new and confused

[elwood]

I'm fairly new to hho systems so but I've been doing. Bit of research and can't seem to figure out some of the issues I'm having. my current generator is a 12 plate wet cell, 3.5x10 inch plates, I had it hooked up with 12v between plates and was pulling around 70 amps (for the few seconds I had it on) after a little research I took a few wires off and made nuteral plates between so I went down to a 8 plate system (jumper box is around 14v). Got nothing out of it. If I take it down to 5 or less plates it starts working again (4 or more volts between plates). I'm currently using spring water and salt (whichi just found the forum saying not to) so I know I need to change electrolyte but it seems like I might have a bigger issue but I can't seem to figure it out on my own. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[myoldyourgold]

Your only problem is the electrolyte. Go back to a 7 or 8 plate setup and use NaOH or KOH as an electrolyte and you will have a working reactor. Not an efficient one seeing it is an open bath type but working one all the same. NaOH is sold in a lot of hardware stores in the US and even a few Markets as 100% Lye. It must be 100%. Lows and Ace hardware both sell it in the US. If you have a local soap making store you can get KOH and NaOH from them.

[aceras624]

note: when MyOld says use NaOH or KOH as electrolyte, hes assuming you'll be mixing it with DISTILLED water to avoid impurities :)

and start working on a dry cell!!! :)

[myoldyourgold]

note: when MyOld says use NaOH or KOH as electrolyte, hes assuming you'll be mixing it with DISTILLED water to avoid impurities

and start working on a dry cell!!!

You are right aceras624. The problem with open bath reactors is most are made with low quality stainless and unless they keep the amps down under .25 amp per square inch on one side of one plate they are going to have a bunch of crude sometimes even with 316 stainless and distilled water. Most are over driving them enough that distilled water doesn't by itself fix the problem of crude in the electrolyte. It is just a poor choice of reactors all the way around but still makes HHO. The inefficiencies except in very dry climates prevent any gains. There are some exceptions as usual but as a general rule this is correct.

[elwood]

@myoldyourgold, im not really sure the quality of my stainless, its out of what appears to be a fume hood from a commercial kitchen, i do notice alot of gunk, and ill head into town now and get what i need to change my electrolyte, how strong do i mix it with the distilled water?

@aceras624, its definatly on my to-do list to make a dry cell,i started building this before i really did my homework, but for now ill need to settle with the wet cell till i can afford to buy stainless to make one, i called and priced it the other day, i cant remember the grade but it was $250 for a 4x8 sheet of stainless, could be worse but still more than i can afford for now

[Madsceintist]

@myoldyourgold, im not really sure the quality of my stainless, its out of what appears to be a fume hood from a commercial kitchen, i do notice alot of gunk, and ill head into town now and get what i need to change my electrolyte, how strong do i mix it with the distilled water?

@aceras624, its definatly on my to-do list to make a dry cell,i started building this before i really did my homework, but for now ill need to settle with the wet cell till i can afford to buy stainless to make one, i called and priced it the other day, i cant remember the grade but it was $250 for a 4x8 sheet of stainless, could be worse but still more than i can afford for now

316 ss !!!!!
Check out the thread on brown water.

[Sodbuster]

@myoldyourgold, I'm not really sure the quality of my stainless, its out of what appears to be a fume hood from a commercial kitchen, i do notice allot of gunk, and ill head into town now and get what i need to change my electrolyte, how strong do i mix it with the distilled water?

@aceras624, its defiantly on my to-do list to make a dry cell,i started building this before i really did my homework, but for now ill need to settle with the wet cell till i can afford to buy stainless to make one, i called and priced it the other day, i cant remember the grade but it was $250 for a 4x8 sheet of stainless, could be worse but still more than i can afford for now

Elwood I am also new to HHO and just some good advise, learn from those that have already been there and made the $$$ mistakes. I have wasted more money on things that don't work like building my first wet cell. Take that $250.00 that your going to spend on stainless and look at this http://www.hhoconnection.com/gfh20_productPages/gfh20_31Plate.html This cell is a built by a very reputable builder and no waste of time on your part. Your home work is already done for you and you can focus on your HHO goal.

[elwood]

Elwood I am also new to HHO and just some good advise, learn from those that have already been there and made the $$$ mistakes. I have wasted more money on things that don't work like building my first wet cell. Take that $250.00 that your going to spend on stainless and look at this http://www.hhoconnection.com/gfh20_productPages/gfh20_31Plate.html This cell is a built by a very reputable builder and no waste of time on your part. Your home work is already done for you and you can focus on your HHO goal.

what fun is it if you dont know how to build it? i COULD go buy an electric car...but i built one instead, i COULD go buy a biodiesel processing plant, but i built one instead, (still havent caught the bug to build an ethanol still.. just seems kinda pointless and a waste of energy, you get 30% less out of ethanol than you put into it) and i COULD go buy a generator that will do what i want it to, but im going to build it instead. that's pretty much my goal but ive go t to start somewhere and as far as i am with this hydrogen generator ive already built im committed to seeing it work. (btw im currently in collage for alternative fuels so it would probably be in my interest to learn how to do this now rather than later)


but i digress back to my generator, after a futile search through meijers and lowes i couldn't find koh so i settled for a 2lb package of naoh, and per instructions found elsewhere on this forum i started with 1/8 tbs per liter of distilled water, worked okay i had a 30 amp ammeter hooked up and it barely budged (running +NNNNNN- currently), did a quick test and i was producing around 1/4 lpm, seemed satisfactory since i could barely notice any amperage draw so then i started bumping up the lye concentration, i saw ".5 amps per square inch" mentioned several times mentioned so after some quick math i figured i should probably be running at around 15 amps (im only guessing that only the surface area of one plate is counted?) things looked and sounded a little more energetic the closer i got to 15 amps but i did another test and still came out to right around 1/4 lpm.

on a side note changing the electrolyte did fix the crud issue

any thoughts?