# Fog, Chillers, and Atmosphere ... oh my!



## cassietheig (Jun 16, 2008)

Every year I throw a halloween party. Last year we had it outside and I used my projector to show the army of darkness trilogy. We had all sorts of gruesome food and drinks and a wonderful turn out. Everyone enjoyed this format so much that we decided to make it an annual thing. This year I purchased a fog machine and thought it would be cool to have low lying fog filling the backyard when guests arrive. After spending a large portion of my Saturday reading about fog and how best to use it, I have decided that I need to build a fog chiller to get the effect I am looking for. 

I am not all that mechanically inclined. Give me a something to sew, cook, sculpt, or decorate and I am all over it, throw in a power tool or two and it usually ends up with a trip to the ER. Anyway, My father has agreed to help with the actual building of this, I just want to wrap my head around the plan of construction. 

I really like the idea of the vortex chiller (as described and discussed in the vortex thread.) But, I like the ease of the ice chest design (which comes with handy pre-fab instructions.) I read about some of you who tweaked both of the designs to work together and would like to know if that really ended up working out better than one or the other. And how much more difficult it would be to put the hybrid together rather than just going with the ice chest plan.

Also, since I have never really used fog before I was wondering if it would be too iritating to people on the lawn during the movies. We ask everyone to bring their own chairs, but we also like to throw out blankets and pillows for those who prefer that. Would the fog be too cloying for them? Would it obstruct their view of the screen too much? (The screen is huge 10' x 7'.)

Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

P.S. I did read through the entire vortex thread. Very interesting reading, but a lot of it was greek to me.


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## cassietheig (Jun 16, 2008)

I meant evil dead trilogy ... duh


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Our fog chiller is dirt cheap and simple - we ran part of the ducting through holes cut in a styrofoam cooler filled with dry ice. Works like a charm for our front yard haunt purposes.

As far as being on the same level as the fog, it wouldn't be my first choice. I've played in orchestra pits when foggers were used on stage. The fog usually spills into the pit and pretty universally disliked (the wind players in particular don't like having to breathe that stuff).


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## cassietheig (Jun 16, 2008)

Thank you RoxyBlue!

I was concerned about the smell, but I have read that Froggy's doesn't have any and it seems to be non-allergenic. I wonder if that would make a difference.


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## Frankie-s Girl (Apr 5, 2009)

Even using a kick @ss fog chiller, you're not going to get perfect ground lying fog, especially outside. Wind and movement is the enemy. Ambient temps would need to be pretty warm for the chilled fog to go low, so if you live in an area where the temps dip down below 50s during the fall, you're fighting physics to get the fog to get cool enough to sink.

I live in SE Texas and we usually get fall temps in the 70s-80s, and I STILL have difficulties getting my fog to stay low-lying with a home-built chiller and running it though a 12 foot length of conduit to allow further cooling and it dissipates so freaking quickly... 

Good luck if you try it!


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Frankie is absolutely right about wind and movement - they do a number on attempts to keep your fog low. However, I will say that our set-up worked extremely well last year (no wind). We used Froggy's Freezin' at a low flow rate to increase retention time in the homemade chiller and put dry ice in the cooler. The ducting we used was flexible aluminum and less than two feet in length was inside the cooler. Here are some shots of how it looked:



















As I recall, temperature was in the low 50s and I believe dropped down to the upper 40s that night. I ended up wearing a scarf over my costume while I was outside.

I think the choice of juice, the flow rate, and use of dry ice really made the difference, plus there was almost no air movement that night. In years past, we've managed to fog the entire neighborhood when those factors weren't in place and the wind was blowing.


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## HolyTerror (Mar 11, 2009)

MUCH better than trying to cool your fog , is allow your fog to get more AIR to it . 
What I do , is use a 20 foot piece of flexible vinyl dryer vent tubing with a rigid aluminum piece at the beginning and keeo the opening WIDE open ... poke holes in the vinyl tubing , spaced apart as needed , and at the far end , cap it off ( or use duct tape to close it off ) 
Do not go over 20 feet , because most foggers don't have enough "umph" to get the fog that far . 
The fog literally "oozes" out the holes , stays close to the ground , AND .. the nice part here ... gets THICKER due to it being allowed time to mix with the air before dissipating and getting blown away . Seems to linger longer on the ground as well . 
try it yourself . Get a small length of dryer vent tubing ( its cheap , usually only costs around $4.00 for a 5 to 8 foot length ) and make sure you do NOT stick the fogger INTO the tubing , just set it where the HOT nozzle is barely even with the opening of the dryer tubing . Also , thats why I use an aluminum piece at the front/beginning , where the fogger first shoots into the tubing . FOG is HOT ..... it might melt the plastic/vinyl tubing otherwise . No ... I am not sure , but , I did the aluminum for a safety factor .


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## cassietheig (Jun 16, 2008)

Wow guys, thanks for all of this info! I live in Northern Ca so our Octobers are still pretty warm, and usually not too windy. We generally hold the party in mid October because many of my friends have children and they do the tot thing on Halloween. 

The good news is I have plenty of time to play around with these different options. I think I'll start with the least expensive and work my way up. It will give me more time to play with my new fog machine anyway 

Thanks again for sharing your experience and knowledge!


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

The Froggy's fog is great; they're not kidding, there's no odor and it was designed by an extreme asthmatic specifically for the purpose of having fog that he could breathe. But chilled fog condenses more, and if people are sitting in the fog they'll get damp and chilly. The Freezin' Fog is awesome for staying close to the ground; especially if you put a spritz of water down everywhere first. The fog patches kind of "stick" to the damp areas.

I got a lot of good info interviewing Chris Markgrath (sp?), the co-chemist and owner of Froggy's fog. If Chris B. doesn't run it on the next Hauntcast I'll post the audio here on the forum, it's quite informative.


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## Dr Frankenscream (Dec 1, 2007)

*Trash Can Fogger*

cassietheig,

I also live in NorCal and had great success with a trash can fog chiller. Here is the how-to that I used. I ran it several nights leading up to Halloween in my yard haunt, however, as you know, we had a big rain storm hit this past Halloween so I didn't run it that night. This year I'm planning to try Froggy's Fog Juice. I've heard it is much better than the cheap fog juice.

http://www.ghostsofhalloween.com/projects/fog_chiller/

Good luck,

Dr. Frankenscream


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## dynoflyer (Oct 8, 2006)

We use an Infocus projector for summertime 'drive in' movies in the back yard, the neighborhood kids all bring pillows and blankets and lay about the yard watching. Think about the placement of the fogger, they make a loud hissing noise as they generate fog. You might consider putting the fogger behind something to help keep the noise down while the movie is playing. Maybe some rigid foam insulation board to partially enclose it?


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Dyno makes a good point - I'd forgotten how noisy the fogger is, so that is something to take into consideration.


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