Equinox Arcus 2000 Low Fogger

[Imagine]

Before I plan a road-trip across the Norfolk wilderness to my kit supplier, has anyone seen one of these things in action other than the YouTube videos?

I keep being asked for dry ice, but don't want the faff of handling the stuff and don't actually know anyone other than direct competitors that offer it.

The big question is, does mixing the supposedly minimal amount of fluid with jiggling distilled water atoms really stop the smoke from rising and potentially upsetting venues when their fire alarms go off?

[ppentertainments]

The big question is, does mixing the supposedly minimal amount of fluid with jiggling distilled water atoms really stop the smoke from rising and potentially upsetting venues when their fire alarms go off?
NO !!

Not being cheeky here, but it depends on the quality of service you provide. These machines do an 'ok' job and know of a lot of DJs buying them and comparing to dry ice machines, but they are nothing like a dry ice machine. The tricks will help keep the smoke low for longer, but still has to rise to disperse.

Me personally, I won't touch one, dry ice is too much of a faff, and when I get asked I just advise them to ask about as most are 'pretend' machines.

[DJ Jules]

The short answer is "it depends". They'll put out a cloud of fog that will stay low for a short while and then disperse. If the fog is cold and the room is warm then it'll stay lower than if the air temperature is cool, but the fog will warm up and rise faster. If the room is sealed, the rising fog will do what normal fog does and disperse and it can make a room really foggy, really quickly. If the room is well vented, then it'll disperse and disappear. I photographed a local am-dram production a few weeks ago where they used a low fogger for effect in a scene with some witches and it looked great on the stage, but you couldn't see 6 inches in front of you when the lights came back up in the room!

Dry ice, on the other hand, will stay low regardless of air temp because it starts off so cold in the first place. When it warms it becomes part of the atmosphere so you don't get the same issues with the room fogging up.

Convincing clients that a £25 smoke machine off Amazon won't give the same effect as dry ice is the tricky bit...

Julian

[Imagine]

NO !!

Not being cheeky here, but it depends on the quality of service you provide. These machines do an 'ok' job and know of a lot of DJs buying them and comparing to dry ice machines, but they are nothing like a dry ice machine. The tricks will help keep the smoke low for longer, but still has to rise to disperse.




Dry ice, on the other hand, will stay low regardless of air temp because it starts off so cold in the first place. When it warms it becomes part of the atmosphere so you don't get the same issues with the room fogging up.

Convincing clients that a £25 smoke machine off Amazon won't give the same effect as dry ice is the tricky bit...

Julian

Sort of the responses I was expecting but....

This isn't a "standard" low-fogger that uses ice to cool the fog (been there, seen it, got one sitting in the storage unit), which is why I asked if anyone's seen on in the wild.

This one works by heating water first then passing it over an atomiser before mixing in a small amount of fog fluid. Didn't know if it made a difference or not. For the price (£800) - one would hope it's a better technology than the ice-cube jobs.

[DJ Jules]

Sort of the responses I was expecting but....

This isn't a "standard" low-fogger that uses ice to cool the fog (been there, seen it, got one sitting in the storage unit), which is why I asked if anyone's seen on in the wild.

This one works by heating water first then passing it over an atomiser before mixing in a small amount of fog fluid. Didn't know if it made a difference or not. For the price (£800) - one would hope it's a better technology than the ice-cube jobs.

I'm not 100% sure of the technology used by the one I've seen in the wild so I can't comment specifically. Probably best to test it in anger in the show room. If you can't still see your feet once it's been in use for 10mins it's probably no better than the rest...

Julian

[Imagine]

OK, so I didn't go with the Equinox. Instead I paid a quarter of the price for the QTX version (the Stratus 1200) to see what it did without investing too much money.

I'm actually impressed with the results from testing it in a venue on Friday night!

I was expecting something similar to the ADJ Mr Cool thing where you used to load a hopper with ice cubes to cool the smoke. This is something completely different.

The tech in the QTX is the same as its much dearer competitor in that it somehow "jiggles" the water molecules and mixes them with heated smoke fluid to create a fake dry ice effect. Because it's smoke based, yes it will of course eventually rise so is a no-go in smoke free venues but I have a couple of regular haunts that welcome smoke and this one works an absolute treat!

19151

This photo was taken just as it started to produce the fog (I had to get back behind the booth to release confetti before it reached full effect).

The only negative so far? I placed it on the edge of the dance floor and some pillock managed to crash into it and open up the water release valve which caused a bit of a flood (lesson learned for next time I'm there in a couple of weeks). Other than that, I LOVE this one and it's going to be used a LOT as a freebie to "seal the deal"

[SimonJeez53]

The QTX Stratus 1200 seems to be a great alternative to the Equinox Arcus 2000, and the "jiggling" water molecule tech is quite interesting. The photo you shared looks impressive