Thread: Problem w/Fog Machine

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This is our first year to try out a fog machine. We got a super big one (Techno 1000). Its supposed to cover 8000 cu. ft. We got Ground Fog Liquid for it since we were hoping to have low lying fog in the backyard. We tested it out last night. Fog immediately went about 8 ft in the air & quickly disappeared. Tried it inside w/the same result. Any ideas what the problem is & how to fix it??

Ground fog requires a chiller. The simplest and in my opinion most effective is a 1 1/2" -2" diameter abs pipe depending on your output nozzle size. with a cap on one end drilled with lots of 3/8" holes. Filled with chunks of dry ice. It makes the coldest lowest fog and is cheap and easy. Just make sure you use thick gloves when messing with dry ice it is way colder than water ice and damages on contact with skin. There are also tons of other chiller threads on here. Good luck!

Originally Posted by kelly7adria

This is our first year to try out a fog machine. We got a super big one (Techno 1000). Its supposed to cover 8000 cu. ft. We got Ground Fog Liquid for it since we were hoping to have low lying fog in the backyard. We tested it out last night. Fog immediately went about 8 ft in the air & quickly disappeared. Tried it inside w/the same result. Any ideas what the problem is & how to fix it??

Heat rises...so the hot fog coming out of the machine is going to rise. Too get low lying fog you need to cool down the fog when it comes out of the machine. There are lots of different techniques to get that done. Just do a search for fog chillers. Another alternative is to get French drain pipe from Lowes and fill it with dry ice or frozen water bottles. It's something you have to play with ... and when you get it all figured out, Mother Nature steps in and makes it too cold, too windy and too rainy to be effective

Here's a demo video of the drain pipe that Scatterbrains mentioned. It's a 4" vented pipe filled with frozen Vita-Water bottles. The fogger is a Chauvet F-1250, comparable wattage to your Techno 1000. One other thing - fog juice that is formulated for low-lying effects will usually dissipate faster than the regular stuff. This is because the low-lying effect is enhanced if the fog disappears before it can rise very far. If you're going to build a chiller, I recommend using a good quality fluid, like Froggy's Swamp Juice. Super-thick fog with an amazing hang time. That's what is in the video.

Fog test with 4" pipe video by Otaku1031 - Photobucket

Thanks for the input!! I know absolutely nothing about this. I assume a chiller hooks on to the end of the fog machine?? I saw the long pipe on the link that was posted. We're trying to fill the entire backyard w/fog (approx 45' x 45'). We have an 8000 cu. ft. unit. Will the chiller pipe eventually fill up the entire backyard or do we need to run long pipes everwhere? Sorry if I sound stupid, I'm totally new to the whole fog machine thing......

Originally Posted by Otaku

Here's a demo video of the drain pipe that Scatterbrains mentioned. It's a 4" vented pipe filled with frozen Vita-Water bottles. The fogger is a Chauvet F-1250, comparable wattage to your Techno 1000. One other thing - fog juice that is formulated for low-lying effects will usually dissipate faster than the regular stuff. This is because the low-lying effect is enhanced if the fog disappears before it can rise very far. If you're going to build a chiller, I recommend using a good quality fluid, like Froggy's Swamp Juice. Super-thick fog with an amazing hang time. That's what is in the video.

Fog test with 4" pipe video by Otaku1031 - Photobucket

That is a wicked video, I hope I can set something up like that. Huge though.... I'll have to stick it under a long table or something LOL

Originally Posted by kelly7adria

Thanks for the input!! I know absolutely nothing about this. I assume a chiller hooks on to the end of the fog machine?? I saw the long pipe on the link that was posted. We're trying to fill the entire backyard w/fog (approx 45' x 45'). We have an 8000 cu. ft. unit. Will the chiller pipe eventually fill up the entire backyard or do we need to run long pipes everwhere? Sorry if I sound stupid, I'm totally new to the whole fog machine thing......

That's a lot of square footage to cover. The bigger problem will probably be wind blowing the fog around and away - always an issue. The machine you have can probably give a good blast right from the nozzle, but you'll lose some of that force going through a chiller. I built one of these chillers a few years ago for a 700W fogger and was happy with the result:

Fog Machines - Your Guide to using Fog Machines for Halloween

Since it's a straight-through chiller design, it's not as efficient as one that routes the fog through the ice cubes or that uses a long length of flexible metal piping coiled in an ice-filled trash can. But it will allow the cold fog to blast out a further to get better coverage for your large yard. You can also play with the location of the fogger to get better dispersion. It sounds like you'll need to some higher-end fog juice, too - that "Low-Lying" fluid will dissipate pretty fast. If you can, water the ground where the fog will be going; the water evaporation cools the ground and helps keep the fog from rising. And if the cost isn't too much, get some dry ice, ~10-15 lbs, and break it up into the ice cubes in the chiller. Low-lying fog guaranteed.