How to Turn Ordinary Water into Explosive Gas That Goes KABOOM!

Maybe not water per-se, but with this simple technique you can turn one of the most abundant materials on earth into a highly explosive gas.

WARNING: Ignition of an incendiary or explosive material may not be legal in your area, so check local laws before attempting. Use of this video content is at your own risk.

To test the power of the gas, I filled a few cups with a small amount of water and dish soap.

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When the gas was bubbled into the soapy solution, it foamed to the top of the cup. Each bubble contained the HHO gas, making this a frothing fountain of energy. I wondered what would happen when it touched an open flame?

The gas explodes! And in the energy exchange, the O2 molecules recombine with the H2 molecules turning back into water vapor. Cool that you can use fire to make water, isn’t it?

On another note, did you know you can reverse the idea, and use water to make fire? You can see how to do that in this other project.

Next, I tested the power of the gas by filling up bottles.

To get pure gas in the bottles, I filled them with water, then inverted them in a bucket of water to prevent the water from draining out.

The gas was bubbled up into the bottle, and as it collected at the top, it forced the water down and out, until the bottle was full of only the gas.

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The force of the explosion destroyed water bottles, but pressure rated plastic bottles like soda bottles shot off like rockets, and could be reused over and over.

I stepped it up to one gallon of gas using milk jugs, and they were ignited with a remote detonator. It’s hard to convey how loud and how powerful the shock wave was (watch the video above to hear just how loud it was).