Thread: Multiple Foggers, One Timer?

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Hey all -

Having picked up a couple more foggers in the after-Halloween sales this year, I was curious. Is it possible to hack or modify a timer to run multiple foggers?

I now have 3 foggers, and one timer. They're all identical foggers, so the timer will control any of them independently, but I'm looking for a way of shooting the three foggers simultaneously (or at least as close to simultaneously as I can as they heat independently).

Any suggestions?

Power to the controller (manual or timer) is contolled by a thermal couple in the fogger, there is no power to the control until the fogger heats up to operating temp and the thermal couple closes sending power to the control and from the control to the pump.

You could run all three foggers from on control but they may not all product fog at the same time because they may not all be at operating temperature at the same time or could be reheating at different times,

Even though they are the same fogger I expect the variation is great between machines. So don't expect the heatup, and reheat cycles to be the same.

So you might be pumping fluid to a fogger that is not at operating temp. What effect this will have on the fogger and will it cause any damage I don't know. It may not product any fog, or limited amounts.

I think your best bet is to keep a look out for two more timers. I bet someone here has a couple of extras they may sell for cheap.

You are corrrect in that the timer or manual switch gets enabled by the temp relay. So why not wire the normally open side of the relay in series with all of the foggers. Naturally you will have to route the timer on signal to each fogger, but the good news, is that if the normally open side of each relay is in series with the others, then none of the fog machines will fire until all of them are ready to fog. This means that a whole salvo of foggers could be controlled to fire at the same time. The only variance would be the pump response.

I think there may be some circuit considerations. I will diagram it to see if it will work.

Yup. You will need three additional relays. They could be fairly light duty 110 volt relays. Instead of the normally open output going to the manual or timer circuit, you send it to the primary on a 110 volt relay. One relay for each fogger. Then wire the secondary in series to the manual and timer circuit. Each secondary relay will have to be energized by the temp relay before the timer and manual will be enabled. So until each fogger is fully heated and the normally open side of the temp relay is closed and is supplying voltage to the secondary relays, then the timer and or manual circuit will not be enabled.


Spinman

Oh, my issue wasn't with finding or buying timers. They're cheap enough I don't mind picking them up. I just didn't want to have to set three timers and then run from one to another if I wanted to manually "shoot" them all. I was hoping to set up some sort of centralized location that would A) set a timer as a group, so to speak and B) let me press one "fire" button that would shoot any of the three which happens to be at temp.

Oh well. Too confusing for my non-technical brain. I'll just get two more timers. lol Thanks guys!

What you are asking to do is not that technical. If you like, PM me and I will draw up a simple circuit for you. You will have to do some basic electrical wiring of course, but a heck of a lot more complicated stuff is done by plenty of folk here. IMHO.

Spinman

You might try it with just two foggers and see what happens, It could surprise us all. after all those foggers are cheap and usually I feel lucky to get two seasons out of them.

Of course if you do please let us know the results and what course you took.