Fog juice question

[Johnny Thunder]

I just gota skull fogger at Party City in the clearance section for 5 bucks. It's made by a company called Fitco and 'recommends' using Fitco fog juice for 'best results.'

Am I right that I can probably just use whatever company's in it? This is the first fogger I ever had so I don't have any experience with them. Thanks.

[Vlad]

Yes, you can use other fog juices in it with no problem. But holy crap! they have those skull foggers on clearance, I'm going to beat feet over to my Party City and find out, probably not though, my store has a whole stack of them. Was the one you got the last one they had, maybe that's why they put it on clearance at your location.

[Johnny Thunder]

Thanks for replying.

No, they had maybe 5 or 6 of them. It was the Springfield, PA locaiton.

[Frighteners Entertainment]

That's a steal!

[Lilly]

I too bought a fogger from walmart last year but didn't have time to get it going .
I was wondering how long the "juice" lasts .
I have the smaller containers of it.

[Vlad]

Hi Lilly, Assuming you still have the lids screwed on tightly, the juice will last indefinitely. I've got two year old stuff that's just fine. I've never actually heard of anyone say that juice they've had in storage has gone bad.

[Vlad]

JohnnyThunder, you'd better hope we never meet up at a haunters gathering, cause I'm gonna kiss you, lol. I just bought the last 8, yes 8, skull foggers that our Party City had. WoooooooooooooooooHoooooooooooooooooo

[Johnny Thunder]

Cool man (about the loot....not the kisses....) :jol:

[Beepem]

wow you guys could just print out this last few posts and tha would make a really good scary prop :p

can i have specs on these? i may convince someone to drive me to a party city ....sooo far away though

[Lilly]

thanks Vlad but i guess i phrased the question wrong...But yes they are sealed not opened yet.
I was wondering how long the juice last once it is in the fogger and running.

[roadkill]

The juice in the fogger will still last for years. At the worst it will "concentrate" some. Nothing a splash of distilled water won't fix but I wouldn't bother - it'll be just fine. I've got fog-juice going on 3 years old and have had no storage or usage problems.

[Lilly]

okay thats good to know also but heres what i need to know ..
After you put it in the fogger how long will it be before you have to refill it. i guess the duration of fog coming out. small bottle pint size i believe

[Vlad]

Sorry Lilly. The answer to your question is dependent on the size of your fogger, and whether or not you have a good remote, or just the on and off one. For example, a 700 watt heater will usually burn up more fluid than say a 200 or 400 Watt one. The constant on 1200 watt foggers are really juice hogs, more than a gallon a night at full throttle. The small bottles are usually good for one fogger fill up. If you're running a 400 Watt fogger, and you have it running constantly, you'll probably need one refill before Halloween night is over.

[Dr Morbius]

I know you have to be careful about running a fogger dry.The pump HATES that...and it's none to good for the heating element either.

[Vlad]

The good Doctor is correct as always. A neat trick is to put an extension tube onto the one that currently exists on the fogger, and run it directly into a gallon jug of juice.

I think the thing to remember here, is that it's better to have more juice on hand then you think you need.

I should also add, that many people have different lengths of time during which they're "fogging". So the amount of time you'll need it running may vary from mine. Some communities have limits on TOTing times. I start fogging about 5 in the evening, and I don't ususually have the last TOTer till after 11, and I fog on until midnight, Have I mentioned that I like foggers, lol.

[Bone Dancer]

And if it is windy like last year you wont need any juice at all. If it does it again this year you will be able to hear me scream.

[Johnny Thunder]

Vlad - for the skull fogger, how much juice would you advise I have if I am going to have it on pretty much non stop for 4 to 5 hours?

[Beepem]

yeah it does from what i hear. I know I put my fogger away filled with juice in it, well because vlad told me to! i think it just has to be capped

[Vlad]

Hi Johnny, I'll let you know tonight when I get home and have a chance to take one out of the box. It'll give me an excuse to crank one of those bad boys up, lol.

[Johnny Thunder]

cool thanks:jol:

[Lilly]

ok guys thanks for info.. ill have to check what size i have.

[Vlad]

Johnny, I ran a few tests with it tonight. It can give a one minute and twenty five second steady blast in duration, and it takes one minute and ten seconds to reheat. It puts out a good amount of fog for sure. If you're using it in short bursts, it's hard to even get it too cool down enough to go into the reheat cycle. But the reservoir is only 1 liter. I'd recommend going with a gallon on hand for this baby, at 400 watts, it's really overpowered for it's size. You won't use that much, but I think this thing is really a good fogger for the size. I might also suggest extending the pickup tube to go directly into the gallon container if it can be hidden.

[Black Cat]

Pics of the skull fogger in action.

skull fogger pictures by troop134 - Photobucket

[Zombie-F]

It's so, so... tiny! :D Cool, I'll have to hunt one of these down now. :)

[Vlad]

The skull fogger would definitely fit inside a prop or very small enclosed space. I wish I had had this years ago when I was stuffing an all metal VEI-940 down the neck of a dragon, lol.

[Johnny Thunder]

Vlad thanks for the update and the information. Like I said, this is the first fogger I have so I'm finding my way - thanks.

Black Cat - awesome pics. I can't wait to see mine in action too.

[Beepem]

omg, that skull fogger is amazing! why dont I have a party city around where I am? 5 bucks!

[Torgen]

Just bought 4 of 'em. :)

[Vlad]

I'm hoping that Black Cat took a ride to our second nearest Party City today in search of more of these skull foggers. I wouldn't want them to fall into the wrong hands, lol.

[Black Cat]

Update on tracking down more skull foggers: Just got back from another Party City next town over...........Talked to the manager and he thoroughly checked his entire store and found none of the skull foggers. I then asked him if he had contact with any other Party City stores in the area. He made phone calls to 3 other party city stores within a 20 mile radius and came up with nothing. He even called the original store that I got them from and was told someone just bought all of them the other day. I guess that was me buying out the stock of skull foggers.

[Vlad]

Only a 20 mile radius ?????? Slacking off again I see Black Cat.

[mrklaw]

I called my party city and they said that Skull foggers are on clearance for more than $30!

[Johnny Thunder]

What the? That's insane.

[drbrandon73]

If you fill it all the way up it lasts about 3 hours. I guess this probably depends on the fogger and how big the tank is.

[Vlad]

Mostly it depends on the duration of the blasts, and the intervals between them.

[Black Cat]

I called my party city and they said that Skull foggers are on clearance for more than $30!


Mrklaw, if you want I could scan you a copy of my Party City receipt which clearly shows the skull foggers are on clearance for $5.00 It shows reg. price $17.99 and suggested price $39.99.
Sounds like the East Coast and the West Coast Party cities are trying to pull a fast one on us. Pm me if you want a scanned copy.

[Johnny Thunder]

I can't wait to try my fogger out this weekend. I'm also going to add some fabric to my Reaper to fatten him up a bit. However, my wife said he can't go out until at least October. Rats.

[Black Cat]

OK here is a scan of the receipt for the $5.00 clearanced foggers. Hope this helps you to price match within other party city's.

Party City pictures by troop134 - Photobucket

[Johnny Thunder]

Does anybody know if they still have any of these? A friend of mine wants one but I haven't been to PC lately.

[dragon flame]

Has anyone used the fitco brand fog juice? I just bought a gallon and I was wondering what it's quality is? :googly:

[grapegrl]

I'm also a fogger novice and plan on placing my newly-acquired skull fogger (thanks, Vlad and BlackCat! ;)) inside the pirate cannon I'm making.

I think there is a water-based fog juice, but isn't there another type that is glycerine-based? If so, does the glycerine based (or other than water-based) stuff leave a residue after fogging for a while?

[Vlad]

I've used Fitco brand Dragon Flame, it's as good as any other store brand. Grapegrl, they're glycerine based. They can leave a residue, and it's best not to have latex props directly in the stream of the fog, or it can degrade them after prolonged exposure, or if stored away with the residue still on them.

[grapegrl]

Thanks, Vlad!

[ghostie]

...but isn't there another type that is glycerine-based? If so, does the glycerine based (or other than water-based) stuff leave a residue after fogging for a while?

I didn't even know there were two types of fog juice. Vlad, does the glycerine work better? How do you clean the machines to avoid residue when you're finished? I guess haunting is like college...The more you learn, the less you know!

(This post reminds me of the saying,"The more you study, the more you learn. The more you learn the more you know. The more you know the more you forget. The more you forget the less you know, so why study?")

[Vlad]

Fog juice is a mix of Glycerine and water, not sure what else. So to say it's water based or Glycerine based all depends on what they use more of, lol. I've seen fogger boxes where they say water based, but that's probably to make some unknowing Mom feel safer about buying and using it.

[ghostie]

Okey Dokie. Thanks Vlad for your infinite wisdom! By the way... I was at Menard's today and picked up another 400 watt fogger on sale for twenty bucks and the 1 gallon fluid (water based) was only fifteen bucks. The best price I've ever seen...just fyi to all those haunters with a Menards near by.

[meestercranky]

I posted a thread over here http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=3498

about fog fluid but didn't get any replies so I'm following the discussions here... I see the great price on fog fluid in the links from these pages, last year I bout Wil's Vortex fluid. It's so damnged expensive.. does anyone have an opinion how this cheaper stuff compares to the 45 dollar gallon Wil claims we're saving on by having him ship it dry (you add water)??

I sure don't want to find out that the cheap fluid is not as good as what I had. Last year it worked great but... zowie. The price!

[Vlad]

I can't actually say I've compared them. If they're the special low lying fog blends, I can tell you why they "appear" to work better. The low lying blends are designed to dissipate before they rise. To me it's an unnatural concept. There's no such thing as a fog that lays ankle deep on the ground and nowhere else. On a foggy day, it's thicker on the ground, and hazy fog rising above it. $90 for two gallons is mighty steep. We use whatever brands we can find on sale. We just bought some Fitco for $10 a gallon last night at Party City. It works fine.

[ghostie]

10 bucks a gallon? Wow, that's awesome!

[Otaku]

I got the same price on Fitco juice at Raley's (local supermarket). I checked one of the jugs and the fluid is kinda brown in color. Any thoughts on this? I seem to remember someone asking about the brownish fog juice.

Later - I opened the second bottle and I couldn't see the bottom of it even when using a flashlight. I returned them and paid $20 a gallon at Spirit. Caveat emptor...

[Chakara]

I just did an experiment. With a Fitco fogger I ran one "cycle" complete with Froggy Fog Freezin' Juice. I was actually shocked as it left a haze in the air in 3 rooms of the house for over 30 minutes with the forced air furnace running.

Finally aired it all out and tried same test with Fitco Juice. Disappointing. The Fitco clear the area in less than 15 minutes. Barely invaded the additional 2 rooms and well, basically sucked in comparison.

Froggy - $21.99/gal
Fitco - $10/gal if you find the good deals

It doesn't sound like anyone else is seeing this kind of difference, but for me it is worth paying 2x as much...

PS: I went with Froggy due to some other posts on this forum - actually the only brand recommendations I noticed here beyond "cheapest" or Fitco.

[Chakara]

I know you guys don't know me, but I wanted to expand on this a bit. I've only had a fog machine since last year and so it's all new to me.

I do see this. I ran Fitco juice and shoot it into one room. At the most it would last 20-30 minutes. I run Froggy juice and instead of disipating it seems to just spread out. I mean I shoot it into one room and a 1.5 hours later it is slightly hazy all over the house - even WAY away from the fogger. (my house is 2000 sq ft for reference)

Now perhaps that won't translate into yard performance, but I think it will. I figure with either high or low fog, more and longer lasting is better.

All that said, my first attempt at a Axworthy is in the works....more to come.

[Troy]

I know you guys don't know me, but I wanted to expand on this a bit. I've only had a fog machine since last year and so it's all new to me.

I do see this. I ran Fitco juice and shoot it into one room. At the most it would last 20-30 minutes. I run Froggy juice and instead of disipating it seems to just spread out. I mean I shoot it into one room and a 1.5 hours later it is slightly hazy all over the house - even WAY away from the fogger. (my house is 2000 sq ft for reference)

Now perhaps that won't translate into yard performance, but I think it will. I figure with either high or low fog, more and longer lasting is better.

All that said, my first attempt at a Axworthy is in the works....more to come.

I will second this about Froggys frozen fog juice, I used it outside this year and it makes a huge difference, the stuff just lingers, I ran my 700 wt. through a Vortex style chiller and the results were nothing short of amazing (to me anyway), I won't use anything except Froggys!

[Hauntiholik]

I used Froggy's swamp juice this year with chillers. I was really pleased with the results. There was a bit of wind but the fog stayed around!

[Lilly]

Anybody interested in this froggy's juice heres the site..good prices
http://www.froggysfog.com/

[slightlymad]

Thanks Lilly

[Beepem]

so this is a definite great fog juice i should be looking into buying? the swamp or the freezing?