# Laser Swamp Room-Fogger vs. Hazer



## katrick1128 (Apr 30, 2020)

Looking for first-hand experience with Haze machines and recommendations please. We are doing
one this year in a 16' x 16' x 8' room. If you have laser swamp experience and can make recommendations please
give me your thoughts on:


Haze vs Fog machine
Haze machine recommendations
Water vs oil based
Noise concerns
Machine cleaning
Thanks !!


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## 69-cat (Jan 18, 2014)

I did one outside (no wind) and used 2 fog machines using dry-ice coolers with green line lasers facing each other so I had no shadows. It turned out better than I thought. Just enough breeze to move the fog and as people walked through, the fog kicked up and moved with them.
Dave


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

Guess when I think of 'laser swamp' I picture a thick layer of fog, hugging the ground with a flat laser highlighting it. Given that:

- I think you are definitely going to want foggers (to make thick blankets of ground hugging fog) vs hazers which will make a thin 'smoke' filling the whole room.

- No recommendation for a haze machine. For fogger, given a small room, I'd think the typical 400W fogger would be fine. Buy what ever quality you feel comfortable with. My $29 walmart fogger finally died after a dozen+ seasons of use due to a stuck snap-disk thermostat... $2 item. But working on a zombie - reincarnation with arduino power! Personally, I'd probably go fairly cheap on the fogger and put money into good fog fluid.

- oil/water - I guess what ever is recommended by the fogger manufacturer. With extended use, either one is going to settle out on the floor to some extent. Most good fluids seem to be glycol/glycerine based.

- noise - well there is definitely going to be a "P-S-S-S-S-S-S-H-H-H-H-H-" every time the fog fires. That might be muffled somewhat because you will need to use a chiller to get ground hugging fog. Possibly cover the noise with an ambient soundtrack or work it in by using louder events to mask it.

- machine cleaning. Barring a quick wipedown of the outside case, I never ran anything through my machine but fog fluid. Stored in a temp-controlled basement (ie not a hot attic, storage shed, etc) Never had any troubles with the pump / heat exchanger. Some people like to clean after every use by flushing with distilled water. Though anecdotally, I don't know that it is much better to have a system which is designed for contact with glycol/glycerine sitting around with a 'foreign' substance like water. I look at it like the heat exchanger (radiator) in your car... it is perfectly fine to sit around for years with glycol based antifreeze, but if you put in pure water, it will corrode in a short time.

My .02!


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## 69-cat (Jan 18, 2014)

corey872 said:


> Guess when I think of 'laser swamp' I picture a thick layer of fog, hugging the ground with a flat laser highlighting it. Given that:
> 
> - I think you are definitely going to want foggers (to make thick blankets of ground hugging fog) vs hazers which will make a thin 'smoke' filling the whole room.
> 
> ...


I have to agree, I did the (flushing one year and had issues getting some of the units to work), so I just remove the fluid from the bottle, clean the filter and place in a storage tub.
Dave


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

The quality can vary in the fog juice/fluid by brand, age, and even by lot. Like airbrushes/atomizers, you can, and probably should, strain the fluids going in, also make sure it's well mixed, and stored per the manufacturer's recommendations.
If your fluid is something you mix with water, use distilled water, that saves your machines from having to deal with mineral deposits.
So much really depends upon where you are going to do your "Swamp". Is the area contained with walls or indoors? Wlll guests travel through the swamp area, or around it.
The more agitation/movement you have through the fog, the faster it will dissipate.
The ground or floor temperature, along with the ambient temperature plays a key role how long the fog will hang around too.


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## katrick1128 (Apr 30, 2020)

The set up will be in a barn with dirt floors. I have both Froggy's fog and haze juice already. The patrons will be traveling through the swamp, not around it. I'm leaning towards a hazer but needed some tips on this vs fog, thanks.


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## BlueWorld (Aug 16, 2012)

If you don't already have a hazer but have a fogger I would try running diluted fog juice. We often need volumetric lighting effects outdoors which requires the look of a hazer but the ability to produce high volumes in a ducted distribution system. Froggy's Backwood Bay dilued with distilled water is perfect for this application. We usually run between 1:5 and 1:8 ratio of juice to water depending on the density we need. We have run as high as 1:10 in an Orka to haze a large outdoor area. If you like the look this provides, it's insanely cheap to run this way. But 16' x 16' x 8' is a very small volume for a hazer so it would be cheap anyway.

Oil based haze always produces a better, 'wetter' look and if you're in a barn you probably don't care about the slight oil residue.

The advantage diluted fog juice has over haze is that you can fill a volume much, much faster than a hazer which may or may not be an issue depending on how big and how often the doors to the space are going to be open.


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