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When (snake) oil and water do mix

Look out world, we're on the verge of another energy crisis brought about by fears of climate change, rising fossil fuel prices, and idiots.

However, it's not the prospect of paying $5 a litre for petrol or even having legislated ceilings placed on people's personal carbon emission levels that worries me.

It's the scammers and snake-oil merchants that really send a shiver down my back.

We're already seeing a booming industry in con-artists separating simple but otherwise normal folks from their hard-earned cash by way of fuel-saving devices that simply don't work -- and it's about to get a whole lot worse.

Search for the term "water-powered car" on the web and you'll find over 130,000 entries, a huge number of which are pitches to sell you devices that will allow you to run your vehicle on good old tap-water.

Of course Aardvark readers, being the well-educated and knowledgeable people they are, will know this is not possible.

Although they may not be rocket scientists, I'm picking that most of you reading this right now have a fairly reasonable appreciation of the laws that govern thermodynamics and the conservation of energy.

You would not be hoodwinked into spending your hard-earned cash on some lame-brained scheme to hack into your car's plumbing and electrics to install a box of fizzy-water.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of folks who would.

Even worse, there are a growing number of folks who realise this and are simply running all the way to the bank as a result.

For just a few bucks, they'll sell you all the information you need to free yourself from the tyranny of fossil fuels forever.

Some say you can significantly reduce your fuel consumption with one of these devices, others claim you can dispense with petrol altogether.

And people fall for it!

Then there are those who claim they've come up with some super new way of splitting water that requires less energy than the energy that's returned by burning the resulting hydrogen.

Many of them even have vehicles with big "Water Powered" signs all over them and drive around pitching their story to the media and other dupes.

And occasionally, the dimwits in the media fall for this (YouTube), which simply lends credibility to these scammers.

One of the biggest scammers in this area was Stan Meyer, an American who claimed to have built a water-powered car, was widely promoted by the media and whose scammery wasn't exposed for quite some time.

Water car scammer Stan Meyer (part 1) (YouTube).
Water car scammer Stan Meyer (part 2) (YouTube)

But even after the facts were revealed for all to see, there were still some so stupid as to see Meyer as some kind of God. The result are a number of fan-sites and even tributes to the man in the form of a Stan Meyer fanboy video (YouTube)

I even found a guy who's used all the fuel-saving gadgets and techniques at once and has doubled his fuel efficiency as a result. YouTube video. Of course he's selling the information you need to do it all yourself -- don't slip on the snake oil while walking across the room to get your credit-card. And is that a Kiwi accent I detect at the end of that clip from someone claiming to be an ex-F1 racecar driver? (Google's never heard of an F1 driver by the name of Ian Giller and he has not mentioned here either) Don't tell me NZers are involved in this kind of deceit...

Of course they are, NZ has its fair share of water-powered vehicle scammers too.

Do you remember Steve Ryan?

Maybe this will jog your memory: Original 60 minutes report from TV3

Well it seems that, despite the claims he was off to the USA a couple of years back to sign up some big deal and that his water-powered motorcycle technology would make him richer than Bill Gates, Mr Ryan seems to have all but disappeared.

His website is still up but there's no sign of that big deal.

But wait -- like just about all the "water powered vehicle" inventors that have come before him, he is selling his story -- in DVD format this time.

And I notice that his water-fuel claims have been somewhat "watered down" and now consist of a "water and waste-oil" fuel.

Why the oil? Didn't I see his motorcycle running on straight water? What happened to that miracle breakthrough?

And why is he now actively pitching the "EcoTube" Fuel Saver device instead of his own water-fuel system?

Uh-oh, the term "fuel saver" rings alarm bells again. Yeah, the EcoTube (love the name, it tugs at your envornmental heartstrings) is another useless bit of fluffery. No it won't improve your fuel economy except that your wallet will be lighter so your car's engine won't have so much weight to move around.

As I said at the start of today's column -- get ready for the rush.

I'm predicting the fuel-saver and water-power snake-oil merchants are getting ready for an all-out assault on the ignorant and gullible amongst us.

How on earth do we protect the population at large from this kind of attack?

Maybe it's time that 60 Minutes did another follow-up on Mr Ryan and put some hard questions to him about is original claims. Just what is he doing with his billions these days I wonder?

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