# 110VAC fogger on 220VAC



## Hippofeet (Nov 26, 2012)

Since I had a couple old 2000 watt foggers sitting around, and I just got some 220VAC foggers in, I decided to see what was different. It turned out to be the fuses, both at the power plug and on the card, (15A on the 110, vs 25A on the 220 models), as well as the pump. The 220VAC foggers have 220 pumps, and they are labeled as such, also the plastic housing for the coil is red, instead of black.

So

I changed out the fuses on a 110VAC 2000 watt fogger, to 30A at both the plug and the card, and plugged it into 220. (I made a fogger power cord with a 220 plug, but it would be easy to make an extension cord that ran two 110V outlets, on different circuits, into one 110V female plug end).

The only thing that went was the 110VAC pump, and after dissecting it, it broke the spring. It went within 4 seconds, starting out a bit loud, going to clattery, and then just buzzing.

Im going to get some 220V pumps on order, and when they come in, see if its worth doing the conversion.

So far, the performance is identical between the 110VAC foggers and the 220VAC foggers, which is not what I expected, I expected the run times to be much longer with the 220. I can only suppose that with identical cards, identical thermal switches and temperature probe circuits (I looked up the capacitors and resistors on the cards, as well the relays, it's all the same) that the performance isn't dictated by the input voltage, but by the limits of the heat exchanger.

Im building a two-exchanger 110VAC 3000 watt, and Im going to set up my own control, in place of the card. I haven't decided to go with an arduino based controller, or a push button, or even a hardwired setup with run times and cycling between the two exchangers controlled by adjustable digital thermostats. I'm leaning toward the thermostats for this one.

I have made on of these already, and it worked fine, but was very prototype looking. If I can make this one as nice as I want to, I think I will shoot for a 220VAC 6000 watt (two 3000 watt elements cycling with overlap after initial warmup) and see how many CFM I can get.


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## Hippofeet (Nov 26, 2012)

Gah!

Some days this stuff just gets to me. Like a brain overload.

Its 110 in with a lighted power switch into 2 3000 watt exchangers temperature regulated by thermal switches and into a 1A 12VDC transformer into the DMX relay board and the 2 channel sequential relay timer with the 110 into the 2 channels on the timed relays to control the two solenoid piston vibratory pumps with the trigger signal from the relay timer board out the remote switch receptacle through the switch and back into the board with the relays programmed for 15 on 15 off with a 5 second overlap between the two. And dont forget to to ground the case.

Bzzzzt Bzzt *pop*

And the DMX relay has to trigger the timed board as well. I don't normally need to draw up schematics, but it may be time to give in, have a few beers after work, and draw this out nice and big with all the time in the world to do it.


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

You what?!? I would have expected more difference than that! I would have also expected the 220V fogger to have a fuse 1/2 as big as the 110V 'cause that is just the way 'tricity works.

Watts / Volts = Amps, so:

2000 watts at 110V = 18Amps
2000 watts at 220V = 9Amps

Generally an equivalent fogger would draw 1/2 the current on 2x the voltage.

But also consider the inverse, assume a full 2000W heater:
Resistance = Voltage / Amps, and from above we know amps, so

110V / 18A = 6.1 ohms resistance in the heater
220V/ 9A = 24.4 ohms resistance in the heater

But now consider the inverse, plugging the 6.1 ohm/110V heater into 220v:
Amps = Volts / Resistance

220V / 6.1 Ohms = *36 amps*

Further
36 amps x 220 Volts = *8000 watts!*

I would expect a 110V fogger on 220v to heat up VERY fast, or just go *BOOM* and leave a small crater.

Either way, sounds like some serious fog!


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## Hippofeet (Nov 26, 2012)

But it didn't play out that way. I don't know what gives. I mean, I can try to put the 220 volt pump into a 110 fogger, and plug that into 220, but even the 220 fogger, theres no difference in the card, I looked at the resistors, trimming capacitors after the 12vdc transformer, everything, and they are identical. Same color bands on the resistors everything. And I (instictively, I didn't do the math you did) figured the same as you. 220 equals faster warmup, longer run times, and so on, but nope. There is no performance difference. I dont see a step down transformer to turn the 220 to 110, either. Its just the same fogger with a 220 pump, which makes me wonder, where does the other 110 volts go? It can choose to draw the amps it wants, but it doesn't get to draw the voltage, that's forced on it.

The 110 fogger on 220 didn't kill the board, because they are the same in both, but it ate that pump right up.

so I have 40 amps available on the 220 circuit. I guess what I need is a watt meter. And with the possibility of 40 amps, it better be stout. I havent seen one, but I guess I need to look somewhere besides amazon.

I just made a 1200 that WAY WAY outperforms the 3000 watt 220V model. Whats bugging me is I can't figure out why? My welder is 220. I don't doubt Im getting the correct voltage from the outlet.

I can't wait til we start making our own here. The one's we have are good, and now that we repair other brands I get to compare more, but I think I can do better, and eliminate some of the hassles. 

First thing - rotary pumps, or even peristaltic. Why use that cant run dry-spring breaking-loud and amp drawing vibratory pump? Cause its cheap? (It is, actually).

I can't go any further into this without being able to measure watts and amps in real time throughout the foggers cycle.


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