Hazers vs. Fogers?

[danks]

What does everyone think? What's the advantage from one to another? I've noticed that nice hazers tend to be more expensive.

[Monomer]

fogers have a worm-up time, and most hazers dont


haze is just like a mist....not like fog, where most of the time it stinks, and isnt fun to dance in (coughing...)

[danks]

I actually noticed that some of the hazers have a warm up time as well, although they arent as long as some of the foggers. I guess the mist gives an overall better effect and doesnt ruin the lighting and block the beams like some of the fogers do.

[DJ Scary G]

Traditional fog machines are almost NEVER found in the gear rosters of working, touring prodduction companies. Fog just sucks. It smells bad, and is really bad for your lungs, and circuit boards.
Haze is where it's at. You get all of the beam definition for your lights, and you don't have to choke to get the effect.

[Designer]

Personally I think neither are better, the fog is exactly the same thing but obviously a fogger puts out loads where a hazer just blows it out very slowly. Doing tiny bursts of about 1 second with a fogger will give nearly the same result, also most fog fluids will not do any harm to your equipment if used in moderation. Normally people just make the mistake of bombing the venue out with smoke where very little but more often produces better results. If the place har air-con then it doesn't really tend to bother people too much but if the venue has no aircon it can become very chokeing.

[jamesnet]

I used to use highend's F-100's, but the output was just too much, I switched to Jem Stage Hazers, you can get a light fluid and a heavy fluid. The smaller particles in haze allow it to pick up the beams while not choking everyone.

[Designer]

Just to experiment I've been down the club this morning doing a few new lighting sequences and tried smoking out without the aircon running and found YES, it's very choking. Slapped the air-con on and voila, 30 seconds later i've got a great translucent haze. So foggers are good for hazing if you've got air-con (has to be ceiling mounted though), otherwise side vents just waft it around. It looks like the air blowing down either just disperses the fog or the cold air chills it down and it just sinks quickly, can't really make my mind up which happens or maybe both but it looks good. :)

[Kullz]

whats the difference between the foggers and hazers?

[Designer]

Hazers constantly give out a thin translucent haze of fog which is great for showing of lighting, whereas a fogger just billows out smoke in large quantities which also shows up lighting but is obviously much thicker than the haze.

The biggest difference is that to achieve the same effect with both units the hazer can run constantly where the fogger has to pulse out a small amount of fog very frequently rather than a large quantity.

[Kullz]

oh cool, now i know that i will pick a hazer over a fogger :)

BUT whats the one where the smoke stays near the floor? :uhoh:

[Designer]

It's sometimes called a low level fogger or a chilled fogger. It chills down the fog before it's released so it drops to the floor. Ther are quite expensive comapred to a standard fogger

[Monomer]

It's sometimes called a low level fogger or a chilled fogger. It chills down the fog before it's released so it drops to the floor. Ther are quite expensive comapred to a standard fogger


or you can do it the american way - build your own fog chiller

[Designer]

With what? You've got me interested now ChainedDragon, I always like the challenge of building something.

[DJNaviss]

Question, Does a hazer set off smoke alarm's?

[Designer]

I'd never really given that much thought but as smoke alarms detect particles in the air then I suppose, yes it probably could.

[jamesnet]

YES!
Hazers tend to set off smake alarms more easily because of the smaller particles, you can't see then, so it could get out of control and you wouldn't really see it.

[Kullz]

It's sometimes called a low level fogger or a chilled fogger. It chills down the fog before it's released so it drops to the floor. Ther are quite expensive comapred to a standard fogger

so what are dry ice machines?

[jamesnet]

You put dry ice in it and combines with water if I am not mistaken, and it puts out a mist of real low lying moisture fog, doesn't use a fluid.

[Designer]

Thats correct, dry ice is really cold (and has a really low melting point) and when the water comes into contact with it, it turns into a gas which is heavier than air hence you get fog along the floor.

[Kullz]

cool i want those :D

[Reticuli]

I thought hazers use an oil based liquid that puts out a continuous "haze" that stays in the air, doesn't affect your breathing, and yet still works with lasers and such. While foggers use a calcium based fluid that puts out a chalky vaporized mist that is difficult to breath around and tends to dissipate quickly. I really don't like foggers, even the continuous ones like that Volcano deal by American. Hazers might cost more, but they're much better.

[jamesnet]

All depends on the model of hazer, The pro ones like the diffusion DF-50 uses an oil based and doesn't even heat it, it vibrates it and uses almost no liquid.. My stage hazer uses a water based, and it doesn't hang around as long.

[Designer]

Low lying fog without using dry-ice, antari's new low-level fogger:

http://www.antari.com/ice.html

Now, I'd like to get a couple of these for christmas at the club (prices permitting)
http://www.antari.com/s-100.html

How cool would that be, just not sure if there's any legalities/red tape controlling their usage. :)