The performance of the 14‐ and 16‐&mgr;m CO2lasers produced in the electric discharge gasdynamic laser has been significantly improved by the addition of a small percentage of H2to deactivate the (0110) level. This addition tripled the pulsed output of the laser, and 45 &mgr;J at 14 &mgr;m and 25 &mgr;J at 16 &mgr;m were observed. cw oscillation was achieved for the first time, with output powers of 0.6 and 0.9 W, respectively. The effect of collisional processes in limiting the CO2density is discussed.