Le Maitre Hazer

[whitelightlampy]

I've found this on ebay and I'm looking at it thinking how good of an investment it would be for that price. However, I've done a seach of previous topics on BR and have gathered mix opinions about all sorts of hazers but not much about one of these.

 

2 Things then:

 

- Are these actually realiable units and worth that current asking price?

- Where can I find a specific remote for one of these?

 

I've owned smaller cheap hazers before and had no luck with any of them so I'm looking to invest in something that will be a lot more reliable. I work mainly at gigs so that's where it would be used.

 

Any other recommendations under £300 would also be helpful.

[Ynot]

We had one of these for a short while, and as I recall twas not a bad machine at all. le M are a reputable and well known manufacturer and support is pretty god.

 

If it doesn't go much above the £150 mark s/h I'd go for it.

[WiLL]

I've got one of these at present, they ARE a nice unit, their fuel consumption is fairly low and the haze they produce is of a good quality. Be warned though when they use the term 'whisper quiet' in their pr blurb then they are used to some fairly loud whispering. I only use mine during musical numbers or moments of sufficient background noise to cover the hum from the fan. They also have no density variance and they jet the haze fairly strongly up, so these are not suited for very small venues. They are DMX-able only with the use of a DMX 'dongle' SLX sell them but I'm sure they aren't the only ones and otherwise are only on/off. The fan is not controllable seperately from the haze and also they self-clean at every on or off command so do not have an instant response, although the self0cleaning normally only lasts for about 10 seconds.

All in all they are a robust, good economical hazer, but more suited to medium sized venues then studios I think.

Just my tuppence worth.

[whitelightlampy]

Thanks for the replies.

 

All noted - just needed some kind of 'review' before I went and brought something that could of been potentialy useless. Like most people, when you spend large amounts of money on on thing, you want it to last and not flake out and die on it's a*se when you need it most :D

 

Does anyone have any good recommendations for under £300?

[stagemanagement]

Thanks for the replies.

 

All noted - just needed some kind of 'review' before I went and brought something that could of been potentialy useless. Like most people, when you spend large amounts of money on on thing, you want it to last and not flake out and die on it's a*se when you need it most :D

 

Does anyone have any good recommendations for under £300?

 

Yes, buy this Neutron XS for £150!!

 

They are good quality units, give a nice balance between haze and smoke - if you can get them nice and dirty, it acts as a rudimentary limiter on the density of the output (don't know why, but it works better for me that way).

I also run it through DMX without the expensive accessory cable; simply run it from the dimmers with a 15A-13A and set a "full at 1%" profile on that dimmer channel - remember to leave the haze AND power switch on!.

I also find a small clip-on fan attached to the handle helps it cover the stage far quicker, and stop the haze going straight up by taping a bit of gel over the top of the opening to force the output forward.

 

The self clean will hit you at inopportune moments now and again, but you'll pay a bit more for a unit that offers the same or better quality than the XS.

[david.elsbury]

Stagemanagement, with respect, you are totally wrong.

Do NOT turn the unit on and off without running through the correct startup/shutdown sequence, you WILL kill the machine this way.

Also, it is a bad idea to run anything that is not a light off a dimmer channel. Even if the profile ensures that it doesn't dim, you are still feeding the device an impure power waveform, so not a good move...

 

With the LeMaitre Neutron XS hazers, you are meant to turn the power on and let them warm up, then turn on the haze switch. Similarly, when powering off, turn the haze switch off first, then leave the machine alone for 10min or so as it runs through it's self cleaning process.

 

This will ensure that the hazer is not clogged up, and indeed is what the manufacturer says in the manual.

 

Cheers

David

 

Edit: You don't need a remote for this unit. It can be quite happily operated from the rear panel.

[BigYinUK]

I bought a secondhand (thermocouple broken) Le Maitre from ebay a while back. Bought a new element for it for ukp30 and made a DMX control unit for about ukp20 using a Vellerman kit. TBH the whole thing works very well indeed. Compared to other "cheapo" hazers it is quite quiet although it may not compare so well with high end gear.

 

You'll need to get used to corrosion on the heating element stopping it working, which it does with monotonous regularity, however it is only a 5 minute job to fix so no biggy unless it happens during a show/gig

[Lol]

You'll need to get used to corrosion on the heating element stopping it working, which it does with monotonous regularity, however it is only a 5 minute job to fix so no biggy unless it happens during a show/gig :)

 

Hi there, could you tell me how to fix this fault please ? I have one that has stopped working & would like to avoid sending it back to LeMaitre if possible.

 

Cheers !

[BigYinUK]

Hi there, could you tell me how to fix this fault please ? I have one that has stopped working & would like to avoid sending it back to LeMaitre if possible.

 

Cheers !

 

Assuming its not the thermocouple that is damaged (ie either split or become detached from the element), its quite simple.

 

First of all just try tightening the allen keys at both ends of the heating element. Don't over do it and crush the element though. If that doesn't do it, unplug the thermocouple and undo the allen keys holding the element onto the connections at both ends then gently remove the element.

 

There should be a cleaning tool taped inside the hazer, if there is use that otherwise roll up some wet&dry and clean out the hole in the connector on the right hand side of the unit. Do the same with the other connection(s) and then clean both ends of the element (the area that would go into the connectors).

 

Re-assemble and you should be good to go.

 

Any corrosion on the element's connections causes a high resistance across the element which is detected by the electronics. The LED flashes to indicate this error as below.

 

Single Flash

Din plug not connected or NTC failure. This is monitored via the NTC ambient temperature sensor input.

 

Double Flash

Loose or bad thermocouple fitting onto tube. Higher than desired resistance in the tube current path (loose connections etc) This will be monitored by a time test during the heat up phase. If an excessive time is taken to reach the top temperature, then a failure of this nature will be assumed. A condition which could mimic this fault is a drop in line voltage, immediately on commencement of a cleaning phase, where a burst fire cycle count has been established, then a reduced voltage is applied. (High line resistance due to mains cabling etc.) This may cause too little power applied to the tube, and hence an excessive heat up time.

[Lol]

Thanks BigYin for this. I will give it a go over the weekend.

[GRisdale]

We've got one of these and I was at first not entirely satisfied. As others have suggested, the haze is projected upwards (about 45 degrees), and at a fair rate of knots, so our single machine didn't provide a very even coverage (15m x 10m stage, 8m roof). Recently however we took the step of stripping down a standard domestic fan and spraying it all black. This sits on top of the hazer on a dimmer channel, offering controllable (and oscillating!) dispersion of the haze.

 

We now get a perfect haze across the whole stage area and are very happy indeed. One other thing to know is that ours has a delay of thirty seconds from when you hit the DMX channel to when haze starts coming out. As its a consistent delay we can allow for it, but can be annoying. Also, as WiLL suggested, it is not really quiet enough to use without some sound to cover it.

 

Gareth.

[WiLL]

Edit: You don't need a remote for this unit. It can be quite happily operated from the rear panel.

 

 

...unless you're in a theatre and don't really have time to leave your lx desk, run all the way to the stage (possibly through the audience) and muck about with switches in the dark. If all that doesn't appeal I would suggest buying the dongle and dmxing it.

[smulse]

Got 2 of these at a venue I work at sometimes very nice units worth getting one at that price. They're easy enough to control from the panel on the machine itself.

 

We've got one of these and I was at first not entirely satisfied. As others have suggested, the haze is projected upwards (about 45 degrees), and at a fair rate of knots, so our single machine didn't provide a very even coverage (15m x 10m stage, 8m roof).

AFAIK there is pan and tilt functionality built into the machine although personally I have never used this feature myself. I assume there may be a setting in the menu to control this or it's controllable via DMX (takes up 4 DMX channels - output, fan, pan, tilt).

 

Edit: I think that's the same unit I'm thinking of anyway