Anyone using magnets to increase milage?
 

Just want to relay my experience using high powered magnets on my 2006 nissan altima V-6 Automatic. Have been using magnets for about a year now and have been getting great results. I've had the car about 3 1/2 years and had never been able to get more than 28 mpg.
I decided to try an ad online for fuel saver magnet. I installed it on the fuel line close to the fuel rails. I took a trip of about 300 miles fully loaded with vacation stuff and my wife. I have a fuel milage gauge on dash board that came with car,so I can monitor milage constantly. By the time we reached our destination the guage indicated 35.9 mpg which is about 8 mpg more than manufacturer estimates. I have been running the setup for about 12 months now and have been consistently getting 36-38 mpg on highway.
I have have outfitted my family's car with magnets and they are seeing improved milage. My father has a merc.marquis v-8 and we took short 160 mile trip. We filled the tank drove and then refilled tank on return. We went about 160 miles on 5.4 gal., which figured out to be about 29+ mpg, which is outstanding even for a 6 cylinder!

has this actually been proved to work? your talking about those E-boxes that sort of magnetise the fuel?
there have been some warnings on tv and studies about these magnets in my country. a university study ran 2 exact same engines for dozens of hours in a lab, one with magnets and another without. the result was that both had basically used the same amount of fuel, but the one with magnets had even used verry slightly more. but it was within the error margin i think.
in reality they usually do have a positive effect on the FE of those that use them, but that is mostly a placebo effect. and also that the manual of those magnets said that for it to work you needed to drive non-agressively, accelerate slowly and drive in high gears...

I do drive responsibly and don't jack rabbitt start and use cruise control when possible. I don't drive any differently now than before when I was getting 28 mpg.I will comment on "the test". Simply running two identical engines for any amount of time will not show any difference in fuel economy. The engines will be feed fuel at the same volume and will be consumed by the engine equally. The better "lab" test, if you are running two identical engines would be to hook them up to an exhaust analyzer and measure the effiency of the burn. How much pollution is produced by each engine. If thier is a difference in emmissions then you could conclude that the magnets are making a difference. Every car is different and every driver is different. The only way to test a magnets' viability is run the same car over about 500 miles on staight highway miles on cruise control (which removes human error) filling up the tank at beginning and filling up tank at end and measuring how many gallons used. Anything alse is invalid.
I say 500 miles because when using the magnets the fuel burns more efficiently and actually cleans out injectors and removes carbon deposits. The will take some time to remove these. I can say when I changed the oil on the car it was black from carbon and I accidently got my hand in the way of the oil coming out and I felt chunks of carbon in the oil. Now the oil stays clean and golden.
Too add another point, my car has high compression engine which premium fuel is recommended for best performance, I am getting these results using regular fuel and experiencing no pingging even at high load and going up steep inclines.

They don't work. I tried them and they did nothing. EPA has lab-tested them and they did nothing.

I'd guess the seasons and better weather helped you get the mileage gain.

New member, two posts total, both boasting of incredible results from magnets, both sounding shockingly similar to advertising spiels.

Hmm.

People, I am relaying my experiences with magnets. I can only tell you my results. I have retained the milage gains in all weather situations and all different conditions. Like everybody else I have tried increasing milage though all different ways. Fuel additives, filters,plugs,regulators ect. Nothing has done anything. So when I install a simple magnet and the milage jumps that much then thier has to be a reason. I don't hypermile or do anything special when driving.
If I had tried an experiment and failed and someone had gotten some encouraging results I would want to find more, But that's me.
I've been driving almost 40 years and have no reason to try and send anyone down the wrong path. I'm into environmental issues and decreasing America's dependence on foreign oil.

We once tested a road motorcycle on one of our testbenches with and without magnets. No difference in power was measured. The one with magnets though become somewhat warmer, so it does something , but in our case no additonal power.

Take them back off and post the data. Don't change anything else. Route, driving style, etc.

Lots of jargon, inconsistent jumping from one standpoint to another, the environmental sweetener...

All the symptoms match... Take it from me guys, there's going to be a URL or a phone number soon... Meet our next Bill Whedon - hondo434 *drum roll*

As much as I hate to see a drop in milage I will remove them until I see a drop in Milage and will post the results. Driving in town is useless as you cannot duplicate in town driving. I will do this on a trip as this is the results I am posting. I am going to Virginia In August. If I take another trip by then I will post that.

I love magnets. They stick to the fridge better than those little suction-cup thingies.

theres no real reason to become too negative towards this person, if he honestly has a mileage improvement then there must be a reason.

what strikes me is that you are not hypermiling for better FE, wich imo would be the first logic thing to do. it also means that the slightest un-noticable change in driving style can result in significant FE improvement.
paying 100's? of dollars for a controversial tool wich in the FE world is seen a scam is a rather strange choice. while hypermiling is not only free, but it saves you money at the verry first tank with a result that is proven.

Well... there is a reason, and that is the total pantload that is post #3. It goes above and beyond the stupidity of mere "fe improvements". :rolleyes:

Sepp, Thank you, You are the first intelligent reply to my post. I understand your wonderment about hypermiling and being free. My first point is I am retired and don't drive much locally and take occasional vacation trips with the wife. I am not too familar with all the hyper. techniques and afraid I will damage car by altering my driving habits. I have started downshifting the auto transmission to lower gear to help braking and maybe save some gas? I think it will lessen wear on brakes. I don't think turning off engine while driving is good for transmission. Hypermilng doesn't pass the wifey test. I was told just doing the downshift thing was driving my sister-in-law crazy.
As far spending a lot of money on magnets, they are not expensive and last forever. Last august we took a trip of about 1000 miles which before the install would have taken about 36 gallons of fuel at 28 mpg. Getting 36 mpg it took about 28 gallons. That is about 8gallons of fuel. At that time fuel was around 4.00 per gallon. So doing the math 8x 4=32 dollars worth of gas which paid for the magnet twice over just on that trip alone.
Magnatism is like electricity, you see it,you can't taste it, you can't smell it, you can't hear it, you can'feel it, so it is a great unknown and people are afraid of the unknown.
That is why I wanted to try the device and make my own judgement whether it is viable or not. If I had listened to the naysayers I would still be getting the same milage but I decided to try and it paid off. Now I am passing on my experience to whoever wants to use it. I have installed magnets, my milage increased and that is the bottom line. How it happens I can't say for sure. Thier isn't any test I know of to show difference except maybe a dyno test. I do know the effect of magnets is very fragile. The effect can be destroyed by anything causing turbulence in the fuel, it can't go through gas filters or sharp bends and has to be right up to fuel rails to get the most benifit. I monitor a asian manufacturing network and they are manufacturing hundreds of products utilizing magnets. They are now making fuel pipes whether its' gas, natural gas, cng,lpg, with magnets on the inside of the pipes instead of wrapped around the outside of the pipes which will give the fuel direct contact with magnets, thus solving the question of will magnets penetrate rubber,steel, plastic, ect. I am trying to get a sample product so I can install on my gas furnace and hot water heater. It is difficult communicating with them, but I have ordered and received products from asia. They seem to be honest and have fast service and delivery.

Translation:
Effect of magnets is very fragile - it may get destroyed by anything in your system, so don't blame me or the product if it doesn't work for you. It must be something in your car that made it bad. it's never the product's fault!

I know somebody who makes good quality useless magnet products. I can answer any objection you may have, in spite of the effect of magnets being very fragile. Don't feel bad if you don't have a car to put it in, I can sell it to gas furnaces and hot water heater users too.

I not only know somebody who makes the stuff, but they are HONEST (incredible!) and good to work with.

Inference:
So what are you waiting for? express your interest and line up...

Hummingbird, Your "translation " of the english language is coming along. You should listen to the training tapes a few more times and maybe you start to get it right!

Hondo434, we work off proven facts and testing here on EM. The 65+ modifications list we have here are proven modifications.

The idea of using magnets on fuel lines is nothing new, and also has never been proven to work. Someone coming to our boards saying, 'hey, this works' is not enough for us. If you want to prove it, do some solid A-B-A testing over a good handful of miles. Until you provide this info, we will be very skeptical.

I'm offended. What was wrong with my reply. All I did was ask for data. That seems fairly intelligent.

Doviatt,I apologize if I offended you.My reply is directed to all the posts that are attacking my posts without even knowing who I am or what I am about. Your reply is welcome as all other replies that want to get more information.

Apology accepted. Will you provide the data? At this point I would say saving face is more important than your unproven mpg gains (finish the experiment). Take the magnets off and hope that your mileage goes down. Advise: Don't argue your position any more with out the data.

Doax, Thank you for your reply. I have stated I would remove the magnet to see if there is a difference in milage. I am just as interested in making sure that the magnet is the source. If you have any tests you want me to do I would be glad to try. As the magnet is a small investment it is not worth doing expensive outsourced tests to prove a point.

Ok, so I am less intelligent because I sense a total lack of factual verifiable information, coupled with assertions contradictory to generally established knowledge about use of magnets for saving fuel, and I call it out loud, when I encounter it.

Therefore hondo434, who is playing coy about facts but is generous with indignation is the intelligent one, and also authorized to certify others' intelligence...

Enough of this charade and name calling!!

hondo434, post verifiable facts or apologize or get lost. You are the one with a story here, and you are doing everything else but tell it.

doviatt, I will take off magnet and post results. As I stated previously my results were highway driving and my next trip is scheduled for early august, but if I can do a meaningful trip before then I will post it.

Hummingbird, If an apology is what it takes to be civil and be friends then I will be man enough to apologize. I don't post to forums that often and I'm not familiar with protocals of posting information. All I ask is that I be afforded the courtesy of a solid discussion before I am accosted and defamed.

From EPA: "Gas-Saving" Products: Fact or Fuelishness?
I personally tried one, and found no difference. It was a few years ago, and I didn't scientifically test it.

I'm not attacking you, but I am skeptical of the magnets. I believe that you did find a difference, but I think something else caused it.

Palemelanesian, I understand you position, I know many tests have been done and there is a voodoo mentality about the efficacy of magnets. What I am thinking if we don't know the effect the magnet has on fuel then how can we come up with a test to see what we don't know anything about works, if that makes sense.

I won't rule out the possibility that magnets are doing something to the fuel. However, if that doesn't translate to a difference at the gas pump, I really don't care.

How many angels can fit on the head of a pin?

Alright hondo434, I have my reservations, but let your numbers roll... Let there be one convert at the end of this discussion, and lets keep it very objective.

Binghamton, NY is base to two other ecomodders already, so I guess verification should not be difficult.

hondo434
You were on the right track but you didn't finish your experiment. AND you let other variables affect your test which meant it was uncontrolled. You can only change one parameter at a time. Example: Do you know what your tire pressure on all 4 tires is at this moment? What was it during the test? If you didn't control this one variable let alone all of the others it isn't scientific. Tire pressure alone can have a great affect on your MPG. It will not affect your oil cleanliness though.

Well, you're saying that no matter what the effect on fuel is, the engine will burn less of it to travel a given distance. That's not too hard to test.

The best way to test them would be all in one day, make a few runs with the magnet on, then with the magnet off, then with the magnet on again. All you really have to do is find a road that you can go 55-65 on, put on cruise control, and measure the fuel consumption.

I live in Whitney Point (20 minutes north of Binghamton), I'd be more than willing to help you test it out if you need it. Or, if you'd like to loan me one for a day, I could test it out on my car.

hummingbird,doviatt,Mctimson,I thank you for your input and I think together with you and with the expertise of this forum we can hopefully get to the bottom this anomally. I will work with local members to verify these results and maybe we can take it to the next level!

Mctimson, I assume your vehicle is a 93 tercel. what are you doing to increase your milage. If you are changing driving habits or hypermiling then you might have to test your vehicle to see what your standard mpg would be before trying the magnet test, am I correct in saying that?

You could always pick a section of road and run it A-B-A with cruise control. That removes the driver variable.

If you want to use magnets to increase fuel economy, you're making a mistake by putting them next to the fuel line. What you have to do is put them on the front bumper, then you drive really, really close to the back end of a semi :-)

I'd like to direct people's attention to this page for a science-based consideration of magnets & fuel economy:

Fuel saving gadgets - a professional engineer's view

PaleMelanesian, we have a nice stretch of fairly flat interstate, here in the southern tier, which stretches for many miles. I have a milage gauge built into the car. I can see my milage move up and down instantaneous as I accellerate. I verified accuracy with filling tank at start of trip and filling up tank at finish of trip to double check mpg. When I first installed the magnet before a trip I couldn't believe the difference so I immediatly filled the tank, manually figured the mpg and it was whithin a few tenths of a gallon difference.

hondo434,

If you look at McTimson fuel log it shows quite stable. That is exactly what you want to start with and then hope your test shows improvement over this baseline. Same thing when you try it on your car (a second independent test is ideal) start a baseline keep it stable and then perform test to show/prove improvement or not. Any results will show up on both test results if performed correctly and it is effective. Cruse control is a good way to stabilize the baseline.

Edit:
Or you can save McTimson's gas and read metroMPG's link with an open mind.

hondo434, yes, I do drive the 93 Tercel, and I use hypermiling tactics. However, for the purpose of testing, driving habits would remain the same whether or not the magnet is on. If the magnets do work, then I should get even better mileage even with hypermiling methods being used. As long as you drive the same (i.e., drive for 20 miles at a constant 55MPH), then there should be a difference in the amount of gas used, if they are truly effective. Cruise control is perfect for this because it can be more accurate - my car does not have cruise, but I can keep a steady speed, especially on flat roads.

Anyway, some sort of testing like this needs to be done in order to claim that it is effective. It's easy to have a 'placebo effect' when performing a modification on your car - you want it to get better mileage, so you naturally drive a little slower without realizing it. Or, it could be warmer out that day, so there's a free MPG increase - it's hard to quantify how effective one modification is unless you perform a test on it.