Friday, Mar 27, 2009 at 01:28
I cant claim credit for this .....it was written by the guru Collyn Rivers & I sort of borrowed it from another website.......
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I ran a six year trial of this in conjunction with Endrust, reporting the results in the CMCA's magazine and elsewhere - from about 1998 - 2004.
I did it by using four otherwise identical strips of unprotected steel, two attached in electrical contact with my then OKA's chassis - and two isolated from it by a 25 mm thick bar of nylon. The OKA spent most of that time exposed to the elements at our
home about 300 metres from the Indian ocean (and directly exposed to it) at our
home north of
Broome.
I reported on the results from time to time.
I found evidence that the device works to a point. There was a marked difference in rusting between the protected and the unprotected strips. The protected strips were interesting in that they quickly built up a light brown coating that could readily be wiped off by a Kleenex and stayed like that throughout the trial period. The unprotected strips were severely pitted. There was a difference in weight before and after of an averaged 3.7% (+/- 0.5%).
Endrust's claims were modest: only that the device retarded rusting (but made it clear it did not not prevent it) by a factor of about 3:1 and that it is best used where convenventional rust proofing techniques cannnot practicably be used (as for example old Toyota Coasters etc).
Other vendors have made much stronger claims - to the point that the US authorities took action about 15 years ago - and at that level the technique cannot be taken seriously. But I would not see it as a scam - unless claims way in excess of what I found are made for it.
What is interesting - and is noted by most people who use the devices - is that the vehicle paintwork 'blooms' when the dvice is switched. This is very noticeable - but I'm quite unclear what if anything this implies.
Summarising - it's probably worth thinking about for a very old vehicle as it may extend its life for a few more years, but rust proofing techniques are now so much better on today's vehicles that I doubt if it's worth it for new vehicles.
The technique is quite old and its in the public domain. The device is easy enough to build by anyone sufficiently into electronics (like my old ETI readers?). It essentially applies a pulsed capacitive charge at a fairly high voltage.
For people wishing to delve further there are several academically rigorous published tests of these units by seriously heavy testing authorities. They report results very similar to
mine qualitatively, but also quantify what they found.
I recollect that Endrust in
Geraldton also did a lot of work in this area (and as they are into all aspects of corrosion protection they have no reason for bias). I recollect to that they came to similar conclusions:
'It works to a point but if there is a conventional way that's to be preferred'.
Collyn Rivers
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