# Scratch built Fog chiller #2



## niblique71

xx

Moderator Note: Many of the instructions in this thread were removed by the original poster. However, there are pictures and posts made by other members that may prove helpful.


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## RoxyBlue

Looks good, niblique. You might also try it with some dry ice if you can find a source. That does a great job of uber chilling fog


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## Howlinmadjack

How about a tutorial on how you built it. I'd love to put one together!!


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## RoxyBlue

Holy crap, you must have fogged the entire neighborhood


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## halloween71

WOW that is lotsa fog.


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## Spooky1

Wow, it looks like I need to build a new chiller. That looks fantastic.


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## halstead

Sure, just up the stakes on the rest of us. I guess I need to rebuild mine. Great work!


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## Wildcat

Awesome chiller. Looks like another thing to add to the list.


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## The Watcher

I'll bet you are tickled pink. That did a great job on your drive.


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## Howlinmadjack

That looks awesome Niblique, and I'm still interested in a tutorial cuz that would work well with my zoo haunt!!! I can get the whole walkway covered and add a little more atmosphere to the experiance!!


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## Volscalkur

That's amazing! Those pics are great!
I'm definitely interested in a tutorial too!
With awesome fog like that I'll be making one of these to carpet my house! 
Wonder what the neighbors thought when they saw a river of fog streaming down your driveway like that?
...that is just too cool. :smileton:


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## MoldyCoffin

*Great Pix! Really gets you in the mood...*

I made a chiller several years ago, with so-so results...looks like its time to learn something new, from YOU!
Just that fog and some low lighting on your driveway would keep the 'faint-of-heart' down on the street!


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## madmomma

Those pictures are awesome. I'm surprised nobody called the fire dept. but I guess all your neighbors know you well enough by now! :googly:
Now if I can only find a 1000W fogger at a good price! My 400W won't cut it this year.


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## mandodude

Awesome job. I use a cooler type chiller and in reading your posts I realize that one of my problems is capacity. It's a Coleman xTreme which keeps things cold longer, BUT it's capacity is smaller due to the thicker inner walls. I get lots of leakage, which you refer to as overwhelming the chiller (?). I am looking forward to the tutorial. I am also curious about how it supports the ice weight you are talking about. Cheers!


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## madmomma

Looking forward to the tutorial. This would be a great addition on my lawn!


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## Frighteners Entertainment

Very nice effect, well done!!


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## The Kibosh

This is awesome! I've tried a few variations of chillers in the past and this is yet another great design! Thanks for sharing.


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## niblique71

*Tutorial part 4*

In this batch of foam sheets, the female groove was slightly offset from center which caused my 90 degree joints to be a little looser than they should be. BUT this glue is VERY strong and the screws will allow for good adhesion. DON"T Force it to fit too tightly because it will cause your mating joints to not seal as nicely. Besides the lid doesn't have to be overly strong... Just strong enough to allow some weight on it to help seal the joints when the fog is pumping away. Everything will be caulked with the PL Glue after it's fully assembled. You can glue the lid on and screw it to the lid sides now. remember with all of your glue joints to slide the pieces around slightly to smear the glue for a better, stronger joint. 









Drilling the hole for the pipe. Remove the lid temporarorly. In this pic you can see that I gave about 1/4" space at the bottom of the one side to give room for the bell end of the 90 degree sweep. 









Here's the 4 1'2" hole saw. Be careful not to go too fast or to slow, the drill will chatter and enlargen the hole. There seems to be a medium speed that is Just right. The hole saw doesn't go all the way through in one pass. You have to also drill from the inside out after the center drill bit pokes through.









Both holes are drilled.









Here's the pipe assembly. Note the "Cut lengths" drawn on the assembly. I assembled these "Dry" (no Glue) Mine fit VERY snugly and are actually difficult to get apart. I figured if I wanted to make an adjustment in the future it'd be easier. The 10" part is vertical (straight up and down) inside the chamber once installed.


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## Howlinmadjack

Awesome tutorial Niblique, and easy to follow!! I'll be building one of these as soon as I'm done with my current project. Thanks a bunch for posting this, and I'll probably be posting pix of my finished product if it comes out right..lol!!


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## HauntNH

when you put the ice in is it above the hardware cloth? or in the 8" space below?? and why not just fill up the entire cooler?


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## The Watcher

Great way of showing how to do it.


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## MoldyCoffin

*Great "Tuut"! Thank you!!*

You mentioned that it seemsw important to center the inflow pipe. Do you think its critical? Just curious... I'm considering insulating an old fiberglass 'slop sink' for my chiller. (The bonus would be that it has flanges on all four bottom corners so I can mount wheels...)


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## Moon Dog

Very nice, seen the design before, interesting that you made out of styrofoam board.

Nice work.


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## hpropman

Very cool Greg! Are you going to bring it to the M & T. I was thinking as I am reading the tutorial that you can place the foam box inside a plywood box for protection and you can also add wheels to the bottom of the plywood box. I have to see if I can make those straight cuts with the foam cutting table and a fence.


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## pagan

Thats a pretty killer-chiller!! I have been thinking about making a new one (the old school ice chest chiller is getting a little worn). I haven't seen foamboard with the edges you described.. Where did you get yours?


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## CRAZYBOUTHALLOWEEN

Geez... now I gotta build another one too this one is great !!! So many things to build so little time ,.....


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## hpropman

Paint them first with a latex paint and then you should be able to glass them. Do not use spray paint it eats foam also. You will have to brush it on. Stop at the borg and buy an opps paint


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## Sloatsburgh

The only comment I would have is to suggest using a thin rectangle exit port.... that is more for anyone trying to experiment. I built my chiller (400W) using an "Omaha Steakhouse" shipping cooler. My exit is 4" x 1" in attempt to get some texture.


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## slightlymad

I like it that's definitely the replacement for the trash can cooler my ex took. Wonder if she realized there's a hole in the bottom yet.


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## TNBrad

niblique71 said:


> I'd be happy to give a tutorial once I'm satisfied of it's performance. I'm concerned that it might not be a viable design for most haunters since it will require about $20 of ice (about 80-100lbs) to really cool the fog down the way I want. It has the capacity for about 120lbs of ice. I know I can design a smaller version using dry Ice but I'm hoping to find a design that really works using just regular ice. Remember this is for a high volume fogger like 1000w or more.
> 
> BTW the materials to build the chiller cost less than $30 and total construction time was about 3 hours (less painting).
> 
> If I,m satistifed with my next test (Ice at full capacity) these chillers can also be used as obilisks, entrance colums, or other monument bases. They can become much more ornate and serve two purposes.


I love this design Try this Idea I took several water bottles and mixed ROCK salt (for ice cream) with HOT water then froze them in my freezer and turned them every 4-8 hours. the bottles shrank not swelled like I thought they would with ICE expanding. anyway they lasted for 2 days just setting in a dryer hose on the ground and with the fogger running on long setting at night of corse.


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## mendar

Hi, New to the site and just saw your great chiller. In ref to the reinforcement using fiber glass, you MUST use Epoxy resin and NOT Polyester resin. Polyester will eat your foam structure.


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## niblique71

PS, has anyone tried to build one yet?


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## Lunatic

Looks like you got yourself a real performer. Nice job!


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## madmomma

Greg, I saw this at the Make and Take and was amazed. Two questions (I'm a little brain dead right about now...)

1. The top is totally removable right? In the pictures it looks like it flips up but if I remember correctly, it just fits right on top, in the grooves...

2. You're using a 1,000W fogger, correct? How do you connect the output piece from the fogger (which is smaller in circumference/diameter) to the larger input PVC section of the chiller? I don't remember what you used when I saw it.

This is another project on my list and time is flying by. I need to get a new fogger (my 400W may not cut it this year). Any ideas where I can find one that's reasonable? Party City, Spirit Halloween, etc. are too expensive but I may have to bite the bullet.

Thanks again for the tutorial and for bringing them to the M&T for all to see!


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## screaminscott

Hey guys, I think you might actually have the inflow and outflow reversed.

It's my understanding that the "Vortex" brand chiller works the other way around. The fog shoots into the straight pipe and rises through the ice. Then it gets sucked down through the pipe with the elbow. In order for this to work properly, the top of the ice has to be about level with the top of the pipe so the fog can just 'fall' into it

The reason it's called a "Vortex" chiller, is that if you were to have a glass top to the chiller, it looks like a 'vortex' where the fog gets sucked down into the pipe in the center of the ice.

I think that the reason it works this way is that the ice around the center pipe will cool the air inside the pipe, making it fall (cold air is heavier than hot air). Then when the hot fog shoots into the bottom of the chiller, it rises, but the air inside the center elbow pipe is still cold. That sets up a convection current of air. So the hot fog rises up through the ice, pushing the air above up then down the center pipe, helped along by the colder air inside the pipe. Once this process start, its like a siphon, that just draws the air down the center pipe and out of the chiller, and pulls more fog up through the ice from the bottom.

At least I think that's how it works.


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## TNBrad

OK I have a fog chiller question.
If you use a 1000w fogger with 1 hole going in 
could you 2 smaller hole going out. 
(1 in for the fogger in the back and 2 out,m one on each of the sides)
or a round hole in and a rectangel opening for the out.

I guess a better way is... does it have to be 1 to 1?


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## Doc Doom

Great job. I'e never seen a "vortex" fog chiller, nube that I am. Can you tell me what it is and what the perforated pipes do? I'm guessing the fog flows through all the little spaces between the ice? I build one using an ice chest and a screen tube running down the middle so the fog basically goes through a tunnel of ice. Works ok but I think I can do better.


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## madmomma

Thanks Greg. I'll see if I can get the foam locally, cut the pieces and gather the remaining items for the 25th if that's okay with everyone else. I will confirm this with you prior to the 25th. I can also gather ideas for the spider victim that I can build on my own.


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## Haunted Spider

I don't know if it has been discussed, as I am still reading through the forums, but has anyone put an inline duct fan in the end of the chiller to help pull the air through? I built a float this summer of a pirate ship with cannons that had fog rolling out. The fog just wouldn't move quick enough through the dryer duct so I installed a fan in the line. That let me push the fog 20 feet through a T split. 

Also addressing the fog machine agains the pipe, you do need the draw but I preferred to keep my fog machine close to the pipe and not 3 inches away. If you drill 3/8th inch to half inch holes in the end of the pipe, the air is drawn in through those with the pressure of the fogger. It seems to pull more air that way as the force of the fog is not diminished by the 3 inch gap. Just my 2 cents.


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## austenandrews

I may have to try the fan idea. I'm planning to run a tube the width of my yard - twenty feet, give or take - with holes along the length. I'm dubious whether I can get sufficient fog all the way to the end.

(Of course it would help if I could get a fog machine to work. The pump screamed and died on the old one I used the past few years. So I bought another 400W $25 cheapie from Target last night... and the pump conked out after one cycle. My new chiller worked great for that cycle, though!)


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## psyko99

niblique71 said:


> I made an attempt to re-enforce one of the chillers today. Before I could do too much damage I discovered that fiberglass resin/hardner melts foam. DO NOT USE Fiberglass resin/hardner. Does anyone know that kind of resin/hardner would be good for adding a layer of fiberglass cloth to the bottom of my chiller? Would Epoxy be OK??


I just came across these two products today:
Aqua Resin was used in the Build Halo Armor instructable on Instructables.com

I found FoamCoat but I'm not sure whether you can use it w/ fiberglass.

Both are water based so they won't melt the foam.


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## Spooky1

Niblique, I used your method to make a smaller version from a Styrofoam shipping box I had. I'll try to give it a test this weekend. Thanks for the post.


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## Bob Foster

This may seem like a dumd question, but.....does the water from the ice melting just run out the entrance hole, or is there a drain of some sort?


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## niblique71

Spiderclimber said:


> I don't know if it has been discussed, as I am still reading through the forums, but has anyone put an inline duct fan in the end of the chiller to help pull the air through? I built a float this summer of a pirate ship with cannons that had fog rolling out. The fog just wouldn't move quick enough through the dryer duct so I installed a fan in the line. That let me push the fog 20 feet through a T split.
> 
> Also addressing the fog machine agains the pipe, you do need the draw but I preferred to keep my fog machine close to the pipe and not 3 inches away. If you drill 3/8th inch to half inch holes in the end of the pipe, the air is drawn in through those with the pressure of the fogger. It seems to pull more air that way as the force of the fog is not diminished by the 3 inch gap. Just my 2 cents.


I've not tried to use a fan in any of my chillers. I don't think it's necessary for my application, but, I'd love to see the results if someone else trys it.

As far placing a fog machine close or further away, there seems to be a "Sweet spot" that draws maximum outside air and fog. It's usually a little closer than 3". With that said, Drilling holes in the entrance pipe to create the same "venturi effect" is an excellent Idea and I'm sure it works flawlessly. Another example of why I love this forum


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## Haunted Spider

Looking at Home depot for the foam, a 4x8 sheet is 20 to 28 dollars depending on the thickness. It also has to be cut, glued ( which costs money), screwed together, and then maybe reinforced with fiberglass. I found a cube looking cooler at Sams club that is a 60 qt for 27 dollars. Wouldn't this work with core drilling two holes for the input and output, and just sealing with some silicone caulk? Plus there would be less leakage this way, just open the drain port at the end of the night. 

Just a thought. Before I buy it though, i want to know if anyone else has tried this and decided the foam is better. 

I plan on trying to build this next week. I am going to incorporate the in line duct fan into it also to get maximum pull. I will see if I can't post some pics or maybe video of it finished. Got to get my cemetery fence done first. That is taking me forever.


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## RoxyBlue

Spider, the chiller that Spooky1 is building is made from a styrofoam shipping container, so you can definitely start with an already-created box for this project. Making it from scratch as Niblique has done allows for customizing as you wish. Plus it kept him busy and out of trouble


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## Spooky1

Here's how mine turned out using a 700 watt fogger. I used a Styrofoam shipping box I got from work and 2" PVC, and 2 year old Froggy's Freezing Fog Juice. Since the chiller is smaller I'll have to keep the fog to short bursts so it has a better chance to cool. This was with the top only about half filled with ice, and the temperature outside in the mid 80's. Come Halloween I'm tempted to put a little dry ice in the bottom section to cool the fog even more. Thanks Niblique!

The insides










Fogger without chiller

Fog Chiller :: MOV02689.mp4 video by SpookyTJ - Photobucket

Fogger with chiller

Fog Chiller :: MOV02686.mp4 video by SpookyTJ - Photobucket

With the chiller top off  there's quite a bit of force to the fog.

Fog Chiller :: MOV02699.mp4 video by SpookyTJ - Photobucket


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## Lunatic

Looks great Spooky! Nice looking box. I haven't tried dry ice at the bottom but I'll bet it helps.


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## niblique71

Great


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## Haunted Spider

niblique, 

I didn't realize your chiller was the size it was. I read through the dimensions a little bit ago and looked at the size of the cube cooler I have. I have a fog storm, I think 1100w so I will probably need something bigger than the cube cooler I have. I may start there though just to try out the concept and make sure I like it and then move up from there. 

Thanks for the reply.


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## haunts4u

RoxyBlue said:


> Holy crap, you must have fogged the entire neighborhood


done that last year..lol..froggys fog rocks


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## niblique71

I've been trying for months to do a tutorial on my original chiller(#1), but instead I'm just going to post pictures of the chamber design. This chamber design can be very easily adapted to a standard coleman style cooler or you can retrofit your existing chiller. The concept is simple but it works flawlessly and even does a pretty good job with a 1000w fogger (although not nearly as good as the bigger cube chiller). I didn't design a smaller cube style bacause I wanted to find a way for everyone with a cooler style chiller to improve thier results. The experiance of modifying and improving it was interesting and fun. It really works well and uses 1/3 the ice as the big guy.

The reason it works so well (I think ) is that I've not only increased the volume of ice that can be put into the chiller, but the fog is in contact with the ice for a much longer duration. I still allowed for a decent size expansion area with no Ice.

The Entrance is the section where the hardware cloth is, and the exit has the green drain protector. It's designed to be filled to within an inch of the top including on top of the hardware cloth. The fog enters and expands in the first (empty) chamber, then is forced up through the ice to the top, then back down through the second larger ice area. Although I don't have vids or pics of it in action, the tests I did 3 months ago yielded phenominal results with a 400w fogger. I've seen a ton of designs in action and I'd put it up against any with a similar capacity. I have to get that video camera.

Please ignore how badly it looks inside. This chiller has been modified at least 5 times.



















Here are both chillers side by side for size comparison.


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## Haunted Spider

I can see why you built the bigger fogger niblique. I used my 1100w fogger with the coleman cube chiller I built and it pours out fast, almost too fast. The fog is cold though when it exits. I just think it needs a little more expansion time. I may have to build one of the chillers like you did that will suppport the larger volume of fog. 

I am also going to try something a little different. I am getting some drainage tile shortly from a friend. I am going to put that on the exit port of the fog chiller with an inline duct fan. That way I can chill the fog, and put it across the length of the yard. I will have to post some pictures when I get it done.


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## TwistedDementia

EXCELLENT R&D niblique71! I have avoided building a custom chiller for years due to the r&d required (that you've managed to accomplish, so big thanks for that alone) and thanks for posting your work. I'm definatly going to build a similar model.


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## Haunted Spider

I played with my chiller last night. I attached a 30 foot piece of drainage tile (corregated pipe) that was 4" diameter. I taped up the end and drilled a 3/4" hole every 2 feet. Attaching that to the chiller with an inline duct fan seemed to work the best. It spread the cool fog over the ground out 15 ports (3/4" holes which lined the back of my cemetery well. I need to figure out how to post some pictures and I will link some.


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## zandiver

I'm going to try and use a 30gal ice chest for mine. I just have to figure out how to partition it. I hope it works as well as yours!


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## roblacey

Niblique71, here is a link to the one I made after reading this thread. I have posted the test video to the end of the thread as well as the test pictures.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
http://hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=24334


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## niblique71

Wow!!!


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## Moondog

Great design niblique71! I built one last week and I'm really happy with it. I used ABS instead of PVC since I already had some 4" pipe and I also liked that it is black to begin with. I also couldn't find the tongue-and-groove edge on the foam board at my local stores so I just used what they had. As a result I just used a single piece lid which made the build even easier and so far haven't had an issue with leakage. I was expecting to have to get fancy with beveling the edge or something, but so far so good.

My initial test was with just 35 lbs of ice and it was pretty good, but next weekend I'll use more ice or add some dry ice. My biggest issue is with wind, but I can't do much about that. I'm just hoping for calm weather and keeping my expectations low.


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## CountZero

Hey there,

I realize that this thread has been quiet since March, but I figured I'd add a couple of comments to the thread. I played in the massive Vortex thread a few years ago, and I can confirm that your thoughts are pretty close to where we all ended up over there.

I built myself a 60Q cube cooler with a "reverse vortex" style design. Some of the things I discovered, in no particular order:


Input tube placement really doesn't seem to matter too much. I got pretty consistent results regardless of where the input tube was. My current version is close to the outer wall. (Slightly shorter pipes to purchase)
Blowing the fog in through the 90 and up to the top made more sense to me as well. Heat rises and cold falls and I wanted to take full advantage of that. It made more sense thermally to let the fog start at the top when its hot and then and cool on the way down as the pressure forces it through the ice. Not to mention with the straight vortex style, the cold from the ice is falling into the lower chamber, where its being heated every cycle by the hot fog coming in. It seemed like we would be heating and cooling that lower space over and over, and it seemed to be wasteful in a thermal sense. I was also not impressed with the amount of fog that leaked back out the inlet in between cycles when you ran the fogger in through the straight pipe like the vortex guys do.
I've seen inlet temperatures of 130 degrees and outlet temperatures of 55degrees or less with just 10 pounds of regular ice in the chiller. I've gotten it much colder than that with a full load of ice.
I only use about 30 pounds of ice and it lasts all night long in my chiller with good results.
I'm running a 1600W fogger through a 60Q chiller and I haven't overwhelmed the chiller yet. I know that I CAN if I open the machine to full power, but honestly that would be more fog than I'd need right now. I'd smoke out the neighborhood if I ran it flat out. The key to super chilled fog is to create some back-pressure to hold the fog in the lower chamber where it can super cool. My solution is a plastic trash bag on the outlet. The fog has to build up enough pressure in the lower chamber to overcome the resistance of the bag before it can get out. Works amazingly well.
Adding a little salt to the water DOES keep it cooler, but you want to make sure that none of the water leaks into your grass/plants/shrubs/landscaping as it will KILL your plants. (Which is why I no longer use salt in the chiller)
I tried Dry ice, and didn't really see much of a performance benefit over regular ice. Certainly not enough to justify the substantial increase in cost. So I just use regular old ice.

I have several posts in the Vortex thread here, as well as a couple of fogger reviews and tests over at one of the other Halloween sites. If you are interested in reading all of that stuff, let me know and I'll PM you a link. (I don't want to get in trouble for advertising other sites.) 

I do have some fog tests with regular and dry ice posted on YouTube. One of them is here: 



 And while I did the testing inside, I did that to insure that the conditions were as consistent as they could be for testing. I realize that most of us use these chillers outside, but I wanted to make sure that I was testing the differences in the materials used to cool the fog, not the environmental conditions. I've tested outside in the past, and while the results are pretty close to my interior tests, there are too many variables testing outside to get any solid and meaningful results for what I was testing. I spent several hours testing, and over that time the temperate dropped 4 degrees. Which is close enough to be ignored for the purposes of the test. Outside is just too unpredictable to actually test things in my opinion, the winds can shift, the temperature can fluctuate and the humidity can change. All of which will affect how the fog works.  I wanted to know if dry ice was actually "better" than regular ice. So I wanted to eliminate as many variables as I could so the test was a better reflection of the type of ice only.

Anyways, if you have any questions, I can help with, please let me know.


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## Otaku

Nice test results, Count. I've used a mix of dry ice and water ice in the past and had good results, but, like you said, not enough to justify the extra cost. The one thing I haven't tried is the bag outlet. My two foggers/chillers are in the garage and I use 4" dryer duct to pipe the cold fog out to the yard/driveway. This means the door has to be open a few inches to accomodate the duct, and if the breeze is blowing the wrong way a good amount of fog winds up coming back in under the door. Clearly, the outlet bag is the way to go for me. It'll allow the door to be nearly closed and spread the fog way better than the small 4" outlet. Thanks for the post!


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## CountZero

I cannot emphasize how much better the fog is with the bag. It takes the fog from cool looking to pretty amazing.  Honestly its the coolest thing I've discovered in all my years of tinkering with chilled fog. Everyone that sees my fog in person always wants to know why their chilled fog doesn't look like mine does. Its all that bag on the outlet. So simple, yet such a difference in the look of the fog. I kid you not, I get the same effect outside, and since the fog is so low to the ground and so cold, it even hold up a little better when there is a breeze. The bag makes a noticeable difference. 

You are going to want to do a little testing before Halloween so you can play around with different size bags though. A bag that is too big will be too heavy for the fog to push through and you will get disappointing results. A bag that is too small will not hold the fog in the chiller long enough to get the really creepy looking low lying fog. You have to find the right size for your chiller and fogger combo.  Its fun testing though. When you get the right size on there, the fog will just look great. 

Good luck, and please let me know how it goes for you!

CountZ


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## Spooky1

The bag on the outlet is a nice idea. I think I'll give it a try this year.


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## Casketrepair

I've been following this thread for a while now. Really like the design and performance.
I've been rocking the 'got fog' cooler chillers for about 9 years now and they work fairly well with my 700w machines.

I really wanted to build one of these this year but there is no local source here in Nashville for the grooved 2x8 foam unless you buy upwards of $500 of it.

In a turn of good luck I got a large thick cube shipping cooler from my father, 

however it is smaller than the one you built Niblique.

The inner dimensions are 14x14x17 

Is the 1/3 rule hard and fast?
I understand the need for an expansion headspace, but is the open area on the bottom necessary?

Cut into thirds gives me aprox 5.5in for each section and I'm afraid that won't give me enough of an ice area.
However if I delete the bottom open area it gives me another 5in to divide for the expansion and ice areas.

Anyone have any thoughts on how this would affect performance?

Also, Niblique, Congrats on the Hauntcast mad props spot for Fester.


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## niblique71

[quo
I understand the need for an expansion headspace, but is the open area on the bottom necessary?

Cut into thirds gives me aprox 5.5in for each section and I'm afraid that won't give me enough of an ice area.
However if I delete the bottom open area it gives me another 5in to divide for the expansion and ice areas.

Anyone have any thoughts on how this would affect performance?

Also, Niblique, Congrats on the Hauntcast mad props spot for Fester.

[/quote]

I would say that the 1/3rd rule is not a hard and fast rule. In other chiller discussions, people have filled thier vortex style fog chillers halfway or more and have prety good results.

Thanks for the kind words


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## Lunatic

I use 30 lbs ice in my 60 quart cubes. The configuration is 2" expansion on top, 10.5" ice wall, and 4.5" space at bottom where the fog exits. In my opinion, more ice equals better chilling and longer play time without refilling.


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## Casketrepair

Thanks guys, and sorry for the black font on gray. It was a hurried post before coming to work.

Thanks again


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## Kaffieen

niblique and all contributors to this thread,
I just had to register here, and say a big THANKS for all the hard work. I recently got into home haunting (well did some spider webs as a kid and such). I built one of these "reverse vortex" style chillers and was amazed with the results (sorry no pictures yet). So again thank you for all the experimentation and hard work.

Kaffieen


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## stang233

*I am confused*

The the fog machine go on the pipe that enters the chamber on the bottom and ends at the top (pipe with the 90 degree bend) or does it enter the chamber on the pip that just deadends on the bottom. Thanks


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## jv92red

stang233 said:


> The the fog machine go on the pipe that enters the chamber on the bottom and ends at the top (pipe with the 90 degree bend)


 = Reverse Vortex. This is what most seem to be using.



stang233 said:


> enter the chamber on the pip that just deadends on the bottom. Thanks


 = That's the original Vortex design.


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## Homer

great job


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## stevedz313

niblique71 said:


> @CZ I'm looking forward to trying the "bag" this year. Great results in your testing too.
> 
> The one thing I want to do this year is to insulate the "up" tube. I tend to get some serious melting around that pipe which ends up as a path of easy resistance. THis reduces the effectiveness of the chiller.


I'm about to build one, how did you insulate the pipe.


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## weaz

Quick question. Did you use the 2 inch board for stability or insulation? I can only find the slotted type in my area in 1 inch, so I was thinking of using that reinforced in the corners with 1 bys. Do you think this will work?


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## Manon

Just wanted to come aboard this morning to share how beautifully my chiller worked based on your design Niblique. Thanks so much to all who contributed for the tips and tricks. The air was still and the fog laid low all night.

AWESOME!


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## Zombie Sid

Pretty good read... Nice job on the cube...

Question... has anyone tried a bar fridge compressor or one of those mobile coolers?


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## Spooky1

I increase the ice chamber of mine slightly this year and put bottles of frozen water in the pipes and had the best fog yet. Thanks again for posting your chiller, this model is a keeper.


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## BugFreak

What size tubing and water bottles were you using? I want to try the bottle idea next year.


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## RoxyBlue

Bug, the bottles Spooky1 used were 16 oz plastic soda/seltzer water bottles inside 4" diameter pipes.


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## bonk1313

Awesome post. I am trying to decide if i want to do this. I have several small 400w foggers, and may go purchase a 700 or 1000 watt today.. Few questions.. what model fogger are you using for your chillers? Do you know what the outside temp was when you took this photos? I am just trying to guage what i can expect to get here based on our temps. 
Thanks for a great instruction set.


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## bonk1313

bonk1313 said:


> Awesome post. I am trying to decide if i want to do this. I have several small 400w foggers, and may go purchase a 700 or *1000 watt today*.. Few questions.. what model fogger are you using for your chillers? Do you know what the outside temp was when you took this photos? I am just trying to guage what i can expect to get here based on our temps.
> Thanks for a great instruction set.


I just picked up a 1000 watt Fog machine from Spirit Halloween. running Long lasting Swamp fluid in it,,, what a let down. My Eliminator EF400's put out better fog then this thing. Should this be expected from this model or did I get a defect?


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## Tokwik

bonk1313 said:


> I just picked up a 1000 watt Fog machine from Spirit Halloween. running Long lasting Swamp fluid in it,,, what a let down. My Eliminator EF400's put out better fog then this thing. Should this be expected from this model or did I get a defect?


I'm leaning towards something is wrong with the one you purchased.

This pic is from last year with a cheapo Spirit 1000W with cheap fluid run through a basic igloo chiller setup. Probably a 30 second burst, but I can't recall exactly.










Since you just picked it up I probably wouldn't mess with it and just return it and hope for a better result.

Hope that helps some.


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## bonk1313

returning the 1000w today. I ordered a different 1000w from party city for $45 with free shipping. Maybe i will have better results with that one. Thanks


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## Lunatic

I wonder about the cheaper foggers sold this year. I still use the same cheap FX 700 watters that I bought at Spirit back in 2006 for 25 bucks each. I also bought a Martin which is a higher end fogger. I once read that higher end foggers produce a dryer fog by burning the fog juice more completely. I now use the Martin through one of my chillers and it produces some great fog. However I wouldn't say it performs a lot better than my cheaper foggers considering the higher price.


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## bonk1313

Cant wait to try this out tomorrow, hopefully.










Great instructions!!! very helpful.

Halloween is going to be pretty cold and possibly Wet here.. Not sure I will be able to get the fog cold enough to stay low since it will be 40 degrees.. Oh well. it was fun building it.


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## bonk1313

Well i fired it up and am very happy.. I mixed about 70lbs of ice and 10lbs of dry ice in the top section. My construction is not flawless, the problem is the lid sealing.. I am debating weather to wrap the lid seal with Duct Tape when I use it.. Only 1 night so shouldnt be to big a deal.

I used an IR thermometer on the exit tube as the fog escaped.. here is the temp pushign out.. It warmed up pretty quick but the fog stayed low to the ground for quite a distance.. much greater then the old cooler I had.


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## mingle

I am going to try a generic version of this for the first time this year. Yours looks great!!!


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## Tokwik

bonk1313 said:


> I used an IR thermometer on the exit tube as the fog escaped.. here is the temp pushign out.. It warmed up pretty quick but the fog stayed low to the ground for quite a distance.. much greater then the old cooler I had.


Glad to see someone else is recording temps for I'm not too certain what the minimum temperature difference should be.

Myself in Atlanta last week had 60*F plus ambient air temps (forgot to actually look) with about 68*F ground temperatures.
Exit tube reading was almost identical to yours 35-38*F and the fog seemed to stay low to the ground for about 40 feet before it warmed up enough to lift and dissipate.

Needless to say, I was pretty happy with the results.


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## Kraken

Made this using the bucket method. Sprayed it with some flat black then some stone texture. It will hide behind a bush and doesn't need to look that pretty. Going to try it out Sunday. Can't wait!


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## haunter-x

bonk1313 said:


> Well i fired it up and am very happy.. I mixed about 70lbs of ice and 10lbs of dry ice in the top section. My construction is not flawless, the problem is the lid sealing.. I am debating weather to wrap the lid seal with Duct Tape when I use it.. Only 1 night so shouldnt be to big a deal.
> 
> I used an IR thermometer on the exit tube as the fog escaped.. here is the temp pushign out.. It warmed up pretty quick but the fog stayed low to the ground for quite a distance.. much greater then the old cooler I had.


I'm seeing the same air leak issue around the top of mine. My construction of the top varies as I used a different foam. Same principle though.

How did you mix/layer the ice and dry ice? I've never used dry ice so I'm a bit stumped as to how to best utilize it.


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## bonk1313

haunter-x said:


> I'm seeing the same air leak issue around the top of mine. My construction of the top varies as I used a different foam. Same principle though.
> 
> How did you mix/layer the ice and dry ice? I've never used dry ice so I'm a bit stumped as to how to best utilize it.


I put 50lbs of ice in, dropped the dry ice block on the ground several times to break it up then poured the dry ice in scattered around, topped it off with 2 more bags of ice.


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## BugFreak

When I asked the local dry ice place here about combining the two types of ice he said the normal ice will accelerate the melting of the dry ice. How fast did your dry ice melt?


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## Tokwik

niblique71 said:


> As for dry Ice, I put my ice in first, then sprinkled a lb or two (Maybe more?) on top.


Ok, a couple quick numbers before I forget.

Chiller running for about 4 hours, about 120 lbs regular ice, about 5 lbs dry ice broken up into large chunks and mixed in, and a bit of rock salt (the kind you use to make ice cream) sprinkled on top for good measure tonight.

Ambient air temp at end of night: 50-55*F
Ground temp around 40*F
Exit PVC temperature of chiller: 8-12*F

Fog was hanging super low, but the light breeze kept picking it up so unfortunately the overall coverage was only about 20-25 feet on average.

Chiller worked great, fogger was struggling and I wished for better output. Next year upgrading to a better fogger.

Niblique thanks so much for your inspiration and tutorial.
:cheers:


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## DirtyZ

I don't know if it's been discussed in this thread or not, but what do you guys think about using an aluminum automotive turbo intercooler for the core of a fog chiller? Build a foam ice chest right around the core of the intercooler, have it fully submerged in an ice water bath, and run your line in one of the protruding ends and have it come out the others side. It would make for a extremely simplistic design. Intercoolers are designed for heat dissipation and do an excellent job of cooling down air charges in automotive applications. I don't see why this would be much different. I only ask because I have a couple spares sitting in my garage and was trying to figure out a use for them.

I could use my cheapo one:









Or a pricey one:


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## Lunatic

You've peaked my interest DirtyZ. 
It would be interesting to evaluate that method. My initial thought is that it appears to be helpful to have the fog in direct contact with the ice where it picks up some moisture and adds weight. I love new ideas though! Keep us posted if you should try it.


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## DirtyZ

I watched an episode of mythbusters once about the fastest easy way to cool your beer. It was throwing them into a cooler full of an ice/salt/water bath. A radiator or intercooler seems like the best option for submerging the fog. It's like the beer inside of the aluminum can. I think as long as i have enough pushing pressure through the intercooler that it will be a very good success. If I don't have quite enough push, i can always stuff a small PC fan into the outlet. Since there seems to be some good discussion going on this, i may start on one this weekend with my cheapo intercooler and hopfully get some conclusive results shortly.


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## Intrepid

Looking forward to the results of the inter-cooler experiment. Sounds promising.


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