magnetic fuel savers

[jazzactivist]

Hi all! I have just read an ad in our local magazine about a small, magnetic device that can be attached to your car, or to your oil or gas boiler and it reduces the amount of fuel that you use by up to 18p per litre, Co2 emissions by an average of 48%, and energy bills by £2 per week, and increases performance. It says that it works by "magnetising carbonbased fuels which spilts the carbon/hydrogen bond to reduce the molecule sizes so that more oxygen attaches so creates a cleaner burn". I have seen this device, called either Correct Magnetic Ring or Ecoflow, reviewed in Permaculture magazine and it said that it works best on older cars, but there was a noticeable improvement. I am thinking about getting one fitted to my 2006 car, as anything that reduces Co2 and the amount of money that I give to multinationals can only be a good thing. Does anyone else have one of these fitted to their car or boiler, or know anything about it?

[Clunkshift]

Let us take a great leap of faith and agree that heating oil, gasoline and natural gas are magnetic or can be affected by a magnetic field.
(think ethylene - polyethylene - plastic - magnetic plastic??? magnetic carbon? I only know ferrite as a magnetic substance)

In the simplest arrangement, the gas boiler, hydrocarbon gas is whistling down a small bore pipe. We now attach magnets to the pipe and what happens? unlesss you have a ring of horseshoe magnets, or one big magnet with the poles on opposite side of the pipe, you won't even get the magnetic flux to pass through the gas.
Even if by some miracle the molecular structure could be altered, molecules are what they are, they do not change in size and even if they could, being squeezed around the burners and through the jets would perform that function anyway.

In a car with fuel injection there would be more magnetism in the pumps and fuel injectors and the device would be so far from the combustion point that any effect on the fuel would be nullified - sorry, it cannot work.

liquids and gases only obey laws of heat and pressure, I could bore for hours on liquifaction, separation and coalescing of hydrocarbons.

save your money, inflate tyres to their maximum handbook pressure and keep them there, do not fit roof racks, top boxes or air deflectors, don't buy cheap petrol like J*t (if they don't own a refinery they are minor league fuels), don't scrimp on air filters (cheap ones have less surface area), accelerate briskly to your required speed and lift your foot off the accelerator to the lightest touch which will maintain that speed and all these things will give much better economy.

[Oola]

If your conclusions are right Clunk, it makes me wonder how on earth they have permission to market such a thing - the most basic requirements are that a product as sold "fit for purpose" (i.e. if it says it's waterproof, it's waterproof rather than water resistant), of satisfactory quality and as described (e.g. if it says it's green, the product you're buying is green, or a particular model number etc..).

Somehow I don't think the object jazz has described does any of the above...?

[Rustic Pumpkin]

I don't have the level of intelligence that Clunk has on such matters, but what I do know is that magnets interfere with computers. So if there were any computer parts (and lets be honest, what isn't computerised these days) in the vicinity they would malfunction. I discovered this when I used a magnetic pin cushion near my sewing machine and had to have it reprogrammed. I certainly wouldn't risk this near something more important like cars or boilers that have the potential to be life threatening and very dangerous if they malfunction. Sorry to sound so basic, but I'm not very technically minded but I do know what happened with my machine because of a magnet.

[Clunkshift]

here is a link to a similar product:
http://www.energyenv.co.uk/FuelSaver.asp

There are many others on the market because it is an old idea.

I find the economics are staggering as I have a 6 cylinder diesel car and each of its fuel injectors costs around £200 and the low pressure fuel pump, high pressure fuel pump and filter are equally expensive because they are precision units. So the cost of these components is around £1500.
The piezo electric injectors (capable of operating dozens of times per second) are fed by the common rail high pressure reservoir and can inject multiple sprays of diesel for precise combustion of the fuel; which is carefully blended with additives for clean combustion and minimal deposits on the injector nozzles and in my case, mercedes benz have spent a fortunr on engine development.

Can I really belive that someone can knock out some electro-magnets in a strap on plastic clamp that will improve things for just £30 and is not even engine specific?

If they were any use, every vehicle and every boiler would already have one built in.

I have never seen any 3rd party tests by independent agencies which confirm any of the claims - and when challenged, sellers have pfailed to produce any data.

here are someone else's thoughts:
http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/Magnetic-fuel-savers-how-to-really-save-money_W0QQugidZ10000000003607696

http://www.chem1.com/CQ/magscams.html#MFT

And here is where the US government took some manufacturers to court:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/fuelmax.html

[MrZebra]

Clunkshift is correct on all counts - these things have been around ages and they are a scam, plain and simple. They even tried them on Mythbusters.

You can also buy pieces of cardboard that fit on your mobile phone to "deflect harmful e.m. radiation". That's right, CARDBOARD! And lets not even start on Monster Cables and the like - hundreds of pounds for a piece of wire scientifically proven to do NOTHING.

Caveat emptor