Does adding Hydrogen to the fuel/air mixture really works to save gas?

Question

There are all these web sites that advertize conversion kits to add to a regular gas or diesel engine that claim to improve performance and increase mileage just by adding Hydrogen in the intake. It sounds too good to be true...is it? Do you have one?

Answer 1

Don't listen to any answerer who doesn't say they've personally tried it. Yes or no, they don't know because they haven't tried it. Look it up on youtube and see what you find. It's so cheap that it's worth experimenting with. It's really not hard to do either. There are videos on youtube that will show you everything you need and how to build it yourself for free. If it was a scam, why would you find people on youtube doing it for free! You'd find only people on youtube talking about how mad they are that they tried it. I've NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER found A SINGLE PERSON who claims that they tried it and it didn't work. Not one!

Answer 2

It works IF the hydrogen comes from some other source than producing it with power from the engine.   Otherwise it would be a perpetual motion machine.

Answer 3

Those things are scams.  Adding hydrogen to the mix does increase fuel efficiency but you need a tank of hydrogen, extracting it from water as you go uses more energy then you gain from the "increased efficiency".

Answer 4

No it's a con.

The whole premise of the hydrogen booster or HHO is that it allows for more complete burning of the fuel.

Even if you took a mid 70’s car your hydrocarbons emissions were only (Federal 1975 emissions standard) 1.5 grams per mile. Even if we assume that 1.5 grams was all unburnt gasoline and if adding a hydrogen oxygen mix could burn it all and you broke even making the hydrogen oxygen mix (you don't) you wouldn’t save that much fuel. You would have to drive over 2,500 miles to make up one gallon of gas, and if you got 20 mpg before they hydrogen booster, you would only increase your to 20.16192 mpg not counting the fuel lost making the HHO (but that's another story). And those are 1970’s numbers; cars today are much more efficient at fuel management.

The only way they make better mileage is to lean out the fuel air mix, but doing so will increase the temperature of the inside of the cylinder, this will result in burnt valves, pistons, and cylinder head damage. You won’t notice the damage right away it takes time so say in 5,000 miles or so you get the joy of rebuilding a motor, $2,000 to $5,000+ going without a car for a few weeks. In addition to the engine damage caused by lean burn and high combustion temperatures and an excess of oxygen (when you burn lean you burn all the fuel but you don’t use all the oxygen) cause the formation of nitrogen oxide.

If you believe the web site you would have to increase the efficiency of your engine by 3 to 15% or more. That would also mean you'd get much more HP out of an engine. If this was even remotely true every hot rodder out there would put this device on their if I have a 400 HP engine that would mean I would have between a 412 and 460 HP engine and works out to $5 to $1 a HP and that’s very cheap. We don’t see them because they don’t work.

Please save your money, it's been tested many, many times and it fails every time.

Answer 5

yes it improves combustion effeciency,...

however....  the alternator is used to create the electorlysis... and alternators produce resistance on your automobile in direct ratio to the power being drawn from them.... so IF there is an improvement in gas MILEAGE..it's probably very nominal.

You can't get something for nothing...

Here's the logic in why it doesn't work as advertised.

Using electricity for anything other than work automatically sustains a loss in the conversion and subsequent usage of whatever energy it was converted into.

Using the electricity directly for work (and electric motor) is the most efficient.... so if it doesn't make sense to use the alternator to drive an electric motor to help the engine, then it doesn't make sense to use electricity to create hyrdrogen to help the engine produce work.

Also, many people find it's very easy to burn up a stock alternator using these hydrolizers.

Answer 6

If 5-7% of your engine's power comes from the hydrogen then it helps a lot. Many hydrogen makers that are powered from you car do not produce nearly enough.

Eventually cars will have hydrogen tanks and primary fuel tanks. Cars will run on ethanol or diesel or gasoline or something like that. Hydrogen will boost the engine.

I am doing this on my dirt bike. Just for fun.

Check out USH2.Com. I have spent hundreds on their books and CDs. Its not a bunch of bullshit. Its real science.

Answer 7

It might boost your performance at the expense of damaging your engine.   My advise is to stay away from it.  If it really works the car makers would be coming out with it.

Answer 8

I think the only efficient way to get hydrogen would be from a solar powered unit that would store hydrogen for later use...but this would be dangerous to use for the common person...attaching the pressurized bottle to your engine is definitely something for professionals...that might outweigh the costs to burning up your engine...if you're a good mechanic with access to free old motors in a junk yard, you can replace them once a month and drive very cheaply...but most of us have to protect our car's engines

Answer 9

i wouldnt muck around with it unless u know what ur doin as hydrogen is unstable and explosive but yes it would work

Answer 10

don't know, but i'd sure as heck hope so. that'd be awesome to get 40 mph for a change and start deserting those gas stations more and more everyday.

Answer 11

Yes, it actually does.  Hydrogen itself is very flammable, but does burn for long.  Flammable may not even be the right word.  Explosive may fit more.  Anyway, a car's fuel must be explosive.  It is generally turned into mist and ignited at a piston.  The piston moves up and down and causes a gear to turn.  So in response to your question, since hydrogen is explosive and is cheap and common, it will improve performance.  And by the way, hydrogen makes bigger explosions than gas and will make less heat byproducts.

Answer 12

hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, however it is unavailable as a gas, its all been oxidized into the lowest energy level called water.  Water has absolutely no energy avaiable for use.  We can add energy to water and free up the h2 quite easily, easy, but NOT energy efficiently.  We ac also strip hydrogen away from hydrocarbon fuels, like natural gas and gasoline, again, not effiiently.

For example you want to use hydrogen as a fuel (H2 is nt a fuel,but we can pretend her).  To get H2 to put in your engine you start with water or methane (starting with methane is the cheapest way and 90% of all H2 is made starting with methane).  

If you add 100 kilowatts of energy, you'll get out about 40 kilowatts of H2 gas.  Then that 40 kilowatts of H2 is sent to an engine, that engine will make about 10 kilowatts of power to the cars wheels.  So why would you do that?  Why not take the 100 kilowatts of natural gas and burn it, you'll get 30 kilowatts of power to the wheels and save the cost of all the equipment.  If you were using electricity, if you put a battery in the car and use 100 kilowatts of electricity, you'd get about 90 kilowatts to your wheels.  So just skip the H2 step and go with methane or electricty to add more power. save money on equipment and get more MPG!!!

To answer you last to questions, its to good to be true and if they have one they are selling they will be investigated by the FTC and will end up in prison like others have.