I've got a small patio, and it is unbearable to sit outside from now until October, so I'm looking at a mist system to make it more tolerable. I only need about 20 feet, and most of the units I've found online are longer, and the shorter ones are cheap plastic nozzles and fittings. Does anyone have one they like? Is the better to just buy the fittings and build it yourself?

Bookmarked. In a similar situation

Get one or two of these...


https://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Cove-MBF0181-Performance-Included/dp/B00LFUQ0MG/ref=asc_df_B00LFUQ0MG/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198091685650&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17932652257686605708&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9027205&hvtargid=pla-332893221596&psc=1

The War Department bought one that I installed. It "works" but setting the nozzles at the right pressure is tough and inevitably you are getting more mist than real cool air. Things tend to get wet. Haven't used it in a long time. Would rather spend money on fans.

Sounds like a job for a swamp cooler.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008UHXUSO/ref=as_at/?creativeASIN=B008UHXUSO&imprToken=dX1PTEIcw9pceZWC3ZWMXw&slotNum=2&ie=UTF8&linkCode=w61&tag=vpacint-20&linkId=363f6320d63a23a6c3f0fd04bcc03970#video-immersive-view_1529872772388

One of my exArmy buddies sells these. He says they are badass.

https://powerbreezer.com

Round Rock now. I'm too lazy to bother changing my user name.

I installed a misting system a week ago. It cools off the patio interior but the other posters are right - after 20 minutes, every surface within 3'-4' of the edge of the patio has standing water. I have a decent sized patio so the misters works well for a small group of people staying inside the patio away from the edge, but sucks for a larger group of people moving around the patio and using the bar at the edge of the patio.

Time for Plan B.

Anybody know what the brand that Wings & More use on there patio? Specifically the University Blvd location.

+1.
Effective misting systems don't come cheap. You can stand 3' in front of the good ones in sunglasses and not get any water accumulation on the lenses. $600.00 or so for a fan that works and doesn't just water everything down.

What you need here and very cheap but works well.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07CT9HL4Z/ref=pd_aw_sbs_86_3?ie=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07CT9HL4Z&pd_rd_r=ed98a730-783e-11e8-baf7-a356751ca604&pd_rd_w=An269&pd_rd_wg=2UN4r&pf_rd_i=mobile-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=1570221339179026662&pf_rd_r=3MWD89A2MPX14977DEKV&pf_rd_s=mobile-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=3MWD89A2MPX14977DEKV&dpPl=1&dpID=61Qwjx5OC7L

The Original AG 76 said:

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If the H in your name is for Houston you will find that virtually any form of " swamp cooler" is pert-near useless in our high humidity environment. May help a bit but not as much as you will expect. Evaporative cooling is for low humidity regions

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People always say this, but to me it depends on what you are looking for. If you want something to cool down an enclosed patio area then yes it will be terrible. I have seen the port a cool fans be very effective in the Houston area. They trickle water over a honey comb looking thing and then blow air over it. So there isn't an actual mist to get all over everything. You have to pretty much be in front of the fan to feel it, but it feels nice when you are I'd say it will drop the temperature 10-15 degrees(most companies will claim 25 degrees). 80 degrees with a breeze feels pretty good compared to 95 degrees without much air movement.

FSGuide said:

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One of my exArmy buddies sells these. He says they are badass.

https://powerbreezer.com

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How much?

Woot had refurb Port a Cools a couple weeks back, 2 small models, I picked one up, seems to work pretty well. Moves quite a bit of air that's for sure. It, combines with the 2 ceiling fans on the patio seems to keep a good breeze going

what model did you get, and are they very loud?

The Rib is constantly bugging me about this misting topic...

My point is that being solidly between the Trinity and the Brazos in Madison County were the humidity is already the prime issue, these things just aren't that effective. Am I wrong?

The cooling mechanism is evaporation right? I could see in the Hill Country where humidity is lower this could work, but not here.

Thoughts?

BurnetAggie99 said:

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What you need here and very cheap but works well.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07CT9HL4Z/ref=pd_aw_sbs_86_3?ie=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07CT9HL4Z&pd_rd_r=ed98a730-783e-11e8-baf7-a356751ca604&pd_rd_w=An269&pd_rd_wg=2UN4r&pf_rd_i=mobile-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=1570221339179026662&pf_rd_r=3MWD89A2MPX14977DEKV&pf_rd_s=mobile-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=3MWD89A2MPX14977DEKV&dpPl=1&dpID=61Qwjx5OC7L

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Looks almost perfect for what I need. How loud is the pump?

It's very quiet

Anyone built their own? Pics and details please

I bought/built a system and it rocks. It wasn't cheap, but I live near the coast and getting a mist system to work in a high humidity area means you have to have a fine mist that comes from high pressure and that means $. Hose end misters just give you a big pool of water, in my experience, where I live. I've been in lots of barns with the Home Depot 'mister' kits and they always look like a hog wallow.

The barn where the keep the kids livestock projects is open on the south side (prevailing wind) and I have a line of 0.008 mister tips on a direct drive mister pump from AeroMist in Az. It's an amusement park/restaurant quality mister and it works like a champ. I have the tips about 3 feet spaced the length of the barn and around the east side. On a normal day the visible mist carries a few feet, but not much more than that, but the cooling effect is felt throughout the barn.

I started with this kit and added more line and tips to it. We installed it in 2010 and the only problem I've had is stopped up tips - but @ 8 thousandths, that is going to happen. The pump is starting to look a little ragged, but it's in a very rough environment (cattle barn) that's to be expected. When I consider the relief it's given the many heifer and steer projects, the safety (vs a cooler or cool room), the reliability, the area it covers (vs the same $ as 1 big Port a Cool), and the low operational cost... the $1,400 or so I have it in is has been $ well spent.



https://www.aeromist.com/mist-cooling-kits/1000-psi-misting-kits/humid-climates/nylon-misting-kits/direct-drive-1000-psi.html

Bump because I'm thinking about doing this and wanted to see if any of y'all had regrets or recommendations.

I'm thinking about putting together my own system as follows:
- 1000 psi cat pump, .5 gpm
- .006" nozzles (.8 GPH each, 5 per fan, another 15 around perimeter)
- 4 oscillating fans (Hurricane Wall Mount Fan - 20 Inch, Pro Series, High Velocity, Heavy Duty Metal Wall Mount Fan for Industrial, Commercial, Residential, and Greenhouse Use - ETL Listed, Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FFT0BDG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_MWA02G4B2V8T90FKDT82?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1)


Would this system work better/feel cooler if the water going into the system is cold? Thinking about either adding an inline water chiller like this:
https://www.elkay.com/products/ech8.html

Or having it draw from an ice chest full of ice water.
Thoughts?

I haven't run the numbers, but one concern would be the low flow rate and slow heat leak into the system. How long does it take for the water to get to the mister? How much would it heat up by then? Would water condense on the cooler tubing and then start dripping?

I know a lot of people are saying these only work (in humid areas) if it is a high pressure/flash evaporation system. I was looking at doing a JetStream system which is what they have at Gloria's in Katy. If anyone personally has one of these systems and thinks it truly is worth the money let me know. It's pretty high cost.

I bought a high pressure system (1000 psi) last year and this is what I've learned. I live in the BCS area for humidity reference. Here's my experience. They work very well if the layout is designed appropriately, so through trial and error, here is what I learned (I'm sure there is an engineer that can apply math to this for a more straight forward answer.

The mist is the key, too fine of a mist is a problem and too big of a mist is a problem. Several things affect that dynamic. The mist nozzle size itself (.015".010", .008", .006", etc). Height of the mist nozzle from the height of the targeted cooling "zone". The space between the nozzles is important. Whether it is sunny or shaded makes a difference.

The height I installed my nozzles at was 10 ft. With my humidity and no wind the .008" size nozzle was too big, meaning the mist would get to me without evaporating and leave me damp. Switched to .006" and that solved that problem, but that meant overall less mist being deployed overall so now my nozzles were too far apart ( dead zones). The dead zones have a huge capacity to soak up the BTU energy you just got rid of in the active zones. To evaporate a gallon of water takes 8700 BTUs, by using that 8700 BTU to evaporate the water, the air left after that reaction is cool (or at least cooler than before, 8700 BTU cooler). So if you have dead zones the cool air you just created reacts with the hot air from the dead zone rendering it useless, or at a minimum drastically reducing its effectiveness. So in my case, I had to install a nozzle every 2.5 foot. Then came the problem because of the orientation of my outdoor kitchen, half of it is shaded, the other half isn't. So I had to go back to the bigger nozzles in the sunny area, smaller nozzles in the shady areas. And then comes the problem from the wind, having no wind is bad, having too much wind is bad. So, some sort of air moving technique is good for still days, I have 4 ceiling fans. On really windy days you just turn it off. On mildly windy days I crank up the PSI on the pump to 1200 and hope to get half the area cooler. Then as the sun goes down you either turn down the pressure to as low as you can go without burning up the pump, or mine has a mode that turns the mister on in intervals (1 min on 1 min off, etc.).

So that system you are looking at from Jetstream could work if their conditions are met. They state must be 10-12' ceiling, I would say there is no wiggle room there, if you have 9' ceilings and think that's not a big deal, you would be wrong. It looks like they have a built in fan that is ducted, delivering the necessary air movement to the desired location could be a positive, but it won't be if someone is not in the ducted region. My guess is your talking big money to have everything concealed like that, while it looks really good, I have high pressure stainless steel tubing for my system and have sprung a couple of leaks over the course of the summer, they were easy enough to fix when everything is exposed. It looks like their system would be a nightmare scenario for a leak. Which brings me to another lesson learned, these mister nozzles holes are very small, you must have SOFT water going into the system. Any calcium or the like will plug the nozzle and a leak will occur, you need large capacity filters on the front end that can move debris and a phosphate filter to remove the calcium and dissolved solids, if you can implement a reverse osmosis system, all the better. If all my tubing and connections were concealed like they have it, a RO system would be mandatory.