Thread: Fog Chiller Tips Please

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Originally Posted by Marc-UK

The fog will only chill when in contact with the ice. I have tried many variations on an ice chiller, and this one is really the only one that works. If you can get it, use dry ice as it's much colder and makes a big difference.

Yep saw that one way back. I was wondering if there was better means as I was leaning towards that version. Thanks!

my opinion, all ice chillers work ok but you loose volume. I gave up on them and went to dry ice. Prices for dry ice have come down a lot! and no water to deal with. On my 1000w I have a 1 1/2" abs pipe 30" long with a cap on the end and as many 3/8" holes as i could drill in the cap. filled with chunks of dry ice. Lasts all night. makes more lower colder fog than the ice chest chillers and its small. Just don't forget to use gloves when playing with dry ice! ITS WAY TO COLD TO TOUCH!

I did a fog chiller using 20ft of corrigated drain pipe submerged in a ice water bath. It didn't work very well I now put frozen water bottles don the pipe work well. I want to change it to be more of a vortex chiller using frozen water bottles instead of ice.

Originally Posted by Marc-UK

The fog will only chill when in contact with the ice. I have tried many variations on an ice chiller, and this one is really the only one that works. If you can get it, use dry ice as it's much colder and makes a big difference.

That's the exact chiller I made. Marc is correct, this thing works!!

This is just the way my brain sees things...one problem I've run into with chillers is that, living in the Northeast, it gets pretty cold Halloween night, which means I REALLY have to chill the fog way down to get any quantitative effect.

As I was reading this thread, I had the thought - If you had the means to fill a plastic trash can with water, sit your vortex tubing inside, and then FREEZE THE WHOLE THING....would this be worth the effort?

That much ice mass would require quite a bit of time and heat to thaw, and I'd imagine that much ice contact would have a substantial effect.

Has anyone tried it?

That'd be one big, heavy chunk of ice. It gets too cold for chilled fog in Chicago during Halloween about 50% of the time as well. I think if you could freeze a garbage can full of water, I'd run a coil of semi rigid tubing inside the can from the top to the bottom, leaving maybe half the space void for water. I don't think flexible dryer vent pipe would work as it might collapse from the water pressure and during the freeze. Something a little stiffer. Maybe 3" pvc with fittings to make the bends. that might just be cold enough for your part of the country.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking too...Sure, it might take four men to life the stupid thing, but it could be worth it in the end.

Not enough time to do it this year, so maybe after Halloween I'll build a scale prototype to compare...I'm intrigued!

I used a round insulated tub with a lid and coiled about 25 ft of thin wall corogated hose.......one hole in .one hole out .........4-5 pounds of ice and it works very well ..................
Ill take some pics when I get it fired up this year.......good luck

Originally Posted by robzilla69

On my 1000w I have a 1 1/2" abs pipe 30" long with a cap on the end and as many 3/8" holes as i could drill in the cap. filled with chunks of dry ice.

You just run the machine right into the open end of the tube?
Sounds like a good idea as well.

yup works just like that! so simple