HHO Basics
What’s a Container Cell?
Previously, the common cell design was a container cell. Stainless plates or tubes were submerged into an outer container. Container cells suffer from severe voltage leaks and lower efficiency.
Why use Neutral Plates?
Car batteries are 12 volts. Alternators are about 14 volts. Target plate voltage is about 2.2 volts. Overdriving plates wastes energy, creates unwanted heat, and leaches chromium. Adding neutral plates between electrode plates divides the voltage down and dramatically increases efficiency. We researched and proved that using neutral plate technology doubled efficiency. Ironhead’s open source s-cell gets popular and D3 establishes the 4.3 MMW efficiency milestone. Neutral plate efficiency is standard in the public domain after 2007.
Efficiency -vs- Output
The controls for raising HHO output are: greater plate surface area, stronger electrolyte solution, thinner gaskets, and less neutral plates! Two electrode [12 volt] boosters are only 1.0 MMW Novices quickly learn that even small cells can draw 70 amps. In most cases, Efficiency is far more important than output volume. This becomes critical when seeking mileage boosting gains. The ultimate prerequisite and drive for efficiency comes in researching the self-running hho engine. The factors for raising efficiency are: more steel (higher ss cost), more neutral plates (bell curve), no voltage leaks (holes in plates), lower elyte bonding energy {on the periodic chart – notice Potassium (K) is more efficient than Sodium (Na)}. It took years of research to bring you this list!
MMW
D3 developed a measurement standard to allow dissimilar cell designs to be analyzed and compared with out saying it looks like this one has more bubbles. Really – it was a problem! MMW efficiency output (milliliters per minute per watt) allows any cell to be compared directly to any other cell or design. Divide the hho output produced in a minute (ml) by the watts used in that minute (w). Thus, ml/w = MMW rating. If people do not have a cell MMW rating – you probably should not purchase from them. Whether being slippery or just ignorant, there are better people to work with. Further problems where identified with MMW. Two electrode cells at 12 volts create steam in the hho. This was refined by temperature adjusting the hho to room temperature. Warm hho or hot hho with water vapor erroneously scores higher in MMW, temperature adjusting to cold hho (STP) is a more accurate MMW rating.
Dry Cell
The term dry cell referring to a hho electrolyzer came about in discussion while helping others to understand the difference between wet container cells (voltage leaks) and the plate / gasket stack efficiency advantage. “The outside of the plate edges are dry not wet.” “The cell is dry on the outside – the water is on the inside” PFN explained to Lefty. From then on, the dry cell name stuck as a way to quickly describe this new endplate/plate/gasket assembly to those only familiar with container cells. Some have aversion to the dry cell name. Are they suffering from NIHS (not invented here syndrome)? The dry cell name rode in with the efficiency milestone of 4.3 MMW to 5.6 MMW! Note that EBN did not invent the dry cell (perhaps re-invent). Our efforts made the most efficient cell design, popular, open source, and standard into the public domain. Quietly changing the world is good. Dry cells became the industry standard after 2008.
Internal Bolting
Early dry cells had simple square plates and external bolting. Only large production runs allow for the complexity, regularity, and cost averaging – of bolt holes to be included in plates and gaskets. Internal bolting reduces perimeter size and aligns the plates /gaskets on cell assembly & during use. Prototype builds are still usually external bolted. Internal bolting is just cool… to a nerd- ha! EBN’s decision to include the cost for internal bolting in our early production run was bold. Internal bolting designs become the worldwide standard after 2008.
Plate Preparation
Some have claimed plate preparation can lead to higher MMW. There is no confirmed evidence of this via team EBN members. Plate preparation can affect amp draw and higher outputs. Media blasting causes more surface area and amp draw – thus, output. Passivation with citric acid is a subject of discussion. Some swear by it – data is required. Eventually, plates self-condition in the electrolyzer environment over time. Cell impurities leave with the first elyte change or deposit on the plate surfaces. The patina surface layer is helpful to production. Note that oils and plastic debris continue to flow throughout the elyte system with little effect on production.
Outdoor Cell Freezing Conditions
Isopropyl alcohol can lower the freezing point of electrolyte with out adverse effect to cell production. It will evaporate out of the cell over time and needs to be maintained during winter periods. There is no negative aspect to running a frozen cell – electrically speaking. Electricity causes it to heat and thaw – is all. This assumes there is no damage to the cell from freeze expansion. If leaks mysteriously occur – is it winter? Perhaps the cell froze solid at some point. Re-tightening the bolts when thawed should fix. Gasket replacement may be required.
Microbubble / Foaming
Those actively pumping elyte reported microbubble saturation and production loss. Larger elyte reservoirs are required or slowing the pumping rates. Foaming can be a problem also. If some form of cell contamination, changing the elyte should fix it. Some find temporary solution by adding a pinhead amount of dawn dish detergent. Anti-foaming agents may also work – unsure of impact to production. The electrolytic environment is wicked, and breaks down most compounds into base elements, nullifying special properties. Foaming is best taken care of by draining the elyte! If this is unsuccessful, that leaves finding and removing the element causing the issue (gaskets, tanks, hoses, sealants, etc…).
What is Neutral Stacking?
It is likely that neutral stacking parallel config plate stacks increases efficiency above that of the standard neutral plate configurations. Neutral stacking is not easily understood. It is best shown through inter-connecting several standard parallel dry cells. The outside dry cells each have a single connection back to the power source. The inner cells are daisy chained together: each with a neutral wire to the next. Let’s say that each parallel dry cell has 20 plates. Normally, 10 plates would have a (+) connection to the power source, and the other 10 plates would have a (-) connection to the power source. With neutral stacking configuration the first parallel dry cell has 10 plates connecting back to the power source but the other 10 plates are neutral wired to the next cell! So, 20 plates are wired together, 10 in each adjacent dry cell, on a neutral buss. ‘Electrically’ -They are all the same piece of metal!
What does Neutral Stacking do?
This normalizes the voltage for 20 plates. Fact: Typical neutral pair voltages range: higher & lower. We believe this represents loss / inefficiency. Theory supports that normalizing the voltage of whole plates stacks through neutral stacking – raises efficiency for higher MMW scores!
Why is Neutral Stacking important?
Parallel cells have greater MMW, but vehicles don’t have 2 volts, thus the standard vehicle dry cell is a neutral configuration. Neutral Stacking combines the MMW of parallel cell configuration with the flexibility of neutral plate voltage division. Neutral Stacking for use of line voltage is yet untested – as it requires 70 dry cells.