RomRaider

Hi All,

I would like to warn the users out there of a scam I recently fell prey to.

Some background - I live at high altitude and drive a Subaru Legacy 2.0 GT. Due to the altitude our atmospheric pressure is only 86 kPA (around 12 PSI), which makes off-boost response, lag, etc worse than coastal conditions of 103 kPA. As a solution, I looked at installing a small electric supercharger in series with the turbo. Now I know there are many ways to improve performance, but I decided to try this one for fun!

I found a website for a company called Thornton at http://www.electricsupercharger.net, which claimed to have a unit for the Legacy. They claimed an air flow of over 1000 CFM, and a boost of over 3 PSI, using a 765W electric drive. I promptly ordered the unit for $99, and after a long overseas delivery period, it arrived yesterday.

First thing I noticed is the motor was rated less than 50W. The unit they shipped as a "Supercharger" is actually an Attwood Turbo 3000 air blower. I looked up the model on the internet and it turns out it is used for ship bilge systems and costs $19 online. The fan and motor is installed in a 3" pipe and almost totally blocks the air flow, which would actually take away performance from your car if installed in the intake piping. THESE GUYS ARE CROOKS, THEY ARE SHIPPING FALSE PRODUCTS.

I have since tried to contact the company, as well as the credit card agent who does their billing, with no success. I also found that their forums are locked, so all the postings on it are obviously false.

What I would like to achieve by this posting is to get the word out to the users that Thorton, via the website http://www.electricsupercharger.net is a total ripoff. Please spread the word!

Call your credit card company, and decline the charges. Send it back, and get a tracking number so you can prove you sent it back.

It's kind of clever (and really, really shady) how they've locked every thread on their "forum." But, it will make it easier for you to explain to your bank that you've done everything you can to contact them, and they are not reachable.

Good luck.

Holy crap, their website is insane. Claiming 8 psi. And that integra they claim made 60 something horsepower, really had a turbo on it, not their crap.... oh man sorry dude...

Yeah, the 8 PSI claim did sound fishy. There is another similar website called Shoreline Technologies, at http://www.electricchargers.com, which claims more realistic boost of around 2 PSI, but could ALSO be a scam. Guess there is no such thing as a free/cheap lunch!

Out of interest, does anyone out there know about genuine electric superchargers, such as those featured in the perfomance magazines?

The only electric superchargers I've seen that don't look like outright fraud:
http://www.boosthead.com/home.php

I think the guy behind these things is probably honestly trying, but I'm still suspicious. There are some weird things about the site... like, they have this 'product browser' where you enter your make & model, but no matter what you enter, there are clearly only two products that this company makes.

The main reason I think they're serious is that an earlier version of that site actually had a lot of information about the product and the electrical demands. Unfortunately I can't find that on their site anymore... It takes something like 20hp to drive the blower, which is a lot for an electric motor. They were up-front about the fact that you had to pretty much install a separate 24v electrical subsystem to really get boost.

However I don't see a lot of information there about the fueling and ignition changes that would be needed to make extra power safely. This make me rather suspicious.

I'm guessing the guy had a day job that has nothing to do with electric superchargers, and he's honestly trying to make this stuff work. But I'd expect to end up doing a fair amount of R&D yourself if you buy his stuff.

You can actually calculate the amount of power it takes to compress a certain airflow rate of air to a certain PSI with an adiabatic process.

I think I stopped listening after I did this once and found out it takes hundreds of amps even just for 10 psi on a 2.0L motor at midrange RPM. Maybe if you made a new 48VDC charging system and had a gas turbine to keep it charged.

Unfortunately this company is at it again with their fake tuning devices. They have two websites, one selling this 'supercharger' and another selling a fake performance chip - be aware!

https://www.performancechipguide.com/th ... -teardown/

One of my friends is scammed by them recently. Found this thread while looking for what people are saying about the company.