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I live in Georgia those videos were in October of last year. It is in the 70’s here during Halloween.
Ah... I was afraid of that. I was holding onto hope you were from the Midwest and were able to produce that same ground fog in cold weather.
I live in Ohio. The temperature was around 48 degrees last year. My chiller worked amazingly! I'm not sure how much colder it is where you live?
 

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Hi Guys!

I'm going to make one of these soon! I was wondering what way round to input the fog? I have a 400 watt machine, this forum seems to state put the fog input from the bottom pipe and let it rise through the top pipe (L shaped) but a video i have found seems to state the opposite? I guess i can try either way when i've made it but what do you guys recomend?

Link to the video:
Ah can't post links youtube title:
How to make a DIY Fog Chiller | WICKED MAKERS

Thanks
 
It is the opposite, the fog enters the bottom chamber straight in from the machine then the hot fog rises up through the ice and exits down the "L" shaped pipe.
 
Hi Badge,

I love your version of fog chiller. I went and get some closet flanges at Home Depot about $4/each. Since I have some 3" tube at home so I got the 3" type flanges. I tried to get the same mesh like yours but I couldn't find it. Would you mind tell me where you get it from?

Edit: Oh, by the way did you drill your 4" hole using hole saw or you just used a knife to cut? Sorry for the silly question.
 
I bought a mesh 18” pizza pan off amazon for like 7 bucks and cut off the rim. I also bought a metal mesh from homedepot in a roll back by the chain link fencing.

I did use a hole saw to cut perfect holes.
 
Thanks Badge. I think you got a great deal on Amazon. The one I found costs about $18 ( amazon.com/dp/B01N6PMDOR/ref=sspa_dk_detail_2?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B01N6PMDOR )

Look like I'm going to make a trip back to HD and and hopefully I can find something similar to yours in the fencing department. :)
 
Hi! Thanks Badge I assumed it was the opposite! I was thinking would it be good to put a bit of plastic between the inlet pipe and the exhaust? Just thinking the fog coming in might heat the pipe up as the cold air is exiting a little bit? I thought maybe a piece of plastic at an angle towards the enterance would allow it to cool better?

Picture of kinda what i mean below (red hot air geen cold)

imgur. com/a/Wqt8wdr
(can't post links boo)
I haven't made one yet so not sure how much the ambiant pipe heat changes it when the fog in blasting on it.

Thanks
 
Zombie, it's been in the 30s the past couple of Halloweens that I've used my chiller. What setup do you use? Are you the one that releases the fog in tubes with holes in it throughout your yard?
 
Nope, the fog needs a bit of room to expand as it enters the chiller. In the bottom, rise up, cool, condense, fall out the L shape pipe. Hot fog moving UP through the ice is part of what helps it cool, so you don't want to close that off. The "exit" L-shaped pipe is a little bit higher up on the container, not directly opposite the intake, which keeps it away from the initial blast of hot fog.
 
Badge, I love the results you are getting out of your chiller. I live in Utah, and like Tosa, we are usually around the upper 30s to low 40s come Halloween and it's hard to get low lying fog at those temps. Because of space and what I want to do, I am wanting to put my fog machine on top of my garbage can chiller (same kind you have Badge), and shoot it into the top of the garbage can (imagine shooting it straight across the top of the garbage can and then it hits a PVC U bend that redirects it into the top of the garbage can). I have the PVC and mesh setup just like in the bottom of the one that is shown in Badge's video, and put ice on top of that, just no PVC pipe inside the garbage can - just an outlet hole in the bottom so that the fog enters into the top, settles down through the ice, and then exits the bottom. I would think that the fog has time to expand and cool before it hits the outlet but wanted to get your thoughts. It's an UGLY setup, but for what I want to do, I really would like to be able to have the fog machine sitting on top of the garbage can and enclose it all together. I will post pics later if that helps. What fog fluid do you all prefer? I've been using Froggy's Freezin' Fog so far but don't know much about the others that are out there.

Edit: I am losing my mind... I read through some previous posts and saw that I had basically already posted this question (WITH a pic of my chiller design - post #236) I may go and see about getting some of the flanges that bolt together so I can get rid of the duct tape holding the U up. - Adding it now.
 
I bought a mesh 18” pizza pan off amazon for like 7 bucks and cut off the rim. I also bought a metal mesh from homedepot in a roll back by the chain link fencing.

I did use a hole saw to cut perfect holes.
Hi Badge,

Base on the look of the pizza screen, is it a little too thick for the fog to come through? I saw some chicken wire (it has some green color on the outside) at HD but I like your mesh better since it seems more sturdy. So I'm just wondering if the thickness of pizza mesh affects the fog flow at all?
 
Here's a clip of my Vortex Chiller in action for a test run. Great effect. Will save you hundreds of dollars on the commercial
units and work just as well if not better as you will see.

https://youtu.be/qLwRtOkwi0E

I used the Chauvet regular fog juice for this test with the top chamber only half full of pelleted dry ice. Temperature in NC was around 65* - 70* as I recall. I later sealed the top with pipe foam insulation. Not really sure how many lbs of dry ice were used, I filled it to within a couple of inches from the inside
top of the can. This forces it back down and out through the exit pipe. In this initial test, the trash can was only half full of dry ice. With it filled to the top, should last 3 hours or more.






 
That was awesome WOLFPACK7483. I wish temperature where I live (WA) a little warmer. Right now it's in the mid to low 40s at night. I like your fog. The dry ice really made that fog come out thick and dense. I'll search to see if they have dry ice in grocery stores. Hopefully Safeway carries some. :)
 
With you guys' help, I was able to build one for myself. Thanks to Wolfpack, Badge, CraigInPA for your instruction and inspiration.

Here are some photo and a video of my vortex chiller:

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Fog chiller in action:


Here is the list of material I used:

  • 32 gallon trash can.
  • 1/2" PVC pipe for stand [about 7 feet to make 4 legs (12" each) and 4 pieces for the top (measure where the top will sit in the can, subtract 3", divide by 2 to get the lenght)].
  • 1 roll of weatherstrip seal.
  • 4 way 1/2" PVC connector (qt: 1).
  • 90 degree 3" PVC bend (qt: 1).
  • 90 degree 1/2" PVC connectors (qt: 4).
  • 18" pizza mesh screen (qt: 1).
  • 3" closet / toilet flange (qt: 4)
  • 3" PVC pipe about 2 feet long for vertical tube.
  • 3" PVC pipe about 6.5 inch long to connect the 90 degree bend and the flange together.
  • 1/4" bolt 1.5 in long (qt: 8)
  • 1/4" washers (qt: 8).
  • 1/4" nuts (qt: 8)
For my test, I used a combination of half dry ice and half regular ice cubes for a total of 47 lbs which occupied about half of the trash can. Luckily it was a sunny day in the Pacific Northwest with temperature in the low 60s and not too much wind. After one hour test I still had about half of ice left inside. I painted black the stand and the long tube to match with the black trash can and the closet flanges (which cost about $4/each at Home Depot).

In the video if you noticed I tried both ends of the tubes. Both methods worked fine and produced about the same amount of fog output and same effect. The first take was when I tried to use the long end as the inlet and fog exit through the short end. The second take was when I switched and used the short end as the inlet and long end as the outlet. Although it worked fine, but the only thing I don't like about this was the back flow of fog from the short tube as you may see in the video. Therefore I just used the long tube as the inlet for the rest of the test. This way fog went up in the long tube to the top chamber and was forced down through the ice to the lower chamber, then exit through the short tube at the bottom.

For this test I used a Chavet 1800 which really helped pushing the fog spread far out beyond 12 feet.

UPDATE: On my second test, I used only regular ice. It took 8 bags of 10 lb/each to fill the whole trash can for a total of 80 lbs. This is what I started with:

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After 45 minutes there was only 2/3 of the ice remain. Here is what was left:

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Notice 2 big chunks of ice formed after only 45 minutes of running time:

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Here is the video using only regular ice (please click here if you can't view the below video:


On this second test I did not have much success since there was some wind so the fog almost disappeared after a few seconds. But I did notice a big difference between the two tests. On the second test using just regular ice, when the ice cubes started to melt and cling to each other, the fog really didn't get cold fast enough before exiting and therefore didn't lay low on the ground. On my first test with both dry & wet ice, the fog really got colder and therefore stayed closer to the ground surface. I think the dry ice also helped in slowing down the melting process of regular ice and not a lot of water stayed at the bottom of the trash can at the end of the test.

One big plus with using regular ice was the price since it costs only $2 for a 10 lb bag.

UPDATE 2: Well, Halloween night was not a good night for me since it was raining and windy with temperature in the 50s. So everything had to be indoor inside my garage. Although with a trash can full with dry ice from Praxair I wasn't able to have a decent lying ground fog due to high wind. But that didn't stop the kids from having a fun night. Lots of candies were given out. Check out the amount of candy. That's 360 bars!

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One side note for those who'd like to use dry ice and wonder how much would be enough for one night, I recommend 35 - 40 lbs of dry ice would last you about 4 hours. I had my trash can filled with 75 lbs of dry ice nuggets and after 6 hours I still had a little over 1/4 of dry ice left!

* Tips on where to purchase dry ice *

To purchase dry ice near your location, I recommend you to check out Praxair. I think they have 3 different types of dry ice (blocks, nuggets, rice pelltes). Click here if you'd like to check out their dry ice info. For their store location, please visit here and enter your zipcode: https://www.praxairdirect.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/AjaxStoreLocatorDisplayView?catalogId=10051&langId=-1&storeId=10152. Their dry ice (nuggets form) is very decent and about the size of regular ice cubes. I beleive they sell it for $1.25 / lb.

For Penguin brand dry ice please go here and enter your zip code: Where to buy dry ice | Penguin Brand Dry Ice®. Most Fred Myer stores carry Penguin’s dry ice. I believe they sell it for $1.59 / lb in 10"x10"x2" block and weigh about 10 lbs per block. I had to break them into smaller pieces for the fog to have more contact with the ice and to go through before exiting.

For Continental Carbonic dry ice, please check out: Dry Ice Store Locator | Where to Buy Dry Ice from Continental Carbonic

If you live in NE check out Dry Ice Corp. Retail dry ice pricing ranges from $1.00 to $1.60 per pound with minimum purchase of 10 to 25 pounds. Their website is at Regional Consumer Sales & Emergency Services - Dry Ice Corp

Or you just simply go here and enter area code to find dry ice near you: Dry Ice Directory - Where to buy Dry Ice in the US & Canada

If you prefer to order dry ice online, check out: Dry Ice Delivered

* How to clean the fogger *

I own 3 different fog machines. This is how I cleaned them:

1 - Run the fogger with white pure distilled vinegar until no more white smoke coming out and only clear steam shooting out. This takes about 20 minutes.
2 - Run the fogger with distilled water (not mineral water) for another 20 minutes to flush all vinegar out.
3 - Finish off with good fog juice for 5 - 10 minutes.
4 - Empty the tank.
4 - Clean the filter at the end of the tube.
5 - Wipe down the machine and store it away for next season.
 
Thank you so much for the images and the video! I've read this page many times but it's nice to see it all in one post! Awesome contributions everyone!

A couple of questions if you don't mind!
How does the weatheseal help does it attach to the lid when it's closed? The image i can't really tell!
Would you be able to do a test with just regular ice for me? It's near impossible or costs an arm and a leg to get it delivered in the UK ÂŁ5.25/lb!!!!!
Also did you test any other fog juices or did you go straight for the froggys?

Thanks again!
 
Thank you so much for the images and the video! I've read this page many times but it's nice to see it all in one post! Awesome contributions everyone!

A couple of questions if you don't mind!
How does the weatheseal help does it attach to the lid when it's closed? The image i can't really tell!
Would you be able to do a test with just regular ice for me? It's near impossible or costs an arm and a leg to get it delivered in the UK ÂŁ5.25/lb!!!!!
Also did you test any other fog juices or did you go straight for the froggys?

Thanks again!
The weatherstrip seal came with glue on one side so I attached it to the outer rim of the garbage can. It didn't stick to the lid but the rim only. When putting on the lid it really helped sealing any opening in between and I had zero leak.

I understand dry ice is expensive even here in the US. I might do another test with regular ice later and will let you know if I do. In UK I can imagine how cold it is on Halloween night, but if you still want to have that low lying fog on the ground you must make the fog a lot colder than the air temperature. So look like dry ice is your best bet. Another option I may suggest is if you bring it indoor like your garage where it's a little warmer and less windy, you might be able to make it work with regular ice cubes. I'm thinking about building a garage indoor cemetery this year since it's always cold and windy where I live on Halloween night.

I used Freezin Fog and Bog Fog from Froggy only with good result. I like Bog Fog for its thick and dense look kind of fog.
 
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