What might cause this Fog Machine behavior

LesWilson

Well-Known Member
I have a Chauvet Hurricane Flex. Actually a pair. I love how I can fly them and point the heater block end separate from the body. Twice in the last month, the 10 year old unit would just spit juice (no fog). Taking it down and leveling out the two pieces, the unit works fine.

First time this happened, I flew it back up, pointed it down and it's been fine for a couple weeks. Today it's Deja Vu: spitting (more like pee'ing). Take it down, it's fine.

I've concluded something is causing the heater block to malfunction. It signals it's warmed up but it's not. I have it apart on my bench and I'm not seeing anything loose that would be subject to orientation. The unit is made to point the block up or down.

Any ideas?
 
I don't know if the design might be similar, but I had a hazer do that. The vaporizer chamber was two pieces of aluminum with a gasket in the middle. The gasket was toasted and just pouring fluid out the sides.
 
You've definitely got bad wiring, bad heater, or a bad block. I know that's not terribly helpful, since that's most of the pieces. With orientation seeming to be the problem, I'd lean towards a loose mount on the block, cause the problem @StradivariusBone suggested, or the wires are failing to the heater. Since the unit is saying it is getting up to heat (is it? Have you tested that on the bench?), that pushes me even more towards the block being loose.
 
Whenever I brought it down to the bench, it worked fine. I'm thinking you are right @cbrandt that something is loose and getting reset in the trip from pipe to bench. Tech support has never heard of failure due to orientation but advises a new heater block which includes reset switch and internal sensor. Will update this post after repair.
 
I installed a new heater core and self reseting thermal switch. While I had it apart, I noticed this movable plastic rod in the thermostat. I can move it in and out. Any ideas what this is and what position it should be in? I test fired the unit and moving it didn't seem to have any affect. TIA
 

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What's on the other side? I'm guessing it's the shaft of a solenoid... do fluid hoses go in/out of the other side?
 
The other side has only electrical connections. There is a heat sensor that goes to the heater core as well. It is wired in series with the heater so I thought it is a thermostat.
 

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When you have it on the bench are you testing it how it would be hanging in the air? If not and it’s working you might have gummed up one side of the heater and the fluid isn’t getting vaporized fast enough in the orientation you want it. By bringing it down you loosened up the gum. I would give it a good cleaning. If that doesn’t help I would say replace the heating coil.
 
Thanks @Amiers. At first I had it flat on the bench and it worked. On a lark, I oriented it pointing down as it when flown. Thats when the problem reproduced on the bench. The core was stone cold. I just reassembled it today with a new core and thermal switch. It works on the bench in the down orientation. I intend to leave it 24 hours that way. Thanks for the ideas. This unit puts out nice long bursts of fog for a lowcost DMX machine. It's been a workhorse and worth the trouble. The pointing of the fog is really nice for theater specialty props too.
 
The problem has not returned @clais. While I was in there, I cleaned everything as there had been small juice leaks over the years. In fact there seemed to have been an active one. So the new components and replugging all the electrical connections for the install seems to have cleared whatever was causing the block to not heat up but allow the pump to run. At 10 years old with lots of new parts, it still puts out more fog than it's 3 year old twin.
 

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