Posted by Sherman in Idaho [72.47.153.105] on Tuesday, November 19, 2013 at 22:53:49 :
In Reply to: Re: Gas Tank Electrolysis - It Works! posted by Greg Coffin [64.24.135.39] on Tuesday, November 19, 2013 at 13:51:48 :
No, it should not damage well-attached galvanizing. Zinc is attacked by acid, but the solution is alkaline so there's no problem there. On the electrical end of it, one way of looking at it is that the electricity generates atomic hydrogen which reacts with metal oxides but not with most bare metals. The method works on copper, but not as quickly as on iron. On galvanized steel, the only problem is if the galvanizing is loose it can make it flake off. Good galvanizing is fine. The catch with the electrical method is getting it to "penetrate" into the corners, which is usually where most of the rust is. If it takes a couple hours to clean the accessible flat surfaces, it can take days to a week to clean all the way into the corners. The good thing is you can't over-clean with this method. Just be sure to keep the tank or other container full, or you can get corrosion at the interface between the wet and dry parts.