[Jenn26]

I work at Party City. We sell 1000W fog machines and 400W ground fog machines. We recently discontinued the ground fog juice. I've had customers asking if the regular juice will work in the ground fogger and work the same. I told them yes but the liquid fog we sell isn't as dense as the ground solution...it has less glycerin. and If they want low fog they need to chill the liquid. I've recommended them putting the juice in the fridge for 24 hours to make it cold. I've also suggested they use dry ice in the box on the machine. As much sense as it makes to simply chill the fluid to make dense ground fog I cant help but feel my advice lacks precision. The other question I've been asked is if the fog machine cleaner is necessary. I've recommended for my penny pinchers that a cap of vinegar in distilled water will do the same. Now I've been told vinegar is the miracle cleaner.. was that wrong information to give???

I Just need to be sure ANY time a customer asks me about fog machines I actually know what I'm talking about and its not just plausible theory. Because right now its just that.

Thank you

 

[Ugly Joe]

Hello Jenn,

To address the cleaning fluid question, yes vinegar in distilled water can act as a substitute cleaner for a fog machine.
I would recommend to them as well, however, that after running a couple vinegar/distilled water cleaning cycles (heating and re-heating cycles), to run another half-dozen cycles of JUST distilled water (dump the vinegar mix from the tank, rinse it, and then add clean distilled water), to clear out the vinegar from any metal parts (like the heater). Vinegar, being an acid, may react with metals and leave corrosion residue if left to sit.

I'm unable to locate information about chilling the fog fluid to increase the fog density, so on that count I cannot offer reliable information.
I do wish to illustrate, however, that the fog machines your company sells use a glycerin based fog fluid, which requires it to be flash vaporized to turn it into theatrical fog. This is the purpose of the 400 watt and 1000 watt heaters in the units you sell. Unless the chilling of the fluid is increasing the amount of glycerin per ounce in the fluid, cooling the fluid is actually counter-productive to extended fog production (the chilled fluid will cool the heater more quickly, reducing the amount of fog the heater can flash before it is forced into another re-heat cycle).

If your customers truly wish for a "ground fog fluid", there are companies specializing in fog machines and fluid.
Examples:
Foggy's Fog
and
Theatre Effects

As for the suggestion of dry ice in the box of the machine, that could be more effective than regular ice due to the freezing point of each compound (0 degrees Celsius for water, -55.6 degrees Celsius for carbon dioxide).
(keep in mind, the dry ice will likely develop a layer of water & glycerin ice on it with all the fog passing over, but I haven't had the chance to measure the temperature differences between the two compounds over a period of time to determine the greater or equal effectiveness of dry ice over water ice)


I would confirm two of the three items of information you're giving your customers is accurate (vinegar/distilled water for cleaning, and dry ice for chilling), but as for refrigerating the fog fluid, I believe that information is not accurate (as said, unable to find any information regarding that practice - if you have any info, could you add a link to this thread?)

 

[BarryJ]

Don't chill suggest chilling fog juice! It's counter-productive as fog machines work by flash heating the juice.

Also don't suggest people buy those 400W ground chillers - they are useless.

 

[J-Man]

Ditto on not refrigerating the fog liquid, it won't do a thing except force the heating element into a quicker reheat cycle, not what you want.

 

[Jenn26]

Thank you all so very much!!! I will pass the knowledge to my coworkers. Since this is my 6th Halloween with the company, but the first year we didn't have ground juice, everyone looks to me for answers on everything. SO I decided to make this my homework on my day off. Educate myself a bit if you may.

 

[SpookyMuFu]

the best advice you can give the customers is to build a chiller for those"1000 watt" foggers you sell.......

 

[Jenn26]

Ive looked into how to make a chiller out of a Styrofoam cooler. Ill pass that around too

 

[Tony~The~Tech]

I work at Party City. We sell 1000W fog machines and 400W ground fog machines. We recently discontinued the ground fog juice. I've had customers asking if the regular juice will work in the ground fogger and work the same. I told them yes but the liquid fog we sell isn't as dense as the ground solution...it has less glycerin. and If they want low fog they need to chill the liquid. I've recommended them putting the juice in the fridge for 24 hours to make it cold. I've also suggested they use dry ice in the box on the machine. As much sense as it makes to simply chill the fluid to make dense ground fog I cant help but feel my advice lacks precision. The other question I've been asked is if the fog machine cleaner is necessary. I've recommended for my penny pinchers that a cap of vinegar in distilled water will do the same. Now I've been told vinegar is the miracle cleaner.. was that wrong information to give???

I Just need to be sure ANY time a customer asks me about fog machines I actually know what I'm talking about and its not just plausible theory. Because right now its just that.

Thank you

I work at Party City. We sell 1000W fog machines and 400W ground fog machines. We recently discontinued the ground fog juice. I've had customers asking if the regular juice will work in the ground fogger and work the same. I told them yes but the liquid fog we sell isn't as dense as the ground solution...it has less glycerin. and If they want low fog they need to chill the liquid. I've recommended them putting the juice in the fridge for 24 hours to make it cold. I've also suggested they use dry ice in the box on the machine. As much sense as it makes to simply chill the fluid to make dense ground fog I cant help but feel my advice lacks precision. The other question I've been asked is if the fog machine cleaner is necessary. I've recommended for my penny pinchers that a cap of vinegar in distilled water will do the same. Now I've been told vinegar is the miracle cleaner.. was that wrong information to give???

I Just need to be sure ANY time a customer asks me about fog machines I actually know what I'm talking about and its not just plausible theory. Because right now its just that.

Thank you

Watering the area the very well will also allow for the fog to stay low.

I do haunted houses, and strive for the eeriest and scariest scenes.

Anything that will help the ground stay cold as that will pull the fog down.