Electronic rust prevention devices - do they work?

[19jacobob93]

Hey all
I'm seriously considering buying an electronic rust preventer but I've read a lot of mixed reviews on them.
One person did say he installed one on his old Mazda. This car had an old bump on it for some time and it was starting to rust. He said after installing the device, the rust slowly turned from the usual orange color into grey and never progressed. Sounds plausible like it had anodized the steel in a similar way to galvanizing.
Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with them? Hopefully positive

 

[Kestas]

They don't work. If they worked, every car where I live would have one and the automakers could stop wasting their money on anti corrosion coatings. Do you seriously believe the automakers would turn a blind eye to such technology if it worked?

 

[eljefino]

Yes, we all have them. That's why we worry about motor oil.

 

[19jacobob93]

Exactly what I was thinking, why wouldn't they have them from factory... BUT no manufacturer wants their cars to live past the warranty period these days so nothing would surprise me. The idea of them makes sense, we know galvanizing works and it's a similar mechanism but whether the real world results are the same is what I hope to find out

 

[KrisZ]

We see many people posting pictures of the state of their normally rust proofed vehicles. BITOG along has posters that did so, including myself. I'm yet to see pictures of vehicles equipped with these devices after 10+ years of use.

 

[OVERKILL]

No, they don't work. They work on ships because they are submerged in water, your car isn't.

Good discussion of it here:

http://corrosion-doctors.org/Car/car-electronic-rust.htm

My mom had one installed on her Expedition back when they first bought it. Once the frame was bright red with rust, the bolts holding the device to the firewall were themselves nuggets of rust and the running board mounts had literally rotted off, my dad mentioned that perhaps she should have skipped the gimmick and just had it Krown'd like had been done to his Lincoln, and which had fared massively better despite being much older.

 

[AlaskaMike]

Well, it's not just ships. Old nuclear hardened underground AT&T sites passed a small amount of current through the underground steel diesel tanks. The few photos I've seen of tank removal (AT&T removed fuel tanks from some sites prior to selling them off) showed zero corrosion with almost pristine looking primer still present. Most of these sites were installed during the 1955 - 1965 timeframe.

Now, is it the same thing as what's being marketed to prevent rust on your car? I'd have a very hard time believing that.

 

[Trav]

If they worked at all Toyota would have recalled all the trucks and installed them for cheap instead of replacing frames and doing buy backs a few years later.
Same category as fuel line magnets.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: AlaskaMike
Well, it's not just ships. Old nuclear hardened underground AT&T sites passed a small amount of current through the underground steel diesel tanks. The few photos I've seen of tank removal (AT&T removed fuel tanks from some sites prior to selling them off) showed zero corrosion with almost pristine looking primer still present. Most of these sites were installed during the 1955 - 1965 timeframe.

Now, is it the same thing as what's being marketed to prevent rust on your car? I'd have a very hard time believing that.


Why it works on those tanks is the same reason it works on ships. It is covered in the article I linked:

Quote:
One has to understand the principle of CP to understand that the technique works by forcing a protective flow of electrons to the metal that needs protection. For this process to work, you need a complete electrical circuit to bring the electrons back. In the case of an outboard motor on a boat, the sea water completes the circuit. In the case of a bridge, the wet soil completes the circuit. But in your car, the only way to complete the circuit on all the metal in your car is to drive into seawater, bury in soil or again park it in your swimming pool

 

[DoubleWasp]

Galvanic isolators were never meant to work in an open air environment.

 

[AlaskaMike]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL


Why it works on those tanks is the same reason it works on ships. It is covered in the article I linked:


I was replying based on what you'd written, not on the article you'd linked to. You had written that the reason it works on ships is because they're submerged in water--my point was that there's more to it than that.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: AlaskaMike
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Why it works on those tanks is the same reason it works on ships. It is covered in the article I linked:

I was replying based on what you'd written, not on the article you'd linked to. You had written that the reason it works on ships is because they're submerged in water--my point was that there's more to it than that.

OK, but I provided the link because I didn't want to bother typing it all out, hence the article. The soil is damp with water, that's why it works in soil. It doesn't work in open air, if the tanks had been above ground, it would not have worked.

That better? LOL!

 

[Ducked]

Install one and start parking below the tideline?



Or...



But if you're going to do either of those, a zinc anode will probably be more effective, especially when you're submerged.

 

[Kestas]

Anodes only protect material for a finite distance. It can be boosted by adding an electrical potential.

 

[turtlevette]

I don't know. If you live in a very wet humid area like I do and near the ocean things sweat. Things don't have to be totally submerged for electrolysis to work. On dry days it won't work. But on dry days your car don't rust.

And my roof never leaks when days are bright and fair.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: 19jacobob93
Exactly what I was thinking, why wouldn't they have them from factory... BUT no manufacturer wants their cars to live past the warranty period these days so nothing would surprise me. The idea of them makes sense, we know galvanizing works and it's a similar mechanism but whether the real world results are the same is what I hope to find out
They have nothing to do with coating hot zinc on sheet metal in rust prone spots. It's apples and grapefruit. Maybe if you parked your hooptie in a puddle of salt water and connected the thing to a ground rod. I heard those "electric superchargers" work great at creating wallet space as well.

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
Anodes only protect material for a finite distance. It can be boosted by adding an electrical potential.


Sure, but that'd be tricky to arrange if your car was under water.

 

[19jacobob93]

Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: 19jacobob93
Exactly what I was thinking, why wouldn't they have them from factory... BUT no manufacturer wants their cars to live past the warranty period these days so nothing would surprise me. The idea of them makes sense, we know galvanizing works and it's a similar mechanism but whether the real world results are the same is what I hope to find out
They have nothing to do with coating hot zinc on sheet metal in rust prone spots. It's apples and grapefruit. Maybe if you parked your hooptie in a puddle of salt water and connected the thing to a ground rod. I heard those "electric superchargers" work great at creating wallet space as well.

Not really cause galvanizing uses a sacrificial anode such as zinc, where as the electric kits anodize the metal using, well, electricity instead. If you scratched the zinc layer off a galvanized steel pole, the exposed steel will still not corrode because it is still anodized, I would think that the electric devices would work in a similar fashion.
Maybe I should pop a few of my zinc supplement tables into the bucket next time I wash the car

 

[DoubleWasp]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
Anodes only protect material for a finite distance. It can be boosted by adding an electrical potential.


Exactly. Anodes last a lot longer when protected by an isolator, because there is less attack reaching the components.

 

[kschachn]

Originally Posted By: 19jacobob93
Not really cause galvanizing uses a sacrificial anode such as zinc, where as the electric kits anodize the metal using, well, electricity instead. If you scratched the zinc layer off a galvanized steel pole, the exposed steel will still not corrode because it is still anodized, I would think that the electric devices would work in a similar fashion.
Maybe I should pop a few of my zinc supplement tables into the bucket next time I wash the car


Since when can steel be anodized?