Smoke Fluid

[SoLiEn]

... and saw Lemon, strawberry and mint smoke fluids. referring to the colour and the smell. has anyone used any of these non standard fluids before, and if so, how effective are they?

 

Dan

[Andrew C]

BARF!! The only ones I have ever smelt were quite revolting. They may have improved (but I doubt it).

[Ynot]

To be honest, I've always felt the smelly fog juices to be a bit of a gimmick, and not one I've ever been tempted to try.

 

:)

[ImagineerTom]

They're essential in serious theatre applications.

 

....as we all know as soon as you spark up a smoke machine people start coughing (purely psycological) and complaining about the smoke. Use a scented smoke though and you'll dramatically reduce the number of coughers.

[MarkPAman]

I'm with Andrew on this. Nasty stuff. If you want to have a smell, there must be better ways.

[J Pearce]

Every machine I've seen them used in has died much earlier than it should have.

I can't guarantee a link, but the evidence is there.

[smalljoshua]

They're essential in serious theatre applications.

 

....as we all know as soon as you spark up a smoke machine people start coughing (purely psycological) and complaining about the smoke. Use a scented smoke though and you'll dramatically reduce the number of coughers.

This is very true.

 

Working on a Panto a couple of weeks ago, smoke for the genie (couldn't afford pyro) the immediate reaction to this was a loud fit of coughing from all the twirlies. The next day I put some Maplins Strawberry Cent into the fluid and the coughing stopped and people were starting to ask "what air freshener is that?"

 

This is Am-Dram I'm talking about though so I may be totaly wrong.

 

Josh

[Ynot]

They're essential in serious theatre applications.

 

....as we all know as soon as you spark up a smoke machine people start coughing (purely psycological) and complaining about the smoke. Use a scented smoke though and you'll dramatically reduce the number of coughers.

Actually, I'll disagree with you there.

In my 30 years experience, it's usually the APPEARANCE of smoke - ie the visibility of those 'nasty' particles that starts many people coughing! It's most noticeable when you squirt some smoke on stage in a blackout with NO reaction from the punters. Bring up the next LX cue and cough/splutter/hack is all you hear!! :)

 

To be honest, the 'normal' smell of stage smoke is not actually something I'd say would be conducive to causing psycho-coughs, as it doesn't smell, well, smoky!

[Ike]

Defiantly with Andrew on this one, at best they're a bit sickly and at worst they're absolutely foul.

 

There are also a few rumors about some people having allergic reactions to some of the scents, while only rumors I do think they should given some credence unless anyone can prove otherwise.

[smalljoshua]

I guess we were just unlucky when we hired our fogger the fog smelt absolutely rancid. That was what was causing the coughing. at one point we thought we sould smell a fire in the flys but it was the smell of the fog!

 

Seriously though the Maplins stuff I have smells nice, It just needs to be a bit more concentrated than is says on the label

 

Josh

 

P.S Please don't anyone comment on higher concentrations and fogger death, It's christmas. :)

[Ynot]

I guess we were just unlucky when we hired our fogger the fog smelt absolutely rancid. That was what was causing the coughing. at one point we thought we sould smell a fire in the flys but it was the smell of the fog!

 

Seriously though the Maplins stuff I have smells nice, It just needs to be a bit more concentrated than is says on the label

Part of THAT problem is likely to be that generic fog juices are just that - generic - and not created for specific mfr's machines. So the fluid you get from the holiday camp people may well stink like burning socks BECAUSE the machine isn't set to use that fluid, and consequently the reaction and resultant smoke is wrong!

[smalljoshua]

I guess we were just unlucky when we hired our fogger the fog smelt absolutely rancid. That was what was causing the coughing. at one point we thought we sould smell a fire in the flys but it was the smell of the fog!

 

Seriously though the Maplins stuff I have smells nice, It just needs to be a bit more concentrated than is says on the label

Part of THAT problem is likely to be that generic fog juices are just that - generic - and not created for specific mfr's machines. So the fluid you get from the holiday camp people may well stink like burning socks BECAUSE the machine isn't set to use that fluid, and consequently the reaction and resultant smoke is wrong!

Jem Machine with Jem Fluid! It was an old machine though.

 

Josh

[niclights]

It's quite common for traditional smoke/haze machines to smell bad. It is not normally related to the fluid/additives, but just old fluid left in the block.

 

In my experience this occurs more often in machines used mostly on a low output or, for obvious reasons, on older machines like ZR20. Usually the smell will disappear as this the residue is burned off. If I have a chance I will deliberately run a machine at high output for a while to speed up the process but as a machine ages it will end up as a permanent 'feature'!

 

To bring this back on topic I will add to the consensus that the smelly fluids are not pleasant.

[sparkyweb]

Some of the old fluids used to smell quite nice, I always remember the apple one was good.

 

We used to stock scented fluid for disco applications, but I don't recall having seen any for a while.

 

Going slightly OT, years ago during a panto a local theatre had chocolate scent in the machine and sales of interval choclate rocketed.

[CPlater1]

What I've done before is put some vanilla essence in with the fluid, and have had no problems, and there is a slight scent of vanilla in the smoke. It can make people think differently about the smoke, and can reassure them that its not something burning.