Looking for low-cost hazer for home use

[drm916]

Thanks. I found a slightly used Chauvet 2D hazer (with juice) for sale locally for $200 I might pick up (They're $300 new without the juice, so I think that's a good deal and the right size). It's just been an expensive month with the two lasers, BEYOND, APC40 and other associated doodads.

If the hazer Brad has is the one I'm thinking about, it was way too big for my living room! Brad did show me two fazers he had for sale, but I think the fog from them would irritate my g/f's minor case of asthma.

I have a few of the 2ds. I like them. Work great. I put froggy beamsplitter in them. Work great, are inexpensive and easily replaced at a guitarcenter if you need one.

[norty303]

A cautionary tale.
I USED to sing the praises of the Chauvet/QTX/KAM hazers in their various guises (FX1000/HZ1000/HZ2/2D/HZ3/etc) but this year I have had almost all of mine fail in some respect.

So, the list of dead units is:
QTX FX1000
QTX HZ2
Chauvet Hurricane 2D
QTX HZ3

Of those models, I now have a solitary QTX HZ3 remaining working.

All have suffered from issues with stopping hazing, either just spitting raw fluid, not flowing fluid through the block, or switching themselves off. AVSL the main distributor here for QTX can't supply parts for them.

For home use, buy a cheap fogger/fazer, but I would steer clear of one of the above models (or any of the rebranded variants)



Smoke Factory hazers and foggers only for me now, but I'm earning money with them, so can afford to justify them. That said, the money spent on the pile of junk would've bought me 1.5 Tour Hazers, or 2x CaptainD foggers!

[HankLloydRight]

What do you guys think of the haze in a can?

Like this? http://www.premier-lighting.com/shop/page131.html#4133

I could buy 20 cans of this for the price of the used hazer I'm looking at. I don't think I'd ever use 20 cans of haze spray. They claim:

• Each 30-second spray lasts about 30 minutes.
• Fill a dance floor room up to 15 times with one can.

[norty303]

Buy a can and see how it works for you

[Stuka]

What do you guys think of the haze in a can?

Like this? http://www.premier-lighting.com/shop/page131.html#4133

I could buy 20 cans of this for the price of the used hazer I'm looking at. I don't think I'd ever use 20 cans of haze spray. They claim:

• Each 30-second spray lasts about 30 minutes.
• Fill a dance floor room up to 15 times with one can.

I have some of that -
I think those claims rely on a totally enclosed room, no ventilation.

It works great as a quick filler or to test optics alignment, but you would probably get tired of pushing a spray button multiple times during the course of a show.
One or two cans could come in handy, but I wouldn't want to depend entirely on that stuff for an actual show, even in a "home" venue.

BTW -
Is is possible to easily over-do the use of the canned "fog", probably because you're generally holding it up higher in the air to fog, versus using a floor-based fog unit.
It is DEFINITELY possible to set off household fire alarms using the canned stuff...
My wife can attest to that little tidbit!

[steviobee]

Maybe check out the Hazers on Thomman.de (Germany) - they are very well priced, they ship around the world (I live in Australia) and the product is fine for home use. I'm not sure of 110v versions though?

[White-Light]

What do you guys think of the haze in a can?

DON'T!!!

I've used it.

It was quite poor in defining the lighting due to poor hang and there was as a result a necessity to use a lot - I used a full can in 1 x 1/2 hour session in a 10 x 10 foot room.

The BIG kicker though was the fact that after using it, every single surface was covered in a thin film of slippery greasy oil. I then had to spend the next few hours, washing down every single hard surface in the room with a washing up liquid solution and then drying them. All soft furnishings eg in this case bedding, had to be washed in the washing machine.

The can I used was obviously a food grade oil that was aerialised by the aerosol, but was poorly atomised (in my opinion), and came out as larger particles that simply settled out very quickly.

If you want to oil a room, go for it. If you don't, the stuff is best left in your local shop!

So far as hazers are concerned, there are no cheap solutions that appear reliable. As Norty observed, you get what you pay for. Think Unique / Smoke Factory at the water based level. If you want to go oil based haze, think Pea Soup Phantom, MDG Atmosphere etc. The latter units are well beyond your usage to price ratio.

For cheap but reliable fog, I'd recommend a Martin / Jem unit. Hard to beat for the money and very tough and reliable, but fog does dry the throat (so does water based haze a little but it's lighter so less effect).

If it was my money, I'd be buying a Unique or Tour Hazer in the haze category or a Martin / Jem in the fog.

The really cheap unbranded fog machines out there do the job, but many people report poor lifetimes. Martin / Jem are made for club use so last if looked after.

BTW for outdoor use you restrict yourself further on the fog as you ideally need a TRUE continuous output. ie no reheat. Very few foggers do this and not at the cheap end of the model ranges. Beware cheap ones from lesser brands that claim they do without verifying it 1st as I bought one that claimed continuous fogging, and it simply ran out of steam after about 2 mins and needed a long reheat before re-fogging. Outside that can mean a loss of beam visibility depending on the air movement. In a still air in my back garden, I found that unit hopeless so sent it back!

[norty303]

If it was my money, I'd be buying a Unique or Tour Hazer in the haze category or a Martin / Jem in the fog.

Actually, the Smoke Factory/Look Solution foggers are looking pretty flippin' fantastic too, Captain D/Viper NT for serious work, or the smaller 650W units (Spaceball II iirc) look just fantastic and you know they'll run forever and you'll be able to get parts.

[buffo]

I'll repeat my initial recommendation: The Hazer that Brad has is ideal. Yes, it appears to be a large unit, but it won't smoke you out. And in a living room area you could probably turn it on for 4 minutes and then shut it off and be good for an hour or so. A fog machine would take 7-10 minutes just to heat up, and then you'd be pulsing it several times during the show to keep the fog up.

The other nice thing about Brad's unit is that it positively sips fluid. A gallon jug will probably last you 10 years or more. Plus the price is right.

Truthfully, I came very close to buying it myself. I only let it go because I really need something larger (like a DF-50), but here was a chance to get a true hazer for more than 50% off retail. Sadly, it looks like I'll need to spend a couple grand to get what I need. (Fuck) But for home or small club use, that thing is perfect.

Adam

[norty303]

Yes, I'll clarify I think. For home use, I'd say buy the cheapest thing you can, small fogger or whatever. Unless you live in a serious building, anything else will be overkill. A decent quality fluid will count for more in those scenarios than the unit itself. I'm in no way advocating a Look/SF unit for this guy

In fact fluid counts for a lot in most machines, either the recommended one (in the case of units like Unique/Tour Hazers) or a good high quality fog fluid (Thomann/Stairville HD or something like Swamp juice) in the US

Don't buy the budget fluids. I had an HZ2 hazer supplied with a 'free' supposedly high quality/density 5L fluid, and it wasn't a patch on the Stairville HD fluid I normally use.