Hazers

Hi Fellow PL'ers

I'm looking for a hazer for use at home and at Wedding / Social type venues and have been looking at the likes of the QTX HZ-3 and other similar units.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/QTX-HZ-3-7...item4623d855c9
Can anyone give me an opinion on this and other similar units in the £200-250 price range.
I know there are far better hazers out there but as this is going to see only occasional use I can't justify spending much more. Most of the show's I do on a regular basis have the likes of the Look Unique at work provided by the lighting Co.

Carl

Carl, as an owner of 1x FX1000, 1x HZ2 and 2x HZ3's, I was (until this year) very happy with them.
This year, i lost the FX1000, HZ2 and half an HZ3 (some functions stopped)

That wouldn't be a problem in itself, however, AVSL who distribute the things simply don't supply spares anymore, so unless it's one of the commonly available pumps that has gone wrong, you're a bit screwed.

I worked out that I have hazers to the value of a Smoke Factory Tour Hazer here broken, and as an owner of 1 Tour Hazer already, I'll be buying a second one for next season, if not sooner.

If you consider it disposable then its an ok buy i suppose. see if you can get a reconditioned one cheap on ebay or something, it'll hurt less when it inevitably becomes junk.

Ok, make that an HZ3 completely dead.... *sigh*

Cheers for the insight Norty.
Out of curiosity how many hours do you think the HZ3 did before failing on you and if I decided to buy one how long would a tank of fluid last?

I can heartily recommend the tour hazer!
I have 2 and they work hard for their money.
One had some problems after two or three years of use but it was easily fixed and SmokeFactory are reasonably quick at getting spares to me...

Fluid use is pretty economic and the fact it's built into a handy flightcase and doesn't mind being tipped is a great bonus.
It may be more than u need, but for the money I doubt you'll be disappointed! :-)

I think this HZ3 was about 1 or 2 years old but only had about 30 or 40 hours use.
I could do a tank of fluid on an all night gig. I use Thomann's HD fluid and I've found that although my Tour Hazer fluid costs about 4 times the HD fluid, it uses it about 4 times slower.

The other less obvious side effect of using a decent water based hazer is that the haze is much 'dryer', and produces much less residue on kit than the cheaper ones

Oh yeah, you'll always get your money back on a tour hazer. They just don't come up second hand much because people hang onto them.

The Unique is pretty good as well, although once you add a flight case (Thomann - @£130), it adds up to an amount not far off a Tour in price (about £60 cheaper).

I used the Smoke factory tour hazer 2.
Super reliable for a LONG time now and very efficient.
Has space for a 5 liter tank and is build into it's flight case for convenient traveling :)

Cheers guys.
Some options to think about.:)

Looking through the thomann site found this http://www.thomann.de/gb/stairville_..._hazer_dmx.htm
Anyone come across this unit?

Nope, but the bonus of buying from Thomann is their 3 year warranty.

As you say Norty the 3 year warranty is a bonus.

When they state fluid consumption is this with the hazer at full tilt, 50% or min output?
The hz-600 quotes 4.8ml/min giving around 4 hours from the 1.2l tank. not to bad if I can get an average night out of a tank full.

In all honesty Carl, and no offence to Norty when I say this, I bought a Stairville Smoke unit after finding out he'd got one and found the build quality to be really poor. It didn't work properly and it was generally poorly built in my opinion - it looked like some cheap Chinese unit - the remote was dreadful and the buttons didn't work properly. Despite promises of continuous smoke, it also had a reheat time. so I sent it back as faulty and bought a Martin machine which was superb.

I've been where you've are as I don't have money to throw around, but can honestly say you get what you pay for.

My advice would be pick up a Unique or a Tour Hazer as buying cheap now will most likely leave you disappointed and having to spend more later, plus the better quality machines save a fortune in liquids as they only sip it.

I've had my Unique about 2 years and although it's only been used admittedly 1/2 a dozen times, I've only used about an inch of liquid in all that time! The original bottle is almost full!

Also, think about resale value (if it is resellable and not just junk once it's broken)
You will sell a Tour Hazer easily and recoup at least 50% of the purchase value (I'll have it!)

On fluid consumption, the Tour Hazers are really amazing. I've did about 5 festivals/long weekend/all nighters in May/June this year on one gallon of fluid. I did another festival in July, 3 nights outdoors until 6am, running at about 60% all night, and used about 1/3rd of a bottle.

I've been looking at purchasing a Hazer but some of these guys don't help themselves.
I saw one advertised as using 1.4 ml of fluid at 40%.
Would that be 1.4 ml per hour?
Per Month?
Per Year?

It's not rocket science but these numpties fail at basic English. :rolleyes:

Perhaps JEM can remind us which one he has as it always seems to do Da Bizzness at the Surfleet LEM's.

Jem has/had a Look Unique I believe, like Al's. They are essentially the same inside as the Tour Hazers and the Haze Base Base Hazers (same as Tour Hazer but with control panel on rear), but don't come in such a 'tour friendly' packaging. You can even use Look/Smoke Factory/Haze Base haze fluids interchangably.

Which one you pick is largely down to what 'package' you want. I've used all 3 and they all do the same job.

Cheers Norty & whitelight.

Thinking of holding out to buy the Unique II. I got to see how well Jem's ran at the Show LEM's and the price of £591 from Thomann's has got me thinking of breaking the bank at that price.

Mine *was* a Unique 2. I sold it.

If I was to buy another hazer I'd buy the 'Phantom Pea Souper' hands down. It's the most perfect haze I've ever seen. Hang time is absolutely phenomenal and it's pretty much odourless. Also, there is no residue whatsoever.

They're a bit expensive compared to such as the Unique, but fluid usage is virtually non existent. The only possible issue is CO2 usage and having to get cylinders refilled.

Karl (Wookieboy) has been using his at the recent LEM's and I can't fault it :).

On the basis of Carl's intended usage, I ruled out mentioning the MDG/Pea Souper option. Hammer to crack a nut situation.
Out of the affordable and worthwhile owning hazers, i think the Look/SF/HB options are the winners.

Carl, think about if you're going to want to transport the hazer much. The 'all in one' nature of the Tour Hazer/Base Hazer really wins over the Unique in that respect, and you'll likely pay as much for a flightcase eventually anyway.

Also, of the 3, I've heard of more issues with the Look, but thats trivial anyway, as parts are easily available for all.

- - - Updated - - -

P.S. Jem, i seem to recall you got pretty good money for it too didn't you? i.e. total cost of ownership over its lifespan quite low?

I had a good number of enquiries when I came to put it up for sale. I ended up selling it to Mark (MarkMtts) as he was local and familiar with my unit. I was quite happy with the money I received for it.

I have to confess to not reading the entire content of this thread, I wasn't aware there was a particular budget, sorry Carl.

However, I'd still opt for the Phantom :D

I've been intending selling mine Carl, but unfortunately can't do it atm for various reasons.

It's a pity as mine is practically new as it's had 1/2 a dozen uses (literally) and my average us is less than an hour in a small house room!

If you were willing to wait a short while, then that may change.

They do hold their value well though. I believe from memory Jem got very close to the new price.

Mine does have a flight case and can be operated from within the case.

I'm in no big rush at the moment White-light but I will need something for a birthday party of a family friend in mid October.
It's for unpaid gigs like this as well I need a hazer for as well as home but I'm now thinking if paying events need to hire a hazer from me then that could be possible for an extra fee. And that doe's justify spending the extra.

How much would you be looking for as the Unique 2.1 are selling for £591.98 on Thomann's admittedly without a case though.

I'll PM you Carl.

If you are waiting for the right deal to come up, you can always hire something decent locally for one off events...the hire price from us for a "real" haze machine is £25 a night ( not a offer, we are the other end of the country - but gives you an idea on cost)