Bruce Richardson’s big Cat 3406 diesel engine runs about 1,000 hrs. a year on an irrigation system. The last two years he says he has saved between 3 and 3 1/2 gal. of diesel fuel an hour with the help of HydroStar hydrogen generators. The hydrogen helps fuel burn more completely and cleaner and at little additional cost.

“I run four of them on the engine, and they last about a year,” says Richardson. “At $125 each, they pay for themselves many times over. The lye and distilled water mixture used in them costs about $40 a year.”

When FARM SHOW first wrote about the HydroStar units (Vol. 33, No. 3), Andy Herold had sold just over 100 systems. Three years later he says his sales have reached 4,200 generators.

“All the units are prewired, tested and set up and ready to go,” says Herold. “I even label the wires. All buyers have to do is hook them up and fill them.”

HydroStar generators are only 5 in. wide by 7 1/2 in. long and 2 1/2 in. thick. There is plenty of room for four of them to hang on the radiator of Richardson’s big Cat engine. He puts them there so they always have air being pulled past them. He says he has had no problems with them since he got the lye-water mix figured out.


“Initially I added too much lye, so the units were putting out too much hydrogen,” explains Richardson. “It pipes into the dirty side of the air cleaner, and I was getting buildup from the lye.”

Richardson settled on a diluted solution of half a teaspoon of lye to a gallon of distilled water or a quarter teaspoon per liter.

“The units run about 12 hrs. without a refill, so I fill them up in the evening and again in the morning,” says Richardson. “I tried propane injection, too, but it saved only about a gallon and a half an hour.”