OK, got my ICE-101 on December 4th, fired it up for the first time with a bag of ice in there on December 5th. I still need to learn some of the nuances of this machine. Let's say that I'm pleased with my purchase.
1: DAMN that pump is loud. The pump to get rid of the melted ice. I take it I should pump out at the end of the night only. Obviously, if the unit can hold 20 pounds of ice, it can hold 20 pounds of ice water. No reason to hook up the drainage tubing until the show is over.
2: Ice: Should I remove the purchased ice from the bags or is it OK to leave it in the bags? I'm trying to save on clean-up time and mess afterwards as the environment is pressed for time. They don't seem to grasp the concept of "it takes a fair amount of time to pack and load out a full concert sound system".
3: Can I use ice packs? This would be great time saver. Since the ICE-101 would not be a daily operation machine, re-freesing these packs would be a nice way to avoid mess and save clean-up time.
I am wondering if it is necessary for the heated fog juice to interact with the water directly in order to work properly, or of it merely needs to be cooled. I can see ice cubes providing the most surface area and hence probably the most effective and efficient way to chill the fog. Then again, I could simply buy 2 blocks of solid ice and drop one on each side and that could handle it too.
Any suggestions for getting the fog output to spread sideways easier? Straight is great, but with the 18-foot stage and this right on the stage, it doesn't spread out too well. I'm probably going to move the fogger from stage center to angled off from a back corner to encourage spread.
The HZ-300 is nice too. The noise it makes when outputting haze is noticable but not when there is stuff going on, which is constant. Definately a set it and leave it sort of thing. I like what it's doing.
I'll stick with bags of ice cubes until further notice and advisement. This machine goes into production Friday for final tech rehearsals and then show on Saturday.
My next goal: a real fogger(I'm open to suggetions, just must have DMX and good output but as low on the current draw as I can get away with) and I'm debating that fazer now too. That and cases for these high-ticket items.
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