# Mixing Fog Juices



## DRU (Nov 27, 2017)

I was pulling our fog machines out of storage today, and I noticed that the previous TD had bought multiple different types of fog juice: Director's Choice, Chauvet, Rosco, and some other off-brands, all either brand new or half used. I have (4) Chauvet DJ foggers that need to be used in an upcoming show, and I have a lot of Director's Choice fog juice. Two questions:

A) I know Chauvet says you have to use their juice in their foggers, but how much of that is trying to get you to buy their product? Can I put Director's Choice into these foggers and not have a problem?

B) Can I mix all the random half-used fog juices together from different brands in a bigger container and use them in the machine without issue? I don't want to waste juice, and I will eventually I will streamline what fog juice we buy, but I don't want to ruin the machines. Are all glycol fog juices close enough in formula to work together?


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## tdtastic (Nov 27, 2017)

Not to knock your foggers, but If you're talking about four of the cheaper dj models, I'd say mix your juices and don't worry about it. Technically you should always use the liquid recommended by the machines' manufacturer. Yes, they want you to buy their stuff, but more importantly the different juice formulas have been designed for a specific machine's size, temperature, and heat exchanger capacity. The glycerin-to-water ratio is also adjusted to create different qualities of smoke effect when used with certain machines. The ultratech and rosco brands are made for more powerful machines. You'll definitely get smoke out of your smaller machines, but don't be surprised if the smoke doesn't shoot out as you expect -- it will probably be seem a little slow. The heavier fluids are going to gunk up your machines in the short term but you can always try to flush them out later.

If you've spent more than $500-$1,000 on your machine, I'd say absolutely not. never mix. If these are cheap machines and this is just for a week or so I think you'd be ok. Just make sure that the fluids you mix are indeed ALL water-based. And make sure that none are 'haze fluids' - that's a horse of a different color.


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## Amiers (Nov 27, 2017)

The simple answer is no don’t mix. It will break the machine. 

That being said you can test it out on one machine and see what the results are. If you see it not producing well time to bust out the elbow grease and vinegar and get to Cleaning.

You could take it a step further and get the MSDS of all the juice and compare the ingredients. It really comes down to how much of your time is worth that half bottle of juice.


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## alich (Dec 14, 2017)

Do you have any members of Equity in your show? 
If so I would advise against doing this. You'd be setting yourself up for a couple of nasty emails.


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## Blacksheep0317 (Jan 3, 2018)

I generally try to keep machines empty and clean for storage.

Granted the Radience hazers are fickle like monsters sometimes, but they certainly taught me how to not make a mess of everything all the time....

Anytime I am putting a hazer or a fogger away without an expected use date, I put it in storage mode. The big thing is that I got sick of someone always tipping the case that said NO TIP and filling a case with fluid, or coming back 3 months later to a heater core that has had the last of the water evaporate and is all gummed up beyond repair by glycol.

Remove jug (empty tank)
Allow unit to completely discharge anything left in the lines and heater core
Let cool, store.

And since none of those many jugs were cleaner, clean it out! Either buy a jug of cleaner if your not into DIY, or vinegar works well. A clean machine is a happy machine. A dirty machine is a paper weight.


Edit: I didn't answer the question what so ever, because the last two nailed it. This is more of a 'little steps to a better life' thing.


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