# Haze Issues



## icewolf08 (May 11, 2007)

I have an MDG Atmosphere that is being really finicky. This is supposed to be one of the best hazers that is available, but ours has never been reliable. We are now two weeks into a 12-14 week run of Les Miserables and I can't get consistent output from it from night to night. I have taken it to be serviced, and it worked great for two performances and then we were back to not so great performance.

It really has me miffed. I have checked all the settings, and we haven't changed anything from the nights it worked to now. I suppose I should mention that this particular machine has a serial number under 10, I think it might even be under 5.

Tonight was the worst yet, had the regulator freeze up, which is a symptom of liquid CO2 getting drawn from the tank. This is not I good thing, may mean my tank has gone bad. But we have two tanks, and even with the other tanks we still have the same output issues. I was hoping someone might have some input. Other than that, I am trying to convince the theatre we should just get a new machine. We have been having these issues all season, and it seems to be getting progressively worse even after professional service.


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## Footer (May 11, 2007)

Time to invest in a DF 50 in my book. Make a post on lightnetwork if you have not already. Have you ran water through the system to flush it out recently? Sounds like to me its getting clogged up. Run some distilled water though it then see what it does.


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## icewolf08 (May 11, 2007)

Footer4321 said:


> Time to invest in a DF 50 in my book. Make a post on lightnetwork if you have not already. Have you ran water through the system to flush it out recently? Sounds like to me its getting clogged up. Run some distilled water though it then see what it does.



I will try cleaning it, though I did just pay to have that done... I would never trade the MDG for the DF-50, there is no comparison in Glycol based haze in my opinion. The MDG really kicks butt when it works right, and my experience with DF-50's has not left me as amazed as I am with the MDG.


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## SHARYNF (May 11, 2007)

Are sure you have the right tank in the right position? You are correct, afaik the symptom is that you are drawing liquid into the regulator, usually they came with a small tank for horiz and the regulator must be vertical from the tank all of this needs to be in reference to the ACTUAL position relative to the floor. I have seen where the unit is fine but it is placed on an angle allowing for liquid co2 to get into the regulator. If you are using a different tank, again make sure it is vertical and that again the regulator cannot get any liquid in it. Sometimes people get a liquid draw off tank and use this by mistake, it typically has a stripe down the side, or reference to tube. THESE CANNOT BE USED.

Hope this helps

Sharyn


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## cue1go (Jun 19, 2007)

The MDG is by far my favorite hazer on the market. Have it serviced by a qualified tech. Any piece of equipment, especially one where there are moving parts, is going to break down eventually. It probably needs a good cleaning.


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## tomed101 (Jun 19, 2007)

Is there much of a difference between hazers/foggers/particle misters?
I mentioned in another thread that we were having problems with the fogger triggering the fire alarm and have since been recommended to use a particle mister because apparently they don't use heat and therefor won't trigger the style of smoke detectors that we have installed. 

I am having some trouble finding any straight froward info on the topic. Any info is appreciated


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## drawstuf99 (Jun 19, 2007)

As for the type of fog juice/fluid/w/e I'm not as knowledgable TBH. But, a fogger is different than a hazer in the fact that a fogger produces just clouds of fog while a hazer is more of a thin, almost transparent, well, haze, which isn't in large clouds...used for seeing beams of light in concerts..etc.


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## stantonsound (Jun 19, 2007)

I use Froggy's for my fog and haze juice. (http://www.froggysfog.com/). It has worked very well for me. I have found it to leave less residue, less clean up of the machines, and fewer clogs. 

Fog is just that, large billows of white fog. Haze is a small particulate mist style of effect where the particles seem to hang in the air. 

The last time I had my hazer serviced, they took it apart and cleaned it. I got it back and tested it, and it put out really weak haze. I checked it, cleaned it, etc.... After about 4 hours, I realized that the blower fan was turning the wrong way. They had evidently taken the fan out, and put it back in upside down. It was sucking air in, rather than blowing it out.


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## icewolf08 (Jun 19, 2007)

cue1go said:


> The MDG is by far my favorite hazer on the market. Have it serviced by a qualified tech. Any piece of equipment, especially one where there are moving parts, is going to break down eventually. It probably needs a good cleaning.



If you read my post you would already know that I had sent the machine out to be serviced. I agree that it is a great machine, but given all of the issues we have had with it over the season we decided that we would demo some other units, we couldn't go wrong as so far we didn't have enough haze for what we wanted. Turns out, the machine that impressed us the most was the Unique2 from Look Solutions. It has produced a consistent, even, good looking haze every night (except when people leave the loading dock door open and the haze gets sucked stage left). The hang time is not quite as long as the MDG, but it still is great. We also can run it longer and still be within AEA guidelines (compared to the MDG)

Look Solutions offers free demos of their equipment (at least in the US), all you have to do is fill out the form on their website.


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