I received the 21-plate dry cell hydrogen generator.  Once nice thing about dry cell convertors is that they take up little space. Basically a square or rectangle, with very little depth.  I was excited, and I did a dry run hooking it to a battery.  It worked very well and the production of hydrogen was over 5 liters per minute.  After running it on a battery charger for some time, I began to see two very potential problems with the dry cell.  The first was that it required over 50 amps power input to produce that 5 liters of hydrogen.  I always had the impression that dry cell hydrogen generators were the most efficient kind, but this was a big disappointment.  I would need a second battery in the engine compartment just to run this hydrogen converter.

The second problem was that after two hours running, the heat had risen 47 degrees.  I had expected some heat increase, but not nearly as much as I actually measured.  Even a small radiator to run the water through wouldn’t do much good.  I finally decided to return it to the manufacturer for a full refund, and go back to my submerged plate technology. A setback, but then again with the safety of a submerged unit, I would not have to install a spark arrestor, nor would I have any safety concerns while driving.

I then ordered the double cell Hydro Super 2 from Smith Industries.  One word of warning here, the Hydro Super 2 is the most copied Hydrogen Generator available, and there are some “knock offs” of the design selling on the internet and E-bay.  Use your judgment, if it seems too good to be true price-wise, then it probably is.  One of my own employees got suckered into buying a knock off from an E-bay seller.  Buy from a reputable authorized seller of the manufacturer you choose.

Here is a quick picture of the Hydro Super 2 Double Cell Hydrogen Generator mounted in the 2008 Toyota Tundra.  It was mounted up front by the radiator so that it is air and water cooled.  I will get to the actual install in the next entry.