Electrical question - electrolysis using mains power

[Robby]

As some of you know, I'm a fan of using an electrolysis bath with soda crystals and water as the electrolyte. I know that caustic soda can be more effective, but I leave the bath there in my garage so I'm not using anything that makes nasty fumes.

Until now I have use a 12v battery or charger, which is slow. I want to use more power.

My cunning plan is to use 240v mains power with a 3A plug, a plug in circuit breaker, and a lighting dimmer switch. I have a few questions for anyone that knows a bit about electricity.

1. Is this likely to blow the fuse as soon as I turn it on with the lowest power setting?
2. Does the dimmer switch alter the voltage or current? If I know which one it alters I may run a voltmeter or ammeter in series to see how much juice I'm using.
3. Will electrolysis still work using AC current?

Or, does anyone know any other easily obtained power supplies that can give me a fair bit more power than a car battery or charger? An old PC power supply is one thing I've though of, but I don't know how much fiddling would be required. I can make the dimmer circuit in half an hour, and mount it on a board for a semblance of safety.

[MarJay]

[Robby]

I had a feeling that may make the case.

Damn you Tesla, why couldn't you have let Edison win the current wars.

I think I'll spend some of this weekend fiddling with a (very) old computer power supply. I think I have one from the late 80s/early 90s kicking around that should give me what I want.

[Kickstart]

Hi

Don't think electrolysis will work with AC, as there would be no particular anode or cathode.

You need to convert it to DC (which is part of what a battery charger does, but quite crudely).

All the best

Keith
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[MarJay]

[tatters]

I,ve got a workshop power supply that l use as a test rig you can borrow.

has a maxuim setting of 3A at 15Vdc or 1.5A at 30Vdc. dont know if that would be enough for your needs though.



edit: quick search on ebay shows loads of 25 Amp+ power supplys
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[stinkwheel]

Electrolysis using a 14v, 3A stabilised supply gives a fairly vigorous reaction. Proper fizzing rather than a few bubbles.

If you wanted to try it with high voltage D.C. you could potentially use an inverter or TIG welder as a power supply. I do however think it is a stupid idea but people don't find out new and exciting ways of putting themselves in casualty without trying new things. I strongly suggest that you should take extreme precautions against:

1) Electocution.
2) Electrical fires.
3) Boiling caustic splashes.
and
4) Hydrogen gas explosions.

Remember. DC electrocution can proper fuck you up but there is apparently a good rate of sucess at restarting the heart when external chest compressions are used promptly. Much better than with AC electrocution.
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[Robby]

I may take you up on that tatters, going to have a fiddle first.

A bit of googling and looking at PC power supply stickers looks they can put out 12A at 12V DC.

The stickers say:
+12V DC at 12A
-12V DC at 1.0A

Does this mean it will give me 12A if I connect the positive to one bit and the negative to another bit?
I also assume that I can find the wires giving me 12V with a multimeter, as long as I don't set it anywhere near amps (which I think will blow it, it's only meant to go up to about 1A.

My reasoning behind using an old one is simplicity, they have a nice easy on/off switch and nothing where they look for components to boot up or look for a software command to shut down.

[Noxious89123]

If your using a PC PSU, you'll need to take a look at the large plug that is designed to go into the motherboard; you'll need to jump the green wire with one of th black ones to make it turn on
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[baldy]

How about linking a few car batteries together? Should give you plenty of power.
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[hmmmnz]

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hehe
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[Alexio]

There are many, many 12v transformers of varying amp ratings out there to be bought.

Your old PC PSU should of course work much the same and you can find 400W PSU's from about £10 if you know where to look so that's probably the cheapest way anyway. Saying that, look on the side of the PSU and it should have an amp rating for the main 12V rail.
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[sickpup]

2 car batteries and a 24V charger should do the trick.

[Robby]

I know that car batteries would work - I had the best results with a totally knackered battery that was massively overcharging and kicking out a lot of power somehow, but it didn't do this for long. I felt it was to turn it off when it was boiling hot and starting to bulge, and it's just a brick now. Never blew up, which was lucky.

Cost is an issue though, I don't have two car batteries and a big charger. Power supplies are cheap.

[Cigaro]

I posted on here last night but somehow lost it.

Anyway...

A PC PSU will be fine. In the example you gave you will get 12 volts between +12v (yellow wires) and 0v (black wires).

The + and - figures are with respect to ground so between +12v and -12v will give you 24 volts but at 1 amp maximum.

I really wouldn't use mains power. If you do you should use some sort of large resistive load as a current limiter (like an electric fire). The variable resistor will vary both voltage and current as, across something with a constant resistance, the two are directly linked. You will also need some big rectifiers to turn the Ac into DC

Not recommended unless you want to die, tbh.

As said, with most ATX (modern) PSU's you need to connect the green wire in the motherboard plug to ground to get them to come on. Also some don't work properly with a light load, so you might be best connecting a car headlight bulb up in parallel with your electrolysis bath to give it some load.

[Alexio]

[Robby]

The PC power supply is working very well. It's meant to kick out 8A at 12V, the multimeter is reading 15A at 12V. Lots of little bubbles and lots of rusty scum floating on top.

[baldy]

I just have a old car battery charger that can output up to 18 amps max. It works wonders when you need to anodize stuff fast.
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[CaNsA]

Whatever you do robby, dont forget to video it

[Damon]

[Itchy]

[D O G]

[Itchy]

[Robby]

[WildGoose]