Snow Machine Shoot-Out?

Does anyone know of a head-to-head, Consumer Reports-style comparison of theatrical snow machines? It's the sort of thing that used to appear in Theatre Crafts; I don't know that any other publication or organization has stepped in to fill the void that publication left.
Alternately, does anyone have anecdotal experience with a sturdy (bulletproof) unit that is quiet, high volume, and low-residue?
Cheers,
Randy Storms
Mount Baker Theatre
Bellingham, WA
[email protected]
 
Are you looking for physical snow or liquid snow? We have used the True North liquid machines in the past, and the machines have performed as expected (good volume, high noise). On the Christmas show we just finished, we installed physical snow machines from City Theatrical. The build quality is excellent, but the coverage is not that great without a fan of some sort behind it. If your snowing straight down you need almost a continuous line of the machines.
 
I needed something similar a few years ago but found nothing. I did a side by side comparison of a few snow machine models that I could get from local rental houses for a day to try. From what I remember they all perform relatively the same and ALL snow machines are very loud. I ended up going with the Silent Storm, it's dB level was slightly lower. One way I was able to decrease the dB level was to turn the fan level way down and mount a fan on the underside of it. Ours needed to be blizzard level but only blow through a door way so I used a carpet fan to get the desired velocity. Believe it or not but the carpet fan was almost 20 dB quieter. I think I went with the True North liquid which left a residue but was minimal.

I always preferred snow tubes or snowbags for full stage or localized effects. Both are fairly easy to fabricate.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back