Uh-oh... just when you thought it was safe to go back to the forum... is that the Evil Spawn of the Vortex Manual thread looming up out of the fog...?
That's why I told her it was a loaded question LOL! Many qualified variations in search for the perfect low-lying or at the very least, dense, slow, lingering fog ; )
I think we're on the right track. I like the ideas of freezing different plastic containers and using that inside of a chiller instead of melting ice cubes. I would try those if I get the chance. Why not. I had previously tried frozen water bottles laid cap-to-cap in a 8ft aluminum 3" dia drier duct using a 400W Gemmy fogger. It worked but not nearly as well as the
Fog Expanding Vortex-inspired Igloo Cube or the Ghosts of Halloween Trash Can IMHO. But like I said your mileage may vary.
I happened to want to play around with the Igloo Cube once I discovered it in the store off-season last year because the overall shape reminded me of the
Vortex Fusion shown here. Yes it took time, money and materials and figuring and refiguring testing and experimenting endlessly and sometimes needlessly but it was fun to do. There's nothing wrong with trying to perfect a $20 chiller either. I'm fascinated with how many variations people come up with. But the ones I listed on the first page are proven to work either thru video, photos, more than one person reporting success, logic or the honor system of reporting how well each one worked. Of course people live in different areas of the country and the weather and ambient temperature and wind or no wind, outdoors or covered porch, etc are all variables to consider.
So now we have some new ideas here on what to chill the fog with besides ice cubes on this thread. And that's a good thing especially since Turtle mentioned she wanted to try the frozen water bottles up front. The Vortex Manual thread primarily addresses the physics, reverse-engineering, and physical structure of the chillers and attachments and modifications in depth.
That's why I say the Vortex Manual thread went so long because a lot of DIY haunters were experimenting. And for that matter I forgot to mention if you try the Igloo Ice Cube ("cube" meaning the relative shape of the cooler and also a marketing play on words) then you have the option of trying a 1/3 fog expansion chamber at the bottom with a 2/3 ice tray area while filling the ice layer no higher than approx. 1" from the closed lid -OR- you could reverse that proportion and use a 2/3 fog expansion chamber at the bottom and 1/3 ice tray area at the top to within no more than 1" of the closed lid. I found it depends on the fogger as well. A low wattage 400W fogger has a hard time getting thru a thicker level of ice (or bottles I suppose).
I do think a higher wattage fogger gives you more of a chance for fog not to dissipate because I've seen a major league amusement park use over (100 ct) 1400W and a few 4400W LeMaitre stage quality foggers and probably top notch fog juice (NOT chilled though) fill up entire midways during their Halloween events by windy Lake Erie. I'm stuck financially with the 400W foggers for now but will eventually step up to a 700W, 1000W, 1200W or maybe VEI 1300W constant foggers one of these days and maybe a little
Froggy's Fog Juice. I think I'd use a larger chiller and more ice based on reports from other haunters.
Here's another example of the
"$20" chiller filled with ice cubes. They have a video at the bottom of their Village Haunt page. It works indoors but doesn't cover any serious kind of area. But it depends on the intent.
