[Stressed]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7986167136&category=33741

 

[jordan]

It is too good to be true, most likely will not make an increase in hp and if the blades break they will end up in your engine. When one of the advantages is "Low voltage draw leaving more power for you engine!!" you can tell it's doing next to nothing

 

[GTJIM (R.I.P.)]

Too Good .....

"Low voltage draw" - 12 volts ...... but about 45 amps!
It takes heaps of power to feed any extra air into the motor at WOT and High revs. There ain't nuttin for nuttin in this World .........

 

[opelgt73]

If anything it would kill your battery in short order.

Do a google search about them, they do nothing at all.

 

[GTJIM (R.I.P.)]

Have a look at ....

Here is a great site about an "electric supercharger"!

www.homemadeturbo.com/tech_projects/el_blower/

Have a look at the "homemade" throttle bodies too - elsewhere in this.

 

[Tim240Z]

Those things are just marine air movers to evacuate fumes from the hull. They can only move air that is 'free moving'. If there is any back pressure downstream of it, it is just spinning......these things are the biggest scam since the Nigerians......don't fall for the junk....

 

[LeftLaneGuy]

Heh!
In theory, I suppose it *could* work. The problem is, it won't make any <pressure> Sure, it'l move CFM, but your motor will suck more air than these things can supply. The one you're looking at is a squirrel cage type, and it's slightly better than the in-line fan, but the major difference is that a turbo (and supercharger, for that matter) has a provision for *compressing* the air.
Having worked in HVAC, I've played with a few cool little fans, just on the premise that you might be able to boost the incoming air. We got it to work on an ATV, but it was a seriously powerful motor driving the blower assy. An electric "supercharger" can be built... But @ the cost of about $600, and the addition of a 100+ amp alternator, an extra battery, and some kind of 'stepper' controller, it's really not worth the minimal gain. (maybe 2-5HP) Oh, and that gain will be instantly eaten up by the larger alt.

Neat idea, though, and you gotta admit- these guys are making a *killing* off these on ebay...
America- What A Country! Capitalism Rules!

-D

 

[kwilford]

Yes to all of the above. These do NOT work in an engine to add power. BIG CON JOB! But I DO have an application where a squirrel-cage fan motor DOES work effectively as a "blower". I use it on my air compressor in my garage.

Here's the deal. I have a Craftsman "350" 110 Volt compressor, rated at 6.1 cfm (cubic feet per minute) at 90 psi. Except that is its "peak" output, relating to when the tank is emptying faster than the compressor is filling it. So not exactly great when I fire up the big in-line body or dual action sanders, which requires a full 6 cfm at 90 psi, and would suck the tank down to 40 psi in about 5 minutes. At which point the compressor would keep up, but the sander would just plain "suck".

OK, I am a highly trained gas compression engineer (not really, but don't tell the boss or the shareholders!) and I do stuff like this for a living. When I want to get more gas through a compressor, I install a booster compressor to pump up the inlet pressure (which also sucks harder on the gas wells, so they put out more gas). Higher inlet pressure means more cylinder fillage means more output. This works with 200 HP boosters feeding 1400 HP compressors, so why not do the same on my little 3 HP air compressor? So I installed a central vacuum power unit (really just a 15 amp Lamb squirrel-cage blower) to pump air into the inlet, and it increased the inlet pressure to 5 psig (psi gauge, as in more than atmospheric). The simple math says that the inlet is nominally at 14.7 psig (atmospheric pressure at sea level), but more like 13.5 psig at 3200 feet here in Calgary, so to increase it by 5 psi means the compressor now puts out (13.5+5/13.5)=1.37 or about 40 % more than it did "naturally aspirated". It now keeps up to either sander, and even my sandblasting cabinet. It also takes another 8 amps (what the fan uses at full "slip"), on top of the 13 amps that the compressor already uses. Squirrel-cage fans are terribly inefficient, but heck, electricity is cheap (compared to the proper 5 HP twin cylinder compressor that I REALLY need). Hey, they don't call me "Tim the tool man" for nothing...

Here are a couple of not-very-good photos...

 

[jordan]

I imagine that not having enough air in a shop could be annoying, I remember using a die grinder at school with their 4 gallon compressor and I would have to stop about every 45 seconds and wait a couple minutes, but at home we have 43 cfm @175 psi, so air is never an issue. Isn't the idea of having a blower on an air compressor similar to a 2 stage compressor?

 

[baz]

jordan dont talk about single engines with 2 stage blowers you will have any of the old boys who were here for hitlers world tour twitching at the description on an ME109G

 

[bear]

Of course Baz, the tourists you refer to were not too happy to see the Pratt & Whitney "Whirlwind" rotary engines with a 2-stage superchargers either. Especially when they were attached two on each wing.