Water for Gas? Not so Fast!

There is a lot of hype floating around about water for gas. The system claims that by essentially adding a hydrolysis unit into your car's engine you can break down the water contained in a small plastic mason into hydrogen and oxygen and receive dramatic noticeable differences in your gas mileage. The water for gas claims vary, and are a little nebulous. The claims almost always say something like Joe Smith reported his mileage increased by 50% after using our system. It doesn't say anything like a factory condition 2008 Honda Civic will experience a 37% increase in fuel efficiency if the water for gas device is installed. The claims are nebulous enough to make legal action difficult. The water for gas defense might use something like "We didn't promise that you'd get better mileage, we just said these people told us they personally got better mileage," as a defense against potential false advertising claims. The major claim of one site is this "Convert Your Car/Truck to BURN WATER as well as Gasoline and BOOSTYOUR GAS MILEAGE!!!" they have other claims for their system as well, but let's just look at this one for now since it is the most marketable and the one driving any sales they make.

Why Some People Start to Believe that Water can be Used to Improve Fuel Efficiency

Water for gas seems like magic, but when you throw in some scientific sounding terminology and mix in some true but largely irrelevant facts, it all starts to sound like it might be true. Wouldn't you love to be able to use water instead of gasoline for your car? Well, you still need gas, but water is made of hydrogen and oxygen, isn't it? You all know that, right? Hydrogen is the main component in most rocket fuel after all, and we all know that nothing burns without oxygen. Even the modern technology of fuel cells generates power by combining hydrogen and oxygen into water, right?

Some sites report that the water for gas system comes with instructions on how to drive in a more fuel efficient manner. This is more likely the cause of any fuel savings. A quart of water broken down into hydrogen and oxygen and fed into the fuel line of a gasoline powered internal combustion engine just can't produce enough energy to move your car 100 miles further on a tank of gas, unless I missed a few science classes somewhere along the way. Scientifically water for gas doesn't hold water.

What you Get When You Buy Water For Gas

Those who do buy the water for gas system online will find themselves the proud owners of, well, nothing. That is nothing except a set of instructions. You must then source the parts, granted most are commonly available. Then you need to build the device and attach it to your car's engine. There is another component to the marketing of water for gas though, and here's where it starts to smell even more like a scam to me. The water for gas system is being touted as "open source" which is to say, unpatented. You are free to resell the information to others and make even more than you paid. Of course, if you say it doesn't work, it's going to be much harder for you to sell the water for gas information, isn't it?

A Mason Jar Full of Water Cools Your Engine?

Here is just one of the claims made by one water for gas online reseller:

"Water cools down the engine. For years, heavy trucks and ships have been using water injection systems that cost up to $15,000 to cool their engines. These truck/ship owners are very sensitive to maintenance expenses and they know from years of experience that water reduces their breakdowns and overall operating costs. With Water4Gas we do the same - affordably! Wouldn't you rather pay as little as $100-$200 to get the same results in your car or truck? Now you can."

See how they try to use the credibility and expertise of commercial ship owners to defend this "product." These ship owners know what they're doing, right? We use water just like they do, so it must work, right? Maybe I'm having trouble with English, as well as with science, today. Based on the design of the water for gas system and the above statement, it seems to me, that this site is saying that the one quart of water in a plastic mason jar which is broken down into hydrogen and oxygen by your vehicle's battery before ever coming into contact with your engine, cools it enough to reduce maintenance expenses. Do you read that the same way? Now I know that the thermal capacity of one quart of water compared to the heat generated by that engine is negligible at best. A radiator works because of the huge volume of air flowing over it to absorb and dissipate the heat from the coolant. Water can be used as a coolant is such a system, but the water for gas device cannot possibly cool your engine. Look, snake oil really makes some people feel better. If you're one of those people, try water for gas for yourself. I'll have to pass on this one.