OK. In the interests of science. (and because I was able to talk my wife into it tonight while we were out at dinner.) I stopped and grabbed some regular ice and some dry ice for testing in my chiller.
I have shot and I'm uploading 6 videos to YouTube tonight that will hopefully let you see exactly what I'm talking about here.
We did the following tests.
I tried to shoot views that would let you see how far the fog went as well as how the fog moved.
I used 20 pounds of regular ice. And I was only able to get 5.48 pounds of Dry Ice. (That's ALL the store had on hand.) Regular Ice: $2.49 for 20 Pounds. Dry Ice: $5.43 for 5.48 pounds. (2 blocks)
All testing was done inside my garage again. The VEI V-3000 fogger was used for testing, and Froggy's Fog Swamp Juice was the fluid used. The fogger was set up shooting into an open space in the garage. The Output pipe on the chiller was 28' away from the tire of my ambulance. (the white line on the floor is a tape measure.) The fogger was locked on for 90 seconds at 50% output volume.
My observations are as follows:
1. The Dry ice seemed to produce a slightly denser fog. HOWEVER, the fog did not travel as far, and did not cover as large an area. Also, fog is still affected by wind and movement, so I'm not really seeing a major benefit to using ALL dry ice. The extra expense really doesn't seem to be justified for MY conditions and needs. I'd rather have MORE fog than less.
2. Regular ice projected more twice as far as the dry ice did, and the fog lingered and crawled along the ground in a very creepy manner. Outside, I've seen results consistent with this test.
3. A mix of regular and dry ice seemed to produce an excellent result. Slightly denser than regular ice alone, yet without a noticeable reduction in fog volume like we saw with the dry ice. Good creep and crawl, nice hang time. Overall a really nice effect. I have a party on Saturday night that I'm planning on taking the fogger to, and I'm thinking about using a mix of regular and dry ice to see how the mix handles several hours of fogging.
4. In my opinion, the garbage bag is not optional when you use a chiller. Without the bag, the fog moves too quickly, rises too soon, and doesn't linger and creep properly. Without the bag, we had to lift up the camera as the fog was getting deep enough it was obscuring the view.
Some side notes. Fogging at 50% output for 90 seconds with a VEI V-3000 fogger creates ALOT of fog, regardless of how its chilled. It would take 90 seconds to create the fog, and then 15 minutes with a large commercial fan and the garage door open to clear the space out enough we could test again. I'm fairly certain that the neighbors think we were burning things down.
Froggy's Swamp Juice is EXCELLENT fog fluid. Regardless of your intended use, its well worth the effort to get. It lasts longer, looks better, and it easier on your machine than the cheap fluid. What you spend on Froggy's Fog, you will more than save in headaches, hassle and not needing to run your machines as much. I'm STILL using the gallon that I put into the V3000 when I got it. And I've used the machine at a professional haunt 2 nights, and tested it here at the house twice for an hour the first time, and 2 hours tonight. (We filled up the garage with fog once testing was done for some photography.)
Some folks seem to think that you need a giant chiller for a fogger 1000W and larger. I'm using a 60Q "Ice Cube" reverse vortex style chiller and I have not been able to overwhelm the chiller yet. Even with regular Ice. The trash bag is the key. It keeps the fog in the lower "cold" chamber long enough to make it nice and dense and even more importantly, it slows the fog down. Slow fog is happy fog.
Any questions, please ask.
Happy Haunting!
CountZ
I have shot and I'm uploading 6 videos to YouTube tonight that will hopefully let you see exactly what I'm talking about here.
We did the following tests.
- Dry Ice in Chiller, 90 second Burst. 50% output. Bag on output tube.
- Regular Ice in chiller, 90 second burst. 50% output. Bag on output tube.
- Mix of Both Regular & Dry Ice, 90 second burst. 50% output. Bag on output tube.
- Mix of Both Regular & Dry Ice, 90 second burst. 50% output. NO Bag on output tube.
I tried to shoot views that would let you see how far the fog went as well as how the fog moved.
I used 20 pounds of regular ice. And I was only able to get 5.48 pounds of Dry Ice. (That's ALL the store had on hand.) Regular Ice: $2.49 for 20 Pounds. Dry Ice: $5.43 for 5.48 pounds. (2 blocks)
All testing was done inside my garage again. The VEI V-3000 fogger was used for testing, and Froggy's Fog Swamp Juice was the fluid used. The fogger was set up shooting into an open space in the garage. The Output pipe on the chiller was 28' away from the tire of my ambulance. (the white line on the floor is a tape measure.) The fogger was locked on for 90 seconds at 50% output volume.
My observations are as follows:
1. The Dry ice seemed to produce a slightly denser fog. HOWEVER, the fog did not travel as far, and did not cover as large an area. Also, fog is still affected by wind and movement, so I'm not really seeing a major benefit to using ALL dry ice. The extra expense really doesn't seem to be justified for MY conditions and needs. I'd rather have MORE fog than less.
2. Regular ice projected more twice as far as the dry ice did, and the fog lingered and crawled along the ground in a very creepy manner. Outside, I've seen results consistent with this test.
3. A mix of regular and dry ice seemed to produce an excellent result. Slightly denser than regular ice alone, yet without a noticeable reduction in fog volume like we saw with the dry ice. Good creep and crawl, nice hang time. Overall a really nice effect. I have a party on Saturday night that I'm planning on taking the fogger to, and I'm thinking about using a mix of regular and dry ice to see how the mix handles several hours of fogging.
4. In my opinion, the garbage bag is not optional when you use a chiller. Without the bag, the fog moves too quickly, rises too soon, and doesn't linger and creep properly. Without the bag, we had to lift up the camera as the fog was getting deep enough it was obscuring the view.
Some side notes. Fogging at 50% output for 90 seconds with a VEI V-3000 fogger creates ALOT of fog, regardless of how its chilled. It would take 90 seconds to create the fog, and then 15 minutes with a large commercial fan and the garage door open to clear the space out enough we could test again. I'm fairly certain that the neighbors think we were burning things down.
Froggy's Swamp Juice is EXCELLENT fog fluid. Regardless of your intended use, its well worth the effort to get. It lasts longer, looks better, and it easier on your machine than the cheap fluid. What you spend on Froggy's Fog, you will more than save in headaches, hassle and not needing to run your machines as much. I'm STILL using the gallon that I put into the V3000 when I got it. And I've used the machine at a professional haunt 2 nights, and tested it here at the house twice for an hour the first time, and 2 hours tonight. (We filled up the garage with fog once testing was done for some photography.)
Some folks seem to think that you need a giant chiller for a fogger 1000W and larger. I'm using a 60Q "Ice Cube" reverse vortex style chiller and I have not been able to overwhelm the chiller yet. Even with regular Ice. The trash bag is the key. It keeps the fog in the lower "cold" chamber long enough to make it nice and dense and even more importantly, it slows the fog down. Slow fog is happy fog.
Any questions, please ask.
Happy Haunting!
CountZ
