Thread: Question about fog and cold weather

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Unlike past years, it's below freezing here every night this week. I normally run 5 fog machines and chillers. My question is, will the fog hug the ground if it's below 40 degrees on the big night? Will the chillers make any difference at all or should I just run the machines without them?

I don't completely understand the relationship between the temp of the fog and the temp of the outdoor air so can someone clue me in?

Thanks!

I'm in upstate New York, and the temperature has been ridiculous here as well. I've actually opted to not shoot through a chiller this year and just use raw fog.

My suspicion is that the fogger heats to a standard temperature every time it warms up, meaning the air temperature is the only variable in the equation. Theoretically, the lower your ambient air temperature is, the greater the difference between that of the fog and that of the air - that would mean that the cooler it is, the more "rise" your fog will have, since it's that much warmer than the air temperature.

I'm hardly a fog expert though...I could be wrong.

As I understand it, the fog chiller cools the fog to below the ambient air temp, making it cling to the ground - heavier than the air. If the air is cold, you have to chill the fog more. And if the air is freezing, like it is here....well, you're screwed, lol. I'm running mine without the chiller this year, it just seems like a waste of ice. Although, on a happy note, your ice wouldn't melt much! LOL

Alrighty then, it sounds like I am officially screwed.

lol!

At least you're not alone in said screwing!

Funny, I was just asking myself the same question last night. Oh well, chilling it won't hurt anything,

Same here.

I figure I'm still going to run the fog through my homemade chillers, but I'm not counting on the low lying fog to happen.

Nah you are all good running the chiller on a cold night. Like others said the fog needs to be colder then the air around it, but the colder weather actually will add to the effect. It is not so much the temp as it is the humidity that will affect your fog. Normally this time of year you will have lower humidity readings. You want higher ones so the fog is heavier. In time though the fog will set after it hits the colder denser air and the fog will sit after the fog is run through the chiller. Right after dusk the temps probably won't make much of difference. You should be ok running it through the chiller and getting the fog to sit. As long as you are running the correct chiller to your size fogger.

My husband said the chillers would be of no use this year since it will be in the thirties here. The fog would have to be less than that to have any effect.

Not sure if this helps.. but another purpose of the fog chiller is to rapidly chill the fog.. flash freeze it as the Vortex site exclaims. Not sure how fast the outside cold air will cool it compared to running it thru a cooler..but I would guess your fog chiller would chill it a little bit faster..

Another thought.. dry ice? Maybe using chunks of dry ice might make it colder than the outside air.. .faster... ?? Just a thought.. don't know for sure. I know the dry ice I get comes in bags.. so I would have to assume you would need to open the bags and chunk the dry ice into your chiller so the fog can travel thru it better.