# fogger nozzle - ditch it?



## NickG (Sep 12, 2006)

so I'm "preparing" my fogger for this year and naturally, it didn't work so great when I first fired it up. It's a Chauvet FX-800. The cool thing about these is they have a removable nozzle... I took it of and cleaned the crusty brown goop out of it and ran it a few times without the nozzle to blow the crap out of the burner, and holy smokes - it easily puts out 4x the amount of fog it does with I put the nozzle back on. I also noticed hardly any residual, un"burnt" fluid coming out with the nozzle off, but it has a considerable amount coming out with the nozzle on. Also noted was that the cycle time was equal with it on, or off. So... I think I'm just going to leave it off. There is a section of threaded tubing that protrudes about 1/2" from the burner, the nozzle only adds about 1/8" to the overall length, however it does increase the velocity of the fog by about 2x. 

I use this machine for my witch cauldron with a mini-vortex chiller (overkill, but it's what I had on hand when I started to use a 1000w continuous outside) However, since that's no longer with us, I am not running a a fogger out in the yard - so I'm going to use my medium sized trash-can chiller (12' of dryer hose) with this instead and hopefully have it rolling out of the cauldron and covering the garage floor nicely. 

Comments?


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## cmk4425 (Oct 16, 2007)

I have the same problem with my 1250 nozzle always clogging up. I tell you what I have a 700watt "The Fog Machine" fogger and it is 8 years old and hasn't missed a beat yet I don't even know if I ever ran any distilled water/vinegar through it. Sorry if I am completely off of the subject here I am just not overly pleased with these Chauvet machines.


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

Agreed on the increase of fog without the nozzle - I got the same results with my 1250. The velocity thing is only an issue if you're trying to go through a large chiller or a long pipe run.


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## NickG (Sep 12, 2006)

I don't clean my foggers, and so far it hasn't really been a problem. (the 400w gemmy hasn't even had an issue, this is it's 3rd year in the MIB) the 1000w one was just poor design of the combustion chamber (leaks..) The Chauvet was the first fogger I got, the Mrs got it for me for Christmas in 2004, so this will be it's 5th Halloween.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Hey- I can't find the dang "recipe" for vinegar/water cleaner..what r the proportions again??


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

Don't use it - just leave the fog juice in the fogger.


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## Jerm357 (Oct 17, 2009)

So, theres nothing wrong with running foggers with out the nozzle on? This wont damage the fogger in any way with long term use?


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## Jerm357 (Oct 17, 2009)

Jerm357 said:


> So, theres nothing wrong with running foggers with out the nozzle on? This wont damage the fogger in any way with long term use?


Just wondering if anyone has an opinion on this. I too have found my machine working alot better with the nozzle off, but Im a little worried about the long term when using it like this. Do you think this could be bad in any way?


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## phil121 (Sep 14, 2010)

I accidentally broke the nozzle on the end of my fogger so i don't have any choice. So far its been perfectly fine, i don't see how this could brake the fog machine because surely, having the nozzle on is going to reduce the area that the fog has to disperse, a bit like the "no smaller than 4 inch pipe" rule. The only reason i could think the nozzle would be necessary is for safety reasons, like shortening the distance that the fog shoots out ... or something.


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## kevin242 (Sep 30, 2005)

my foggers all work well as long as I _don't_ clean them. leaving juice in them seems to work best for me. Thanks for the tip, I'm going to try taking the nozzle off one of mine to see if that works!


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## jdsteel82 (Aug 27, 2010)

the only real thing i could see is with less line pressure the pump might operate faster wearing out the diaphragm (I don't even know the construction of it though). 

What are you quench and reheat times for your heatX without nozzle?


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## VIGILANTE (Sep 19, 2010)

Removable nozzles on a fog machine allow a larger diameter tubing to be used in the heat exchanger, thereby allowing for less clogging inside the chamber. The nozzle is typically a high pressure brass fitting with smaller diameter orifice to create a higher pressure during atomization. This equates to a further fogging distance. If you notice, the cheaper foggers use a very small diameter brass tubing for the nozzle. That smaller tubing is one piece coiled in the heater core, making it much easier to clog.


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## disney-fan-reborn (Apr 4, 2010)

I just got a 1000w fogger the other day, and wasn't very enamored with the way the fog was coming out. I thought it either was the fogger (only paid $40 for it) or the fog juice I got from Wal Mart. When testing it, I found that the 3rd 10-15 second burst (with 2 min between each burst) had much less volume than the first. After that 3rd burst, the machine shuts off to reheat.

HOWEVER...I took the little brass pressure nozzle off today, and what do you know, LOTS more volume than with the nozzle on! Only thing is that the velocity is not as high. I'm going to be building a chiller this weekend, and I'll try it with the nozzle on and off to see if there is any difference. I might even post a video with the results!


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## disney-fan-reborn (Apr 4, 2010)

Well, no video. Sorry. It's just easier to post the results like this. 

With the nozzle off, the chilled fog had a hard time coming out the exit tube. While it DID come out, it didn't travel far, and not as much of it came out.

With the nozzle on, a LOT of chilled fog came out and traveled a good distance.

So, while having the nozzle off may give you more volume of fog without a chiller, it DEFINITELY is a MUST to keep the brass nozzle ON if you plan to use any type of chiller. Hope that helps! Of course, this is just MY results. Your's may vary from mine.


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