# Vortex Fog Chiller



## Coors

New to this forum, need help on vortex fog chiller, what is best, round or square bucket?


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## BioHazardCustoms

I would have to say that it probably doesn't matter. I've used kitty litter pails, 55 gallon drums, old coolers, and styrofoam blocks to build chillers. If the vortex is set up correctly, the shape of the container doesn't make much difference.


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## Troll Wizard

BioHazardCustoms said:


> I would have to say that it probably doesn't matter. I've used kitty litter pails, 55 gallon drums, old coolers, and styrofoam blocks to build chillers. If the vortex is set up correctly, the shape of the container doesn't make much difference.


I agree, it's amazing what you can do these days with a little know how and stuff just lying around the house to make things for Halloween. Like what BHC did for his fog chiller. If it's done correctly it really won't make much of a difference. Sounds like your off to a great start! :jol:


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## Wildcat

Ah come on. You guys are no fun. This is the point where we're supposed to have a 30 page discussion on the pro's and con's of round versus square designs. Then someone quote's some 1930's science text about how a reverse vortex would be more efficient and require half the ice.:googly:

Sorry had to.

The above answers are correct. The vortex chillers are made both ways and can function very well. Below is a link to the vortex owners manual and it show both square and round.

http://creepcrafters.com/Products/Pics/vortex_instruction_manual.jpg


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## Horror Roots Productions

Whats the point of a chiller ? To keep the fog low and at foot level, like we see in graveyard scenes in movies?


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## BioHazardCustoms

Exactly.


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## Troll Wizard

Horror Roots Productions said:


> Whats the point of a chiller ? To keep the fog low and at foot level, like we see in graveyard scenes in movies?


The problem you have with most standard foggers is that the fog usually goes everywhere. It would be okay if your going for an old Hammer film type fog look where you have back lighting against the fog for effect. There the fog when it comes up is all over the place. But with the chiller's it keeps the fog close to the ground. The only problem would be if your outside and the wind is blowing and then you can't do much about that. :jol:


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## Lunatic

Wind is the enemy when creating chilled fog! 

The whole idea about fog chillers is to push the hot fog through a wall of ice to chill it. It cools, condenses and picks up moisture to help weigh it down. 

It's a good idea to use whole cubes of ice because little pieces can clog the ice wall and slow down the flow of fog. Typically I find that ice bought at the grocery store contains too many little pieces. That is why I buy whole cubes at an ice house. Freezing my own is great but it can take a long time to collect enough for my chillers.


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## Horror Roots Productions

Thanks guys! I always wondered how they kept the fog low like that, since when I fog up my house it looks more like a fire then a spooky fog - once i heard fog chiller, suddenly all my elementary school science clicked in with that A-HA moment... 

Funny story, the night i came home with the foggers from party city's "please take these sale" i plugged them all in and filled them up and wired them all together so that one remote would set all foggers off at once. 

My girl had already gone to bed and must have woke up to get a glass of water or something. I hear her start yelling and screaming and runs down the stairs and is on the phone calling the fire dept as shes scrambling out the door.

So after a fun chat with some less then enthusiastic fire fighters, i had to promise her no more fog machines in the house (unless a new walking dead episode was on...)


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## Coors

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. Now I have a few more questions,
1. Would a square bucket cause ice or fog to get stuck in the corners? (I am leaning towards a round bucket because of that potential problem.)
2. Drain hole or no drain hole?
3. I was also wondering whether using a block of ice would work, depending on how big the block?


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## mrklaw

If you don't provide a place for water to drain out, then it will drain out of the tube where the fog comes out or where the fog goes in (whichever is lower).

A block of ice has less surface area than lots of cubes. Lots of cubes tend to melt together eventually and form a block in the chiller though. I've heard good things about freezing water in smaller soda bottles (not 2 liter bottles) and using that, but I have never tried it.


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## niblique71

Coors said:


> Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. Now I have a few more questions,
> 1. Would a square bucket cause ice or fog to get stuck in the corners? (I am leaning towards a round bucket because of that potential problem.)
> 2. Drain hole or no drain hole?
> 3. I was also wondering whether using a block of ice would work, depending on how big the block?


1) Nope, the shape of the container might matter if your counting molicules of fog for a specific application, otherwise for Haunters the shape doesn't matter.
2) the fog exit hole "is" the drain hole (IF your outdoors). If your indoors, fabricate a drain hole (Fitting) for a garden hose or similar to slide out the back kitchen door.
3)Block of Ice.....Not as Good.....You want a "Matrix" of ice for Fog to impregnate and absorb "Coolness" of your meduim. Ice cubes have a HUGE amount of surface area to transfer the cold to the hot fog. THE "Block" of ice has very little surface in which to transfer the coldness to the fog.


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## BioHazardCustoms

Niblique has taught us all a ton about chilling fog. Best person here to respond to this thread, IMO.


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## typoagain

Coors said:


> Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. Now I have a few more questions,
> 1. Would a square bucket cause ice or fog to get stuck in the corners? (I am leaning towards a round bucket because of that potential problem.)
> 2. Drain hole or no drain hole?
> 3. I was also wondering whether using a block of ice would work, depending on how big the block?


1. Does not matter. don't over engineer the problem.
2. Drain hole with hose- you need to control the melted ice water some how.
3. Cube-you need a lot of surface area

By the way, _*there IS a 93 page thread on fog chillers.*_ I read it for 2 hours the other night. Boy, can some folks get involved in a simple project!


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## Lunatic

Horror Roots Productions said:


> Thanks guys! I always wondered how they kept the fog low like that, since when I fog up my house it looks more like a fire then a spooky fog - once i heard fog chiller, suddenly all my elementary school science clicked in with that A-HA moment...
> 
> Funny story, the night i came home with the foggers from party city's "please take these sale" i plugged them all in and filled them up and wired them all together so that one remote would set all foggers off at once.
> 
> My girl had already gone to bed and must have woke up to get a glass of water or something. I hear her start yelling and screaming and runs down the stairs and is on the phone calling the fire dept as shes scrambling out the door.
> 
> So after a fun chat with some less then enthusiastic fire fighters, i had to promise her no more fog machines in the house (unless a new walking dead episode was on...)


OMG! That must have been a choke fest. Foggers used inside can leave a residue on everything and perhaps create a slippery floor. Another great reason to limit there usage to outdoors.


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## niblique71

typoagain said:


> By the way, _*there IS a 93 page thread on fog chillers.*_ I read it for 2 hours the other night. Boy, can some folks get involved in a simple project!


Ahh the Legendary obtuse 93 page (and counting) Fog Chiller thread. Aside from the fact that most of the pictures have been removed, it is a fascinating if not Mind numbing read. That thread could have saved me TONS of time if I had just read it first before building my cube chillers. There really is a lot of Great information in there. SOme Great people spent a LOT of time and engineering getting the "best" possible chiller at that time.



BioHazardCustoms said:


> Niblique has taught us all a ton about chilling fog. Best person here to respond to this thread, IMO.


Ummm "Lunatic" (see below) is just as (If not more) qualified to comment on this thread. He has had some great insight and influence in the aforementioned legendary fog chiller thread.



Lunatic said:


> OMG! That must have been a choke fest. Foggers used inside can leave a residue on everything and perhaps create a slippery floor. Another great reason to limit there usage to outdoors.


"Slip Sliding away"


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## BioHazardCustoms

I didn't mean to imply that Lunatic didn't know what he was talking about. If I came across that way, I apologize to the forum and to Lunatic himself. I just remember reading your thread about the extremely large chillers you built and learning a lot from them.


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## niblique71

BioHazardCustoms said:


> I didn't mean to imply that Lunatic didn't know what he was talking about. If I came across that way, I apologize to the forum and to Lunatic himself. I just remember reading your thread about the extremely large chillers you built and learning a lot from them.


You didn't come across that way at all. Everything is good  In fact I'm flattered at the acknoqlegment. Thank you.


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## Coors

Thanks everybody for all your help.
I decided to go with the round 5 gallon bucket and a separate drain hole. I will still experiment with ice cube shapes and see what works better with my grate.
I will post a picture once I have tried it out and see how it works.


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## Coors

Tomorrow I will be working on getting the PVC into my sitting down blucky.
Wish me luck as this will be my first. I did see my husband make one, but he only had legs and arms. He had to make everything else, ribs, head, torso and pelvis. It didnt come out too bad, but I think i can do better.
Any hints, suggestions or ideas are very much welcome.


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## Fright Zone

typoagain said:


> 1. Does not matter. don't over engineer the problem.
> 2. Drain hole with hose- you need to control the melted ice water some how.
> 3. Cube-you need a lot of surface area
> 
> By the way, _*there IS a 93 page thread on fog chillers.*_ I read it for 2 hours the other night. Boy, can some folks get involved in a simple project!


Yes ridiculously obsessed and/or fascinated lol Guilty as charged. Actually for me it was the DIY give-and-take bouncing ideas off one another that kept it interesting after we analyzed the product instructions and then I found the Coleman Ice Cube Coolers (and Krylon Fusion paint - my contributions) were almost the same dimension. I liked the people who I was conversing with here is what kept it going for me.

Otherwise since time is money. Honestly I would have just gone out and bought one hoping it would work as advertised with 3" PVC them selling higher wattage foggers with no timers but NO videos outdoors.

We were trying to tweak it. Interesting concepts came up like the trash bag outlet, psuedo venturi suction flow pipe inlet, intended inlet as the outlet (reverse flow) 2/3 vs 1/3 expansion Krylon Fusion paint lol

If you go to another popular forum site they're doing their own variations with what they have. They're trying to make the most economical one that still blast a thick layer of fog. Even from a kitty litter pail which is essentially what the Vortex product is only larger.

Honestly I ended up using my 48qt hooked up to a Cauldron display after all that. But did do tests indoors, on a porch, and outdoors at night. all those can be found on my youtube channel yardhaunt2000.

The only reason I'm checking back in is A) There's a ton more videos based on our findings (of which no one gives credit - I hate that - I always try to do that) and B) I wantd to see if that monster thread was still alive trying to set a record for just as you state Lol After all it's August and Wal-Mart wil have their Halloween stock on planograms.

So yeah I just think DIY-ers A) want to put their own stamp on it B) are curious/fascinated to see if it really works C) see if they can make it as inexpensive as possible D) flat out DIY tendencies is more fun than buying something you wonder if it really works E) bouncing ideas and findings off each other trying to take it one step further twweaking F) the forum style comradery of a focused subject G) the availability of inexpensive recording devices and youtube sharing these days. Some of that's obvious but I feel the need to review why there's a monster that apparenlty won't die record breaking thread Lol

And I write a page here to do it : )

Fwiw I used the simple cost effective ghostofhalloween.com 16ft of aluminum drier duct inside a $5 thin walled Wally world already black trash can with the trash bag outlet and a wet lawn on Halloween 2006 in a 1 car garage sized area sized of a 2 car garage overall area. Slight breezy. With 2 400W wla-marrt Gemmy's with timers worked great..

Combined those gave me great lingering atmosphere I preferred over a cloud of fog (the trash bag did in fact keep it lower)

Happy Halloween Happy DIY-ing Happy bouncing ideas and findings Happy outdoor Yard Haunt chilling!


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## Fright Zone

Horror Roots Productions said:


> Whats the point of a chiller ? To keep the fog low and at foot level, like we see in graveyard scenes in movies?


I'd add that it doesn't necessarily have to achieve that effect. It can also act as very slowly rising lingering atmospheric fog depending on weather conditions. I hooked my 48qt Coleman Vortex Cube to a cauldron for example

Peruse my tests and results contributions with 400W Gemmy foggers and the monster (and obtuse, marathon to read thru yet interesting) Vortex Chiller Manual thread http://www.youtube.com/yardhaunt2000

DIY Chill-build away and put your own stamp on it. That's why it's fun : )

Frankly if vortexchillers.com sold them cheaper for $50 instead of $150 (free S&H!) more people would just buy them. They're increasing their profit margin but they aren't Apple. I can't DIY an iPad for example.

They should use it as a semi-loss leader to sell their Martin foggers and volumizing crystals etc. And they need videos workingin OUTDOOR HAUNTS period!!!!

After all that's where they started.And they have an 8 part Halloween Fog How-to series that points out the (questionable) inadequacies of DIY knock-offs!!!

ie. It's their own damn fault heheh and if the Manual was never ironically 'leaked' here (fair game) it would be well nevermind we'd still be posting like mad trying to figure out how to build a better beast ; )


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## Fright Zone

niblique71 said:


> Ahh the Legendary obtuse 93 page (and counting) Fog Chiller thread. Aside from the fact that most of the pictures have been removed, it is a fascinating if not Mind numbing read. That thread could have saved me TONS of time if I had just read it first before building my cube chillers. There really is a lot of Great information in there. SOme Great people spent a LOT of time and engineering getting the "best" possible chiller at that time.


Yeah we could've stopped at about pg 8 or 10. But where's the DIY reverse engineering fun in that lol. When we started it and I came over from halloweenforum we had no idea it would get so ridiculous. I even stopped in one year just to see if it was still going on. I bumped the thread and it continued moooohaaa

I think one of the best discoveries that works all the time is the trash bag on the outlet. I think CountZero thought of it. I can't be sure.

airscapes made a vid "What more do you want" then proceeded to test out different fog fluids and rock salt lol

There's literally more than 100 videos on youtube since 2006-07. A lot of them are gotfog which I cna't believe ever worked. Or the Vortex. Styrofoam. Trash bag. Trash can direcct rip-offs. and the list goes on.

What bugs me is 99.99% of them give no credit or at least say they didn't think of it. It's the principle of the thing ; (

As long as we get it.

In the midnight hour she screamed fog fog fog : [ ]


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## Zoolando




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