Just saying Hello

[Bob]

Rexmannb:
..
the only real advantage over wet cell that Dry cells have is the no container needed thing...
however you LOOSE precious plate area in a dry cell due to the gaskets between the plates
and that is a major concern if you are going for High output...
a wet cell is superior in many ways...  all of the plate is being used on every plate
so when useing something like the small SS "Wall switch plate covers" from Lowes hardware
your probably much better off immersing them in the liquid instead of making them into a dry cell ! 
gas can escape better in a wet cell than in a dry cell and  i have yet to see a square dry cell positioned correctly so that the gas all escapes out the same hole  they should be tilted so the hole is at the top not Horizontal so the gas fills the top of the cell
and render even more of the plate area dry and useless ! even Scratches Huge cells are like that... but in his case he has enough plate area to make up for the 1/2" loss from each plate ! not all of them out there do !
Dry cells are indeed good working Hydroxy generators but if your working with smaller plates you'ed be better served to make a container for them, this allows you to add a recirculation system if needed and you can even incorporate a Explosive Pressure relief device to make it safer ! ( a hole with a plate and gasket with a spring holding it down!)
Dry cells can be made to operate very effeciently However it usually takes some tinkering to get that to happen, where a wet cell is allready totally wet and bubbleing away all you have to do is capture the gas...
...
there is good points and bad points to both types, I think myself that the wet cell is far more superior in performance, at least until you get into 8"x8" plate size and above
from that size up, the container to put it in becomes more of a hassel than all the
plates and their hookup...<GRIN>
....
so it winds up being personal preference in the long run !
 
Personally I think a 12"x12" wetcell would Kick A-- but that takes allot of plexyglass to make a container for it !
...hehehehehe
Bob.......

[Painless]

Bob,

My website is http://www.hhoknowhow.info/.

Please also bare in mind that dry cells are much more efficient than wet, you do not have the issues of current leakage that you do with a wet cell.  I've also found that whilst surface area is indeed important, you are better off with many smaller plates than less larger ones.

Russ.

[Bob]

Painless:
INteresting ! Yes there is a ineffeciency in current leakage but I have found that is is Nonimal in my cells.... I suppose it gets to be a larger problem when plate spaceing is wider than 1/16" but for my cells I havn't really had a problem with "current leakage"
personally I think "current leakage" is over raited! heheheheheheh
...
interesting that you say a bunch of small plates is preferable than few large ones...
On my first cell I made what I call my Big cell it had 24 plates of normal steel plates
and spaced at almost 1/4" each... it was a wet cell and connected in parallel so the plates were wired +-+-+- through the stack of 24 plates... the output was something like 1/8 LPM
or so ....very disipointing to say the least <GRIN> at 20 amps or so...
I got the bright idea of removeing plates and trying it each step of the way and find out how many plates made the best output... and the more plates I took off the better output I got, even though I had to re set the electrolyte each time... the output cept climbing till I reached 8 plates (at 12plates I took off 4) there my output plunged to about 1/2LPM from over 1.25LPM so I added 2 plates and tested again and got 1.5LPM and stopped there
...in effect I tuned the cell to the available power I had at the time (20 amps)
More plates gave me less output ! fewer plates gave me less output ,so I was at the optimum plate area for the cell at that power.... I then changed the power to 30 amps and although the LPM went up it was no longer "tuned to that power" so I added 2 more plates and gained a bit more LPM  ...about then is when My charger died , battery went to hell and I had to stop the testing...
 but it was enough for me to draw the conclusion that for every amp setting there is an Optimum amount of plate area... and number of plates realy doesn't come into it at all it is plate area alone.... at least I think so... I couldn't finish my tests so I couldn't take it to its final conclusion.
sense it takes 3 or 4 small plates to make the same area as a large plate then its easy to asume that the number of plates is the key... but I don't think that is the case ..
I believe its plate Area per amp that is critical to a good working cell... not the number of plates or size of them.
(FWIW)
Bob........

[Painless]

I've also found that whilst surface area is indeed important, you are better off with many smaller plates than less larger ones.

I didn't explain this point very well.  Surface area is indeed important, as you pointed out.  My point is that I have found, for example, 20 3"x3" plates to be more efficient than 10 6"x3".  This is aside from considering voltage per plate in each serial set connected in parallel to each other, that is also important and must be 'tuned' to your power goals.

Russ.

[Bob]

Yah but that is the important part... you NEED to consider the voltage to each plate and the amperage per square inch if your going to realy fine tune the cell to the available power !
...
your saying that 20 plates of the same airea as 5 plates is better.... and I realy havn't seen any evedence of that in my experiments... its possable no doubt because most of my cells have 11 plates or more... my 20 and 24 plate cells didn;t work fer crud !
HAHAHAHHAA
Bob........

[rexmannb]

Hey guys,
I love this input. I was impressed with some reports that I read on the dry cells, claiming 3 LPM @ 20 amps. My wet cells have never come close to that. I followed the logic of the current flow with the dry cell v/s the wet cell. I also could never run my spacing less than 1/8" due to the plates "burning" disintegrating and creating a muddy mess. Plus it did not seem to increase my output. I built a wet cell w/ 7 plates (304 s/s) spaced @ 1/4" and it gave me 275 MLPM and seemed to keep the water cleaner. I have not yet tried the higher concentration of KOH w/ the PWM, but I am getting ready to try.
Bob: what spacing do you work with on your wet cells? Russ: How do your plates hold up spaced @ 1/25" ? I have a lot of people in my area looking for me to come up with some answers and the more answers I find the more questions come into play. It is madness Anyway guys, I do appreciate your ideas and experience. I believe we will get this to work and won't that get the Nye Sayers attention.

[Painless]

My plates hold up fine with the 0.040" spacing, I'd go closer if I had the means. The key is voltage drop per cell, a closer cell gap has less resistance between the plates therefore the voltage is higher causing the extra heat and muddiness. You can remedy this by adding more neutrals to drop the voltage further.

With the correct balance of gap, neutrals and total surface area you will see an increase in efficiency.

[Bob]

My plate gap is 0.010" to 0.015" because they are the clasic "Randy Cells" MK I
I also have a Smack booster that still works at last check and a cell of my own design that has about 1- 1/4" washer thickness plate spacing or about 1/16"+~-
...
I've never had plate problems other than garbage forming on them ( rust on some of the shims I used, and down right dirty water and GOO... but all the plates held up , even the normal steel ones did and I expected them to rust away and they are still in fairly good shape !
but my plates are thick too... the thinnest are the smack boosters wall switch plate covers
but they are in good shape besides what the goo did to them !( need to acid clean it!)
...
...
Hope that helps
Bob......