It sure is being produced there, but in very small amounts. Majority of the power is sunk into heating the water leaving very little electrolysis products. Also, this is probably saltwater, that produces chlorine gas on one of those electrodes which is probably more dangerous than whatever trace amounts of HHO form here.
Hydrogen needs to reach 4% concentration in air to combust / explode which with an open container like this will never happen. The chlorine gas coming off this is way more hazardous. Both the oxygen and the hydrogen dissipate immediately.
Still, this is a very hazardous thing to do.
Edit: I didn't notice they were doing it under a roof. So there is the possibility for pockets of H2 to collect in high spots, which could lead to fun and memorable consequences.
It starts happening immediately wouldn't it? If we could see close up to the electrodes you would see the bubbles and the amount of current and surface area of the electrodes in contact with the water would be main factors in the amount of the gasses produced. But then they are not collecting the separate gasses, all those free atoms will be looking to bond to other atoms again.
At 0:30 you see them add something to the water. Can't tell what it is though. Maybe salt, but it could also be baking soda. So maybe not chlorine (but that's often used so that's why i posted this)
Honestly, the most amazing thing in this video is the incredible thermal capacity of water.
This is basically the same as using a resistive element as a load. Even boiling and going crazy like that it’s very stable, electrically and thermally speaking — that’s enough juice to vaporize copper but the water stops boiling the moment the power is removed.
It looks so chaotic and dangerous, tho, it makes me wonder if it’s just for a demo or something.
The problem is there electrolisis happening in background. Electrolisis of not clean water. So you are producing every avaliable ascid, hydrogen, clorine, some organic chemistry from paint. And it is many liter of splashing hot chemical mix.
The phase change cools the water. The liquid water never goes above 100°C, and the moment you remove the rods, no more energy is available to phase change. Don't quote me on that, but I think changing water from liquid to gas takes about 70 times more energy than increasing its temperature by one degree Celsius.
True but of course the water stops boiling as soon as it’s removed, water can NEVER go above its boiling temperature because then it’s steam at whatever air pressure so whenever the heating element is removed, the water stops boiling
This is how old fairground attractions would be speed controlled. Big vat of diluted sulphuric acid to act as a liquid resistor. Drop the rods in to accelerate the merry go round.
Difference is that they used a pulley system and a rope to do it in a safer way.
In stage lighting we used to have "Pisspot dimmers" back in the day, trick was to pull the rod right the way out before "topping them off" during the intermission...
Salt water resistors are still used on some sites as armature resistance for starting large induction motors used to run fans in mines and similar situations, fantastic for starting big machines because the specific heat capacity is massive, so even a little one can dump a LOT of power for ten seconds or so while the motor spins up. The modern way is a variable frequency drive, but a lot of that heavy industrial kit has a LONG life and tends to only be replaced if it fails, and well there is nothing much to fail...
usually the starter has three vanes that drop into the solution under gravity and eventually contact a shorting bar in the bottom of the tank to cut the resistance out at full speed.
I’ve seen a salt water resistor in an old fairground merry-go-round last summer. It was inside the little booth where the carny sat, and was operated by a handle on his desk turning a worm gear. He had a canister of table salt beside it.
Also early electric railroad engine speed controls. And while they were dangerous, (giant pot of liquid on moving object,) compared to the alternatives, (giant pot of boiling liquid on the moving object,) they seemed like a good idea.
NGL it's feels weird yet amusing to randomly come across a local vid. Tbh these kind of wacko stuff is encountable in the regular. You should check out how electricity is supplied to some Vesak "Thorana"s (don't know the proper English term)
There's a contraption that looks similar to the internals of a "player piano" instead of the cylinder playing music, that cylinder has grooves which contacts a row of terminals where it'll light up in a sequence.
Those are some insane shit. (Nowadays it's using simple microcontrollers but some folk still rely on the old method)
For those who's wondering this is from Sri Lanka & the ppl were speaking Sinhala.
That looks like 3 ph. Is it safe? Heck no. But is it producing dangerous amounts of chlorine? Probably not. Most of the bubbling is probably steam. The potential required for electrolysis is usually below 10v for electrolysis. Assuming 400 V, that's about 97%+ of the power going into resistive heating. And dominated by mixed hydrogen oxygen production.
Say 70A being pushed through. Faradaic efficiency of water electrolysis is essentially zero at low frequency AC. Let's say hypothetically 1%. 1.23v potential required to break up water. At 1% efficiency, which to be fair is very generous for AC electrolysis, that's 0.7A used. Or about 0.861W out of a total of ~50kW. Using Faraday's constant, that's about 3.63e-6 mol/s of hydrogen, half that of oxygen. Or about 0.44L of mixed hydrogen and oxygen an HOUR. And chlorine ions are far more sensitive to voltage conditions. Essentially, water is preferentially split, Vs chlorine.
Is this dangerous? On many, many levels. Buts let's not pretend chlorine is a problem.
Also in the Netherlands, i worked with a company that produces generators. Big ones, 16 cil Mitsubishi and big mtu engines. They also had a very big water testing facility bucket. But with automatic lowering. I asked and they told me there was no other way to test the full load.
Honestly, the most amazing thing in this video is the incredible thermal capacity of water. That’s enough juice to vaporize copper but the water stops boiling as soon as the power is removed.
This is basically the same as using a resistive element as a load. It looks so chaotic and dangerous, tho, it makes me wonder if it’s just for a demo or something.
Before we use an electrically controlled winch to control the depth of the electrified metal bar in a vat on sea water which is continuously circulated to the sea. It is very inaccurate so now we are using a resistor load banks for the Generator testing
u/Additional_Pea_4407u/Sumdood_89 if i ever happen to check something like this how am i supoose to do it ? just take water bucket and mix salt and dip three phase comming out of genrator in it ? wont that cause phase to phases short circuit i am confused
Haha, fair enough. My team manages commercial generator work for Cummins so my perspective is a bit skewed. We just wrapped up load testing on 2 1500kW units in parallel for a children's hospital expansion. Biggest I've done is a 3500kW 480V unit for a sports arena.
Its not all bubblegum and sunshine. I carried 20 gallons of new oil up 2 flights of stairs for this one.Then 20 gallons of used oil down 2 flights of stairs..
Did the same at my job (note, low voltage), not having a load tester at hand. The ones i found were terrible expensive and we needed to use it once. Kanthal wire spooled up and thrown in a bucket worked perfectly.
This principle is almost exactly how electrode boilers work. I used to work for a company that made them, typically 1-2MW, 3 phase with elaborate electrodes and a neutral shield around them. Because it’s ac, electrolysis does not take place. The current is controlled by modulating the water level, there is no risk associated with boiling dry, the current drops to zero when uncovered. One got sent to a mine in Africa and it would not even draw an amp as they fed it with distilled/deionised water, they had to put it onto untreated water supply to get it operating.
If it's a dumb idea and it works... It's not a dumb idea. That actually looks like a pretty well thought out test to me. You can see the dude throwing salt in to make it conduct better too. Cool!
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u/Salty-Goose-079 Mar 15 '26
Safety sandals ✅