Mist of Dreams Fog Lamp

Gadgeteer Hands On Review by W. Sharrow

June 23, 2005

I first saw one of these things on display at the local fair. They were asking $50 to $150 for sets like this, and I thought they were REALLY cool, but not $That$ cool. So I decided look them up on Ebay later that day and took some pics with my camera phone (I'd never remember anything without my camera phone!). And much like a lot of novelty items, sure enough, there was a mess of them available on Ebay, so I went ahead and bought one.

Great price too, just $1.... and $22 shipping. Again, pretty much what I expected out of a novelty item on Ebay.

Regardless of the inflated shipping, I still think I got a good deal at $26 shipped. It showed up 4 days later in a slightly abused box. The UPS man, despite the box clearly both showing glass and reading "FRAGILE", decided to throw me the box rather then take the extra 10 steps to my door. Thankfully, the thick foam inside the box kept the contents nice and intacted. This is rather amazing considering how fragile and heavy the glassy ceramic material it's made from is. Here's a picture what you get inside the box:

It has instructions, but they aren't really necessary. Clearly, the Transducer wire goes through that hole in the bowl, and then the wire slips out through a tiny notch in the base. Pushing in that rubber plug was a pain, but otherwise it easy to assemble. Out of the 5 minutes it took to put it together, getting that rubber plug on the wire to fit into that hole took up nearly 4! Here's what the transducer looks like in the bowl:

And then the Splash Guard support....

That Plastic thing helps to prevent splashes from the sides, as well as hold up the Top Splash Guard over the center. And believe me, you'll NEED this high amount of splash protection, because this thing is going to literally blast water into vapor.

You might notice that there's a ring of tiny LED lights around the Transducer's body. These produce a nice lightshow. The controls allow you to setup these lights to do all kinds of things. It has 18 settings, and the lights are in Blue, Red, and Yellow, so you can get all of the colors of the rainbow if you want to mess with the settings enough. Or you can just turn them off. It's cool, if you are into kinda spooky, new-age lighting. When turned on it makes the whole thing looks very Sci-Fi-ish.

Now, here's a word of warning. Just as that little metal hockey puck can turn water into vapor, it could also turn your skin and blood into sticky vapor. Needless to say, don't try to touch it or hold it well it's working. In the bowl it's perfectly harmless, you can't even feel or detect the vibration. I believe the only part that moves is that tiny black thing sticking out of the top, but MAN does that thing move. According to the information I found, it vibrates at 1.7 MILLION times a second! You can hear a range of between 600 to 22,000 vibrations a second, so this is EXTREMELY high. So high in fact that water, trying to keep up with the vibrations of the Transducer, gets blasted straight into a cooling vapor. As an extra layer of protection, the Transducer will only work when submerged in water. I believe the only way you can get hurt by it is if you reach into the bowl and stick your finger on the Transducer well it's operating. You don't need to worry about touching the bowl or any other part of the device. Vibrations that high in frequency only travel a few millimeters, as I vaguely recall from science class. So you would have to put your finger directly on the Transducer well it's operating before it would hurt you.

Here's what all of this looks like assembled and turned on:

And here's a Side View:

I've got to say, this thing looks SUPER COOL when it's turned on. It doesn't make a sound, other then the tiny trickle of water that splashes against the top and sides of the splash guards. It's both soothing and looks really cool. That Vapor you see coming out is very cool, almost cold. I don't know if this is because of how it's made or just simple evaporation. But if you'd like a nice cool mist on a hot day, this thing delivers! You can also use it to spread around aromas. I added a little vanilla, and it works well as spreading the smell around. Those vapors you see are VERY light, so they won't get your stuff wet if you have papers nearby. All of that vapor you see in the photo is actually less then a 1/10 a drop of real water. It takes several hours for the Transducer to drain a bowl that size, in which time it produces TONS of cloud like vapor that quickly dissipates into the air. You could use this as a nice room humidifier. The vapors are cold though, so they do tend to descend down to the floor unless your ventilation pushed them around the room.

Just for fun, I thought I'd see what this Transducer could do outside of all of that green ceramic stuff. You might want to get one of these just for the fun of playing with the Transducer itself. It's REALLY cool! Here's what the transducer and parts look like on their own.

The Transducer must use alot of power, because I haven't seen a power brick that big since my Commodore 128 computer. You could kill a guy with that thing!

Just as an experiment, I put the Transducer into a small disposable plastic.

And here's the Transducer after I switched it on:

Those splash guards in the kit are REALLY are necessary if you plan on using this in the house. Water spit up all over the place during my test, and drenched an air about a 1 foot area around the bowl I was using. It got my counter pretty much soaked in the 20 seconds I had it turned on. The amazing part though is just how fast it turns water into vapor. Here's a link to a video showing my test.

mist-of-dreams.avi
(This video is in Divx format, you'll need Divx installed to view it)

According to what I've read, the Transducers will eventually burn out if you leave them on constantly for more then 5 or 6 months. The cheapest replacement Transducers on Ebay I found where for 2 Transducers for $30. They might be cheaper, but that's the going rate I've found.

I've heard you can put these things directly into a fish tank, although I dunno what long term effect it would have on the fish. It's too bad they don't make these things battery powered and encased inside a small protective ball. Kids would have TONS of fun with these things in the pool and bath. As it is now, it's more of an adult item, since there's nothing to stop you from touching the Transducer directly well it's running. Maybe somebody that makes these will read this and get an idea... Hint-Hint!

Anyways, for $30 it's ALOT of fun and makes a cool little science toy. You can use it as a Room Humidifier or Aroma Do-hickey. You're kids could probably make one heck of a cool science exhibit out of it too. So I think it's well worth the $30 it cost me. But I dunno if it's worth alot more. The Transducer itself burns out after awhile, and most of the cost is the Transducer, running $15 to $25 a piece. You can put these in metal hockey pucks into anything, so if you don't like those ceramics bowls, you might be better off just buying a couple of Transducers and putting them into whatever bowl you have on hand.

6/29/05 - Update from themog
I have played with these little foggers quite a bit have learned a few things about them over the years. Max has asked me to write up a quick add on to his review and share some of what I know.

Before we begin, there is one minor correction to the review. That little post on top is not actually the emitter. The emitter is the flat disk in the middle of the unit. That post is the water sensor that turns the unit off if the water level gets too low. I believe that it uses an ultra low current and it is certainly safe to touch.

From the video he shows this is hard to spot as the transducer tends to spit water in random directions when it is not immersed under an inch or so of water. You can move the unit around to try and reduce the spitting, or even tilt it at an angle if you have some stable way to prop or suspend it. If the water is deep enough the splattering will go away entirely and you still get almost as much vapor spray as when it is in shallow water.

If you need to adjust the position of your mister you can do this while it is turned on so you can see how well it works in different positions. While the frequency that it vibrates at is certainly high enough to do nasty things to flesh, it is not very strong so it does so very slowly. Should you accidentally put a finger on or slightly above the disk while it is running, you will certainly know as you will feel a strong buzzing sensation, but you will also have plenty of time to pull away before any noticeable damage is done.

That being said, absolutely DO NOT HOLD YOUR FINGER OVER THE DISK! If you just let it brush you then it is no big deal, but if you do let it jet on one part of your hand long enough it will cause a rather nasty injury. To your muscle tissue it would be less than a mild bruise, but since the signal is transmitted through your body like sonar transmits through water, your nerves have no protection from it. If you have ever managed to bruise a nerve, like banging your funny bone only much harder, then you know what I am talking about. By the time you feel any pain the damage has already been done and it might take a day or two for the bruise on your nerve to heal. NOT FUN!

I can also attest to the fact that they do last an incredibly long time, if treated well. I have had a couple fail on me in two different ways. Both of them were entirely my fault. The first is that the water sensor can eventually oxidize if you keep it in water with a dissimilar metal. In any water other than perfectly distilled water there are enough free ions to conduct an electrical current. These free ions will transfer between the two objects, transporting molecules one by one and corroding both metals. Some water pumps that are used in fish tanks or decorative ponds and fountains have metal impellers or other pieces that are exposed to the water. This is what happened to me.

Eventually the corrosion will block the switch's signal and prevent the mister from turning on. At this point you can usually just buff the sensor to fix the problem, but it can be a real pain to get it clean enough and if you don't take out the other metal object from the water then it will just happen again.

The second thing that can kill one of these is heat. Max was quite right that the mist does indeed feel cold because of the cooling effect from evaporation. Actually, the transducer puts quite a bit of energy into the water in order to blast it into mist. As the mist evaporates that energy dissipates, but if the mist is kept in an enclosed area, the heat will build up as the water falls back into the reservoir. If you do something really silly, like put a heating mat under a water fountain in a terrarium, and then put the transducer inside of a small chamber in that fountain, it will heat the water up really quick. Twice I managed to kill one of these things in just two days each by doing just that. Thankfully I caught on the second time around.

One thing that I really don't understand about when you cook these things to death is that it doesn't actually hurt the transducer. Instead it destroys the power supply. If you manage to cook one, and you replace it with an identical one, keep the transducer part from the original and use it as a spare.

The last way that I know that these can fail, and it is something that I have never managed to do, is to wear out the disk that does the actual emitting. If you leave one on for months (or years) straight, it will eventually burn out the disk. However you can get replacement disks for much cheaper than a full unit. My local craft store has replacement disks and special keys that you use to twist off the cover for about $5 each. My local pet store also stocks these misters and can order the replacement disks as well. So check your local craft and pet stores before buying a new unit!

There are several different models of misters like this made by different companies. Some have lights like the one Max used for the review, others do not. Some have different types of switches to turn them on when you immerse them in water. Some are stronger or weaker than others. I do not know if they all use the same size of replacement disks, but so far I have only seen one size of replacement for sale. The power supplies from one brand to another are always different.

In the forums, Max also pointed out a small red light that you can briefly see on the sensor post. It only appears when you turn it on and then is quickly covered up with the big cloud of fog. My model doesn't have that red led on it as I usually get a cheaper model with out the lights and remote control switch on the cable. From watching the video I suspect that it is a power indicator. If it were set on the counter instead of immersed in water and then turn it on, then it should light up. Since it will not activate outside of water, or another conductor for the switch, that little red light would be your only way to know if the unit was on when the surrounding LEDs are turned off. The model that I use has a larger red LED on the side that serves the same purpose.

Price: Around $30 from Ebay

Pros:
Expensive
Very Sci-Fi-ish!
Looks nifty
Useful as a humidifier and for aroma therapy

Cons:
Transducer burns out
Could be dangerous to touch