Halloween Prop Menu : Cleaning Your Fog Machine

Are you having trouble with your fog machine? Is it not putting out the volume of fog that it used to? If so, it probably just needs a good cleaning. I bought my fogger at Spencer's Gifts for about $100 and it is a water-based unit. Any of the following cleaning instructions only apply to similar units that use water-based fog.

The instructions that came with the unit say to run the fogger using a mixture (half and half) of distilled water and vinegar. It is important that you do this outside!!! It stinks! I found this out the hard way. After that, you should run some plain distilled water through it to flush it all out. Don't use plain tap water. It has impurities and minerals that will leave deposits on the inside of your machine. After that you are ready to go. Connect your machine back to its fog fluid container and go to town!

If all of that fails, there may be something else wrong with your machine. I tried all of the procedures above and still had very low fog output. I thought that my machine was on its way to the scrap heap, but I tried one more thing and that cured it!

WARNING: The following procedure should only be performed WITH THE MACHINE UNPLUGGED AND TOTALLY COOLED DOWN!!! I assume no responsibility for any damage to the machine or you as a result of following these instructions.

With the machine unplugged and cooled down, scrape the hole in the brass output nozzle (pictured below) with your thumbnail to remove any deposits. After that, take a pin and move it in and out of the hole a few times. This removes any built-up deposits that couldn't be removed by the original cleaning. After all of that, try warming up your machine to see if it works properly. If it doesn't, there is something else wrong with your machine.

Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you attempt to open and service the machine. The heating element is sealed and there are no serviceable parts inside. What can I say, if all else fails, junk it and buy a new one. I hope this info helped out. Click on the pictures below to see a larger, more detailed version of each one.

Smoke Machine Close-up of Output nozzle

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