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Question for those experienced with ultrasonic foggers...

Zath

Enthusiastic Enthusiast
I've been debating about adding one of these to my nep tent for some time now, as it's an (relatively) inexpensive alternative to an automatic misting system.

However, my first, and only, experience with these has constantly been a warning siren in my head.

Years ago, I used an ultrasonic fogger in an iguana enclosure. The metal "membrane" on the thing kept crapping out, and effectively tripled the cost of the machine within a few months. It also seemed to only work at a certain water level that had to be maintained within a tolerance of 1/16 of an inch or so. Too little, and it just fizzed, too much, and it bubbled but produced no fog.

For those of you that use / have used them, what is the average membrane life on them? Also, how long do the units themselves tend to last before you need to buy a new one?

Maintaining the appropriate water level in this situation won't be hard, but I don't want to have to replace the membrane every other week. In that case, I'll probably go ahead and try to rig a proper misting system.
 
I've used ultrasonic humidifiers before. No need to worry about the water level, just refilling the reservoir. They will crap out eventually. Using RO water helps reduce any buildup that causes them to do so, it can extend the life some. I haven't used them in an enclosure like a tent but with fairly consistent use I've gotten over a year out of them.
 
In my large 10 head fogger chamber I just use a float valve that's plumbed into my RO unit. Keeps it at a constant level and my controller I designed kicks it on and off. It is in one of those under the bed totes so I will add hydrogen peroxide to it occasionally to keep bacteria growth down. Ideally I should paint it so light can't get it but meh.

As for a smaller setup, I built this little guy out of some spare parts I had lying around: http://youtu.be/iI1cWrWLios

If you go to the international carnivorous plant spciety page on Facebook I made a post about it with some quasi instructions on how to build. Hell of a lot cheaper than the reptifogger and much easier to repair!
 
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I got the kind that floats and put it in a reservoir. Unless you run out of water the water level will always be correct. It was running during the day for well over a year and I never had to change the disc.
 
I would also agree that the quality of the water has a direct correlation on the "life expectancy" and performance of an ultrasonic fogger; and that RO is definitely the way to go . . .
 
Something to also note about ultrasonic foggers is they are very good at atomizing everything. That includes all the tiny bacteria, algae, and other gunk in the water. I couldn't figure out why I kept having trouble in my nepenthes chest freezer until that finally dawned on me. I had just tossed the fogger into a piece of tupperwareand let it go to town. Granted I only put RO water in it but would only wash it out every couple months.

Since the tupperware didn't have a lid the water would get pretty gross. My ******* was like nah it's fine, all the while it sprayed delicious bacteria all over my plants. Hence why I threw together the little gallon jug fogger. Not the prettiest thing in the world but hey it works lol.
 
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