# A comparison of fog chillers



## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

Tonight I was able to fire up all three of my fog chillers. The oldest one and the first one I built was made of a large ice chest. The Hazer sits on top and runs through a "U" type plumbing array. once inside the fog is channeled through a 3 inch chicken wire pipe surrounded by ice and out the other side. 4 bags of ice and a 400 watt hazer worked all night and still had about 2/3 of the ice left over after 5 hours. The fog was thick, cold and low hanging. It worked great but, the hazer only cycled about once every 5 minutes. Great fog, lousy volume.
The second one is a 30 gallon vortex style made from a trash can. This one was handling a 1000 watt hazer. It started out fairly well but it burned through 8 bags of ice in 5 hours and the fog was never as cold and low as the first one. Great volume, lousy fog.
The third one is made from a plastic 55 gallon drum. It uses the same "U" type plumbing to pump the haze into the top, allows it to settle through 85 pounds of ice and come out the bottom. it was handling another 1000 watt hazer. This one was AMAZING! It ran 5 hours. Produced massive amounts of fog that never rose more than about 2 inches from the ground and still had about half the ice left in it in the end. I will be building 2 more of these in the near future.


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## Offwhiteknight (Sep 17, 2008)

Mind sharing a bit more about the model that did work? Like photos or something?


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## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

I just opened a photobucket account so that I can post photos. as soon as I have some I'll post them.


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## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

Ok, Some further observations. Tonight I used all three chillers but. after about 2 hours I switched from Party store fluid to Froggy's. What a difference! The chillers all worked about the same but the fog was Thicker and hung lower on all of them. There was so much fog that I had to shut one of them down.
In the long run, #1) Foggy's Rules! #2) The 55 Gallon chiller made fog so thick and low that I needed to shut one of the others off. #3) I will be replacing all my chillers with this new version!
As a note; I found that a 1000 watt Hazer can easily out perform a smaller chiller. I got good fog from all of them but, the fog from the big one was Hollywood perfect! With the Froggy's it flowed across the lawn and never rose more than ankle deep.


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## MansionHaunter (Sep 20, 2006)

Good info - this really helps. I'm going to reconfigure my storage box chiller and make a U-bend to feed it from overheard. That might solve several problems at once.


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## Sytnathotep (Oct 10, 2011)

Great info!


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## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

Going to try (For the first time now) to upload photos... Well, Sorry. I made a Photo bucket file for just this but, I have no idea how to get it onto this page.


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## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

Perhaps I could get a moderator to step in and teach me how to upload photo's?


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## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

http://s1288.beta.photobucket.com/u...ardhaunter/media/DSC00905.jpg.html?sort=3&o=7


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

What you need to do is copy and paste the IMG code for the picture into your post, like this:










.


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## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

Sorry RoxyBlue but I don't know what you are talking about. Where do I find The IMG code? I'm old enough to remember life before computers so I beg your indulgence. I just never learned and I don't have a teenager around to show me.


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## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

This is the inside of the "Ice chest" cooler" . I find it works well with 400 Watt foggers but a 1000 watt fogger will give about half ground fog and and half haze.








This is the 30 gallon vortex chiller I made in a hurry last year. It's about the same as the Ice chest chiller but, it uses much more ice.
















These are the inside of that Vortex chiller








Here is the big boy! 55 gallons of foggy fun! I used PVC toilet flanges turned backwards to make the fittings. It also required spacers on the bolts to account for the curve of the barrel.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Photobucket provides a list of Image Links for every photo you store. When I clicked on the first link you provided, it took me to a page that had your picture. The list of image links for that photo was down and to the right on that page. Click on the IMG code and you'll see "Copied" appear. Come back to the forum and paste it into the Message box you use to post a reply.

This thread gives some details on posting from Photobucket as well:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=22863


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## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

This old guy thanks you for your patience.


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## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

Shots of the flanges and the milk crate cut to fit with chicken wire and a bit of flat stock for support.


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## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

In summery; The Ice Chest chiller works great with a 400 watt hazer. It does not produce enough fog to fill my yard but, it will make a nice blanket of fog in a small area.
The 30 Gallon "Vortex" chiller works about the same as the 'Ice Chest" chiller. they both do a good job with 400 watt hazers but, a 100 watt hazer will make about 50% ground fog and 50% low hanging haze.
The 55 Gallon chiller seems to give the 1000 watt hazer enough room on top to expand the haze and enough ice to chill it to the point that it will stay on the ground. 
I was fogging a corner lot in about 70-65 degree temperature and 10% humidity, with no wind.
Next year I will be using 3 of the 55 Gallon chillers and I would expect very little haze and a great amount of roiling fog on the ground.
As a side note, I placed a couple of green glow sticks into the exhaust of the 55 gallon chiller and got a great lighting effect for those that would like to do a Bio Hazard type of display.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

R. Lamb said:


> This old guy thanks you for your patience.


I had to have someone help me with this the first time I posted pictures, too, so glad to be able to pass on the knowledge


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## Pumpkin5 (Aug 8, 2010)

RoxyBlue said:


> I had to have someone help me with this the first time I posted pictures, too, so glad to be able to pass on the knowledge


:jol:Roxy helped me too when I was a newbie.  She is the BEST!!!
By the way, thanks for the fog chiller advice. Next year I am going to be all about atmosphere. Fog, music/sound effects and lighting...get ready for my endless streams of questions!!!


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