Okay engineers, tell me what you think. (environmental magic, or more hype?)

Water seer ^ | unk/recent | website

[Baynative]

WaterSeer™ condenses pure water from the air without power or chemicals. It is green, sustainable, simple, low-maintenance, easily deployed and scalable for any community. VICI-Labs worked with UC Berkeley and the National Peace Corps Association to develop a device that yields up to 37 liters of pure water a day! A WaterSeer™

[Garth Tater]

The reality is, pumping air underground causes the ground in that spot to warm up, until it matches the average temperature of the air being pumped in. End result: it might condense water out of the air for the first few hours, or even a day, but then it stops working.

No, my heat pump heats up a channel under the ground in the summer but this heat is constantly conducted away by the surrounding earth - which is pretty much the same way this product works. The heat pump works in reverse in the winter, cooling the channel around the water pipe buried out there in the backyard.

Been working for 30+ years now and the earth keeps giving me heat in the winter and coolth in the summer.

[fireman15]

Adaptation of the old pit-style solar still. Boy Scout Field Manual from the 60’s.

My immediate impression also. I am very skeptical of the quantity of water this is claimed to be capable of producing. It would seem that a filtration system would be much more efficient in any area where the problem isn't a lack of water, but a lack of clean water

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

This is where my mind went. I did this as a kid for a science project and it didn’t cost me $134 to do it. 5 rocks, a piece of plastic tarp that I found in the garage, my daddy’s garden spade, and I was in business. Oh, and a plastic cup from a thermos.

[DaxtonBrown]

I’m a mechanical engineer. Yes the concept is valid. As far as whether they would produce that much water reliably, that’s another question.

You could get a similar effect burying a J shaped tube with the long leg sun heated. A lot of ways to do it.

[fireman15]

Beware! Looks like a scam.

Any time eco-loons from Southern California are involved it is a pretty safe bet that some type of scam is afoot.

[Fhios]

If I give you two bricks and sell it to you under the notion that it kills any bug dead, that’s your fault. Caveat emptor.

On a technical side. It probably works. They’re called solar stills. But there has to be moisture in the air or ground. The more the better.

It relies on condensation. Then there are the energy costs. Could be substantial and widely ranging depending upon conditions. Very small ones, like the ones you find on industrial life rafts and emergency survival kits — they are barely survivable if at all.

Extracting water for anything greater than that will require produced energy. So ..... take it from there.

[Dennis M.]

Eventually an someone will realize that it takes water out of the air, causing global drying.
A professor will opine that plants may all die as predicted by a large study at the U of BS.
Then it will have to be regulated.
And poor people will not have one, there will need to be an assistance program.
The rich could have bigger ones, more water, taking it from the poor, resulting in riots in Portland.

Maybe it would be better to keep drinking dirty water.

[DaxtonBrown]

actually you’d bury a long tube at a slight incline

[jonrick46]

Another technology under development. More government grant money is needed. /sarc.

[doorgunner69]

Still thinking about it all, being an electronics type and not a therodynamics geek.

But, as far as the slow heating of the ground, sure, but the ground its one helluva heatsinnk. Given decnt conductivity, no way is that small container going to heat th e surrounding earth very much. Heck, stirring your coffee theoretically heats is, but with all the losses, you could never measure it.

[Gator113]

My dog would mark it...better put a fence around it.

[Rockingham]

So-called air wells harvest and collect dew and have been used since ancient times, so the basic concept is broadly plausible. Instead of the traditional principles of passive circulation over a mass of carefully placed stones though, the WaterSeer design relies on the relative coolness of the ground to condense water from air circulated below.

Obvious problems with the WaterSeer design are that it uses scarce, non-local materials and requires careful placement and lots of digging for proper installation. Moreover, the moving parts will need maintenance and repair. These drawbacks make it a stretch too far to be widely useful in the impoverished, disordered rural countries it is said to be intended for.

In contrast, the Warka Water is a proven design and relies on the simple tools, materials, and skills available in the Third World.

[Eagles6]

But...but...the narrator is a chick with an English acccent and sounds concerned and they play some kind of ethnic, new age music so it has to be legit...right?

Well, if it doesn't work it's because science is racist./sarc

[Jonty30]

It works, in principle, but not 37 litres an hour. Maybe a few hundred millilitres a day. Even humid air does not have that much moisture in it.

[aquila48]

The guy is 100% right. His science is right on.

And he’s great. I love his irreverent and politically IN-correct attitude.

I’ll be watching more of his videos. Thanks for the post.

Trump ought to find a place for him overseeing federally funded research.

[TigersEye]

Looks interesting. There is one day left to get one for $134 dollars. After that the market price will go into effect. They don’t say what that might be.

I wonder what you do with it when the temps go well below freezing? Drain it?

[TigersEye]

Thanks for posting that. I can’t believe I watched the whole thing but it was hilarious to listen to that guy debunk the Waterseer.

[UnwashedPeasant]

Might work well in Florida.

[husky ed]

No kidding. Plus your not going to get what from the air if there is no humidity. Say the Sahara Desert.
With 4 to 5% humidity in the interior, I doubt that thing would pull a liter out of the air.

Ed

[Gaffer]

It’s like they’re saying they don’t need “air” at all, then. Dry ice is very cold and I think you could set this up using it as a heat sink in an oven, but you won’t get any water out of it. TANSTAAFL.