| I built my fog chiller last year (2001) after purchasing a
fog machine. The fog machine is more of a "smoke"
machine when you use it as intended by the manufacturer. I did
some research and found a few (very complicated) plans for home built
fog chillers, so I decided to try a very simple design.
Here's the fog chiller in action. It's easy to construct and seems to do the job
nicely. When I put the fog machine on full blast, the chiller
doesn't make a whole lot of difference, but in short bursts (as shown in
the image to the right) it works perfectly. If the fog machine was
a bit smaller (lower output) I think the chiller would be perfect.
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Fog machine and chiller in
"light" action
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| Some day I will build a larger version that will keep the
smoke in contact with the cold ice for a longer period of
time. I skipped the fancy designs because I didn't want to
have to deal with mounting a fan to extract the smoke from the
chiller. I made a straight shot through the chiller to avoid a lot
of back pressure.
I did not seal the pipe to the fog machine. I do not want to
risk having the end of the fog chiller outlet blocked by something and
having pressure build up in the chiller. The fog machine expels
the smoke with enough force to make it through the chiller without too
much of it escaping back out the inlet. With the inlet higher than
the outlet, the cold smoke tends to only go out through the outlet when
the fog machine is re-heating (not producing fog). Wind can blow
the smoke out the inlet if the outlet is positioned against the breeze.
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The entire fog machine assembly
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| Here's the inside of the fog chiller. Basically two
4 inch reducers and some 0.5 inch hardware cloth clamped around the
ends.
I cut the holes with a jigsaw after marking the hole lines with a
compass. I got as close to the bottom of the cooler as I could so
that the ice would still cover the entire tube as it melted away.
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Fog chiller wire mesh tube
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| The intake side. A couple of elbows and a 8.5 inch
length of pipe to get it at the right height for the fog machine to sit
on top of the chiller. I did not glue the pipe in place so that I
could also set the fog machine to the side of the chiller if I needed to
hide it behind something low to the ground. |
Fog chiller intake
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| Output side. I put a female threaded coupler on the
4 inch reducer so I could screw in an assortment of attachments. I
can add an extension of 4-6 ft of rigid pipe or a similar length section
of flexible duct. |
Fog chiller exhaust
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