[ryanlamprecht]

Lookie what I found sitting out with someone's trash on the side of the road. I couldn’t get the car turned around fast enough. I can't believe someone was throwing this away. Or possibly some poor guy is saying, ‘where in the hell is my cooler. I just parked it at the end of the driveway for two minutes, and it disappeared.’ In any event, other than it being a little dirty, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. As is this cooler must have cost at least $50 new. It has wheels and a collapsible handle just like a piece of rollaway luggage, will hold up to 101 twelve ounce cans, and will keep ice up to five days in 90 degree weather. That person’s trash is definitely going to be my treasure, especially after I turn it into a vortex fog chiller.

I've also had this steel milk crate sitting in my garage for the past five years, serving no purpose, and guess what; it fits right down into the cooler. All I had to do was cut off a couple of inches off the top of the milk crate, and slide it right down inside the cooler. Now I can stack frozen water bottles on top of it to cool my fog.

I cut two 2 ½ inch holes and slid two pieces of 2 inch PVC inside. I glued them in place with Gorilla Glue, which I’m now waiting for it to cure. Notice the Y shaped PVC fitting on the side. I’m going to run two 400 watt Walmart foggers into the chiller, which I’m hoping will give me a good amount of fog. I can cap off one of the inlets if I ever decide to run only one fogger. I’ve never build a fog chiller before, so here’s hoping it turns out. I’ll post more pics as it progresses.

 

[Rob_Raz]

I made mine a few years ago from a large cat litter container and use 1 400w fog machine. I did splurge and order the Froggy's Fog juice. I was pleasantly suprised with the low lying fog that little guy produced. Hope it works well for you!

 

[ryanlamprecht]

I just picked up two of the new Walmart foggers, but am pretty disappointed in how they've changed them. So now I have this box of timers that won't work for the new ones. In fact, you can't hook up a timer to the new ones at all. You either get a very long 45 second round of fog, or nothing at all. They took a perfectly acceptable little machine, and ruined it. Now the fog chiller is a necessity, because in my opinion, ground fog is pretty much the only thing the new ones are good for.

 

[Dyne]

No need to cap off the side inlet of the wye. Run one fog machine and leave the side branch open as an air intake (the fog entering the straight part sucks air in the other hole as it goes).

I just made a new fog chiller out of an 18 gallon wal-mart storage bin, chicken wire left over from my reaper, a PVC inlet/outlet setup similar to yours (except using 45 deg elbows), and 20 oz soda bottles with frozen water. While the chiller works pretty well thus far, my fog machine (an old 700W model, J0D-FOG-01) could probably overpower it if it ran too frequently or for long bursts (once the chiller fills up, more hot fog coming in starts forcing out existing fog more quickly. That eventually -- as you increase the power of the machine(s), the frequency of bursts, and/or the duration of the bursts -- can mean that the fog coming out hasn't had enough time inside to cool noticeably.

That cooler looks rather smaller than 18 gallons, so two 400W fog machines (either alternating, or in sync) might cross the line. Then again, it might not. Make sure you test that configuration before Halloween if you plan to use it.

 

[ryanlamprecht]

Thanks for the advice, Dyne.

 

[ryanlamprecht]

Okay, something has to go horribly wrong, because that seemed way too easy. Other than a good cleaning, some paint, and freezing some water bottles, I think it's about done..., right?

 

[Rob_Raz]

Looks good to me. By now you should have some water bottles frozen and be ready for your first test run right?? Let us know how it goes.

 

[ryanlamprecht]

I'll be testing it this afternoon, so will post a video of how that goes.

 

[ryanlamprecht]

So, I tested this thing using frozen water bottles, and was not pleased with the results. I've never built or owned a fog chiller before, but I'm guessing I can expect better results than this. I think I'm going to have to use ice. If anyone notices what I might be doing wrong, or how I can improve the results, I'd love to know.

 

[sublimewinter]

My guess is the fog isn't spending enough time in the chiller. Mine has flexible hose coiled inside, and then filled with ice so it can surround all the hose. Mine is just a cheap storage bin, and it works great. I think if you add the hose and ice to your cooler, it will work much better for you.

 

[hoegaarden_bier]

mine worked perfect,.... thanks for the idea.