# Fog Tricks to Try to Help Combat Wind



## Fright Zone

There's a couple things I found you can do to combat the wind. Or at least get the most out of the fog in windy situation.

One is if you use a fog chiller: Put a trash bag cut in half on the outlet with a rubber band and water down the lawn if it hasn't rained already. It'll slow down the velocity of the fog and what's left will cling to the ground more. It gives the fog a fighting chance better than nothing. I know it worked satisfactorily for me. Better than giving up. Do you have complete control? No. Is it better than straight out of the fogger or the chiller? Yes I think it is. Here's an example of 



. I don't know how much wind there was. But you get the idea of the set-up from a 1000W+ fogger and Igloo cube chiller with a trash bag on the outlet that we discovered in our voluminous Vortex Manual thread.

The other thing to do if you don't use a fog chiller and don't care about low lying fog but still want to contain an area with a decent amount of fog is to increase it's volume out of the fogger so the wind can't completely destroy it. I've seen it done at an amusement park and I tried it with a large tombstone and 400W fogger. The fog will build up out of the fogger against the back of a large object and go into the air slowly before the wind can completely destroy it. It will create atmosphere. Especially if you backlight it. What you do is you aim the fogger into the back of a tombstone or a black tarp fence about 6 inches away. The fog shoots out with enough force where the wind won't destroy it in that short distance. The fog hits the object and builds up for as long as the fog burst is. The longer the burst duration the better. Then the fog rises with more volume and then the wind has it's way with it. But not nearly as immediate and as terribly out of control as if it were straight out of the fogger. Here's a photo that sort of shows the set-up with a 4400W LeMaitre constant fogger in a protective box. Note the tarp fence. The fogger is NOT set-up in position at the time that photo was taken. In-use it would have been pointed at the back of the tarp.

How do I know this works? Well Cedar Point is a peninsula on Lake Erie. They lease over a hundred 1400W and 4400W foggers for their Sep-Oct Halloween events. The fog machines used to be set up just shooting straight out. The wind off the Lake would push it wherever it wanted right out of the fogger even from high wattage expensive pro foggers. So they used the black border tarp fence idea last year and it worked. They also have the advantage os repositioning them based on weather and have them hooked up to a DMX control board but the basic practice worked anyhow. They sometimes cut a hole in the bottom of the tarp and shoot the fog thru that when it's not as windy.

Just try it with a large board or tombstone. Lightning FX Fog Tests pictures by bpesti - Photobucket in July with a light wind. The fogger is 6" away from the back of the tombstone pointed right at it. In comparison, when it was 12" away the light wind didn't even allow the 400W Gemmy to shoot the fog to the back of the tombstone. So the fog didn't build up like you see it in the screengrabs. You can see how the fog is going a little to the left. But if it were straight out of the fog machine, it would be a lot farther off the the left and not more than a foot off the ground. So I considered it a success. I backlit the fog with a 1000W halogen work lamp hooked to a Lightning FX unit for that test. Yes a real test would be higher winds. But like I said it definitely worked for an amusement park on Lake Erie. They do use high wattage powerful stage quality foggers. But the concept works better than trying to shoot fog right out of the fogger.

Try it for yourself. See what you get.


----------



## MansionHaunter

Thanks for the tip! Every year here on Halloween the wind suddenly makes an appearance and my best attempts at fog are ruined.

I'm going to try both the watered lawn and some well-placed tarp fencing. Hopefully that'll give the ground fog a fighting chance.


----------



## Fright Zone

It's worth a try. If it works for a world class amusement park (even though they get to use powerful foggers they're still surrounded by a Lake so I've seen both set-ups and I think they're onto something with forcing the fog to hit a fence or large object out of the fogger) it should work for us. I was encouraged by my fogger 6" behind-the-tombstone test.

Last year I ended up using the black border tarp fence (I stapled-gunned weed material you normally put under flower-beds that comes in a roll to wood stakes) on the left and right side simply to keep the traffic flow from crossing the yard. I had a cemetery fence in the front. I used a fog chiller with the garbage bag. The ground was wet from an entire day of rain. The wind was light but it was there. So the results I observed were that even though I didn't have the fogger pointed directly at the border fence or tombstone it definitely visually contained the fog to our yard so it works even that way. The lingering fog did cling to the wet grass in a wavy sort of pattern due partially to the aluminum dryer ductwork inside the trash can fog chiller. It sort of looked like the grass had been on fire and was smoldering is the only way to describe it. That may not be the exact effect one is looking for. But it did naturally cling to the grass and linger. One big gust of wind happened and it looked pretty cool actually. It blew the fog across the yard but it eventually hit the border fence on the other side and was contained. Some of it spilled up and over but not much becasue the fog came out of the fog chiller to begin with. The trash bag had been inadvertently removed from the fog chiller outlet at one point. The upside was I could observe the difference between using a bag on the outlet and not. The bag on a chiller outlet definitely makes a difference in terms of slowing down the velocity of the fog and making it lay lower to the ground.


----------



## NickG

last year the breeze kept changing directions and I wound up lugging the fogger and chiller from one side of the yard to the other at least a dozen times... I'm going to try the trashbag outlet this year, and hope for less wind... sounds promising.


----------



## Fright Zone

The cheapo border fence I think helps too since your'e talking about low lying fog below the height of the fence and doesn't look that bad on the sides of a yard either.


----------



## frstvamp1r

this year I am going to do the trash bag on my outlet AND the black tarp near the base of my fence and maybe a few prayers that it isnt windy like last year.


----------



## wolfen manor

great tips fright zone. thanks. I've been using a chiller for the past couple of years. I like the bag idea...going to try it this year.


----------



## Fright Zone

I'm glad you guys don't think I'm nuts 

If you have the time, I'd try the fog chiller and trash bag on the outlet maybe wet grass and maybe a border fence knocking down the wind (think of a snowdrift fence and that's the basic idea).

I'd also try the fogger 6" away from the back of a tombstone OR a black tarp border fence. You won't get low lying fog from that setup but the fog will accumulate in an area. And at least not be destroyed by wind right out of the fogger. Of course your mileage may vary. It depends on your expectations. The wind can change constantly. Even a slight undetectable breeze can disrupt fog. But I think the basic idea of a border fence creating a barrier against the wind down low where the fogger nozzle is is a good idea. If I hadn't seen it work at Cedar Point surrounded on three sides by windy Lake Erie I wouldn't have believed it. I saw what it did to the fog the previous year when they didn't use border fences and the wind ripped the fog apart or shot it in the wrong direction right out of 1400W foggers. So I've seen the difference. A black tarp border fence on the sides doesn't look bad in a yard haunt. Especially if you put a graveyard fence in the front of your yard. I looked it up what I used was a thinner material than tarp called "Weed Proof Plus" 3ft x 120ft for $15 at Wal-Mart. I think it was 1x2 wooden stakes and a staple gun. You roll it all up when you're done or throw it out.


----------



## wolfen manor

did you ever try one of those metal dryer vent hoses? I have one laying in the basement.....hmmmmm


----------



## Fright Zone

Here you go I finally put the video up of what I was trying to describe the idea of shooting fog into the back of something so it colelcts in a denser lcoud so as to make ti harder for a reasonable wind to destroy it right out of the fogger. this can also be done pointing a fog chiller at something like a tombstone: [nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PL63j7xiHY"]YouTube- Display Lightning FX & Fog into Back of Tombstone Halloween Yard Haunt How-to[/nomedia]

Here's another that's a similar concept of containing fog in an area to a degree: [nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BmH5exAxIs"]YouTube- Display Graveyard & Border Fences Halloween Yard Haunt How-to[/nomedia] Go to the border fence description and examples at 2:20 min. You'll see how it keeps the fog in the yard.


----------



## Freakboro

That's gorgeous!

In 2005, I routed the pipe out of the chiller, and underground, under a tombstone, and up to the surface just in front of the tombstone. People seen the fog coming from that stone, thinking something would come out of it, and it totally distracted them from the actor who was now standing right behind them. Good fun.


----------

