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Anyone using the Zoomed Hygrotherm device?

I was looking at Ebay for a pre-wired humdistat for my highland chamber and came across a device made by Zoomed reptile supplies which will control both temp and humidity devices called the Hygrotherm here's the ad for it:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Zoo-Med-Hygro-Therm-Thermostat-and-Humidistat-in-one_W0QQitemZ130287191086QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item130287191086&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1199|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50


It looks like it would be great for my application (powering both a humidifier and a fan) but I wonder is Zoomeds stuff junky? How does it control the devices by the power cords plugging into it or some other fashion?
 
I don't know anything about that specific item or manufacture, but maybe it's like my cycle timer that I use for my 1000psi fogger... it has the control and that control plugs into a larger device VIA a telephone looking wire. The larger device is basically a relay system, so it can use lower power at the controller to power high power devices. This is also similar to AC systems, your thermostat is low power, then at the unit it uses relays to control high power devices.
Andrew
 
What brand of fogger and control do you use? Have any links to the manufacturers?

Since I haven't started building yet I'm open to looking at all kinds of devices/setups while I'm in the R & D phase. :D
 
Opps sorry I missed this... My fogger pump is HUGE and I can barely use it to humidity my 8x16x10 greenhouse LOL (due to minimum flow restrictions) the first time I set it up I had waaaay too many fogger heads and it just turned to a cloud instantly and drenched everything.. I've now gone down to about 1/5 the fogger heads and went from a .15 orfice to .08 on all remaining heads... The fogger runs probably 8-14 seconds every 15 mins or so.. and by the time it shuts off.. everything is misted (but evaps quickly with how dry we are and all the air movement) I have the cycle timer then going through a humidistat... So in order for my fogger to run, it is every so often, for a set amount of time, if the humidity is lower than the humidistat is set at. This way I don't have to worry about keeping everything too wet (specifically at night even though the cycle timer has a day/night setting.. it's still needed some nights more than others)

The prewired humidistat and IGS-010 Day / Night Repeat Cycle Timer can both be seen here: http://www.littlegreenhouse.com/accessory/controls2.shtml in that pic you can see the wired relay system that I was talking about.

For fun.. here is how my fogger was first set up... LMAO! Please note, the system was set up to self drain when it shut off (this is supposed to be a fogger for patio cooling.. so self draining is good) so you'll note that half way through the video you finally hear the pressure build up and you'll see the foggers start putting out a better spray.. (it's even more fine now with the smaller orfice nozzels) but I purchase parts for each fogger that hold the water in, so it actually sits with a little bit of pressure at all times now, so as soon as it turns on the full 1000psi is there and there is no pressure build up time... http://aaadnedarn.home.comcast.net/~aaadnedarn/fogger.mpg

I thought I had something else to say, but I can't think of it now haha!
Andrew

edit: Maybe I wanted to show the size of the fogger? LOL
pumpcover.JPG

pumpopen.JPG
 
That's a huge piece of equipment but awesome! That's how I would want my greenhouse humidified for Neps and orchids were I to ever get an actual house with land where I could set one up.... Though with 10 pages of foreclosures in the town paper perhaps the time of my owning a real house is drawing closer? Where did you get something like that/what did it run you compared to standard greenhouse humidity setup? The orchid greenhouses around here all use the swamp cooler thing which just trickles the water through grid work and pulls air through a louver (sp?) system, seems to work as I always break out in sweat. But Fog is totally where it's at! :D

Littlegreenhouse is where I bought my pre-wired humidistat for my old highland chamber. When I tore it down after 4 years or so I threw out the humdistat cos it was stuck in position, the dial wouldn't turn no matter what I did. Suppose I should have turned the dial occasionally - lol!
 
If the greenhouse were bigger (which in time- I plan on... maybe 10 years LOL) it would work really well. It really is still a lot for this size place. I picked it up from homedepot... I think they run like 600-800 for the pump alone, then you gotta get the line, nozzels, fittings blah blah.. was a really expensive piece of the g/h :p the thing right next to it is my swamp cooler-- I don't have a wet wall like you describe (where a wall is wet and fans on the other side pull air through the pads) so mine tends to create cool areas where the air blows directly and warmer areas where the air is more stale... but it works out well so I can put plants in the different climates. So same concept but it still only makes my place about 35% humidity alone. (since it pushes out the air it humidifies as it goes) so a high pressure fogger like this seems to be the only thing that can keep up with the air transfer I have.

Before I got this fogger I had a aquafog 400 (as seen in the fogger video above my head...) here is their site with information and video of it in operation http://www.jaybird-mfg.com/Video_700.htm it worked okay-- but the particles were too big.. even bigger than my fogger put out with the .15 orfices in. so the ground down the middle was always drenched, it ran a LOT to keep the humidity up, and it has a pump in it... which, for some reason... would stop working so I'd walk in and the fan would be running but no water- when I shut it off and back on, it would be fine. The manufacture and I never did find out the problem though. So I call that item a "no go" for this use... (but looking at their site, they now have a aquafog700 in place of the 400.. and it no longer has a sump so they've removed the pump I always had a problem with.. hmmm.. interesting ;) ) Supposedly the turbo xe is better at making smaller particles, but it also says it's too big for something my size, so I don't trust it.

Back when I had my littler g/h thing set up, I was looking at these other fogger pumps... I just pulled it up and they have one that is 1/4 gpm, I don't know what the pressure though, or how fine a fog it puts out.. You really need to be careful, when I was looking into it, a lot of them wanted to say they had "foggers" but really there were misters. So, be careful you don't get wrapped up in the name, look at the particle size and determine if it is a fogger yourself.... http://www.cloudburst.com/catalog/coldblast-14-gpm-p-208.html I think they're only like 160 psi though from memory.. So I wouldn't expect much of a fog, more of a mist, out of it.

andrew

edit: guess my pump was more than I thought LOL here it is: http://aeromist.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=26

and to edit mistakes.. where I said I now run .08 orfices.. it's actually .008 and where I said .15 it is .14 :)

Also, they have a slower rate one now.. which may actually work for you.. if you want a big dawg like this LOL http://aeromist.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=24
 
I think I'll just stick with the manipulated ultrasonic pharmacy humidifier for my humble grow chamber! lol!

But those are definitely excellent. How wet do you get walking through the fog as in your video? These systems all claim they cool, how cool can they actually drop the air temps? If it were 90*F outside can they make it 75*F in the G/H? Or if it's 70*F outside at night can they make it 50*F inside? Is there a way to make them humidify without cooling in winter or do you have to run some other sort of humidifying device in the winter?
 
Outside where it is dry, I bet the cooling would be significant. In a greenhouse where the humidity is already up some, it's not even close that that. If the cooler is running it will drop the temp enough to shut the cooler off for a few mins. I watched it yesterday, it dropped the temp about 5f... For fun I took a new vid of how much it runs I'll see about getting it posted.
I use the fogger all year, in the winter I don't have the cooler blowing all the humid air out, and my heater is unvented propane, so the fogger really doesn't run as much. but when it does, it still doesn't drop the temp 30f.....
Andrew

edit:
sorry for the wind at 8 seconds.. It has been really windy here!

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