Thread: I made my first chiller.. i have some questions

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hey guys i found this site while browsing for ideas for my first halloween party. Long story short, i decided to make my own fog chiller. I just finished it up(ill put pics up eventually) and it is the 5 gallon bucket, reverse vortex type.

My questions are:

1. The fog stayed pretty low, but rose up pretty quickly. I didnt use that much ice so the fog probably did not get as dense and cool as it could have been, but typically how long does the fog stay low... and will it just rise up after it reaches ambient temp?

2. I have a full blacklight setup going on in the basement. The fog should be visible, right?

3. I had trouble with the ice being too heavy for my mesh wire that separates the chambers. Could it be the type of wire i am using?

Generally if you pack a lot of ice in there, you'll get a better chill going. If you have the opportunity to use dry ice, do so, its much colder and lasts a lot longer than cubed ice, and it wont leave any water after the ice melts, which it will do pretty quickly. You can try putting some rock salt and such on the ice to see if it will lower it a bit.

thanks andjarnic maybe ill think about dry ice next year..

anyone else know about if the fog will just rise eventually like it would coming straight out of the fog machine? if the fog will be visible with blacklights?

I use single bag of ice in my home made chiller, and it will usually stay close to the ground almost until it dissipates, but will warm/expand and rise before disappearing completely...so I'll end up with a low lying layer and a very thin wispy haze in the room. Mind you, this is a garage in Vegas, where the temp that night will be about 65-70 degrees or so, and usually a breeze that tears it all away within 3 minutes or so. I don't know the answer to the blacklight question, I'm curious myself as I'll be using a blacklight this year.

ok here are some pics of the fog chiller.. i didnt get to take videos yet, maybe tomorrow

If it's not too late, pick up a gallon of Froggy's Freezin juice. It's about $25 to $35 shipped. You can find it on ebay, or minionsweb.com. I had the original swamp juice a few years ago and it was pretty good. Just bought some freezin juice, will see how well it does this year. It's supposedly formulated to produce a thicker fog that does better when cooled than other fog juice, so we'll see how well it does.

With 70+ degree weather, your fog should have no problem staying low. The wind tho, is going to kill it period. To battle wind, your best bet is to figure out which way it is blowing and if you have enough time, use a length of ABS/PVC or even cheap corrugated dryer duct, drill some holes in it, and extend it around your scene so that when it comes out and the wind blows it, it will blow across your scene. I have yet to try this, but have a feeling I will need to do something like this this year.

this is gonna be for inside(basement). The ambient temp should be ~68-70 degrees. Here in NY its 40 and windy out lol so theres no way its gonna work outside

Ah, ok. Looks good. You used some thick PVC to support your ice tray. You may want to use thicker mesh for the ice tray tho if it's a problem holding up the ice.

Originally Posted by andjarnic

Ah, ok. Looks good. You used some thick PVC to support your ice tray. You may want to use thicker mesh for the ice tray tho if it's a problem holding up the ice.

yea i used 1 1/2" PVC... When i went to Lowe's, that was all i could find in small lengths(i think it was 3' length). Everything else was 5'+ lengths and I knew i wouldnt need that much. If you can tell in the picture, I actually found a different mesh in my garage that is harder and less malleable. I put that on top of the PVC and a thinner, finer, more malleable mesh on top of that.

BTW, one thing I would maybe add if you don't have it, is a small drain plug at the bottom. As the ice melts, water will collect. Nice if you can put a drain plug and leave it open IF you have a place to drain it to. For outside this is really nice. For inside maybe not such a good idea.. but you don't want to have to tip your chiller upside down to drain the water in the middle of it's use.