Which is better? High or low Voltage?

[scob89]

I am fairly new to HHO, I have order a cell off ebay and installed it in a vehicle before, but mounted it too close to the exhaust manifold and it melted.

Now I have built my own HHO generator and want to install it in my truck.

I have a few questions since i am starting fresh with this install.

It is better to run AC or DC?
14.7V or 50V+?

I think DC would be better since the majority of youtube videos are running DC.

This is the plan.
My truck is a 1996 Mazda B2300 with a 2.3L 4 banger with a 5 speed manual transmission. It gets anywhere from 25 to 30MPG. It has air conditioning that works perfect, yet I never use it. I would like to remove(and sell) the compressor and replace it with a second alternator. The truck has almost 200K mile on it(original engine and tranny) and still does burnouts. Due to an old lady driver and their insurance, I was basically paid to own the truck.(Paid $500 and after old lady redid the bodywork on the bed of the truck, was paid $600)

The generator would be installed in the bed of the truck, the front drivers side corner, and a mounting bracket would be made to hold it there. the wires and HHO output tube would go through the bed and be run inside the C-channel frame, then up to the engine compartment.

The alternator that I have to install is a GM 120Amp, I have a rebuild kit for it that will turn it into a PMA, so no battery required to excite the field coils. I have to option of removing the internal rectifier and voltage controller. and installing a separate 3 phase bridge rectifier so I would have high voltage DC. I think they product around 120V unregulated voltage.

My HHO generator is a wet volcano cell in a 5 gallon food safe bucket. I have a 10% mix of distilled water and KOH. Using a power supply out of an old server that provides 32A @ 12V, it runs for a little bit then overloads and shuts down. It is not shorted out because at 120V DC it produces quite a bit of HHO. I don't have a way to measure LPM, but I would take a guess at between 5 and 10 LPM just by watching the amount of bubbles coming out.

I would take a guess that it will require between 40 - 60 AMPS at 12V just guessing, that would equal 4 to 6 AMPS at 120V, would the higher voltage keep it from heating up? When I run it at 120VDC from the wall it does not seem to get much above warm to the touch. If anything I have a small radiator out of a pocket rocket I could use for cooling.

Any of this sound good or am I a complete dumba**?
Be honest.

I am hoping the end result will get the truck 40MPG+

[Havens78]

If you went DC at your current Trucks voltage you wouldn't need anymore than around 20 amps to get the 1.2 liters per minute that you would need for your trucks' 2.3 liter gasoline engine. And in the bed of your truck you could have great reservoir capacity, a well built unit using information from this site (search function) shouldn't get too hot even while being run as brute force.

[lhazleton]

My HHO generator is a wet volcano cell in a 5 gallon food safe bucket.

C'mon, REALLY??????
It sounds like you have a decent grasp of things (PMA, etc.), so why would you want to waste time with one of those friggin' 'volcano' deals? It's not only a wet cell design, but it's even more inefficient than the normal wet ones. The way the plates are stacked, the gas is constantly trapped between - about the worst design out there.
You should seriously do some research & build a drycell reactor that will actually give good results. It would suck to put lots of time & money into something that won't do $hit.

[BioFarmer93]

Hmmm, must Google "wet cell volcano" have never heard of this contraption before...

[BioFarmer93]

OK, just got back from looking at the most inefficient abortion of a reactor I think that I have ever seen. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY OR TIME on this thing. It is a disinformational scam placed out there by the evil powers that want to dissuade people from using HHO by having them build lousy reactors... Well, either that or somebody just has OCD and got hypnotized stacking washers and suddenly had to justify wasting so much time, I'm not sure... Either way, build a proper reactor- we'll help you.

[lhazleton]

OK, just got back from looking at the most inefficient abortion of a reactor I think that I have ever seen.

Geez, Gus. I kinda thought that once you'd seen one, you would immediately scrap the Beastie and start building these instead! :D

By the way. Do you actually ever do anything at work, or do ya get paid to hang out in here?????????? LOL

[BioFarmer93]

Man I have been EXTREMELY busy today, otherwise I would have contributed a lot more to the grou- wait a minute, what are YOU doin' on here so much today, bucko?

[lhazleton]

Hey, I'm still 'technically' unemployed.:D
Fartin' around with my '56 Belair mostly today.......... The '47 Ford needs a fuel pump, so I can't work on the 'ol flathead anymore until her royal friggin' majesty lets me spend the 60 bucks on one.

[scob89]

I must ask, why should I stay at 1.2LPM? If I can produce 5LPM wouldn't that work better?

I don't want to use the trucks factory alternator because it already powers the truck, plus a 1000 Watt power inverter, I really don't want to put another 40 amps load on it.. It's only capable of 95 AMP output and the inverter takes 83 at full load. Thankfully I never run it at full load.

Also I did a Google search on "Wet volcano cell" and there where tons of different cells. Just wanted to clear up this is what I am using, but much bigger "cups"
(NOT my video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fck4F_RobA

Also I already have the cell built and like what I see for production, plus it has a large water capacity, so I will be using it til i find out a way to build a dry cell cheaply. This one cost me just over $40 to make.

[BioFarmer93]

Have fun, in the meantime I'll suggest you go back about 100 pages in our archives and start reading. Give us a call when you get back up to this page again and we'll attempt have this discussion.

[scob89]

So, none of my questions have been answered, basically told to just go and read the whole forum. Not even any hints on what to look for. Great like I want to spend a year doing that? I did try the search function, but nothing relevant came up in the first 5 pages. oh well, onto a different forum. Just like HHO these forums are trial and error to find the good ones.

[hhoconnection]

So, none of my questions have been answered, basically told to just go and read the whole forum. Not even any hints on what to look for. Great like I want to spend a year doing that? I did try the search function, but nothing relevant came up in the first 5 pages. oh well, onto a different forum. Just like HHO these forums are trial and error to find the good ones.

So far I only see two questions that you asked. Do I run AC or DC? and Why should I stay at 1.2 LPM. First answer - DC. Second answer because over 1/2 LPM of HHO for every liter of engine size is too much and will actually give you worse results.

Boo hoo for you to have to spend some time searching the forum, most of us here have spent 3 plus years learning this stuff. If you have SPECIFIC questions, make a list, lose the attitude, and maybe somebody will help you. It IS going to require SOME effort on your part!

[BioFarmer93]

So, none of my questions have been answered, basically told to just go and read the whole forum. Not even any hints on what to look for. Great like I want to spend a year doing that? I did try the search function, but nothing relevant came up in the first 5 pages. oh well, onto a different forum. Just like HHO these forums are trial and error to find the good ones.

I'm really going to try not to flame to your rude noob butt, however I may slip from time to time. You come in here with the crummy cup cells thinking they are all that, and when told by people that actually know better, you complain about $40 anjd say you're gonna keep it.
You need to put yourself in our shoes for a moment, do you actually think that we mentors want to type out the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over (get the idea?) for every noob that comes along and won't fricken' read some? You seem to type OK, therefore I assume you're not illiterate, so you must simply be lazy. We quit spoon feeding lazy noob's a few months back and the forum is better for it. The newer folks ask intelligent questions now simply because they have built themselves a foundation of basic knowledge to stand upon to ask those questions. For your little 2.3L engine, 5LPM could be made to work, sure... With a lot more electronics work than you want to put into it. A 2.3L engine needs about 1.2LPM of HHO. With a PROPER reactor, you can make 1.2LPM with about 18-19 amps. Don't run a second alternator, the extra drag defeats the purpose on such a small engine- it almost did on my 7.3 diesel... If you had done any reading you would have known that and I was making 9-10 LPM @130A off of a 150A system dedicated alternator.
Also, don't taunt us about finding a better board- you won't, we've checked- that is unless you want to find people that still build 12v Mason jar cells and think they've got the hot ticket. There is a depth of talent at this forum that you would be hard pressed to locate somewhere else (for free). There are other noobs here right now that are reading this and nodding their heads, thinking to themselves "damn, Bio jumped in my azz too about that- but if he hadn't of, I wouldn't know what I know now, and I wouldn't have a decent system going together either..." So take it as you will, hoss- no skin off my nose either way.;)

[scob89]

OK, that's 2 questions answered. I figured DC would be better, But did not know too much was a bad thing. I figured the more the better.

Third question, Is high or low voltage better?


And yes I am a lazy type of person, but am willing to do research and such, but you have to meet me half way, just suggesting that I go read the entire forum is not very productive.

As for placing myself in your shoe, yep, been there, fixed it. I am a member of a Dog forum, and the forum had the same issue, same questions over and over again, instead of just telling people to use the search function, which the forum just made a single thread which answered 99% of the basic questions, we just redirected the new members to that thread.
This is what I am talking about - http://www.dogforum.com/dog-training/
The Sticky threads answer most of the questions normally asked.

The reason I said I was keeping my cell is because I already built it, at no time did I ever say that it was the best cell out there. I don't even know what the true LPM are, I just took a SWAG at the 5.

As for running a second alternator, I am still going to, maybe not for the HHO cell, but still going to. I don't really like running my power inverter off the main alt. Most of the work sites that I go to are out in the boonies with no power, but I still need to runs drills and saws and prefer not to lug around a dedicated generator.

Even if I can run this cell at 20A 12V and produce 1.2LPM, I would still installed the second alternator and run the power inverter off it, then possibly upgrade to a 1500W to run the table saw.

[BioFarmer93]

-Never said read the whole thing, said 100 pages... As for the second alt for tools, that's a whole different story, now isn't it? If you're trying to save fuel then don't run the second one off of your truck, make one of these...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=aY9qmeA8gVI
This is a much more economical way to make 115vac., plus it's even more portable than the truck and burns a heck of a lot less gas.

[scob89]

As I said, I prefer not to lug around a dedicated generator. I have built one of those Alternator/5HP gas engine combos, they work great for fuel efficient battery charging. Nothing against them, but on a job site the less equipment you have to stash away at the end of the day the better. The gen set in the video is heavy and big, same as a standard gen set. It's slightly bigger then my chop saw. To take a dedicated generator I would have to leave a large tool behind. Most of my tools that I bring with me I use, so not having one that I use would not be good.

So, for the 100 pages, do I just go and randomly read 100 pages or what?

Also I find it Ironic that I am just being told to go read 100 pages, not given any helpful hints as to what to read or links to threads I should read, yet not one that has replied has even bothered to read the thread title.

That being said I have learned a few things which is why I have stuck around. Learned a few things on a different forum too. Not taunting as you would call it, just collecting info.

[BioFarmer93]

What I said was, "-I'll suggest you go back about 100 pages in our archives and start reading. Give us a call when you get back up to this page again-" which means exactly what it says. I'm trying to provide you with background and full context. I will NOT cherry pick posts for you to read, as you need to know all of it, not just select parts and pieces. As many of us have said many times, this stuff is not 'plug and play'.