Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: Fog/dry ice

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neilfortin
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Joined: 11/20/06
Location: United States
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Posts: 210

Posted: 3/17/08 at 9:15am

With the grace of God we used a regular smoke machine and it worked fine, since our fire alarms are set pretty high up in the ceiling! I'm gonna post some pictures today on the forum! check em out!

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mvp1114
Walk-On
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Joined: 1/26/08
Location: United States
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Posts: 4

Posted: 4/20/08 at 8:47pm

As the pit orchestra director for my school as well as tech director, I refuse to use "smoke" machines - the smoke always ends up rolling into the orchestra pit and choking the musicians out. I use dry ice machines instead.

The best unit I've found is an Aquafogger (here's a rental company's link: http://www.rogergeorge.com/rentals/items/raaqua/ ). Their rental seems awfully high; we get it for considerably less. It's the size of a garbage can with two heating elements for about 20 gallons of water. Once the water's hot, a pump flushes the water over the dry ice tray and a fan pushes a big flood of fog. We used it for our transformation sequence in "Beauty & the Beast" and it worked incredibly well with gelled 1000W fresnels blasting up from below thru the fog.

schlechy techy

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neilfortin
Celebrity

Joined: 11/20/06
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 210

Posted: 4/22/08 at 3:08pm

Thanks! Since we didn't have a pit orchestra for Cyrano, we ended up using a regular smoke/fog machine with fluid, it worked really well, but I totally understand what u mean, I'll have to check out the Aquafogger for next year! Robber Bridegroom, we'll need A LOT of smoke!

Neil

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mfrank
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Joined: 5/04/08
Location: United States
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Posted: 5/04/08 at 7:38am

If you are concerned about the sound of a dry ice machine, look at the "Pea Souper" made by "AquaFog". It is a very small unit but works very well. All it has for parts is a heating element and a basket for the dry ice. No fan. It works very well for a short burst of fog.

Glad to hear that the alarms didn't go off. Better to check the proper way; ie Fire Marshall, than just going for it and seeing what happens.

M Frank
Northview PAC Director

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GeddyE
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Joined: 6/04/08
Location: United States
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Posted: 6/04/08 at 6:27pm

Being a firefighter, I can relate to your problem. In the past I've made a "fog chiller". basically, it's an ice chest with the fog machine attached at one end via flexible (heat resistant) ducting, the chest is filled with ice, and then there is an opening on the other end with ducting routing the exhaust where we want the fog to flow.

The ice chills the fog enough that it hugs the ground and doesn't rise enough to set off alarms or sprinkler systems. If you want more than ground hugging fog, just hit the fog machine button a little longer. Portable, cheap, and effective.

This works for us VERY well. YMMV. Wink

Geddy

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Props, Scenery, Costumes and Makeup
Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board :Producing Theater :Props, Scenery, Costumes and Makeup

Author	Message
neilfortin Celebrity Joined: 11/20/06 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 210	Posted: 3/17/08 at 9:15am
	With the grace of God we used a regular smoke machine and it worked fine, since our fire alarms are set pretty high up in the ceiling! I'm gonna post some pictures today on the forum! check em out!
	Community Theater makes us smile
	IP Logged

mvp1114 Walk-On Joined: 1/26/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 4	Posted: 4/20/08 at 8:47pm
	As the pit orchestra director for my school as well as tech director, I refuse to use "smoke" machines - the smoke always ends up rolling into the orchestra pit and choking the musicians out. I use dry ice machines instead. The best unit I've found is an Aquafogger (here's a rental company's link: http://www.rogergeorge.com/rentals/items/raaqua/ ). Their rental seems awfully high; we get it for considerably less. It's the size of a garbage can with two heating elements for about 20 gallons of water. Once the water's hot, a pump flushes the water over the dry ice tray and a fan pushes a big flood of fog. We used it for our transformation sequence in "Beauty & the Beast" and it worked incredibly well with gelled 1000W fresnels blasting up from below thru the fog.
	schlechy techy
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neilfortin Celebrity Joined: 11/20/06 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 210	Posted: 4/22/08 at 3:08pm
	Thanks! Since we didn't have a pit orchestra for Cyrano, we ended up using a regular smoke/fog machine with fluid, it worked really well, but I totally understand what u mean, I'll have to check out the Aquafogger for next year! Robber Bridegroom, we'll need A LOT of smoke! Neil
	Community Theater makes us smile
	IP Logged

mfrank Walk-On Joined: 5/04/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Posted: 5/04/08 at 7:38am
	If you are concerned about the sound of a dry ice machine, look at the "Pea Souper" made by "AquaFog". It is a very small unit but works very well. All it has for parts is a heating element and a basket for the dry ice. No fan. It works very well for a short burst of fog. Glad to hear that the alarms didn't go off. Better to check the proper way; ie Fire Marshall, than just going for it and seeing what happens.
	M Frank Northview PAC Director
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GeddyE Walk-On Joined: 6/04/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Posted: 6/04/08 at 6:27pm
	Being a firefighter, I can relate to your problem. In the past I've made a "fog chiller". basically, it's an ice chest with the fog machine attached at one end via flexible (heat resistant) ducting, the chest is filled with ice, and then there is an opening on the other end with ducting routing the exhaust where we want the fog to flow. The ice chills the fog enough that it hugs the ground and doesn't rise enough to set off alarms or sprinkler systems. If you want more than ground hugging fog, just hit the fog machine button a little longer. Portable, cheap, and effective. This works for us VERY well. YMMV. Geddy
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Topic: Fog/dry ice( Topic Closed)
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