Run Your Car On Water – Money Saver or Scam?
Obviously one hot topic around the country and I’m sure around the rest of the world is the price of fuel. It doesn’t take Einstein to realise that with prices edging upwards of $1.50 a litre owning and driving a car is turning into an expensive hobby!
Honestly I think that the amount of tax we pay on fuel in this great country of ours is simply daylight robbery but I guess that is another issue for another day.
So along with high fuel prices come people looking for ways to save themselves some money at the bowser. With that of course comes people and companies claiming that they have the answer for keeping more of your hard earned in your pocket.
If you spend any amount of time on the internet you may have come across these websites claiming that it is possible to run your car on water. The skeptic and motor mechanic in me said “Yeah, right!” the first time I saw one of these sites. When you look past all the hype of the salespage you see that sure it is possible to supplement your vehicles fuel supply by extracting what is known as ‘Brown’s Gas’ or ‘hydroxy’ from water.
So does it work? Are there any side effects, for your vehicle I mean, not you! Headaches, nausia? No seriously now, of course the people behind these products will have you believe that it is the answer to all the problems you have ever had but I want some hard facts, some solid figures. The best way to get these is to run a test and that is exactly what we are going to do.
Luckily for us we have only one car that sees regular use, my wife has a real job where she often has to deliver meals from the local chicken shop whereas (according to her) I spend all day on my bum surfing the net and rarely have to venture out into the big, wide world. Hey, it’s not surfing it’s work! Anyway, Belinda’s car is a 1997 Toyota Camry, four cylinder 2.2 litre, automatic power house with almost 240,000km on the clock – way overdue for replacement but very well looked after none-the-less.
For the purpose of this test we are going to track the fuel range we are getting from a full tank at the present, document it all on this site and then once this is done we will fit one of these miracle making kits and see what we get, once again over the range of a full tank. I have changed the spark plugs, oil and filter and cleaned the throttle body so we start off with a clean slate, so to speak. I will be monitoring the tyre pressures on a weekly basis to ensure that the results we get are as accurate as possible and as it is coming into winter here the air conditioning will only be used occasionly.
The type of driving that will be done will be mostly city type driving, however we will do a couple of highway runs of equal distance to accurately compare the fuel usage. Here are the details of the first fill-up. Part Two of the base mileage test can be found here.
55.90 Litres – Odometer Reading 237,158KM
Run Your Car On Water – Part Two
Run Your Car On Water – First Drive
Run Your Car On Water – Quick Update
Run Your Car On Water – First Test Results
Run Your Car On Water – Quick Update No.2
Run Your Car On Water – Not EFI Friendly By A Long Shot
HiCraig,
– there are some very ‘wordy’ people here giving their theories etc. etc. so I may have missed your findings but want to know if it works – prefer converting to water to having a gas bottle – which could explode – underneath my van !!!!!
Really interested in how your experiement went with using water to power your car (or rather your wife’s car
thanks for giving it a go and for letting us all know
Craig fall off the face of the earth? Or did that test not go as planned (hoped)?
Come on back buddy and tell us how it went!
Bart,
My bad, forgot to post a link in the original article. All fixed now, try http://www.autofix.com.au/blog/archives/581.
hi from porto,portugal;everyone is close to target(reality);my input::::if you have ,say,20 s.steel plates,10×8 sq.in.,in pairs,you have 800sq.;if you draw,say,(lots of it…))100 amps at 36 volts off of 3(you say 10?ok.)…big car batteries(must be deep cycle -150 dol.ea.),In the trunk; you produce a MAXIMUM of 3600 watts worth of Energy from the H2 energy,for approx one hour(close to 4.8 HPXeff.);your car has ,what?0 ,80,100,200,more? HP?;(so,IT WORKS,BUT SO DOES AN ANT)…but wait;;;;;;;;;;;100Ax36V,in the trunk;;;;;;;;;of course;elec. is energet. cheap;you recharge them at home at night;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;also,just the PWM (power supply,to vary the H2 as needed,of course) for those batteries would run a thou.;;;;;;;;;so, it becomes an hybrid,you”burn” electricity ,and you must plug in at home;of course, GASOLINE CARS ONLY;;;;;;;;;;;;DIESELS:BLOW-UP WITHIN MINUTES(unless negligible qty. used);;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;so,the smallest gasoline car you can find,and you may run(attention,now))on ELEC,(look.ma,no elec.motor,uau) NOT ON HYDROGEN;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;(And,yes,there is a simpler way;;;;;I just thought of it,but have to do the calculations);if you thought you could run your car on water,you are a complete fool,for the time being(2008,july);prove me wrong and work on “cracking”water into its gases;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Good talking to you people; cheers..
Hi,
If I’m understanding your comment right, the idea here is not to run the car on water it is to supplement the vehicles fuel supply with hydrogen to save on gas.
Admittedly the names that some of these ‘products’ are called can be decieving (Run Your Car On Water, Water 4 Gas etc etc) that is not what we are trying to do here.
Regards,
Craig
To the “moderator”
Your actions of censorship defy the very basis of the internet. To do so without comment is inexcusable. This could be an educational and instructional thread. Yes I got sick of purile ignorant posters and went over the top, that gives you the right to tell me to tone it down, not censor. The whole notion of an anonymous ego making moral/ethical decisions on behalf of an adult group is absolutely repugnant to any form of universal sufferage. You have successfully subverted the whole purport of this medium. I can only assume that in exercising your ego you choose to remain as wilfully ignorant as those your misguided actions are supposed to be helping. Stop taking the world so seriously. It doesn’t need closed minded petty tyrants. Their egos are generally inversly proportional to their abilities anyway.
The Thylacine
lol, I am unable to edit comments and I specifically asked for the language to be kept clean as I am aware of at least one group of primary school kids that visit this site semi-regularly and I would like to keep them coming back. Here is what I wrote at the end of the “First Test Results” post in case you missed it -
“Once again I am sure this post will attract it’s fair share of comments, both negative and positive and I ask one thing, that the language be kept clean and keep the comments on topic. This site is read by people of all ages.”
I am all for having a good debate about this subject but why the anger?
It has all but been proven, to me anyway, that the these systems do not live up to the promises of the promoters (surprise, surprise) and that was the sole aim of my test.
Perhaps there is a use for this ‘technology’ but it certainly isn’t in the way these people would have the motoring masses believe.
I don’t have the knowledge or inteligence to debate the pro’s and con’s, I can only form an opinion from what I see but please debate on, just keep it clean guys.
Craig
Thankyou Craig.
I’m sorry that this wasn’t what you wanted it to be and glad that you at least tried to apply some methodology to your research. Good on you.
Just a passing note, I was looking up the properties of H2,(got plenty of time, lasted less than 24hours in Kuwait City…got cleaned up big time by a local woman driving a Chev Suburban while wearing the dreaded Burkah, Talk about driving blindfolded,…sunglasses and max tinted windscreen too, now got 1 plate in tibia 1 pin in fibula and six screws in various ankle bones and a lot of ouch. Passenger is still in intensive care, fortunately He’s pulling through, she hit his side of our work pick up) unfortunately in a format that I can’t cut and paste but take a look at the relative thermal energy of H2 compared to petrol or diesel
Hydrogen: 270 Btu/cubic foot: gas at 1 atmosphere and 15 degrees celsius.
Petrol: 836,000 Btu/cubic foot: liquid
Diesel: 843,700 Btu/cubic foot: liquid
(sorry its in imperial measurements but my text books were written in the dark ages)
It is comparing a liquid to a gas but that is how the Woo Woo workers supply the H2 to the engine and liquid is how the petrol is delivered. Every time you replace the atmosphere with H2 (remember that 20% of the atmosphere os Oxygen) you are reducing the potential power of the engine by several orders of magnitude. No wonder it doesn’t work.
Petrol in Kuwait City is about (AU)80 cents a (US)GALLON (21.6 cents a litre)The locals were wingeing that it’s cheaper in Saudi. Don’t need H2 boost there.
The Thylacine
Of course, I felt I nothing more to say on this forum, as I also was not allowed to respond. It certainly wasn’t due to my language, as I try to insure that it would be appropriate for anyone of any age group, although that has nothing to do with disagreements and the ability to respond accordingly.
Although it appears that Craig isn’t willing to take the additional steps outlined in the documentation and now seems to be backing away from further testing. Too bad, as I was hoping to follow this to see if it was actually a viable alternative and the potential results of the various phases. Of course, performing just one step may not provide the optimal results and most of the other discussions have indicated that the other additions are necessary in reaching optimal results.
So, Good Luck with whatever you decide. As my comments are deleted and as further testing is not seemingly in the foreseeable plans, I guess there’s no reason to keep this one in the bookmarks.
Jim
That’s true, the system probably won’t realise it’s potential by doing only one step however I don’t believe the solution offered is either safe or within the scope of the everyday motorist as advertised.
Craig
Daniel Dingel, the inventor of a car that uses water as its fuel (specifically the hydrogen extracted on demand from ordinary water), now has a website: http://DanielDingel.com
To USA JIM: About your comment “I don?t think the Thermodynamic Police have jurisdiction over what?s going down on the Internet yet.” Wow, funniest comment ever!
To The Thylacine: I definitely agree with you about Thermo laws. If what you are saying is correct about bond energies in the water molecules and about the H2 molecules not having any higher potential after being separated through electrolysis, then because of scientific proven laws (by the way, scientific laws are irrefutable, as opposed to theories) there will be no net gain of energy going into the engine. I’m not very familiar with bond energies, but I guess you’re right after thinking about it. There is no ‘hidden potential energy’ within water if you separate the molecules, since based on what you stated earlier, in the end you will need to supply 100 kJ (for example) of electrical work in order to get H2 and 02 molecules which will be 100 KJ richer in energy than before when they were water molecules in an ideal case (correct me if I’m wrong).
To everyone confused about Thermodynamic Laws: You cannot refute a LAW. Unlike a theory, LAWS have been proven over and over to be irrefutable. Thermodynamics is based on LAWS, so don’t try to refute it. Systems have been modeled thanks to this, including the Internal Combustion engine, Diesel Cycle, and others which I will not mention. There is no way in hell you can refute, disprove, or doubt any scientific law, once confirmed as a LAW. I mean, you can try, but odds are that the Thermodynamic Police will take you in their custody….and give a break to the engineers and their opinions. They know what they’re talking about and they’re usually here to help, not to scorn.