# Simple and Effective Fog Chiller



## ATLfun

I have had several people comment about the low lying fog in my 2013 haunt video, so I thought that I would post some pics of my fog chiller cooler. The design is simple compared to others and especially when compared to those individuals who try to incorporate an automotive radiator.

Ice, ice and more ice is the key in my opinion. Since my chiller does not have a tube/tunnel straight through to the outlet, the fog has to go through the ice to the bottom in order to escape. I am convinced that the the fog temperature is reduced more effectively by having to go through the ice instead of bypassing the ice via a tunnel.

I also add two boxes of ice cream salt to keep the ice from melting in the cooler. It hurts my head to understand how salt can lower the melting temperature of ice, but it works.


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## [email protected]

I made a chiller with the "tunnel" through it. Not bad, but your design has a lot more going for it. You've increased the fog/ice exposure by eliminating the quick escape route the tunnel unfortunately provides. Your fog is probably much colder when it finally finds its way out. Salting the ice is an idea that will help in every chiller scenario. I'll at least do that, if I can't retro-design the whole thing.


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## ATLfun

Hey Stari,

I just wanted to mention that I was not banging on any design. Any home made fog chiller deserves kudos. 

I had just seen posts where people had built a chiller with a pvc/or mesh tunnel. And when those people re-configured their design they claimed to have some degree of improvement.

My cooler holds about 50 lbs of ice and I have never had to add more during the Halloween evening. I credit the slow melting to the ice cream salt. I have read that heavy salt water can kill a lawn, so make sure to empty the cooler at the street.


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## azscoob

Ice cream salt eh?

I'm going to try that, I have a similar chiller design, but my inlet is up high and outlet down low so I don't have an elbow inside, just two of them on the outside to rout the fog from the machine into the chiller, my machine sits on top of the chiller lid.


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## jediknight2

Where's the video


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## tzankoff

I believe the video in question is in his signature.


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## drevilstein

I need to build a chiller this year, I think I'll steal your design. Thanks for the post!


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## ATLfun

tzankoff said:


> I believe the video in question is in his signature.


Correct-o. I am sorry that I did not make it more clear. My 2013 haunt video is in my tagline. And the fog can be seen a the beginning and towards the end.


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## Dave Leppo

I thought the salt melts the ice _faster_, causing more heat dissipation, hence a lower temperature. But if one charge of ice lasts all night, your in good shape. the ice helps chill the fog more.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/atmospheric/road-salt.htm


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## ATLfun

My observation, is that the rock salt melts a top layer that re-freezes and stays frozen. I guess if I added several pounds of rock salt then the ice would just melt. I just use two small baking soda size boxes over 50 lbs of ice. 

And for the last two years that I have used my fog chiller, I have been unable to put in another bag of ice even after three to four hours of usage. Generally my night is done around 10pm and starts about 6:30pm.

I have never seen a post by someone who used ice cream salt in their chiller who did not swear by it. Though I am in not position to argue chemistry with anyone. 

Though, I believe that using a real cooler instead of a kitty pail or trash can is a bigger factor in ice staying ice.


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## Fiend4Halloween

Thanks for the info ATL. I too thought that salt melts the ice and have never read about anyone using salt. So not to sound dumb, but are you just adding all the ice then empty 2 boxes of salt across the ice and that's it? I tried to build one of the more "fancy" fog chillers last year with minimal results so I want to try your method. Thanks again.


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## ATLfun

Just to make sure, we are talking about ice cream salt not table salt. Not all salt is created equal. Ice cream salt has larger crystals which absorbs more heat or some fancy chemistry talk like that. I do not believe that ice cream is a giant difference maker, but for $2 it is cool to have a mystery ingredient that from a small sample size seems to work.


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## danb708

*Fog Chiller*

Ver nice, what does the screen in the bottom do?


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## ATLfun

The ice is stacked on top of the grate. The grate just sits on top of pvc cut to a height higher than the outlet. The grate keeps an open channel at the bottom of the cooler for the fog to flow out.


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## Japy

I've had that same cooler with busted hinges sitting around for months.. Hopefully nobody threw it away so I can try out this chiller design.. I found that kitty litter containers don't hold enough ice to make it through a night of zombies.


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## kittensbutthole

Thanks ATLfun for all of the suggestions (and all of those that replied before me)


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## chefcat

based on your pictures, we made some major changes on our fog chiller and tried it out today. Outstanding!! you made our problem chiller work much better. Thanks so much.


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## Timothy Beyer

I will have to try that chiller this year. Tried the 5 gallon pail with the copper coil, less than satisfactory.


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## Timothy Beyer

how do I make my voice bigger


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## Bbdude

Great chiller, I'm gonna have to give this design a try.

As far as the salt goes, do you know if the ice cream salt is a special chemistry or is it just th larger crystals? Any idea if the same would work if you used like water softener salt or something like that? Also, is ice cream salt availible localy (like at Wal-Mart or a grocery store)?


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## ATLfun

chefcat said:


> based on your pictures, we made some major changes on our fog chiller and tried it out today. Outstanding!! you made our problem chiller work much better. Thanks so much.


Way Cool!!!! If I can do it, everyone can. I am not one of those guys that can make a fire breathing dragon out of paper mache, pvc, lighter fluid and a couple of paper clips.



Bbdude said:


> Also, is ice cream salt availible localy (like at Wal-Mart or a grocery store)?


Any grocery store will have it. I buy mine at Kroger. I would expect that Wally World would stock ice cream salt. It comes in small boxes the size of baking soda boxes.



Timothy Beyer said:


> I will have to try that chiller this year. Tried the 5 gallon pail with the copper coil, less than satisfactory.


Yeah, I think a cooler is a major upgrade. IMO, it is all about the ice and if a plastic pail worked then we would take them to the beach instead of coolers.



kittensbutthole said:


> Thanks ATLfun for all of the suggestions (and all of those that replied before me)


That is very nice of you to say. I am not gifted with technical skills like most on this forum. But, I like to think that I remind people that the basics can be pretty basic.


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## vincerules

Awesome! I am going to be making my chiller this weekend and was going to follow the gotfog instructions because it was the best I could find. I had reservations about it though because it seemed the contact time with the ice was very low. Your design solves that problem! Also it creates a flat surface to place the fogger on top of (inside the coolor) for storage after halloween!

Is this the salt you used? http://amzn.com/B007S3NEUK I don't know how big/small a 4lb box would be.

Thanks again for sharing this! I will def be making this!


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## ATLfun

That must be the family size. 

You have plenty of time, I would just ask your local grocer. It should be on the baking soda aisle near the salt. While, I use ice cream salt as a secret ingredient, I only use enough to coat the top of the ice with thin layer. 

Which reminds me that I had better get it now, because last year I bought the last two small boxes on the shelf.


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## Fiend4Halloween

Question about your inlet/outlet. Is the pipe size 2"? Also, the inlet is higher allowing the fog to hit the top then forced down to the ice and out the lower inlet, is this correct? Finally, with the inlet, did you just use some type of flange and an elbow for that? I really want to try this out due to my chillers in the past not having such great results. Thanks again for your help and posting of info. Happy Haunting!


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## davy2

Where does one get ice cream salt? Does the grocery store carry it?


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## ATLfun

Sorry for the delay in responding, I just saw the updated posts. The forum software does not send out new post alerts.



Fiend4Halloween said:


> Is the pipe size 2"?


Yes.



Fiend4Halloween said:


> Also, the inlet is higher allowing the fog to hit the top then forced down to the ice and out the lower inlet, is this correct?


Yes. I wanted the outlet as reasonably low as I could get, and the inlet is just where the fogger outlet naturally aligned with the cooler with the fogger sitting on a patio paver



Fiend4Halloween said:


> Finally, with the inlet, did you just use some type of flange and an elbow for that?


Just a 90 degree elbow with a another pvc pipe attached that goes up to the top but leaves about a three inch gap from the lid.

Good luck this week.


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## ATLfun

davy2 said:


> Where does one get ice cream salt? Does the grocery store carry it?


I always buy it at my local grocery store. I am sure that the super Walmarts with a grocery store would also carry it. Just be sure not to pour the cooler water out on your front lawn.


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## Haunted Bayou

Great design on this chiller. I missed out on a couple large ice chests last year that were thrown out to the curb. Go figure.

I would only need fog for a few hours, but I think the salt would help. My parents have a huge box of ice cream salt up in a cabinet. I think it is 3 decades old or more. We had a blue fiberglass looking hand-crank machine. I don't miss it.


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## BillyVanpire

Re : ice cream salt

Water freezes at 0F
I think rock salt will lower the freezing point of water to about -21F
Dry ice temp is around -109F

Will ice cream salt make dry ice any colder?

*edit: i misread ice for dry ice in op's post.
i don't think putting any kind of salt on 'dry ice' will make it colder.


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## djgra79

Hi, newbie question here, is this for use with dry ice or normal ice? I have a smoke machine for my DJ work and wonder if I could use this for the input? Looking through the forum there seems to be a mixture of normal and dry ice machines??


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## RoxyBlue

^50 pounds of regular ice plus some ice cream salt was used in his design. You can also use dry ice in chillers to make any other ice used last longer. According to the original poster, 50 pounds of regular ice lasted the entire evening.


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## drevilstein

I built one of these this year, but haven't tested it yet. It's all ready and waiting to go.


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## halloweenlurker

Thats what we did, works really good!


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## Hsnopi

I just put a tube in, no internal piping and have an output pipe. works pretty well I guess.


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