with the corrosion factor, but why is the amperage dropping so fast?

Well I'm going to try my next test now as laid out below:

 

Other than looking from the top, no I have not taken the end cap off yet. It takes to long to let the thread sealer seal before I can start playing again. Maybe after I'm all done today I will so I can reseal it and let it sit overnight...

 

Here is a pic from the top of the rods after the last test.....

 

Now I just ran the next test for 15min. and my amperage started at 13amps and dropped to 5amps in 15min. time......something is really wrong, why is the amperage dropping so fast. These rods have between 3-4hrs of current running through them, they should not be that corroded.

Test was 3+ / 3- as in the diagram above and 12 tps of bs = 13amps. It took 15min. to produce 1 ltr and w/ the amperage drop as noted above.......At 13amps I was getting a nice stream of gas, but at 5amps the bubbles were very sporadic!

At this point I do not really know if it is worth investing in SS all-thread.........

 

amps dropping = baking powder comsumed?
Have you tried letting it sit for a while and restart the unit untouched to see if it has something to does with water temp/i.e water heats and becomes less dense so amps drop or is it neutraling the electrolyte that fast? wayne

 

Good point.....it's been sitting for an hour untouched since my last test I posted and so I plugged it in and jumped to 10amps and settled down to 4.5-5amps within a minute or two so I guess it is consuming the electrolyte rapidly.....maybe because of the type of metal.......damn this sucks!

I frequently touch the rods sticking out the ends and the body of the unit and it's never been more than slightly warm, not even close to hot.

 

Well guys it looks like I have some time to spare this sunday so I'm going to tinker with my generator.

I bought some 10 ga wire, and used an amp meter I had lying around.

Initial results do not show a drop in amps after roughly 5 minutes of running.

When I first connected the power it drew a little under 20 amps but the time I shut it off, everything was getting pretty warm and the gauge was reading 30 amps. Production seemed noteworthy, but I will have to rig up a measuring rig to figure out just how much its putting out.

I'm going to do that right now.............

 

twcad, I think your problem is the baking soda.
All of the documents I have read on HHO production have stated that baking soda is not a good electrolyte.
All of them that sold units stated baking soda will damage the generator.

Well I just made a run to Ace Hardware and the pool supply place.
I got everything I needed at Ace then the pool supply was closed for the holiday weekend, so no KOH.

Back to Ace Hardware.
Their pool supply section had nothing useful.

In the drain cleaner section, "Rooto Household Drain Cleaner" "100% lye" right on the front.
Lye is the common name for sodium hydroxide, which is named on the back label.
1 pound for 3.49

So I am back in business.

My plates, so far I have 9 cut and drilled are going to be 15" x 2" x .125".
The nice nylon bushings I found at Ace will keep the plates seperated .125" and insulate them from the all thread rod.

I thought I would post this while I take a coffee break and the plates cool down some.
Drilling through 9 SS .125" plates with a 1/2" bit was almost more than my small drill press at the house wanted.

Since I am going to try several different configurations I need to find something now that can house the generator for testing purposes.

I hope to post back with the inital test results by the next coffee break.

 

Results are in.

I reached 1L in 1:30 (thats one minute, 30 seconds). I wasn't expecting such high output. Had some fun with my dad making small explosions with it. I controlled the generator (very small bursts), he made the bang with a small torch. Used a funnel with only the flute above the water in a bucket with gas floating up the funnel to see what would happen.

Best thing since sliced bread

After nearly blowing the funnel out of the water we figured it was time to get serious again (well at least a little more serious). At least I know this is in fact brown's gas and not water boiling. Heat on the wiring may be a problem though. I want to have the amp gauge in the cab, along with temperature so I can moniter the system while driving. Its time for some planning on how to safely install this in the truck.

Can some one remind me what the general rule for minimum output is?

 

Well at this point I'm scrapping my rod idea unless someone else has gotten it to work or explain/fix my amperage dropping the way it does. I can only assume in my basic mind it's because of the steel I'm using. A buddy of mine has some sheet ss that I can have if I can figure out how to cut it. Then maybe in keeping with my same design stack several 16"x2" plates together in place of the rods in a similar configuration as the "smacks booster". But this is yet to be determined and done! To be continued.........

Dave85 that is excellent results.....way to go!

Dave S......Maybe I'll try the Lye before taking apart my unit and scrapping the rods. A buddy of mine who is making one locally just picked up the lye at Ace to try his out (same stuff you got). He made his out of 2.5" ss washers in a similar fashion as "Smacks" setup. He's making a liter in 2 minutes.