Sipu Jha
A YouTuber known for building enormous lasers and experimenting with high-voltage equipment has returned with a long-teased project: wiring 400 car batteries together to explore what happens when extreme electrical current is unleashed outside a laboratory setting. Drake “Styropyro” Anthony, a chemist who describes himself as a “professional mad scientist” and a “science maniac”, spent two months assembling the system, using more than 1,000 pounds of copper wiring and constructing a custom switch capable of handling currents that exceed 150,000 amps. The result, he claims, is unlike anything he has filmed before.
From 100 batteries to 400
Anthony had previously demonstrated the capabilities of 100 car batteries wired in series, teasing for years that he would scale the project up. The new video fulfils that promise, multiplying the battery count fourfold in an experiment driven, in his words, by curiosity and a desire to explore “the physics of extreme currents”. While the combined setup operates at a relatively modest 65 volts, the current is enormous. At peak performance, Anthony regularly exceeds 150,000 amps, with some estimates placing the total potential output above 160,000 amps. For context, he explains at one point that “a single shot from these batteries is … comparable to an entire thunderstorm’s worth of lightning bolts.”
Drake Anthony Styropyro used 400 car batteries to melt metal, deform pipes, and create a dramatic ferrofluid explosion/ Image: Youtube
He also claims the system can outperform natural phenomena in another way. “With these batteries, I can pull electrical currents far beyond the typical lightning strike, and for much longer durations too,” he says. “I can guarantee you that this video will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen in your life.” The project required custom engineering from the ground up. No commercially available switch could withstand such current, forcing Anthony to build his own heavy-duty switching mechanism using extensive copper components.
Why car batteries, not capacitors?
Given the scale of current involved, some viewers might expect the use of capacitors. Anthony addressed that directly. “When it comes to making huge currents, most people think of using capacitors,” he said. “But interestingly, car batteries don’t fall that far behind in terms of max currents. The benefit with car batteries is that they can dump those currents for far longer than a brief pulse.” That sustained discharge capability became central to the demonstrations. Anthony describes the project as operating on scales “like you’d find in the national lab”, albeit conducted in his own backyard. “The purpose of this video is to explore the physics of extreme currents,” he explains. “I’m talking scales like you’d find in the national lab, but since this is all in my backyard, I get to have a bit more fun with it. And to be honest, much of this is just going to be me sticking random stuff in between the contacts to see what happens.”
Melting metal and magnetic force
The results are dramatic. Placing a small steel rod between the switch contacts causes it to glow intensely before vaporising in a blinding flash. Anthony demonstrates how concentrated energy can warp metal piping, although early attempts result in the pipe being destroyed outright rather than neatly bent. Using magnetic pulses, he eventually succeeds in deforming and then destroying the pipe. He proceeds to test a range of materials including titanium, tungsten, bismuth and copper, each producing violent reactions and, in several cases, explosive effects. Despite the scale of the currents involved, Anthony insists he approaches the work carefully. “I know that this must come off as the most ironic thing I’ve ever said,” he says, “but I don’t approach anything potentially dangerous without fully understanding and mitigating the risks at hand.” He adds that even a single car battery can cause serious harm “if you screw up hard enough”, acknowledging the absurdity of needing to warn viewers not to replicate the experiment. Anthony has had a fraught relationship with YouTube in the past, with some videos demonetised or removed, and at one point his channel appeared at risk of closure. The extremity of his projects has led to a running joke among fans who comment on new uploads that they are glad to see he is still alive. At the beginning of the 400-battery video, Anthony addresses that perception directly, explaining that he is “not a risk-taker.”
The ferrofluid finale
For the finale, Anthony pours ferrofluid into the experimental setup, triggering a massive fireball-like explosion that he later describes as “the coolest thing I’ve ever filmed in my life”. “In the span of a 10th of a second, nearly the entirety of the dish of ferrofluid was slammed up against the pipe while the total circuit power rose to over 10 million watts,” he explains. The resulting blast, while small compared to industrial-scale detonations, evokes cinematic comparisons for viewers. Remarkably, the 400 car batteries remain intact after the explosion and can still be used for other purposes, underscoring the controlled nature of the demonstration despite its spectacle.
Anthony, whose previous video titles include “Building a Fire Death Machine Using Soviet Military Tech” and “My homebuilt 200W LASER BAZOOKA!!!!”, continues to push the limits of what high-voltage experimentation looks like in the social media age. His latest project may sit firmly in the realm of “do not try this at home”, but it also serves as a striking demonstration of just how much energy can be extracted from something as commonplace as a car battery when scaled to extremes.
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