Thread: Fog Machine Remote Settings: What's the ideal interval?

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I just got a Chavet 1300 fog machine, and after testing it, I'm concerned. It puts out ALOT of fog which is great, but I'm running mine thru a cooler. I had thought that I'd run it on for 30 seconds, off for 10 seconds, or something like that. That would allow the cooler to lower the temperature of the fog and get lower-hanging fog than if I leave it "always on".

The problem is the 1300's remote fastest cycle is 50 seconds. That's a very long time! I can't set it for 10 seconds like I thought I'd try. I called the factory, and they confirm this is right. With 50 seconds between bursts, I'm concerned that the fog will dissipate, or that I'll have to make the duration so long the fog will just blow right thru the cooler before it gets cold. The fog cooler I'm using can be found here: http://www.halloween-online.com/sfx/...g-chiller.html

I don't want to return this fog machine if it will work. I've never tried this before, so I could be worried about nothing. I'm very interested in anyone who's tried running fog thru a cooler using a big fog machine; something in the 900-1300 watt range. What are the ideal interval and duration settings?

thx!
Ross

Originally Posted by rxnb90

I just got a Chavet 1300 fog machine. It puts out ALOT of fog which is great, but I'm running mine thru a cooler. I had thought that I'd run it on for 30 seconds, off for 10 seconds, or something like that. That would allow the cooler to lower the temperature of the fog and get lower-hanging fog than if I leave it "always on".

The problem is the 1300's remote fastest cycle is 50 seconds. That's a very long time! I can't set it for 10 seconds like I thought I'd try. I called the factory, and they confirm this is right. With 50 seconds between bursts, I'm concerned that the fog will dissipate, or that I'll have to make the duration so long the fog will just blow right thru the cooler before it gets cold.

Can you build the chiller differently, so that it stores the fog in the chiller?


Can't you hook up a different timer that has lower intervals between bursts?
Are the timers for this fogger proprietary or universal?

What about this $10 timer?

You are running into what I did. I felt the bigger the fogger the better! But 1200+watt foggers put out so much volume it is sometimes difficult to cool it properly. I ended up using alternating 700 and 400 watt foggers with great results.

Chauvet is a commercial brand, the 1300 is a nice fogger. The answer you are looking for (or not looking for) is that if you need more fog, get another fog machine (or a bigger one like the 1700) and 'Y' into the chiller (or run 2 chillers). The chiller on the link doesn't actually have the fog go through the ice - just through a tunnel surrounded by ice. Forcing the fog through the ice is what I would recommend. I have used several vortex chillers that force fog down through the ice, works great.

Just my 2 cents!

Good luck! Let us know what you come up with!

Interesting thoughts all, thanks!

Using an aftermarket timer -had not thought of that. I'm sure it would void the warranty. But if I knew it would work with the input on the Chavet that would be better than not getting the results I want! Is there a link to that timer, a URL or Amazon posting or something I could use to check out the details?

Using two fog machines or an even bigger fog machine -I think this fog machine is plenty big, the key is the lack of range on the timer. For some unknown reason the people at Chavet thought no one would ever want fog faster than every 50 seconds. Ridiculous.

There are plenty of Utube videos out there of smaller machines getting great results. Right now I'm thinking I'd be better off returning the big unit, getting a smaller 700W and run it in "continuous" mode, with no timer......

More testing this morning -I noticed that the Chavet 1300 fastest interval is about 50 seconds. I see from the indicator lights on the remote that heater is ready about 12 seconds after a burst. Therefore it does not look like I need a bigger unit, it's the way Chavet has set up their remote! The unit could cycle every 12 seconds, but the remote won't let it. Why they set it up this way is inexplicable. There is a huge heater in the 1300 that enables it to recover very quickly. But they have restricted it so that it can't cycle as quickly as the heater recovers. Completely defeats the purpose of having a big heater.

Looks like the Chavet 1300 is great if you want extremely long bursts separated by a minute or more, but if you want slow, steady creepy looking fog that you are running thru a cooler, this is not the right product!

Target is selling a fog timer for something like $14.99 or $9.99, might be a good choice as a test unit.

I have not done full testing but it seems like my timer starts to count once the fogger has already recycled and says it is ready again so if it takes 15 seconds for the fogger to be ready again, the timer then starts after this 15 seconds.

It might be worth it to try to output less fog per burst and then see if the cycle time is any faster.

Less fog per burst, see if that affects the recovery time -yep, I had that thought this morning. Testing, I noticed that there is an indicator light when the heater recovers. That times out at 12 seconds. So the machine is ready to fog, if I hit the "manual" button it will fog after only 12 seconds. That's the big heating unit in action! But again, the remote won't actually activate the unit until 50 seconds. And I want to set it once and let it run all night, not have to stand there hitting the button over and over.

I'm thinking of replacing my nice new Chavet with a "Techno-1000" at my local halloween store. It's $56 cheaper. I can almost buy two for what I paid for the Chavet 1300. The Techno 1000 may still disappoint me (hopefully not!), but if it does, at least my expectations will be low to begin with

The Chauvet 1300 fog machine appears to use a custom interface for the timer.
Thus, the generic $10 timers (3 prong plug) sold at Target, Spirit, etc won't work with this fogger.

I am not sure that the fogger can reheat the fog juice in 12 seconds, that sounds too quick based on my past experience with Chauvet. Can you actually run a full fog until it stops on it's own, then run another full fog manually after 12 seconds? I may be misunderstanding your post, and if so, I apologize. Is it just the indicator light that says the heater is ready?

Another thought is the duty cycle of the machine, check wih Chauvet on the duty cycle (unless it is printed in the manual, it probably is). I would expect a duty cycle of above 80% with a commercial fogger like this. If it shows a duty cycle of 80%, that means it can run for 8 out of 10 minutes (without overreaching it's capabilities). But with a fogger where you have reheat times (where it's not expelling fog), the reheat time is likely built-in to the duty cycle already. It might be a stretch but worth looking into as to whether the fog timer is enforcing the duty cycle to ensure compliance.