Cooling?

[Nat Hat]

Hey fellas I'm new to the site and the concept, but from what I'm seeing heat is the biggest issue. Has any one tried mechanical recirculaition through say an after market oil cooler. Here is my idea tell me if it would work.
Drill and tap a 1/4' hole near or in the bottom of your container, run a line to either an electical or vaccum powered fluid pump then through an oil cooler mounted ahead of the radiator. Have it reenter you generator from the top so as to mix readily with remaining solution. Not only would you gain extra capacity but you would more evenly maintain your electrolyte solution. AS WELL AS KEEPING YOUR SYSTEM COOL.
Okay now you've heard my idea, please fill free to chew it full of holes.

[hydrotinkerer]

Most coolers are made of copper, aluminun. Catalyst in the generators eats those metals. I don't know how long a life those kind of coolers woud have exposed to catalyst(Naoh,Koh). I did see one that took stainless steel pipe and made a cooler in front of the radiator. I have not heard how it works yet.

[Q-Hack!]

Yep, several people have tried it. Just make sure that your cooler is stainless steel. If you use aluminum, make sure you only use sodium bicarbonate as your electrolyte. KOH and NaOH both eat aluminum in just a couple of hours.

edit: I should note that several people believe that sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) breaks down into CO2 gas and NaOH, at which point it will eat your aluminum. I haven't tested this theory out yet, but it is possible.

[Mindcrime13]

i saw on youtube a guy with a pick up, that instead of a radiator use the same tubing spread in front of the radiator with the pump, i do not know if it works for him, but i figure it did, since its the same principle, except instead of using a radiator, he use more tubbing

[mneste8718]

How about you put your HHO generator in another container full of regular water and have that circulate through a pump and radiator... this would require more space of course but at least the water pump and radiator will be safe.

[plumabob]

You will need NO COOLING EVER if you use my plate setup. And it gets lots of production even at 12 amps.

[mneste8718]

You will need NO COOLING EVER if you use my plate setup. And it gets lots of production even at 12 amps.


You're absolutely correct, if you make a good unit, there should not be too much heat generated wastefully and get lots of production.

But... what if we used your plate setup and put in so much electrolyte and get as much amp draw as we can (I'm just thinking here...) to get as much HHO production out of a small unit as we can while using another loop of water to cool the whole thing. I'm just wondering if we would start to get diminishing returns or not...

[Stevo]

You will need NO COOLING EVER if you use my plate setup. And it gets lots of production even at 12 amps.

That is correct and it is not just applicable to @plumabob's setup. It's applicable to any generator where individual cell voltage is <= 2.4 Volts, wrapped with electrically resistant material and where electrolyte/H2O ratio has been optimized in accordance to plate spacing. Unless you are running pure distilled water, I would agree that aluminum is a bad idea even though it does dissipate heat very well.

[plumabob]

Heat is a killer, it melts and warps anything made from pvc or some other plastics. I only have a small car so this unit suits my use. I feel simplicity is best. The more involved with coolers and circulation pumps and so on you get the more chance you have for problems. Hey I can really boost production at 30 amps but I choose to keep the amp draw down. Actually I have gone in the other direction and run a max 13 amps while maintaining close to 1LPM. I'll be testing MPG results this week to see what difference there is if any.

Bob

[FuzzyTomCat]

You will need NO COOLING EVER if you use my plate setup. And it gets lots of production even at 12 amps.

Hey plumabob,

Nice picture it looks like you are using a 10 plate design, one (+) positive, one (-) negitive, and eight (N) neutrals tied together is this right ?

Fuzzy

[DigitalMocking]

You're absolutely correct, if you make a good unit, there should not be too much heat generated wastefully and get lots of production.

But... what if we used your plate setup and put in so much electrolyte and get as much amp draw as we can (I'm just thinking here...) to get as much HHO production out of a small unit as we can while using another loop of water to cool the whole thing. I'm just wondering if we would start to get diminishing returns or not...

There's also some debate about the usefullness of large HHO production anyway. Why do some people see big boosts in MPG on generators that produce 6 - 7 LPH? How much HHO is too much?

[hydrotinkerer]

You will need NO COOLING EVER if you use my plate setup. And it gets lots of production even at 12 amps.

How hot does the case get and how many amps after running for 2-3hrs straight. I have a 1-2 hr drive to work one way. Right now my gen runs that long at 16amps hot and temp is 130 degrees F. I really like your setup looks cooler than mine.

[plumabob]

Not really sure about exact temps but recently drove 8 hours straight bumper to bumper traffic for 3 hours. Had a bit too much electrolyte in the case and was pushing about 27 amps. It never overheated. Case got hot of course but there were no issues.