SCAM ALERT – Adding Hydrogen To Your Gas WON’T Save You Money
on Apr 11 in Accurate Auto Advice tagged gas mileage by jasonl
Adding hydrogen to your gas won't improve your gas mileage. [3:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Adding hydrogen to your gas won't improve your gas mileage. [3:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadListen to this post.
I stumbled across a scam today that I just had to write about. Here’s the hook:
“Increase your gas mileage 20-90% by adding a supplemental hydrogen generator to your car! A supplemental hydrogen generator works simply enough – you put distilled water in a special canister in your car, and electricity from your car’s battery is used to separate that water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is added to your car’s fuel because hydrogen burns very well (hydrogen is a very combustible gas), and it reduces the amount of gas you use! The oxygen is added to the air your car breathes in. Oxygen is needed for combustion, and more of it makes your car more efficient. One gallon of water is enough to provide oxygen and hydrogen for hundreds of miles!“
Here’s a nice graphic of the system.
The hook is followed by lines like “the secret the oil companies don’t want you to know” or “automakers and oil companies are working to keep this technology out of your hands”, etc. The websites (which I won’t link to because they’re a complete and total rip-off) even sell parts or entire mechanisms for adding a separator to your car. Unfortunately, there’s a problem with this idea. It doesn’t work! It’s impossible!
Here’s a summary of the system:
Step 1: Using electricity from the battery, the system separates water into oxygen and hydrogen. Keep in mind that the electricity in the battery is simple stored electricity from your engine. The engine creates electricity by turning your alternator, which powers your radio, headlights, turn signals, etc., with any extra charging your car’s battery.
Step 2: The oxygen from the separator is added to your air intake. More oxygen in the air makes for better combustion.
Step 3: The hydrogen from the separator is added to your fuel, reducing the amount of gasoline your car uses.
Step 4: Hydrogen and oxygen re-combine during combustion in your engine, releasing energy and making your car go. Unfortunately, the engine also needs to send electricity to your hydrogen separator in order to continue the process. That brings us back to step one.
At best, this would be a break-even process. While it is true that hydrogen can supplement gasoline, it’s important to remember that whatever energy you added to the water to get it to separate in step 1 doesn’t fall from the sky – it comes from your engine. Whatever power you gain in step 4 goes towards providing energy for step 1.
Here’s the ironic part – adding this equipment will probably reduce your gas mileage. You’re pulling energy out of the engine to break down water, but you’re going to loose some of that energy to electrical resistance in the alternator as it charges the battery, heat loss from the battery and the separator, and probably some combustion efficiency loss because the engine’s computer won’t understand what’s going on (the computer would need to be re-calibrated for the un-naturally high oxygen in the intake air stream, not to mention the hydrogen in the fuel).
There’ s a law called “conservation of energy” – whatever energy we put into something, that’s the most we can get out of it. We add energy to water to make oxygen and hydrogen, but whatever energy we get back can’t be more than we added.
In other words, it’s a scam.
Podcasting Is Live!
on Feb 16 in Accurate Auto Advice tagged by jasonl
AccurateAutoAdvice has begun to offer our content in more than just print – we’re officially podcasting! We’re not on a schedule or anything – we’re posting as we can, when we can, but we hope some people out their appreciate our efforts.
Listen to our announcement.
Here’s our podcast feed URL if you want to subscribe via RSS:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/accurateautoadvice/podcasts
If you’d like to use our podcasts for your own non-commercial purposes, feel free to do so. All we ask is that you reference the material back to our website. As for commercial purposes, please contact us to discuss.
You can also find us at:
My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-06968d705e31291a3f2c967e5bd225f0}
About the Authors
on Aug 30 in Accurate Auto Advice tagged by jasonl
A little biographical information about the Accurate Auto Advice authors, Jason Lancaster and Mark Harvey.
Mark Harvey
Mark began his automotive career in the 1980′s, when the car business was at its worst. Deceptive practices were common, and people were taken advantage of on a regular basis. While today’s car business is nothing like it was, Mark’s experience during those years showed him what can go wrong at a dealership.
Mark Harvey has done every job in the car business — service manager, salesman, finance and insurance manager, new car manager, used car manager, general sales manager, and even owned his own dealership. Here’s what he has to say:
“The problem with the car business is that salespeople and managers lose track of what’s really happening. Sometimes they pursue profits over everything else — even if it means misleading customers. While I’ve made sure that my staff and I behave ethically, there are still enough bad apples out there to ruin the barrel. My advice to anyone looking to buy a car is simple: do your homework. Know how a deal works, what you need to watch out for, and how to get what you want. Only then can you protect yourself from bad dealers.”
Jason Lancaster
Jason started his career in the car business in 1998. His inspiration? Beer money for college. That’s right, Jason started selling cars while pursuing a degree in engineering. After four years of working at the local Ford dealership and going to school full time, Jason graduated with a degree in civil engineering. Upon graduation, Jason was offered and accepted a position as Finance Manager at that same local dealership, and worked for almost 10 years in the car business. Jason started as a salesperson, became a finance manager, a new car manager, and finally a used car manager before leaving the business in early 2007.
What did Jason take away from his experience?
“Car salespeople and management staff are trained to get the most money out of a customer possible. While there is nothing wrong with a business trying to maximize its profits, most dealerships take advantage of people that don’t understand what’s going on. But if people do some research and get some good advice, they can’t be taken advantage of.”
