Snow liquid in Hazer....

[jaysonhhh]

Long story short someone put snow liquid into my haze machine and tried running it. Unsurprisingly it doesn't work now and seems to be clogged up. I drained as much liquid as I could out of it and tried running vinegar through it, the vinegar got sucked through by the pump but then once the tubes were full nothing would come out. I'm assuming there is a blockage somewhere. The tubes seem clear but I'm guessing the blockage is in the heating element which seems to be hard to get at.

 

Any tips on how to fix this? It's a GTX HZ3 haze machine if that helps.

 

thanks

[timsabre]

Bad news I think ... sounds like the heating element has been blocked by cooked snow liquid. These people claim to supply replacement heating blocks - but 0 stock so maybe not. Anyway that would be the only way to fix it.

 

 

https://www.hwaudio.co.uk/Search/Stage-Lighting-m4/Smoke-Machines-c45/QTX-b1087

 

[bigclive]

It would definitely be worth trying to clean any pipes that are accessible. As Tim says, it's possible the surfactant in the snow fluid has caused build up in the heater section when the water has been boiled off.

 

Snow fluid makes a refreshing change to filling a water based hazer with oil though.

[timsabre]

Somebody did that on a show I was on, covered the entire stage in a spray of hot oil but didn't harm the hazer.

 

I have also seen someone clear a blocked heater block by repeatedly heating it up with a blowtorch and dropping it into cold water. Not sure I'd recommend that though.

[bigclive]

The oil can sometimes cause the pumps to seize. Presumably by causing the cylinder o-ring to swell if it wasn't intended for oil exposure.

 

I think most hired glycerol hazers have probably been exposed to oil at some point in their career.

[sguy42]

Could be worse - could be PVA - don't ask how I know.