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"As tested on Mythbusters."

steve s

Philosopher
steve s
Joined
Feb 16, 2006
Messages
5,865
Sorry if this link has been posted before. I know water powered cars have been discussed before but the search engine didn't return this particular link.

I was at another forum and someone posted this link for a water powered car. The guy who posted the link seemed to be a true believer.

The website says "It's even tested on Mythbuster." They conveniently forgot to mention that Adam and Jamie busted it bigtime! The device only produced tiny amounts of hydrogen, not nearly enough to run a car. Nothing like letting the facts get in the way of a good claim.

Steve S.
 
He is selling an electronic book. That is similar to a pdf. As the OP says it is a con job.

I have sent the seller a comment to that effect. He does not normally sell such stuff.
 
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This is just plain ridiculous. I assume this is not a hydrogen-generating system, as it seems to explicitly say water. It's interesting they don't say much about what Mythbusters episode it apparently was.

Who would actually fall for this? You can't get energy from water because it does not decompose to a lower energy state nor does it react with anything in the air. You could react it with sodium or lithium or something though.

I suppose you could power a car on water if you had a bit tank above it and a turbine for the watter to fall through.

It surprises me that anyone would buy into this. If you're going to make up crap, at least make it semi-believable.
 
Well, I suppose that if you could convert water to oxygen and helium, that would release energy.
 
steve s said:
Sorry if this link has been posted before. I know water powered cars have been discussed before but the search engine didn't return this particular link.

I was at another forum and someone posted this link for a water powered car. The guy who posted the link seemed to be a true believer.

The website says "It's even tested on Mythbuster." They conveniently forgot to mention that Adam and Jamie busted it bigtime! The device only produced tiny amounts of hydrogen, not nearly enough to run a car. Nothing like letting the facts get in the way of a good claim.

Steve S.
Click to expand...

You can find the instructions for the water powered car using google foregoing the need to part with cash for it.

Big chunks of woo follow...

http://waterpoweredcar.com/index.html
 
DRBUZZ0 said:
It's interesting they don't say much about what Mythbusters episode it apparently was.
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AFAIK, there was only one episode where they tested such a device. The electrolysis was only able to produce tiny amounts of hydrogen. Not nearly enough to power the car.


Art Vandelay said:
Well, I suppose that if you could convert water to oxygen and helium, that would release energy.
Click to expand...

It takes energy to separate the two, but you can get energy back by recombining them in a fuel cell. Or you could just burn the hydrogen as-is. The Mythbusters showed that you could run an engine just by putting hydrogen (from a tank) into the carburator. But the device they were testing couldn't produce enough hydrogen to run the car.

I just thought it was funny that they'd misrepresent the fact that it had been tested on Mythbusters....and busted. Sort of like products that claim to have been "clinically tested" but don't tell whether they passed the test.

Steve S.
 
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That site is a good example of the failure of our education system.
 
steve s said:
AFAIK, there was only one episode where they tested such a device. The electrolysis was only able to produce tiny amounts of hydrogen. Not nearly enough to power the car.
Click to expand...

No, you can definately make enough to power a car with electrolysis. I'm not sure how they did it but there are some rather high flow hydrogen generators which run at about 480 volts AC (which they obviously convert to DC) and then heat the water into a high pressure steam which is circulated around the electrodes. I've also heard of some which use UV or soft x-rays to increase the ionization levels of the water molecules to make them more easily split.


Of course, none of this could run your car on water alone. You'd need to make the hydrogen using some energy source and then collect the hydrogen to fuel the car with.
 
steve s said:
It takes energy to separate the two, but you can get energy back by recombining them in a fuel cell. Or you could just burn the hydrogen as-is. The Mythbusters showed that you could run an engine just by putting hydrogen (from a tank) into the carburator. But the device they were testing couldn't produce enough hydrogen to run the car.
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Steve, I think you missed something in Art Vandelay's post. He said "helium". ;)
 
On a similar topic, did you hear where Dubya nearly plugged an electric power cable into the hydrogen tank of a hydrogen-electric hybrid car recently?
 
I can build you a home fusion reactor. It produces energy... it also uses energy... a few hundred times more than it produces.... but it is fusion
 
That Mythbusters episode was the same one with the exploding pants. :D I was surprised that they didn't know you can run an ICE on hydrogen alone. (BMW came out with a hydrogen ICE in 2001. http://www.bmwworld.com/models/750hl.htm )

They also hooked the unit up wrong, (straight into the carb), and tried to run the car on the output alone, which was dumb. You add hydrogen/oxygen to the air intake, add a heater to the fuel line, over inflate the tires, and change the timing to get any gas boost out of an electrolysis unit. Even then, it is at best a 30% increase in mileage.

I guess that would be too much work for Mythbusters however. ;)
 
steve s said:
I just thought it was funny that they'd misrepresent the fact that it had been tested on Mythbusters....and busted. Sort of like products that claim to have been "clinically tested" but don't tell whether they passed the test.
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Or "reviewed in popular magazines".

robinson said:
I was surprised that they didn't know you can run an ICE on hydrogen alone. (BMW came out with a hydrogen ICE in 2001. http://www.bmwworld.com/models/750hl.htm )
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It's not surprising that one can build an ICE that can be fueled by hydrogen. What is surprising is that an ICE chosen at random can be fueled by hydrogen. If a gasoline can't run off diesel, why would hydrogen work?
 
Art Vandelay said:
It's not surprising that one can build an ICE that can be fueled by hydrogen.
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You bring up some good points. It is easy to overlook that many people don't know stuff, and to sort of put them down for being ignorant, which isn't fair. I forget that. Good to be reminded. Some people are very surprised to hear you can run an ICE off of hydrogen. Some people still don't believe it.

Art Vandelay said:
What is surprising is that an ICE chosen at random can be fueled by hydrogen.
Click to expand...

Good point. The first time you see it, it is surprising. Same goes for running your car off of Carb cleaner, alcohol, methane or gasoline vapor. Some people are surprised that you can increase your mileage by burning gas vapor mixed with O2, instead of atomized gasoline. Some people don't believe it.

Art Vandelay said:
If a gasoline can't run off diesel, why would hydrogen work?
Click to expand...

Diesel fuels need extreme compression to go boom. But that is also a good point. Most people don't understand how an ICE works, so they are actually surprised to learn that they really can increase gas mileage by using a miracle carburetor. I know, I know, that sounds crazy, but it is really true. It has been around forever. It simply heats the gasoline to a vapor, mixes it with air, (so that almost all of the gas burns), providing way more heat and power.

And it has also been known since it was invented, that it will destroy your engine. You can build an engine that can stand the heat and compression, but it cost so much, it isn't worth it, unless gas costs 20 dollars a gallon. Or something like that. Nobody is quite sure.

But is isn't hard to build a 100 mpg car. Popular Mechanics just covered this recently.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/how_to/3374271.html

(The web article is not as extensive as the print version)

The issue is money. I know somebody who gets 100mpg with his Toyota Prius, but he had to modify it himself. Same for a relative who uses cooking oil to run his F250. He had to modify it himself. Works just fine. There are alternatives that work, you just can't get them from a car dealer right now.
 
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