Thread: New Fogger testing and review. VEI V3000

Tweet

I've been looking for a fogger for a couple of years that offers a continuous mode. I kept looking at the VEI 950, but they always seemed to be out of stock everywhere. This year I decided to get an earlier start. Now I've read all the threads about the new VEI Machines and the ratings and the confusion, and to be honest, I'm a little curious myself. I figured I would just grab a 950 and play it safe this year.

Then I had the opportunity to get my hands on a v3000 for a good price and I figured that too much might actually be just right, so I went for it.

The box arrived late this afternoon and I've got it out and unpacked and my first reaction is this thing is pretty big. It's a good bit larger than my other 2 machines. But I have not actually tested it yet. I plan to test it tonight and write up a quick review of the unit itself. The current plan is to fill up my chiller tonight with regular household ice and test the new machine against the ones I already have. In the interest of being as scientific as I possibly can be, I'm going to test everything back to back to back tonight.

Tonight the machines I will be testing are as follows:

• MBT FM-9000. Rated as a 1000w machine with an output of 10,000 CFM.
• Chauvet 1700. Rated as a 1700W machine with an output of 20,000 CFM.
• VEI V-3000. This one is a little confusing. The website says its 1600W, the website I bought it from says its 1700W, the box says its 1300W and the instructions say its 1000W. The CFM rating seems to be somewhere between 16,000 CFM and 35,000 CFM, depending on where you look.

I'm going to be running them all individually through a 60Q "Ice Cube" chiller that we have built into a modified Vortex chiller. (Fog comes in up through the 90 degree bend and vents into the UPPER chamber. Fog settles through the ice into the lower chamber, and then out through the output tube.) I'm using a single black trash bag on the output to keep the fog low and smooth.

I'm planning on doing the following tests with EACH machine and photographing the results.

• 2 second timed burst. 100% output.
• 10 second timed burst. 100% output.
• Temperature reading at the fog outlet and a second temp reading of the fog at the trash bag opening for each machine.
• I'm also planning on running the VEI on its LOWEST volume setting continuously for 3 minutes to get a feel for the actual volume it can produce.

I'm hoping to start in about 2 hours when the sun goes down and things cool off a little bit. Currently its 6pm local time and the temperature outside is 96 degrees. I'm going to record the air temp when we start and when we finish so you will have an idea what the conditions were like. (I'm in Arizona, so its a little warm out still.) Also, I will be using Froggy's Swamp Juice in all the machines to keep things consistent.

If anyone has anything else they would like me to check, feel free to post it here. I'll probably be heading out to start in the next hour or so. So if you do have questions, get them posted quickly.

I'm attaching a photo of the 3 machines so you can get an idea how big the VEI V-3000 is.

Thanks! More Info Soon!

CountZero

I'm dying to know how this comes out.

I'm one of those poor souls who bought a VEI 960 last year before it became known they were less than advertised. I really want to know how the 3000 performs.

Hey, Count, this should be interesting. I've been thinking about a VEI fogger for a while but ran into the same problem you did - out of stock everywhere.
BTW, that 1700 is really only 1200W. Chauvet cheated a bit on their specs for the Hurricane fogger line by advertising them as having ~30% higher wattage than actual.

This is fantastic! I'm very excited to read and see your results. I've been looking at several foggers as well and get frustrated with the varience in specs.

I was testing a new 1300 watt Chauvet yesterday and it puts out way more fog than I thought it would. It also has a continuous button but it didn't continuously blast fog, it alternated on and off about every second. About one second on, one second off and it did that continuously for a few minutes until I realized I was wasting fog juice and shut it off. There was fog everywhere and I was actually worried that my neighbors might think I had a fire in my garage.

After fooling around with the Chauvet, I tried my el cheapo $25 400 watt fogger. There's a big difference in the volume of fog as you would imagine. I've tested this fogger before but I did something different this time. I pressed the fog button repeatedly, on for half a second, off for half a second. I ran it that way for 5 minutes and it never stopped fogging. In previous tests, I pressed fog until it stopped which was about 15 seconds and then it took what seemed forever to reheat. When I stopped the rhythmic triggering for a few seconds the fogger went back into its take forever to reheat mode.

I did a short video of the two foggers. It doesn't show the trick with the rhythmic triggering but can definitely see the difference between these two foggers.

Originally Posted by Otaku

Hey, Count, this should be interesting. I've been thinking about a VEI fogger for a while but ran into the same problem you did - out of stock everywhere.
BTW, that 1700 is really only 1200W. Chauvet cheated a bit on their specs for the Hurricane fogger line by advertising them as having ~30% higher wattage than actual.

Is there some sort of documentation on this somewhere? I was thinking about buying an 1100 or 1300 based on what people have been saying. This is disturbing info.

OK. After 2 hours of testing, I have some very basic conclusions. I haven't processed the photos yet, so this is just going to be a text update. I promise I'll get photos up as soon as I can though.

First of all, the documentation for the V3000 really stinks. Actually its pretty much completely useless. The unit comes with a wired digital remote and a wireless remote. I tried to do all the testing with the Wired remote so I could use the timer functions. It did not go as well as it could have. The Actual remote has different options listed than the documentation. Which makes it almost impossible to set the remote up. Its all trial and error. I'm going to try to contact VEI tomorrow and get some better instructions, but right now, plan on spending some time to try to figure things out on your own.

I did manage to figure out how to manually trigger the fogger at 100% output. And I figured out how to get it to work continuously at a reduced output volume. Overall I'm happy with the output of the machine. Its hard to really quantify the output since it decided to be windy tonight. (And it was shifting winds, so the directions were changing all night long.)

I can say that to my unscientific eye the V3000 looks like it puts out a significantly larger amount of fog than my Chauvet 1700. Regardless of what they are actually rated, the thing makes some serious fog. I was messing with the remote and trying to get it to work, and when I looked up a good portion of the house was almost completely obscured by fog. I can totally see attracting the attention of the fire department with this machine. Its also HOTTER at 100% than the other machines. I used an IR non-contact thermometer to check the temp at the fogger nozzle and at the bag coming out of the chiller.

MBT fogger: 115 at the nozzle. (average of 3 tests)
Chauvet: 107 at the nozzle. (average of 3 tests)
V-3000: 130 at the nozzle. (average of 3 tests)

After running the V-3000 for 15-20 minutes to try to get the timer working, I could hear the ice melting and cracking in the chiller. If you are going to run this machine at 100% I'd recommend you use a larger chiller than the 60Q igloo I have now. (Which is impressive, since both of the other foggers could run 100% through the chiller and not overwhelm it)

The bag side of the chiller was pretty constant at around 55 degrees. Which is pretty impressive considering the outside temperature was 90 degrees. We were just using regular bagged ice. (30 pounds total in the chiller.)

One nice feature of the V3000 is the tank. It holds more than a gallon of fog fluid, so refills should be less of a concern than with other machines. (That being said, if you run this thing flat out, you WILL eat through some fog juice) The plastic tank is also lit with LEDs inside the fogger itself so it glows. Unfortunately the documentation doesn't tell you what the colors mean, so its just pretty colors glowing right now.

If I can get documentation that will allow me to actually USE the remote timer, I'll probably keep the V3000. I can see setting it at a lower percentage and running it continuously all night long. Just based on the tests tonight, it can very easily create more fog than the other machines even at less than 100% output. Its completely unscientific, but I ran each machine manually until it shut off to cycle the heat, and there was a noticeable difference between the MBT and the Chauvet. There was a major difference between the Chauvet and the V3000. I could create enough fog with the V3000 to impair visibility in the yard. And with the wind tonight, that is pretty impressive.

I am planning on trying to repeat the tests without wind. But I may be forced to go indoors to do that. If I move inside, I'll try to videotape some of the tests to hopefully better show the actual output.

Overall I'm impressed with the capabilities of the machine. At the same time, I'm disappointed that the documentation stinks so badly. For being the flagship of the VEI line, they totally dropped the ball on the documentation. I expected more for my money. Being able to utilize ALL of the functions is key to getting the full value out of the product, and right now, I'm blindly fumbling in the dark with it.

I'll try to get photos online tomorrow, but I wanted to get my initial thoughts up while they were fresh.

If anyone has any questions, fire them over!

Thanks!

CountZ

Originally Posted by Caitsith

Is there some sort of documentation on this somewhere? I was thinking about buying an 1100 or 1300 based on what people have been saying. This is disturbing info.

There's a huge thread on this forum back in 2008 about the wattage discrepancy, but it only applies to the now discontinued models like the one in CountZero's pic. The re-designed models (1100, 1300) meet the advertised wattage specs. Shortly after I and others informed Chauvet about their false wattage claims, they scrubbed their site of all references to wattage for the F-800, F-1000, F-1250 and F-1700. Here's a link to the thread - if you want to read the whole thing, pack a lunch.
Interesting Chauvet Hurricane 1250 observations

Originally Posted by Otaku

There's a huge thread on this forum back in 2008 about the wattage discrepancy, but it only applies to the now discontinued models like the one in CountZero's pic. The re-designed models (1100, 1300) meet the advertised wattage specs. Shortly after I and others informed Chauvet about their false wattage claims, they scrubbed their site of all references to wattage for the F-800, F-1000, F-1250 and F-1700. Here's a link to the thread - if you want to read the whole thing, pack a lunch.
Interesting Chauvet Hurricane 1250 observations

That's not a thread...thats a freakin encyclopedia!!! I think the good feedback on the new 1300's lead me to take a chance at the price. Some video comparisons on the net helped. And yes, I did find the thread and read it....all. Okay almost all. The urge to spoon my eyes out eventually stopped me...lol. But it is good to know whats going on and the thread was kinda scary as well as informative... I would eat my own liver (still attached) before buying the 1250 or any of the other "underpowered" units. Thanks for the heads up. Cait

I've got a few questions with regard to your fogger and I'd really appreciate any suggestions or advice.

1) Could I ask you how much the fogger cost you and where you purchased it as well as were/are you happy with the seller?

2) does the higher end models like the v-3000 come with any sort of a warrenty verses some of the others or even the two you already owned?

3) how come you've ended up with three foggers? Is it a case of never happy with the previous one or because you wanted that much fog?

4) since you already own two and now have a third...do regret not just waiting out getting one till you had the cash to go for a really nice one that will fulfill all your needs?

5) generally, would I be better off waiting out this year as much as I'd hate to, and look into purchasing a fog machine like this off season because prices typically drop off after halloween? I've NO idea if this happens at all as I've never shopped for one before, but I'd rather make sure if theres a 'good time' that I do it then.

I ask this fourth question mostly because I really dont want to go half assed so I have issues and problems and will not do as good as I would LIKE it to. I want to avoid babysitting one, I want it to fog the hell out of my garage or front of my house if I set it up outside, and I want it to be one that will warn me if the fluid is getting low and shut off if it starts to run out so the fogger doesnt get ruined. I'd rather not buy one or two over time to eventually end up really bucking up and spending the money to get a really nice but more expensive one that I actually could have just got initially and been done with it (and not wasted as much cash on any others in the meantime). My halloween expenses can get on the 'silly' side and I'd rather not add to it by buying multiple fog machines if I can avoid it. I typically am guilty of 'overkill' on alot of things and I'd figure this can or would end up being just another, but I also dont want to have to deal with multiple crappy foggers to get the desired effects either.


Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.


Andretti