Identifying e-supercharger scams
How to tell the
good from the bad
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Some supercharger vendors will claim dramatic improvements in fuel
consumption while simultaneously achieving large increases in engine power
output. This is almost a contradiction of terms when large gains are said to
be realised as a massive advance in engine technology would need to occur to
make this possible. We contacted one
vendor who claimed that a static piece of metal resembling a wind chime could
instantly yield an extra 35 Hp and at the same time improve fuel consumption
by 20 mpg. The seller was asked why none of the major manufacturers used this
device to which they answered “the manufacturers don’t know
about it yet”. A further question
of ‘how is it that we know about the device but they don’t
?’ was never answered. We
for our part find claims like this difficult to believe and would doubt the
veracity of anything said by the claimant. Most electric supercharger vendors will publicise various figures and
statistics relating to their products performance. These are of course
difficult to verify and may or may not accurately reflect the superchargers
worth. An approximation of an individual electric superchargers real
performance can be obtained from details of their current and voltage
requirements. A supercharger is essentially a pump and has to do work to
pressurise an induction manifold. They have to be a powerful pump as a huge
volume of air needs to be pressurised to keep up with an engines demand. Even
the most efficient electric supercharger designs need a substantial electric
motor to drive them and such a motor requires an equally substantial amount
of electricity to power it. Simply multiplying voltage (Volts) and current
(Amps) together will tell you how much electric power ( An individual superchargers ability to generate boost reduces as
engine size increases. It has to do more work just to keep up with a large
engines inherent capacity to displace air. Furthermore a larger cubic volume
requires more energy to pressurise hence a correspondingly larger
supercharger is needed just to maintain the same mean gas pressure. Electric
superchargers generally have a lower volumetric efficiency than conventional
chargers and are more sensitive to engine capacity. An electric supercharger
that can blow the socks off a 900cc minnow may only be able to tickle a
5000cc beast (depending on its total volumetric efficiency). This is an
important aspect to keep in mind when evaluating published performance
figures and it is worth querying the test conditions and engine used. Gas flow is probably the most misunderstood and abused measurement of
all. Describing gas flow would take another web page just to skim the
subjects’ surface. The problem being that superchargers operate in a dynamic
environment where by it is extremely difficult to separate flow rate
attributed to the engine from that provided by the supercharger. Even simply quantifying the flow rate
difference between a supercharged and naturally aspirated engine tells
surprisingly little about the superchargers overall performance. Measurements taken when the supercharger
vents into an open space are meaningless, a large fan would outperform a
supercharger in this test yet fans are for the most part unable to generate
significant pressure. All in all we
think it is best to leave these figures out completely rather than step into
a quagmire of potential controversy for the sake of very little in the way of
worthwhile information. Boost pressures along with power and torque gains are
the benchmarks that best describe a superchargers performance. Whilst electric superchargers are a very cost effective and efficient
performance enhancement they do have limitations. It is unreasonable to
expect that a low cost electric supercharger will produce the same
performance gains as a hugely expensive conventional supercharger. If they
could match conventional chargers yet still only cost a tiny fraction of the
price then electric superchargers would put conventional chargers out of
business. Vendors who claim performance parity at vastly reduced cost are
probably being less than truthful. A good way to gain an insight into a merchants honesty is to simply
ask them a question. An evasive answer or worse still no answer at all would
lead to doubts about the products or merchants integrity. Answers to
questions that read like an advert for the product are also likely to raise
suspicions. Please feel free to ask us any questions about our electric
supercharger by sending an email to support@gaprojects.com and we will answer within 24 hours. We are very reluctant however to comment on
specific electric superchargers (other than our own) as we assume no right to
the position of adjudicator in these matters. Hopefully this page will help individuals recognise the various
supercharger scams that are out there. If you have any information or tips
you think should be added to this page then please contact us at scaminfo@gaprojects.com More information can be obtained about our electric supercharger and
all our other products by clicking the buttons below. |
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