Hi,

What happens to the fake snow that comes out oif snow machines. I have always wondered if the snow just dissolves away or if you mend up with a great big coating of snow on the dancefloor

Daniel

The "Snow" is actually water based foam - it simply evaporates

the snow is actually water based so it evaporates easily

As far as the actual machines themselves....

Heres a BLUE PETER DIY version...(Dont do this as a disco...you'll get laughed at terribly)

1) Get one of those socks that your worst Grandma gave you for Christmas.

2) Spray shaving foam non-stop into the open end of the sock

3) Hold the can of shaving foam (still spewing foam) AND the sock infront of a fan
as the foam oozes out of the tiny holes in the socks materials the tiny oozles of foam will be caught in the draught from the fan, and...
4) Hey Presto....thousands of little "flakes" of foam drifting around.


The difference is...the foam wont disolve harmlessly away after a few minutes of contact with a warm, dry floor. Even the proper snow fluid will stay around for a couple of days if spread thickly on wet ground on a cold day...I did my front garden with two Antari S-100 snow machines a couple of years back... I couldnt do it this year, as both the pumps have failed and Antari dont carry replacements any more. Too noisy an effect for me to thing about using on the Disco again - the fan noise, even on the "LO" setting was an atmosphere killer - good for renting to local councils for horrendous amounts of loot, for Christmas light switch ons though.

Open the bleedin window is enough over here but it melts to water

ok thanks for that.

Is the snow slippery underfoot?
Will it make a caretaker moan at you at the end of the night?

Dont know but bubbles r lethal, Bubbles + wooden floors + Big trouble

I changed from bubbles to snow last year, I have never had a complaint from a caretaker yet as it evaporates so quickly, and even got the ok to use it at a very very selective golf club function soley on its lack of problems to their highly polished floor!! Besides which snow is liked better by the kids as it tends to be 'different' rather than boring old bubbles!

Just my 4d worth

Spin

Yep, agreed that "Snow" is still pretty much a novelty, where as every D.J is using some form of bubbles - and turning dancefloors into an ice rink .

I've never yet come across a venue that has had its dancefloor made slippery by the foam produced by the fogger - quite the opposite in some case - snow residue tends to make wooden floors a little sticky if you overuse them, but its nothing major and being water based - simply lifts off when the caretaker cleans the floor after the function. Certainly I would say that 100 kids spilling coke over the floor is far more of a problem than using a snow machine .

In my experience - no caretaker has ever complained - even the staff at the school have commented that the kids have talked about their "Foam Party" , for days after.

I use a soundlab unit with a throw of between 10m - 20m, the little portables ones are no more than gimmicks. If you buy 2nd hand avoid the early Antari Models - they had reliability problems.

I've been using a snow stream machine at childrens and adult parties for 7 months or so, never had a complaint although as with everything else , if you use too much the floor can get slippery. Also with foam most of it ends up on the people rather than the floor :-)
As a sub topic, which foam do you guys recommend ?
I've tried 3 so far , the source one ( official for snowstream ) seems too creamy and does in my experience cause the slickest floors; the Antari snow fluid which is fluffier and evaporates quickest and I've also tried making my own with good old fairy liquid which I find is actually better than the source but not as good as antari; because it's fluffed up and mostly on the crowd the floor dosn't get bad like bubbles :-)

Hayd

Starmix Website

I certainly wouldn't recommend that anybody attempts to use a detergent like fairy liquid solution in either bubble, and certainly NOT snow machines.

So what would be the best snow machine to buy?

As Chris has stated and perhaps I should have said, do not use fairy liquid unless you want to void your warrenty and perhaps risk damaging your machine. The reason I tried it was that my local stockist ran out of snow fluid during my busy christmas period and told me that some people were turning to their bubble fluids and found they also worked. I ran out during a gig and thought to myself , why not try fairy, it worked fine , got me out of a fix ( room of 120 demanding children ) and no problems.

So to recap, not recommended but it worked for me !

Hayd