Why wouldn't it be.....

[Dave Nowlin]

a good idea to run plain tap water in our bubblers once the chance of freezing weather has passed? I know, what is this nut talking about? O.K. the logic is this, since some KOH may end up in our bubblers and we don't want any in our engines. If we ran plain tap water in our bubblers, it wouldn't be a big deal to siphon them out and refill with fresh tap water every few weeks. That way the KOH concentration in our bubblers would never get very strong. Electrolysis doesn't occur in our bubblers, so why do we need distilled water in them if we have check valves just upstream of the bubbler. That way no tap water could ever get in our reserviors or cells. Am I missing something here or has this just been a big oversight on all our parts?

Dave Nowlin

[Dave Nowlin]

This blows my mind. This thread has been read by 19 people and not one comment.

Dave Nowlin

[H2OPWR]

a good idea to run plain tap water in our bubblers once the chance of freezing weather has passed? I know, what is this nut talking about? O.K. the logic is this, since some KOH may end up in our bubblers and we don't want any in our engines. If we ran plain tap water in our bubblers, it wouldn't be a big deal to siphon them out and refill with fresh tap water every few weeks. That way the KOH concentration in our bubblers would never get very strong. Electrolysis doesn't occur in our bubblers, so why do we need distilled water in them if we have check valves just upstream of the bubbler. That way no tap water could ever get in our reserviors or cells. Am I missing something here or has this just been a big oversight on all our parts?

Dave Nowlin

Dave, As long as you have check valve's in place tap water would be what I would use and change it very often. The less KOH in the water the less chance of KOH entering the engine.

Larry

[bigjim56]

Dave,

Check out Stu's thread about "Bubbler use to remove KOH". I ran a secondary bubbler w/straight DI (pH 7.0-7.3)...after 24 hrs. of run, pH went up to >9.0. The pH of the cell electrolite was 12.85 (3 level teaspoons KOH/gal DI). This shows a minute contamination from the steam/HHO. I suggested maybe a 3rd bubbler, and then there was discussion of the coil method to reduce moisture content. Viper has videos of a T-tubing setup that he uses cork panel pins to inject 500 holes per unit to produce a fine small bubbling effect. Thats an excellent idea too.

From my dry cell test runs and w/close monitoring of my pH/temp./voltage readings for the last week, I'm leaning towards a regular bubbler (eye cup bubble/diffusion) that emits to a secondary bubbler (ebay/has 2 lower drain outlets) and I'll flush once/week, and refilling w/DI.

The pH of tap is anywhere from 9.5-10.2 in my area, DI is approx. 7.0 (neutral) ...the DI will give you a bigger buffer than tap, but tap is fine...if flushed weekly/biweekly at most. I think the VAPOR PRESSURE is a big concern here. A hot/warm solution of KOH enriched secondary bubbler water will do a lot more harm than a cooled solution of tap water. The vapor pressure is a constant state that increases w/temperature (steam). Driving distance can be a factor even. An acidic based (lemon oil/vinegar) saturated filter could even be implemented at the final stage to eliminate any chance of caustic contamination to the intake.

bigjim56

[Dave Nowlin]

One thing I'm running that none of you seem to be running, is a scrubber between then reservoir and bubbler. I've also been checking reservoir temperature and it is >110 F. I also have a drip leg and expansion chamber in my HHO delivery hose after the bubbler.

Dave Nowlin