I feel obliged to write this public review of Dr. John Garwood and his New Horizons Hydrogen Systems business. Please conduct your research thoroughly before calling this company. You may find the following reviews of the Hydrogen-on-demand industry itself helpful:
Popular Mechanics Article: http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a3983/4310717/
NBC Dateline coverage: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/29899191/#.WYYEH1GGNPY
I hope to relate below some of my experiences with Dr. Garwood and with his system, and finish with how our business relationship ended.
Dr. John Garwood:
https://butte.craigslist.org/wad/d/guaranteed-improvement-in/6231519911.html?lang=tl
When I first met John in September, we met at his shop in Ozark, MO for a three hour install. He finished after nine hours. My time with John left me questioning his veracity and ethical integrity. John told me many fantastic tales of his travels and eight figure personal income, his easy attainment of two Ph.D.'s from MIT, and his revenge on identity thieves. John also casually showed me a trick for stealing cell phone reception from local towers, by resetting one's phone with the battery removed.
In my dealings with John over the last year, I've found him to be very difficult to reach. He often waits over two weeks before returning calls or emails. On two occasions I forwarded John some industry reviews indicating that Hydrogen systems don't work, requesting in a friendly way any counter-resources he might be able to point me to - I have never received a reply from him.
The system itself:
I bought a $700 hydrogen system from John back in September of 2016 for my '04 Kia Optima. John guarantees a 30% increase in fuel economy, and boasts of seeing even more usually. After nine months and 10,000 miles, I have not seen one bit of difference in performance or fuel mileage. After installation and the 250 mile trip home, the system exploded in my trunk before pulling into my driveway. The sound reported as a loud bang from the trunk, as if something heavy fell on the back of my car. I opened up the toolbox and found a huge crack along the length of the water tank, with the brown mixture of water and Potassium Hydroxide spilled everywhere. After waiting for a month and a half, and texting him my mailing address three times, he sent me a replacement tank. John required that I spend time each month "experimenting" with settings, trying different amperages and "recalibrating" the computer module after each adjustment, saying "it takes time for the car to adjust". No results. I spent an entire Saturday reconfiguring the toolbox to improve water flow to the generator; it was very poor from the way John installed it initially. Wonderful production of hydrogen afterwards; still no change in vehicle performance. Even after six months, John kept insisting that it would take time for the car to "adjust" - I had the opportunity to go on a 1,200 mile trip to Denver and back and give the car "time". The car performed with stock fuel economy, 24 mpg, no improvement in performance at all.
In June 2017, I asked John if he would give me a refund. John agreed, upon return of the system. As I am a truck driver with hardly any time over the weekends at home, I decided to mail it to him via my trucking company and save myself shipping costs, or another 500 mile trip to Springfield. The system was dropped off at his home address on Thursday, June 22nd at 4:18pm, when my trucking friend texted me to confirm it was delivered. I called John multiple times in the following days, and had no response from him until Saturday, when he informed me that he could not find the system. He alluded to a boy in the neighborhood known for theft, and seemed to avoid addressing whether or not he would recompense me in some way for my troubles and his failed system. He said he would check his house video surveillance system for any indication of theft - when I called him back he claimed the system only recorded for five days and didn't go back to June 22nd. I finally pressed him for an answer on Wednesday, June 28th as to whether he would compensate me in any way at all. He refused to offer me any compensation at all, and even failed to offer an apology for the last nine months of frustration and complete failure of his product. I called him back, he hung up on me.
I'm afraid I don't have any legal recourse since I cannot prove whether or not the returned system was actually stolen, but I strongly suspect that John Garwood is not at all trustworthy. I understand his dilemma for reportedly not having the system in his possession, but I still believe he should have offered me some recompense for nine months of headaches and large amounts of wasted time with his product. I rue the day that I paid over $700 to him for a system that never worked. I can only hope that this review will help others avoid the same loss and frustrations.
Aaron R. read more