# Water fuel cells

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/water-fuel-cells/15753>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Created:** [June 24, 2008, 12:42am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/water-fuel-cells/15753 "2008-06-24T00:42:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![justaguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d9b06d/32.png) [@justaguy](https://community.cartalk.com/u/justaguy)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 12:42am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/water-fuel-cells/15753/1 "2008-06-24T00:42:34Z")

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There is a lot of talk about increasing milage, by addin a water fuel cell. In essence it uses electrolysis to convert water into HHO gas aka Browns gas, which burns the Hydrogen, and hence increasing fuel efficiency. What is your take on this, and does it really work?

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**Author:** ![Jad2007](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dec6dc/32.png) [@Jad2007](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Jad2007)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 12:51am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/water-fuel-cells/15753/2 "2008-06-24T00:51:48Z")

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This topic has been flogged to death. Do a search on any of the tags you entered to find all the info you need.

Oh yeah, they’re all scams.

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**Author:** ![hoffmalr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bc8723/32.png) [@hoffmalr](https://community.cartalk.com/u/hoffmalr)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 1:05am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/water-fuel-cells/15753/3 "2008-06-24T01:05:13Z")

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And just in case you’re too lazy to search, the reason it doesn’t work is that it takes more energy to separate the hydrogen and oxygen than you get from combusting them. Also, fuel cells themselves are very expensive to produce.

Until we figure out a way to get more energy out of them than they require as input, the technology is infeasible.

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**Author:** ![SteveF](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/stevef/32/2_2.png) [@SteveF](https://community.cartalk.com/u/SteveF)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 1:16am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/water-fuel-cells/15753/4 "2008-06-24T01:16:21Z")

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Do not confuse a true fuel cell with the junky electrolytic devices being hawked on the internet. A fuel cell is a special high-tech device. It does not operate on water. You feed it hydrogen gas and it gives you back electricity.

Fuel cells really work. Hydrogen generators don’t. Anything that mentions electrolysis, Brown’s gas, HHO, increased mpg, save gas, etc, is just a scam to take your money.

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**Author:** ![B.L.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/848f3c/32.png) [@B.L.E](https://community.cartalk.com/u/B.L.E)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 1:23am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/water-fuel-cells/15753/5 "2008-06-24T01:23:46Z")

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Until we figure out a way to get more energy out of them than they require as input, the technology is infeasible.

That will be feasable about the same time we figure out how to build highways that are downhill in both directions.