Electronic anti-corrosion module: does it really work?

I did a quick online research project into this topic. There are lots of assertions based on theory or other people's assertions, but no real data seems to be anywhere to be found. Testimonials are a dime a dozen, and they can say anything you want.

A local department store still sells these units that install in your car and deliver a weak charge to the car body. It costs about $300, or up to $800 installed. The website of the company manufacturing them no longer exists. Reviews on this product are very mixed.

It seems that engineers and others who are in a position to know, are not endorsing products like these. Cathodic protection works on objects buried underground or submerged in water, but not on dry land. Toyota says their cars have extensive anti-corrosion protection, and any additional efforts to prevent rusting are likely to work against the existing protection.

The reason these things are so popular is that people like to believe what they are told, because it's self-gratifying (like the Beats Audio example). With all the vast resources of the internet available, there's no excuse for anyone to buy these things and take a "wait and see" attitude. By the time you learn the truth, the fraudsters are long-gone and spending your money.

 

The legendary msantos was using an anti-corrosion system on his second gen Civic hybrid, fwiw. He was a very frequent poster on cleanMPG and sometime poster here. Not sure what he's up to of late, gone quiet.

Here's his write-up on installing a solar panel to help keep the 12 volt charged, needed in part due to his anti-corrosion device:

Guide: Installing a solar panel on the HCH-II (step-by-step) - CleanMPG Forums

(he makes some off-hand mention of his anti-corrosion system)

 

Unfortunately, it's hard to prove a negative. If I had installed such a device on my '06 Dodge Ram, I could point to the lack of rust as "proof" that the thing worked, but I don't have such a thing installed. I put the lack of rust down to a dry climate and good rust-protection.

I've purchased new vehicles both in summer and in winter. It seems that the ones purchased in winter seem to rust out faster. I'm not sure exactly why, but they put salt on the roads here in winter, and it's very corrosive, particularly the ammonium sulfate salt that they used to use. The graveled roads around here are usually built on a bed of subsoil, which is often fairly basic in pH, and containing significant amounts of lime. It's possible that the first layer of soil that gets splashed on the under-body serves as a bit of an undercoat, which offers some measure of protection against later corrosiveness.

 

Any engineer knowledgeable about circuits know that they is a voltage drop for any individula component wired to the circuit. There is no way to monitor each and every connection point made in the circuit to insure that the flow of electrons resulting in the transfer of ions through an electrolite is ZERO to prevent corrosion.

Corrosion or rust is the result of the transfer of ions. Encapsulation or isolation from oxygen is one sure way of slowing down corrosion.

Only three metals; gold, platinum, or paladiun; do not oxidize in nature.

 

What would it cost to plate all the steel with gold, platinum, or palladium at the factory?

 

Gold is often used in electronic devices to plate contacts to avoild corrosion. Only a very thin layer is need; usually in micrograms.

 

One of the problems over the years was the use of recycled steel vs. that produced from iron ore. Bits of impurities in the recycled steel were hastening corrosion.

 

What about self-sealing steel, the type rusts a bit, and the rust sort of seals the surface, prevents (or nearly so) further corrosion. Maybe for underbody, suspension?

There must be some validity to the stuff, it's used in critical structural components, engineers vet it.

 

I remember when Dell Computers announced that they were cutting gold out of their manufacturing process. Soon after that they were taken over by HP.

 

Most ALL iron in steel is recycled. The hematite or Iron three oxides on the Mesabe Formation in Minnesota have long been exhausted,

Ironfrom the current post nuclear era also contains a significant level of background radiation from atmospheric nuclear fallout.

 

I've seen that on old farm machinery, made over a century ago. There's a dark layer of rust is ferric-oxide, which is resistant to further corrosion. The ferrous (red) iron oxide is loose and flaky, and leads to further corrosion. I think most of the steel in those days was made out of raw iron-ore and didn't contain the impurities that seem to speed up the corrosion of steel that is made out of recycled steel.

 

That only occurs with COR-TEN steel. Most rust creates iron 3 oxide which explands and continues to expose the substrae to continuing oxidation.

A lot of current Toyota chassis parts including control arms are now "phosphated" to protect them from rust and overcoated with a thin coat of epoxy.

 

There's a bridge down the road from us, the type with towers and tension cable suspension. The towers are unpainted, that self-sealing steel. Look kind of funky, but supposedly good. I had a hand in it, checked a lot of the steel detail on the bridge, in particular the towers.

 

The early American colonists used a type of iron called "bog ore" which was scraped from swamps and smelted. Unfortunately it contained many impurities that made it brittle. When good-quality ores were mined, it produced good quality steel, which is hard to find nowadays, unless the manufacturer knows how to source it. Otherwise, you just get recycled steel, which corrodes quickly.

 

There's an iron pillar in India which has resisted corrosion for over 1600 years. Perhaps there's something in that metallurgy we could learn from.

 

COR-TEN or ASTM A242 steel still cotinues to rust, if immersed in water or in semi-tropical humid climates, especially at welds and joints.

 

That would be the hign concentration of phosphates in the iron alloy.

Still, human hands that have touched the column, has caused a great deal of corrosion on the Delhi column.

 

Nicht rostender stahl (nirosta) , inox or stainless steel protects th underlying substrae by isolating the iron with a molecular layer of chromium oxide.

Stainless steels have to be exposed to oxygen to form the chromioum oxide layer. Stainless steel corrodes badly in an oxygen deprived environment.

 

Empress Carly bought Compaq, not Dell. As an ex-HPer, she was quite painful to my retirement nestegg.

Gold is not ideal for electrical contacts. While it doesn't oxidize, it does bring other problems.

 

True, memory fogged.