Thread: Large scale fog chiller assistance needed

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Hi, I am running 2 2000w, 2 1700w, 2 1000w and a 1200w fogger this year and I am looking for an efficient way to chill them. I have made several of the 55gal trash can vortex esque chillers that work amazing but go through ice like crazy, and even getting ice from the 99cent store adds up when ur getting 60+ bags a night. Sooo my question is... I have seen several people use air conditioner units (much like the professional units) to chill fog but I can't find any how to's, only completed projects on YouTube. Anyone have any ideas???

I'm also thinking about experimenting with running chilled water through several motorcycle radiators I have and running the fog through that.... But I only have enough to make one chiller that way. Hmmm...

Can you post a link that shows using an air conditioner to chill fog? TBQH an air conditioner is just a radiator with a compressed gas running though it. I think your radiator idea is the best. Like two radiators in a row. Running chilled water is still going to use ice, but at least if you pump to all your chillers from one big can of chilled water it will be more efficient. Keep in mind you will need a manifold from the pump to supply chilled water to each fog chiller. You will lose efficiency if you pump from one chiller to the next. The last chiller will receive basically hot water.

Thanks for the response. I would be using a separate fog chiller for each section of the yard but that is definitely something to consider if I were linking them. I think the radiators and chilled ice water are definitely a good backup if I cant get the a/c method to work.

Here's the first few videos I can find.








And the store-bought version:

Well it certainly looks like a refrigerator unit or an air conditioner. Maybe one of those high BTU units you put in a window I am guessing. My question would be the cost. You will still need one for each section of the yard. But the good news is that running fog through a radiator does work. Now will chilled water provide the same effect? It will of course depend on thermal transfer. How fast does the coolant in an air conditioner run through the cooling circuit? We know that it is is a gas compressed to a liquid state. We also know that no such option exists for water, as water in it's normal state is already liquid and will not compress. So likely the key to using chilled water is volume. IE pressure. Moving as much water through the radiators as you can. Of course the narrow path within the radiator will ultimately limit this, but if you do decide to use the chilled water approach, then I think a decent pond pump would be the best bet. Submersible, so down where the coldest water will be. Return lines should come in at the top into an open pocket of air to help draw some heat out. Or you could run the return lines through a radiator with a fan blowing air through it. The key is to reduce the temp of the return water before returning to the chilled water supply.

Since you have a few radiators sitting around I am assuming you know atleast a little bit about the way engines/radiators work, but incase you don't (and only if you don't )..... Radiators use forced air and sometimes fuel to "cool" the coolant to a cooler temp than the engine block so it can run throuhgout the block and keep the engine "cool" so it doesnt overheat and come apart or sieze. IMHO......I really only see a radiator being an effective cooling source if it's fully submerged in ice or ice water. Pumping ice water through the lines seems like a good idea, but remember these things are not designed to make the liquid inside cold, just lower in temp than the rest of the engine, which is running around 200 degrees, so the heat transfer might not happen as fast as you need it to for fog. IDK, ice water would cool it Im sure, but you said you're running 2000w foggers, and that's a lot of volume to cool in a small radiator with just ice water running through the lines. What if you threw it in a cooler full of ice? Or maybe you could run a compressed gas through the lines, or some liquid nitrogen?? Something that would cool it much colder than ice water...