e-cigarette idea inspired by fog machines

[Jerethustra]

I was playing in the pit for an opera and they were using a fog machine... The fog looks just like what comes out of our e-cigs. This got me interested in what was in the liquid for the fog machine. Guess what? It's PG.

So that got me thinking. Fog machines don't have wicks but they pass the liquid through heat exchanger and heats the liquid to a vapor. The vapor is pushed out through a tiny tube, then a fan blows the vapor out.

Doesn't this sound like the next generation of PVs? If someone can miniaturize this process it would be awesome... alas, I'm not an engineer.

 

[Hoosier]

Well, if you replace the pump with a squeeze bottle, you have what is generally referred to as a self-juicer. (Makes sense this would be the path as early gasoline engines used wicks and now use injection.) Very small pumps are either very unreliable, or incredibly expensive. A finger pressing a bulb or bottle is cheap, takes no real space, requires no battery drain, and is reliable. But I have seen modders experimenting with micro pumps.

The heating element has been replaced with a coil already and is in any atomizer or cartomizer.

The fan has been replaced with suction from the user. This also is extremely reliable and conserves battery. It also eliminates random firing that many fog machines do.

A fog machine also uses a 2 stage heating. First stage is the pre-heat and the second stage is fire. (Fire as in produce fog, not burn.). Many fog machines use the pressure of the expanding gas to move the vapor out of the heating chamber instead of a fan. The power consumed with the pre-heat stage is not small, but tiny compared to the power consumed to vaporize enough juice to eject vapor out. That pressure is also why a pump is used instead of a simpler drip tube or wick, to keep the vapor flowing out instead of back into the tank.

I am not an engineer, but I play one at work and H.R. thinks I am. I also have quite a bit of experience with fog machines from running a haunted house. (I'm the builder/repair guy/costume designer/FX team lead and have torn down and modified more than a few fog machines. And if anyone has a method for ground hugging fog that does not involve dry ice and a modified fog machine that is really cheap to implement, please let me know.)

Or are you looking for a PV that you can fog a room with, or one that can be fired at people across the room?

 

[Kent C]

I was playing in the pit for an opera and they were using a fog machine... The fog looks just like what comes out of our e-cigs. This got me interested in what was in the liquid for the fog machine. Guess what? It's PG.

So that got me thinking. Fog machines don't have wicks but they pass the liquid through heat exchanger and heats the liquid to a vapor. The vapor is pushed out through a tiny tube, then a fan blows the vapor out.

Doesn't this sound like the next generation of PVs? If someone can miniaturize this process it would be awesome... alas, I'm not an engineer.

Amazon.com: Wizard Stick: Home Improvement

Wizard mask: the ultimate hit?

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/modders-forum/62775-wizard-why-not.html