A few of you were asking if the cloud of bubbles that comes from the electrode plates of the dodgy cup boiler is hydrogen and oxygen generated electrolytically from the water. That did go through my mind when I first saw the bubbles, but I wasn't sure that AC would be ideal for electrolysis. I presumed it was just tiny micro-bubbles of steam being formed on the electrode surfaces. But there's only one way to find out....
As I had used a 20 liter pail of ordinary tap water without added electrolytes it took a long time to heat up. The bubbles of gas produced while the water was still cool easily ignited. Once the water was well heated enough to create water vapor the bubbles stop burning so well. I presume the hydrogen/oxygen gases would mix with the hot water vapor and thus losing some of it's explosive power. If you run your experiment again while the water is still cool you'll have plenty of fine little explosions:)
Oops! a typo. I meant '… put a flame to the larger FORMED bubbles….'
Oh yes some of the bubbles are definitely flammable gas! Must be hydrogen or oxygen. I put 2 aluminum rods into plain tap water and connected to 220 volts, no electrolytes added in. It produced large and small bubbles. I disconnected the power and put a flame to the larger former bubbles and they burned with a nice pop.
Still the most insane device Ive ever seen. Bonus points for the death-dapter (I have one here for a microscope ring light).
Of course you don't have hydrogen and oxygen coming out of the bubbles. You hear that buzzing? That's arcing in the water, which in turn is igniting any hydrogen that is being generated. Burning the hydrogen with the oxygen of course just converts it back to water. You need to do something to prevent that arcing from occurring, if you want to actually make hydrogen and oxygen for extracting from the water.
Electrode boiler are used on the industrial scale and I've seen them as load banks to test standby generators. If hydrogen had been produced there would have been some mighty industrial accidents recorded.
You rectified all those electrolysis videos congrats!!! You cannot get oxygen from water!
”500 watts”
* draws 1.7 kw” *
This seems safe…
It's probably just dissolved air that is being released. Boil the water thoroughly first to get rid of the dissolved gasses. Then let it cool in an airtight container see if it still produces bubbles. Any electrolytic reaction will be be quickly reversed with AC and the oxygen and hydrogen recombine which will return heat energy.
the question is … WHY?
Since they'd be coming off the same electrodes, the hydrogen and oxygen could be reacting back into water vapor adjacent to the electrodes. But that doesn't mean they aren't being separated.
More likely is that some of the gas is chlorine
Can you please run the heater on DC to produce hydrogen
to get more hydrogen use a ac-dc converter