Problems with our Smoke machines

[Oliver S]

Hi

 

Just before I beginn I would like to introduce myself:

 

I am a student at a school in south africa and am a member of the schools sound & lighting crew and am mainly responsible for the lighting. We do all the techical requirements for all school functions, fashion shows, v-ball, matric ball, festivals, and all other various theatre productions that happen during the year.

 

The problem we are having is this:

 

We have two smoke machines similar to the following Linky , the problem is that I can only show you that pick of what they similarily look like as they were bought by the previous tech's of the school and we don't know what kind they are.

 

To understand the problem I will shortly explain how ours work:

 

You have a standard three pin plug to plug into the wall socket which leads to the machine and gets incerted via a kettle cable and then there is another kettle cable port where you connect the remote.

Now wenn plugged in , on the remote a light is brightly lit. And then it means that it is heating up. When the light dimms , then you know that it is ready and you can push the button and smoke comes out...

 

Now the thing is that for the Ball we needed constant smoke, so we taped the button down so that it would stay in the " give smoke" "position" and everytime once it had let out smoke and then reheated it would smoke again.

 

So we had to go and told someone to pack away the smoke machine wenn it was out of liquid. So we get back to school the next day and find out that the person had left the smoke machine on. and it was trying to smoke but the liquid had run out ....and we assume that it was still trying to heat but had no liquid.

 

Problem was that now it does not work anymore as we assumed the person had fried the machine. Wenn we plugged it in the light never went to the "ready position" even though it had 5 times the normal time it takes to heat up.

 

So we opened it up and had a look inside and there were no burnt wires or anyhting popped, the fuse was also fine and insulation was also okay.

 

So one of the previous tech's was there had a look at it and thought it might be the thermostat that the cables run through. So we go out and buy a new thermostat and replace it but it still does not work.

 

So we take out the new thermstat and replace it with the one out of our other still working smoke machine and it still does not work.

 

So we take out the thermostat and put it into our other one again...

 

but now we have the problem that we don't know what at all is going on..

 

so any help is well appretiated !! Thanks alot

 

Oliver

[GridGirl]

Rather than the thermostat, I'd suspect the heater block has been fried. If that's the case, it's probably cheaper to replace the whole smoke machine than the heater block. I know nothing about repair companies in South Africa, but hopefully you have a friendly lighting company not too far from you - get them to check it out for you. And in future, hire a haze machine rather than tape the smoke switch down!

[Wuddy]

These cheap smoke machines are not meant for continuous running, otherwise they would have a SWITCH not a BUTTON

 

As the machine is not heating up it would point to three possible faults, 1. thermostat faulty, which you have replaced and still not working. or 2. Upper limit thermostat, tripped. 3. heating element burnt out.

 

Also if it has been run without fluid the pump may also be ruined, the pumps are usually lubricated by the fluid flowing through them, NO fluid, NO lubrication.

 

For what these things cost probably be most cost effective to dump it and buy a new one and NOT run it continuousy!

[Oliver S]

Thanks for all the help.... I will look into things.

 

@ the taping down of the switch instead of using a hazar

Well all I can say here is our school does get stingy at times and we are the ones who sit with the problem.....so we come up with our own DIY way....but we will try and do better!

 

Thanks

[niclights]

I can only agree. You should never do this & now you see why!

[Oliver S]

I can only agree. You should never do this & now you see why!

 

You see as I said before our school gets stingy and so we have to make a plan, and this one has worked before , it was just because we left it on.

 

but thanks

[CPlater1]

I know its been and gone, but in future, don't ask someone to do the job, do it yourself! This is a way of making sure things actually get done.

[KevinE]

It might be worth checking the safety stat, this is sometimes just a thermal fuse and is usually somewhere on or in the heater block. It opens (permanently) if the main stat fails, but can sometimes fail anyhow in heavy use. Its often hidden inside a glassfibre sleeve.

[niclights]

I can only agree. You should never do this & now you see why!

 

You see as I said before our school gets stingy and so we have to make a plan, and this one has worked before , it was just because we left it on.

 

but thanks

 

 

I understand the problem, but in the future I wouldn't do this. It will quickly cause blockage in heater and may potentially be dangerous (I've seen melted holes in steeldeck floor before). If unit has a timer, try and set for small short bursts with short intervals. If not, get someone to diligently press the button every few seconds for the duration. Some might actually get pleasure from this. Use fan to aid effectiveness and distribution if you weren't already. :o

[Don Allen]

Do the sums on buying 2 cheap smoke machines so you can alternate them, that way they work within their duty cycle limitations. Use a fan to disperse or thin out the smoke so it has a wider effect, to simulate haze.

 

Do you have an electronics teacher at your school that can make up a timer controller to switch the smoke machines on and off. The remote socket is an IEC socket as it has mains voltages in it so use mains standard wiring and design your timer to handle mains voltages.

 

Supervision is important with any lighting equipment including effects as you have learnt. Make sure all of your cables and leads are clearly marked and well laid out so your assistants do not make any mistakes and use checklists to help ensure everything is switched off after shows.

[Oliver S]

Thanks for everyone's help and advice!!

 

I will see about a timer and take everything els mentioned into consideration!!! :huh:

 

Thanks alot :wacko:

 

Oliver