Water Mist system.. Off the shelf... Made in the U.S.A. too !

[Hartley]

I was just at our local Lowes and as I went through the garden section I found the answer to adding mist cooling to my bus...for $9.95 per radiator!

http://www.mistcool.com/mistcool.html

Why try to invent something new or different when it's a shelf item and already plumbed and cheap!!

Enjoy...

[Sojourner]

Dave
This MistCool is for "stand-still" air flow or no-wind. Because of extra fine mist at 3/4 GPH (3 quart per HOUR)...not gallon per minute.
Rate of air flow rushing into radiator is so great that this MistCool can only cool about 2 or less square inch of radiator. You would need about 35 to 50 of MistCool's nozzles to cover the amount of bus's air exchange. Great if you can afford it.

Sure this MistCool be great in green house or no-wind wet room.

It advertise a high-pressure pump to pressurize between 58 to 106 nozzles.
For outdoor....depenting areas to cover & amount of wind flow to get the job done.

I have the drawing ready to post using 6 garden spray's nozzle but need to complete the "why's" & "how's" water mist will & won't work.

FWIW

Sojourn for Christ, Jerry

[DrivingMissLazy]

My mist system utilized six misters originally designed to mist spray hanging plants on a patio or similar situation. The amount of water was so small that little if any dripped to the floor of the patio, but did an excellent job of misting the leaves and dampening the soil in the plant holder.

That said, the six misters I used were rated at 0.6 gallon per hour (GPH) if I recall correctly. With six installed, I used 3.6 GPH when they were on. Such a small amount that I never missed the water. They were installed about three inches from the radiator surface and pointed outward to disperse the mist into the air as much as possible. The goal is to mist the air before it reaches the radiator, not the radiator itself.

This quote from the system manufacturer Dave refers to is very important:

These tiny water droplets quickly absorb the energy (heat) present in the environment and evaporate, becoming water vapor (gas). The energy (heat) used to change the water to a gas is eliminated from the environment, hence the air is cooled. (emphasis added)

Richard

Dave
This MistCool is for "stand-still" air flow or no-wind. Because of extra fine mist at 3/4 GPH (3 quart per HOUR)...not gallon per minute.
Rate of air flow rushing into radiator is so great that this MistCool can only cool about 2 or less square inch of radiator. You would need about 35 to 50 of MistCool's nozzles to cover the amount of bus's air exchange. Great if you can afford it.

Sure this MistCool be great in green house or no-wind wet room.

It advertise a high-pressure pump to pressurize between 58 to 106 nozzles.
For outdoor....depenting areas to cover & amount of wind flow to get the job done.

I have the drawing ready to post using 6 garden spray's nozzle but need to complete the "why's" & "how's" water mist will & won't work.

FWIW

Sojourn for Christ, Jerry

[rv_safetyman]

Hi folks.  There was another good (read objective) thread on misters.  I posted a quick reply a couple of minutes ago to bring it to the top.  If you missed that thread, you should take the time to read it.

In that thread, I posted a source that I had found:

http://www.plumbingsupply.com/misterscooldown.html

Since I posted that reply, I ordered my parts from this great vendor.  The parts look a lot like those that DrDave found. 

I hope to plumb them today and test them next weekend when we pull the big "hills" here in CO on our way to our family vacation.

Pasted below is my reply to the other thread.

>>>>>>>>>>>>

OK guys, need your opinion on mister parts.

Background:  my air to air radiator is very marginal on long pulls.  I tried to rig up a mister for the big passes on the way home and the "irrigation" sprayer parts at Home Depot just seemed very cheesy.  Indeed, the plastic delivery tube melted from the hot air going through the air to air radiator.  In addition, Richard mentions the issue with the tubing coming off the heads (I had that problem as well). 

So, I am looking for something more practical.  Take a look at:

http://www.plumbingsupply.com/misterscooldown.html

and see what you guys think.  It sure looks like a great way to mount the misters.  The stiff PVC tubing would assure that the misters are pointed in the right direction and the tubing would be easy to mount to the radiator with tie wraps (mister pointing away from the radiator).

If you guys think this is a good approach, what size head would you use.  I think I will mount 4 units for a heat exchanger that is 20 X 30 inches.  Right now I am leaning towards the .5 GPM units.

I will be using my extra water pump and have wired a push button on the dash to operate the pump as needed (long hills).

[Burgermeister]

Richard,

Your approach is viable for dry climates, like the Southwest, but I feel it has limited use in the humid East and Midwest,.  Your approach depends on the ability of the droplets to convert to vapor prior to passage through the radiator core.

Some rough examples from U of AZ clarify this relationship.
•   At 90 °F (32 °C) and 15% relative humidity, air may be cooled to nearly 60 °F (16 °C).
•   At 90 °F (32 °C) and 50% relative humidity, air may be cooled to about 75 °F (24 °C).
•   At 105 °F (40 °C) and 15% relative humidity, air may be cooled to nearly 70 ° (21 °C).

So, an increase of 35% humidity results in a 50% loss in temperature drop, and this is only 50% humidity, not the 80+% frequently seen in the East & Midwest areas.
A wet mister, (water on the core)  as compared to your "vapor" mister, would arguably provide better performance in humid environments since the radiator core (assume 200+) is much warmer than ambient air temp.  The wet coating would be boiled off taking more heat with it.  I agree that the East may not have elevation changes as large as in the West but they're still enough to potentially bring a bus with a marginal cooling system to an overheat condition.

Finally, a caveat:

Water in the desert southwest is high in dissolved salts; mostly calcium. It is harmless in the drinking water supply, and expensive to remove. It can cause problems for coolers if it becomes too concentrated. The result of high total dissolved solids (TDS) is a build-up of calcium salt on cooler pads, pumps, pans and sides. It is corrosive to metal and will shorten the life of a cooler.

[DrivingMissLazy]

Your approach is viable for dry climates, like the Southwest, but I feel it has limited use in the humid East and Midwest,.  Your approach depends on the ability of the droplets to convert to vapor prior to passage through the radiator core.[/b]

My experience here in the east is that the misters seemed to be as effective in this climate as in the dry western climates.

There are some very long steep grades here in WV on I-77 as well as others in NC, VA and TN as well as some of the NE states.  I have traveled them all many times and been very thankful for the misters, thank you very much!.
Richard

[busboy]

I could not find any misters/systems that I thought would work including those mentioned above.  So, I did a google search and found a company out in California that is in the business of making big-time misting systems for amusement parks and other applications.  I called them, and talked to the tech guy and told him I was a bus guy and need help on which of their systems could help me.  He told me that the owner drives a Prevost bus and that they had perfected the "misting" system on his bus.  Here is the recipe according to them:
1) Buy an intermittent wiper switch from JC Whitney, install it making sure it is run thru the ignition...I guess the boss had left it on running the water out of the tank.  This allows you to vary the amount of mist action.
2) Run copper tubing down the sides of the radiator.  Drill holes in the tubing(he said use the smallist drill bit you can). 
3) Position the copper pipes so that the stream/mist holes point toward the center of the radiator. 

I think I might try this...the only thing I'm going to do is "T" this off of my 1/2" poly tubing at the back of the bus(we have a half bath in the back) and just put a simple ball valve which I'll get one of the kids to turn on which I need it.
-Brent

[DrivingMissLazy]

That is tne nice thing about being a nut. You get to do it your way!..Please give us a report when you get it done and tried out.
BTW the smallest drill bit I have ever found is a #80. I really suspect that is too large.
Richard

I could not find any misters/systems that I thought would work including those mentioned above.  So, I did a google search and found a company out in California that is in the business of making big-time misting systems for amusement parks and other applications.  I called them, and talked to the tech guy and told him I was a bus guy and need help on which of their systems could help me.  He told me that the owner drives a Prevost bus and that they had perfected the "misting" system on his bus.  Here is the recipe according to them:
1) Buy an intermittent wiper switch from JC Whitney, install it making sure it is run thru the ignition...I guess the boss had left it on running the water out of the tank.  This allows you to vary the amount of mist action.
2) Run copper tubing down the sides of the radiator.  Drill holes in the tubing(he said use the smallist drill bit you can). 
3) Position the copper pipes so that the stream/mist holes point toward the center of the radiator. 

I think I might try this...the only thing I'm going to do is "T" this off of my 1/2" poly tubing at the back of the bus(we have a half bath in the back) and just put a simple ball valve which I'll get one of the kids to turn on which I need it.
-Brent

[rv_safetyman]

I had posted above about my source and that I was building my system.  Yesterday, I static tested the system.  I will be driving it tomorrow (6/15).  I ordered an assortment of misters from .5 gph to 1.0 gph.  The .5 gph really does not flow much water.  Even the 1.0 seems to be a bit marginal from what I expected.  I just ordered some 1.5 gph misters to try. 

The great thing about the systems that DrDave and I are using is that they can be "tuned" to your needs very simply.