Dormant KOH

[Wallaby]

KOH (potassium hydroxide) possibly going dormant? I started up the HHO system today and it was pulling zero amps. The first thing I thought, an electrical problem. I checked everything out and all was good. I changed out the distilled water and KOH and all was good again. I haven't ran into this yet. Has anyone experienced this?

Wallaby

[overtaker]

Are you possibly loosing some koh in the water vapor (or steam) ? Did this happen over time or over night? Was the water temp. a factor ? Were you gradually loosing production?

[Wallaby]

Overtaker, the temp runs at 145F everytime that I've checked it. I always operate the cell under 20 amps. This cell has been running two weeks on this particular 1.5L batch of distilled water and KOH. This is really strange. Maybe it overheated and I didn't realize it and the KOH vaporized. I think I will attach a thermocoupler and monitor the temp while driving.
Overtaker, I think you may be on to something.


Wallaby

[HHOinKY]

is there an ammeter attached that you can see? You could have slowly been loosing it the whole time, and you just noticed it? Or do you check production everytime you start?

~mitch

[Painless]

I can add some weight to the possibility that KOH escapes in sufficient quantities with the water vapour:

My cell in it's last stable configuration (where I was running it all the time) was outputting 2.33 LPM and running at approximately 120F max. As some of you know, I have my own design of cleansing bubbler that uses a condenser coil to remove the water vapour completely from the HHO before allowing it to bubble up through the distilled water.

The cooled water vapours will naturally collect in the water in the bubbler, along with any KOH within. It is worthy of note, that the other day, when it got down to below freezing (my flow meter was a solid block of ice) the water in my bubbler was barely even starting to freeze at the top.

I think this is some evidence of how much KOH escapes in the vapour.

[Wallaby]

HHOinKY, yes I constantly monitor the amps. The PWM, Amp meter, 02 efie and the map controller is mounted inside the car. Friday afternoon when I parked the toyota everything seemed fine. Sunday around noon is when I discovered the problem. The car was parked in the basement during this period. Very strange.

Wallaby

[coffeeachiever]

Is this just a KOH problem, or can we expect this from NaOH as well? Also, can this be stopped if cell temp stays below a set level?

[Wallaby]

Coffee, good question......

[Wallaby]

I'm an Idiot.....sorry for the scare guys.

I drove to work this morning all is good. I went to lunch it was not drawing any amps. What the crap. When I returned from lunch I open the hood and checked the wires for voltage at the vessel. 12.5 volts. Still no amps and no HHO production. I grabbed the wire terminals and slightly turned them and the the engine idle dropped and the cell took off producing. All of this excitement over a bad connection.
Again i'm sorry guys, normally I am more thorough.

Wallaby

[overtaker]

Wallaby, don't be sorry. You got us thinking.

[Wallaby]

All the more reason to shelf the wet cell.

Good news....
I have a new flow meter on the way. Check this out.

https://testextranet.chem.agilent.com/en-US/Products/consumables/gasmanagement/adm1000flowmeter/pages/default.aspx


Wallaby

[Painless]

Don't worry about it Wallaby, I've done that a few times myself :)