real electric supercharger?

[rocket2050]

Is there such thing as a real electric supercharger? There are alot of ebay ones which sell for $30+ and I looked at some of the seller's feedbacks and it looked like most people were satisfied about what they bought. I also googled Electric Supercharger and found supercharger selling for $199. How would I know which one works and which one doesn't?

Thanks

[tasdrouille]

There is no such thing as a cheap an effective electric supercharger. There could be an effective one, but it would not be cheaper nor as efficient as a belt driven one.

[DonR]

I wouldn't call that an electric supercharger. I have read about that in the past. Maybe even here. Basically it's a 900 watt fan that is supposed to blow more air into your intake manifold. Similar to ram air.

It certainly wouldn't get you any better fuel economy directly. It is supposed to run only at full throttle for added power accellerating. In principle, it should provide more power in short bursts, say for merging with fast moving traffic in cars with very small engines.

I would guess that when it's not running the induced restriction in the intake tract would hurt fuel economy some. I don't think anyone here is going to chance the $200 to find out.

Don

[MadisonMPG]

This has been posted, but I want to reinforce the point.

You can have one, but it won't be effective. You would either have to carry batteries or put big load on your alternator, either one would probably result in a slower car.

[orange4boy]

Those ebay "Superchargers" (and the one in your link) are not superchargers at all. Nice for cooling your face though. To get any benefit you need a few PSI at open throttle. Those fans can't produce boost. Close the exhaust and the flow stops. A real supercharger will push air like an air compressor. No way you could stop the flow by hand. That requires a type of air pump that does not allow back flow and that is expensive to produce, hence the cost.

Spend your $200 on something that will really help your FE like instrumentation or LRR tires or a block heater or smooth hubcaps.

Good luck with your mods.

PS. those sellers should be shut down for fraud.

LOL. Love the "scientific" testing of the boost: I knocks over a 2x4! and rolls tape on the floor! OMG

[TomO]

Originally Posted by orange4boy

Those ebay "Superchargers" (and the one in your link) are not superchargers at all. Nice for cooling your face though. To get any benefit you need a few PSI at open throttle. Those fans can't produce boost. Close the exhaust and the flow stops. A real supercharger will push air like an air compressor. No way you could stop the flow by hand. That requires a type of air pump that does not allow back flow and that is expensive to produce, hence the cost.

Quoted for truth!

Thomas Knight is one of the few makers of a real ESC (Electric SuperCharger) that works. The cheapest one is $1600.

[tasdrouille]

Originally Posted by TomO

Quoted for truth!

Thomas Knight is one of the few makers of a real ESC (Electric SuperCharger) that works. The cheapest one is $1600.

Plus batteries! The alternator just can't provide enough current.

[Bicycle Bob]

Axial fans can provide high flow and high boost, but not at low cost. They work well on jet aircraft, although the inefficiency is such that small aircraft tap off a bit of compressed air and re-expand it for cabin heat.
Having an extra restriction in the intake is irrelevant if it just takes some of the load off the throttle plate.
I'd like to see a proper device, either axial-flow or positive-displacement that would work as a supercharger occasionally, but as a throttle plate that generates power most of the time. However, messing with intake pressure makes variable compression even more desireable.

[JohnNeiferd]

Honestly, if you really want to give it a try, I'd do something similar to this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyR0U...rom=PL&index=8

Instead of a gas leaf-blower, use an electric leaf blower powered from an inverter hooked to a battery. Of course the inverter will make an already inefficient design even more inefficient. The problem would be that the inverter would end up drawing so much power from the battery that the alternator would be under so much load that any gains from the boost would be taken away by the alternator running at maximum load.

The leaf blower did add 7.25% horsepower (from 138 to 148HP on the Civic), I'd be sure to use at least a 200mph rated leaf blower, the more air the better.

How you'd fit it under your hood...well that's a whole nother task!

[tasdrouille]

Originally Posted by JohnNeiferd

How you'd fit it under your hood...well that's a whole nother task!

It doesn't need to be under the hood. You just need a place to run the piping.