Lemon-aid electrolite

[crb]

How do you think lemon juice would work?
Found some at the "dollar tree" Qt. bottle.
cb

[Bob]

it should work quite well... but I would worry about spoilage... being Organic it could go bad and loose its acidity  if so it would be done for...
 but it may be more Robust than I figure and outlast Koolaid !  there is no way to tell except try it!
...
Bob.....

[Brad4321]

Spoilage/breakdown probably would be an issue, but with the mild acid, it may be self cleaning!

[randy]

It may have natural sugar in it?

[Manta]

A question here.  I have not seen the idea of an acidic electrolyte used on any other site but this one.  Why ?

I have no problems with why it is used,  but it seems odd that it others stick to alkaline mixes if acetic acid has a superior cleaning effect.  Is it simply a matter of conductivity ?

Dave,
(Manta)

[Bob]

I dunno Manta.... perhaps they aren't "up to snuff"  Most of the other sites still recommend Drain-o or sodium based stuff that causes massive amounts of GOOooo to be produced... in truth I think they just don't know any better !
...
it is a matter of Continuity and cleanliness...you need both... not just the one
...continuity without cleanliness will render the cell non producing in a matter of hours, not days
and then you have the problem of adiquetely cleaning the cell.
...
and without a continuity INCREASE in the electrolyte the production will be very low because pure water is a very good insulator.
...
Bob...

[randy]

the lemon-aid only seems to work well with a parallel plate cell with close spacing, I guess were the only ones fooling around with that type of build, I like the idea of not having to tear down the cell for maintenance, heck I don't even perfectly clean them on assembly, I notice a very tiny amount of the old green goo in my current cell but it's not on the plates, I rinsed out all the PVC with city water and there is a tiny amount of sodium in the kool-aid I use, the package says 5 mg. that would be less then one granule of salt, so between the city water and the small amount of sodium I got a few tiny globs of goo floating around in there, I figure I'll drain it into a bucket and run it through a coffee filter back into the cell, if I even do that, lol

[Bob]

that is a very correct statement ... we are the only ones I know of playing around with Parallel plate cells , everyone else has gravitated to neutral plate cells and dry cells, its very rare to see a wet cell any more on another site.
... it takes far less Electrolyte to make a Parallel cell draw large amps than it does a 7 plate dry cell... +nnnnn- or even a 6 plate +nnnn-....
 our research is mainly on -+-+-+-+-+- (11 plates) or similar type cells the reason for this is we have found they simply produce more HHO than the other type cells !
they are NOT as easy to make  but they do work better
...you'll also notice many people are STUCK on 1/4" plate gap  but not too many most have gravitated to 1/8" plate gap now.... and its the real odd guy that uses 1/16" gap.....
in our group here 1/16" is fairly wide! <grin> though my latest cell blew that all to heck with 1/4" plate gap HAHAHAHHA but it did NOT work good enough to keep either!
..
I think we can Mainly thank Randy for his contributions to the group for Our continued success, because his little "Randy Cell" is cheap and it really does a fantastic job of putting out HHO !
  believe me a 10:1 ratio is not common on other sites  a output of 1.5LPM for 25~30amps input is considered ok.... we consider it fairly BAD !  and I in particular won't bother running one like that when I have cells sitting that will do 2LPM at 20amps sitting on the shelf!
...
I got more tile to put down on the Island in the kitchen now so I guess I have to put off my cell building again ! ...bummer deal dude! LOL
...
Bob.....

 

[crb]

Well I bought the lemon juice.  I have some ss plates, using 2 of them + & -,
I put them in a lemon and water bath.  I was able to get it to pull about 4 amps
15 sq. in. one side is 7.5".  Fair production.  I think that figures out to a .26 apsi.
crb

[Bob]

Hummm
 JUST 2 plates and 4 amps ....that's purdy darn good ! sounds like it makes a good electrolyte !
...
when I figured my APSI , I only counted one side of each plate and I believe .3 and .4 APSI was where we were getting the best production... 10amps to 1LPM production ratio.
...
but you need to consider the plate spacing in something like that if you stack say 11 plates real close together it will raise that ability to draw amperage way way up... ...however if you place them 1/4" apart, it may only pull 10 amps
...
 I have tried as High as .5 APSI and the results were still very good, but heat started to become a problem then
...
Bob......

 

[crb]

My plate spacing was 1/16" my first try, maybe 2 amps, then I made some
.010 spacers and it went to the 4 amps.
When lowes opens this am I will get some nylon fasteners and try a
3 plate setup two neg and 1 pos. and see what that gets.
I have some 3 x 6 18ga plates coming.  Lots of work to get that running.
crb

[crb]

I checked it with 3 plates and was drawing about 8 amps, with the battery charger.  Then I hooked it
up to the car 13.8 volts and 22.5 amp draw.  Quite a bit of difference.
With hopes my new plates will be here this week.
crb

[Manta]

crb,

You'll always get more from the car than the charger.  The alternator and battery are much lower impedance than the charger and so you can draw more current.

This is something that folks tend to forget when experimenting on the bench.

Dave
(Manta)