Quote:
Originally Posted by agent00kevin
What is funny is that no matter where I go, HHO naysayers typically get angry and start insulting HHO users. This trend exists all over the internet, and one has to wonder why? HHO users rarely seem to get irritated at the naysayers, but why the other way around?
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I have found just the opposite, with some of the HHO promoters becoming so belligerent that they have been thrown off engineering and science sites. When Popular Mechanics did their test showing that even an unusually well-constructed HHO unit had no effect at all, the HHO promoters tended to be immediately insulting to the author, whereas the scientific types tended to be patient. Both sides had plenty of bickering, of course.
John Heywood, one of the best-known and respected automotive combustion scientists in the world, was hired by the Federal Trade Commission to test a Honda Accord equipped with an HHO unit from Dutchman Enterprises. Using an EPA-certified dyno, he showed that the unit had no beneficial effect at all (let alone the huge 50% gains advertised). His credentials are impressive, and it is hard to imagine that he participated in the FTC test to make himself "look smart in [sic] credible."
The FTC settlement against Lee ended up at $2.7M. Unfortunately, the FTC does not have the funds to go after all the small operators, some of whom sold $1,000,000 in units (in just a few months) prior to the dampening effect of the FTC suit.
Early on in the Lee suit, the FTC used a Nobel-Prize-winning physicist to (correctly) explain to the judge that these units cannot produce an amount of HHO mix to come even remotely close to the extra fuel consumed to produce the HHO. Earlier studies (by NASA, for example) showed that injected volumes of hydrogen had to be many times larger (and come from an "energetically free" source, such as a tank) to have a measurably positive effect -- and even then the economics are not workable, unless hydrogen becomes very cheap and gasoline very expensive.
There is no plausible scientific reason for these devices to work as claimed by the promoters. However, studies have shown that placebos work as well as anti-depressant drugs. In a similar effect, many drivers claim improvements from fuel line magnets, "turbinators," HHO units, etc., that have been shown in sensitive, well-controlled dyno tests to have no positive effect whatsoever. So, people with a serious interest in fuel efficiency (people who have studied combustion and have engineered combustion systems) will not believe someone claiming any increase in fuel efficiency from using an HHO unit. How could they? Engineers do not believe in magic. Many engineers schooled in combustion engineering associate the terms HHO and fraud, because of a history of fraud prosecutions going back before the days of Stanley Meyer.
You can probably understand that many engineers, scientists, and enthusiasts may not be infinitely patient with folks promoting HHO, fuel line magnets, and "turbinators".
I wonder if you are confusing "get angry and start insulting HHO users" with directly expressed opinions. Engineers are often not good politicians. Do you have a link to an example of an interaction in which an HHO promoter was insulted (without provocation) by a detractor?