Fog Scents

[constabeats]

I have just invested in a fog machine and it will be used in a couple of months for a show. The smell of the fog isn't great, and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for cheap scents. I thought something simple like a drop of vanilla essence would work, but I don't want to damage the fogger. Does anyone have any thoughts about Vanilla in a fog machine?

 

Thanks in advance

[timsabre]

Yes, don't do it, it could well cause blockages. You can buy proper scents for fog fluid but they are all horrible in my opinion. Once spent an evening in raspberry flavoured fog and could taste and smell it for days after.

 

The normal smell isn't that bad is it? It's normally a slightly sweetish smell.

[Ynot]

Basically, the simple answer is NO.

 

We have covered this several times before here in the BR, and the fact is that fog/haze fluids have been 'brewed' by the manufacturers to suit the machines, and any variance in the make-up of that fluid can and probably will affect the performance of the machine as well as risk damage over time if abused as such.

 

Cheap machines tend to not be so picky about what you throw through them, but then by definition a) they seldom last very long anyway, and b) their performance is limited.

 

I would observe that if the smoke your machine is producing is unpleasant, then you may already have the wrong fluid (and thus causing the machine to convert it incorrectly, maybe burning it too much) or there could be a problem with the fogger. As a rule, theatrical smoke (in my opinion) doesn't smell too bad at all.

 

 

 

 

[constabeats]

Many thanks for the replies. The smell isn't bad and it does sort of smell sweet, but its not amazing. I'm planning on keeping the smoke thin anyway, so this hopefully shouldn't be a huge problem. I've also made a chiller which works successfully and should keep the fog low as well :D