Thread: Fog Machines

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Okay, I am hoping someone will be able to help me in depth with this question/s.

I have a fog machine (I think still?) I moved so I have to check but, you know, one of those $20 ones which really is just for a party in one room of the house type deals or what not.

I would like to move it outside and do a graveyard mist/fog-on-ground effect on the front yard.

One of my questions would be...

Do I need a more powerful fog machine?

and...

Do I want the heavy fog or the light fog juice?

I know that basic knowledge is to have a fog chiller so that the fog floats near the ground to make that eerie effect.

Next question...

If I am making a fog chiller to connect to my fog machine, and I have read about a lot of different ways to do it, and I am always one to do it the cheap way since money is tight and all. So...

I could get a big cooler and cut out holes and then do the whole chicken wire thing... or I could go the Styrofoam cooler with the aluminum dryer vent hose.

If there are any other ways,and the ways are cheap and affective it would be awesome to know about them.

I really just want to know if I did create a fog chiller, which one would give the best fog/mist on ground effect and which one would last the longest without me having to adjust it or anything?!!?

Thanks in advance. There are so many different ways to make a fog chiller, all the same basic principle but everyone uses something different so I am wondering really WHY they do it that way and what makes it the best also.

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iMindLess

I used a long drainage/irrigation hose last year I bought from Home Depot for $9.98, saw it on Youtube, it worked very well, used the fog juice from Spirit. It was cold enough at night so that I really did not need to use ice inside of the tube…

Okay, it's like building a better mouse trap, etc. I have seen all the different ones and I ended up making the Styrofoam Ice chest one. (money tight here too) but instead of the dryer hose, I used this weird metal tube thing I found in the plumbing section at HD. It was cheaper than dryer hose. I have also seen where people have used metal rain gutter pieces and that seems cheap too. Look around and see what you can find. Basically you need to channel the fog through an area to cool it down so it will stay on the ground. I also have the 400 watt one and it works fine.

Whats the best one out there right now?

I know Chauvet is crap from personal experience and the threads last year but I heard VEI is good. Are they the best? I'm looking at 250 budget at best.

Alright well I will look around then tomorrow and see. I live in Texas, so even in October its not really cold out so I will have to use ice I am sure.

You think one of the $20 smoke machines will work for the job of a front yard grave site?

I have seen the ones with the coolers made and everything but I don't have the tools and or the special circular tool to make the cut into a think pierce of plastic and I rather not spend money on it either, that's why I was thinking about using the Styrofoam ice chest.

Basically its just that, cut 2 holes in it, put a big metal, or something, piping into it and then have a PVC hook up from the fog machine running through the ice and pipe and then from the other end have a flexible pipe that is able to be directed for where ever you want the pipe to go?

I just need to make sure what I have will be powerful enough to fill a small front yard with smoke on the ground.

if you want it REALLY cold, DRY ICE is the way to go if you have a source. We played around with it last year, but we kept popping breakers so our foggers were offline most of the night as a result... the tests however were AWESOME. I'll see if I can find the video we took...

couldn't locate the video, but here's a pic... we used just long hard tube from HD ($10), and drilled holes in it... stuffed it with about 1lb of dry ice, and turned on the fogger. It lasted about 30 minutes with a 700wt fog machine. We found that the fog stayed on the ground for 2-3 minutes whereas with regular ice it was less than 30 seconds before it was rising. Wind also has a HUGE impact on outdoor foggers... Even a slight breeze can ruin the effect...

FYI.. we ended up going with box foggers (plywood boxes lined with styrofoam) and tubes inside. They worked REALLY well, but as I said before, we had 4 foggers going, and with all the lighting, kept popping the breakers all night. We ended up shutting down most of the front yard stuff within an hour (except for xmas lights that were on a different breaker).

Good luck. I think it really comes down to Cost, how good you are with powertools, and how much time you want to invest in the effect. That's why people have ground foggers ranging from storebought (they don't work at ALL), to professional systems, to homemade out of styrofoam...

I was looking around and the whole trash can thing seemed to be a good idea to make it last a long time to travel the distance of the whole yard, problem is, I dont have a car big enough to transport the trash can to the house I will be doing it at hopefully.

The Styrofoam ice chest seems like the best, cheapest, and most easily portable chiller I would be able to make without buying power tools and a lot of equipment.

Again, I have one of those $20 fog machines that you get from Party City and we used it for a party in a house and it filled the whole lower level of the house with smoke, so I think it would be strong enough to fill up the whole yard with low level smoke and it might last a while.

Is heavy fog juice better to use then the lighter stuff for a graveyard look? I just need something that will last a while on the ground, short bursts probably, and thats think enough to look good.

You think the Styrofoam ice chest would work just fine? Because I am sure I could make it in less than 30 minutes probably and its super cheap for the rest of the parts.

Originally Posted by texmaster

Whats the best one out there right now?

I know Chauvet is crap from personal experience and the threads last year but I heard VEI is good. Are they the best? I'm looking at 250 budget at best.

I've been using two of these for about four years. I love them.



Amazon.com: American DJ Fog Storm 1200HD 1200 Watt Fogger with Remote: Musical Instruments

This is the first time I'll be using a fog machine. I'm going to use a styrofoam chest as a cooler with dry ice. If the dryer hose goes in one end, how do you hook up the machine itself to the other end of the hose? Is there some kind of adapter I need to buy?