Electrolysis tank back from the dead

[Paul_NJ]

I cleaned out my electrolysis tank yesterday. The solution had been in there for two years, and the tank activity had dropped to almost nothing. I was reading an amp, or less, at 20 volts. The solution had a reddish tint at the top, but as I transfered the solution to a 2nd poly tank, one bucket at a time, by the time I got down to the last 8 inches, the solution was totally opaque and dark red. At that point I dumped the residue. What a mess. My gravel driveway will never look the same. Another dumb move. Must have been an inch of iron oxide on the bottom. I transferred the rest back to the tank, made up the difference with fresh water, put the rods back in, turned it on, and . . . . no difference! None. Still less than an amp and no bubbles.

I had inspected my 5 rebar anodes before I even began thinking about the solution quality, and they really didn't look that bad, at least while they were wet. I left them out overnight, and after drying it was easier to see they were coated. And when I hit them with the angle grinder wire brush, from the cloud it threw up, it was pretty obvious that there was a significant layer of salts and rust. Back down to bare metal, back in, power on, and . . . now it worked. 8 -10 amps, good tank activity. I'm sure cleaning the tank helped, but unless the anodes were down to the metal, it just didn't work. I have to remember to follow my own advice.

To me, I hate cleaning the anodes more than anything. One reason is because I connect the wires leading to each anode under small hose clamps, and it's cumbersome to take all of that off each time. I've seen it done with large alligator clips . . perhaps that would be quicker. What do you guy's use for clamping the leads, as well as attaching to the part to be treated?

[bob in CT]

Paul,
I bought a box of heavy-duty copper clips from Mcmaster Carr and I made up my leads to the anodes using those. They are strong enough to hold up rebar, but the anode with the Gravely 30" mower blade on it sits on the bottom.

If I am cleaning large parts, I wire wheel the anodes after each run.

If my part sticks out of the electrolyte, I attach my battery charger clip directly to it. For smaller parts, I spot clean them and I have a few iron clamps that I use to clamp on the parts to make a connection. Then I suspend the parts using coat hanger wire (sand off the lacquer) that I hook to a 1x3 board I have across the top of the tank. I then attach my clip to the wire(s). I'll daisy-chain parts together and on some assemblies that may be insulated by rust I use multiple leads.

FYI: High voltage just make more hydrogen. I run 6 volts and about 12 amps when my anodes are clean. If you can run at 1-2 volts with 10 amps, the same work would be done as far as the rust is concerned but there would not be enough voltage to break down the water.

[NawlensGator]

I use 1/4" flat bars about 30" long placed verticaly around the circumference of a 75 gal poly tank. Drilled a 3/8" hole in the top of each through which a 5/16" bolt, washers, and a nut are secured. Insulated copper wires from the charger are crimped to 'U' connectors that are tightened against the flatbar under the washers. Loosen the nuts and the crimped 'U' connectors comes right out.

I also don't like the wire brushing. Has anybody used a pressure washer to clean the anodes?

[drspiff]

I use large alligator clips in my latest E-Tank. Take a look at the system I came up in this Shade Tree article. The problem I've found with trying to use lower voltage is that a larger tank seems to take more voltage to get moving. On a small tank, about a cubic foot, 6 volts will give me 4 to 6 amps. But the 45 gallon E-Tank takes 15 volts to get the same current levels. This is all based on clean plates. As the plates load up, the current goes down as expected.

One of the things I've found to help with cleaning mess is to use a hand wire brush on the plates while they are still wet. This removes a large amount of the accumulated gunk. Once the plates dry, I wire brush the remaining gunk. This 2 step process helps to reduce the amount of flying gunk. BTW powered wire brushing while the plates are wet is a VBA. That gunk goes everywhere and sticks to almost anything.

Rick (life is a learning experience) Dulas

[Rudi]

Paul:

The troubles you have gone through are the reason why I recommend what I do. I have also had the same problems.. and it took me a while to figure it all out.

I have a couple of sets of re-bar anodes, which allows me to change em out without having to clean them every time. When I need to clean them, I do a couple sets at a time, less hassle that way. This year, I am in the process of making composite anodes with a larger surface and hopefully easier to cleean. There will be multiple sets for both tanks Cecil gave me a good idea. Weld short pieces of re-bar to used lawn mower blades. Good use for the mower blades, they are easy to clean with a powered cup brush and they provide a larger area.

I also do not like to have to fiddle with wrenches and stuff to change the anodes out. So that is another benefit of the Battery Charger Aligator Clips that I use on my tanks. Makes it pretty simple, plus the Clips are robust enough to hole the anodes up off the bottom easily.

The drain is to get rid of the sludge. Works well.

Glad you got it working again.

[Jim Becker]

Another reason I use flat material rather than rebar, much easier to clean.

[Don McCombs]

Here's my design test tank made from a 5 gallon bucket. I used beam clamps to hold the rebar and the part to be cleaned. It works very well. I will use this same basic design on a 55 gallon version, except with more anodes with mower blades on the lower end.

[Rudi]

D
Very nice setup. I like it

[sccrooks]

I've switched to using flat metal stock or round metal bars that don't have any patterning; I can scrape crud off with a putty knife, don't need to use a wire wheel on them, and get very good results.

I used rebar at first, but found it very difficult to clean with the diamond patterning.

/sam

[Rudi]

Sam:

Yup, sure understand that. What is nice about the stock for the anodes is that it can be whatever you have laying around. It can be flat bar stock, square stock, round stock, pipe or re-bar.

I have been using re-bar because my brother-in-law goes through tons of it making up cages for sign bases. This usually ends up with a pile of scrap bits of re-bar anywhere from 24" to 60".. which gives me lots of stock to choose from. So when I am outside in my coveralls, that is when I clean up the re-bar. Yup, it is messy at times.. but overall, it is for me worthwhile cause it costs me nada.

Now I am saving all of the mower blades I can get my hands on. I will weld them up to the 24" scraps of re-bar and presto, I get the best of both worlds.. enlarged surface area that is flat, easy to clean and free, coupled with re-bar that fits nicely into my tanks.

Any and all ideas are useful and welcome. Also, any of you who have pictures of your tanks, I would appreciate along with a few how to notes. It would be really nice to be able to have a wide variety of electrolysis tanks to provide ideas for other members who do not have one yet