I too bought a Chauvet fogger last year. I spent a lot of time trying to research units on-line and decided that the Chauvet would be the way to go. I wanted a unit that would put out copious amounts of fog continuously. My plan was to use less than what the machine could produce so that I could depend on the output to grow as my needs grew in the future. I planned on leaving a reserve in capacity in the machine for future needs and growth.
It cost me a lot of money. When I got it I was very excited, it was my first fogger and was excited to run it in and play with the settings. I'd wanted one of these since I was a kid. I spent money on the unit I could have put to other uses.
When I got it out of the box, the fluid resevoir was wet with liquid. (Factory testing I figured at the time. Now, I'm not so sure.) The Chauvet had an extrememly long initial warm up and quite short fog production interval, then a very long reheat. The reheat was so long that any fog produced was long gone before the unit started making fog again. I tried to figure out a setting that actually made continuous fog as advertised, or even a setting that filled my patio continuously. No matter what I did the Chauvet wouldn't produce enough fog. (it would heat for about 3-5 minutes and fog for about 10 seconds)
When I called them to see what could be the issue they simply told me to change the setting to lower the fog demand. I wanted more fog so that didn't make sense but I tried it anyway. Sure enough, that made even less fog. I decided to return the unit and gave Chauvet a call to set that up. Man, what a friggin' ordeal! They spent the call trying to get me to admit the machine worked to specifications but that my expectations were at fault. It was like playing legal verbal symantics ping pong with a professional. In the end they did accept the unit back and refunded my money. I was also made to feel fortunate that Chauvet would accept my return. With my Chauvet performing nothing like advertised and the lack of customer service I experienced I will not purchase from them again.