Mister Question

[UrbanChameleon]

I've had the Exo Terra Monsoon now for about 7 months. It was working fine until about 2 weeks ago. One of the nozzles wasn't spraying which was fine because I only used one. I tried to clean it to no avail. So I just let it be. Well as of this morning the whole thing pooped out on me. The lights come on, and it still makes noise but no water is getting sucked up. It really blows because I have been waiting months to get my second Chameleon. I was planning on purchasing him on the 1st of April. Now it looks like I'm going to have to buy a mister. I could try to contact the manufacturer, but I really don't want to go through all of this crap. I was planning on getting a Mistking in a few months anyways. My question is which one should I get? I want to get one around $100. I will have two Chameleons and only need one nozzle per cage. I've heard people mention the Mistking starter kit. Should I go with that, or will I need one of the bigger kits? I'm a little concerned on space. I know the Mistkings require a large bucket. Ontop of that, I have four dogs. I will need something to cover the top of the bucket so dog hair doesn't contaminate the water. And the Mistking looks really hard to setup. But I'm sure you guys could help me with that when it gets here. So in summary, which kit would best fit my needs?

P.S. - If any of you have owned the Monsoon, what the crap happened to mine? I'm guessing it's the pump but I have no idea.

 

[brandon1]

I've had the Exo Terra Monsoon now for about 7 months. It was working fine until about 2 weeks ago. One of the nozzles wasn't spraying which was fine because I only used one. I tried to clean it to no avail. So I just let it be. Well as of this morning the whole thing pooped out on me. The lights come on, and it still makes noise but no water is getting sucked up. It really blows because I have been waiting months to get my second Chameleon. I was planning on purchasing him on the 1st of April. Now it looks like I'm going to have to buy a mister. I could try to contact the manufacturer, but I really don't want to go through all of this crap. I was planning on getting a Mistking in a few months anyways. My question is which one should I get? I want to get one around $100. I will have two Chameleons and only need one nozzle per cage. I've heard people mention the Mistking starter kit. Should I go with that, or will I need one of the bigger kits? I'm a little concerned on space. I know the Mistkings require a large bucket. Ontop of that, I have four dogs. I will need something to cover the top of the bucket so dog hair doesn't contaminate the water. And the Mistking looks really hard to setup. But I'm sure you guys could help me with that when it gets here. So in summary, which kit would best fit my needs?

P.S. - If any of you have owned the Monsoon, what the crap happened to mine? I'm guessing it's the pump but I have no idea.

I've had my regrets of the Monsoon for a while now. Before i knew about CF I hadn't anyone of any experience tell me which misting system is the best so I went with gut instinct on which one would be the best and chose a Monsoon. I now think there's something wrong with my gut. I'm pretty disappointed in it because there have been times when I set the timers for like 4 hour increments and it would go off every few seconds . Sometimes it will just come on on it's own . Now I just turn it on for a little while and watch it mist and then turn it off afterwards. At some point when I get some time to really watch it throughout the day I'll try out the timer again to see if I can't get it to work.

 

[UrbanChameleon]

I've had my regrets of the Monsoon for a while now. Before i knew about CF I hadn't anyone of any experience tell me which misting system is the best so I went with gut instinct on which one would be the best and chose a Monsoon. I now think there's something wrong with my gut. I'm pretty disappointed in it because there have been times when I set the timers for like 4 hour increments and it would go off every few seconds . Sometimes it will just come on on it's own . Now I just turn it on for a little while and watch it mist and then turn it off afterwards. At some point when I get some time to really watch it throughout the day I'll try out the timer again to see if I can't get it to work.

I'm sorry about that Brandon. I've been reading up on it today, and a lot of people have had problems with the timer portion of it. Apparently water can get into the top part and screw it up. I've heard of peoples cages flooding, so I'd make sure you have a really good drainage system. I went with it because it was either the Monsoon, or the Habba Mist. And that thing is falsely advertised. It doesn't mist at all. It's like an automated dripper. My Monsoon worked perfectly until now. But 7 months is a very short time for a mister to work. I don't feel like going through the hassle of shipping the mister, and waiting on them to send me a new one. That is.. if they will. We could have payed the same price for a much nicer mister (such as Mistking). Before I bought my Chameleon it looked way too complicated. But now I've built all kinds of stuff for him. So I feel pretty confident I can do it.

By the way.. Does anyone know the cheapest place to get the Mistking? I live in KY and don't want to pay a butt load for shipping. I've ordered from LLL Reptile before. Everything went pretty smoothly with them. I'd have to check on the kits they have though. Some places only carry the ultimate set-up.

 

[UrbanChameleon]

Please help me out guys. I feel like all of the posts I really need answered, don't get answered. Almost everyone on those site has a Mistking. I know not everyone is online right now, but please help answer my question when you see this. Thanks.

 

[Bobaflage]

Hi Natalie.
I'm new to the forums and new to chameloens also. I just received a 3 month old ambiloba panther and had him for about a week now. He's a cool little guy. Anyway, one of the first topics i looked for was about the Monsoon misting system. I bought this unit over the Mist King mainly because of the look and features of the unit not knowing that the Mist King is a far superior system. I've only had it running for 2 days and already have issues with the cycle feature. I started it at 8:30am and set it for every 6 hours and it came on again at 11:00am. I called customer service and right away they said it was a problem with the timer so they must get alot of these complaints. I'm going to get the mist king and see if i can get a refund on the Monsoon. Its a big headache but i cant stand getting ripped off
Hope this helps Jim....

 

[ph34r]

i run mine off an external timer and it works fine i set the time dial on the unit all the way to the left then let the external timer do all the work i set the timer for 5 min every four hours it translates to about 4 mins of misting but the monsoon has to go of twice in that five mins

 

[ChappyMcChap]

I spent around $200 on my mist king for 5 cages and it works great. With the $180 package it's really the best bang for your buck, everything you need and more. Save the money, buy that you won't regret it. I ordered mine from the site, shipping is around $20, but you have a lot of modularity if there is anything else you need. If you are near the Tennessee/Kentucky border I'll help you set it up. It is a bit complicated. I have some extra parts that may help you as well.

 

[Kate]

Hi there. I went through 3 monsoons in about 3 months. The timer just didn't work. Set it at 4 hrs and it went off at 2 hrs. I invested in a mistking and have never looked back. I only use it for 1 viv so bought the basic one. It came with 1 nozzle and a free gift which gives me another nozzle. You could contact Marty at mistking and he will advise you as to what you require. He is very helpful. I got a 5l bucket with lid from amazon. It needs to be a bucket you can bore a hole in the side. The kind caterers use for food. The pump is quite hefty compared to others I have used but it is quiet as long as tubing is anchored down. Instructions can be downloaded from mistking and are not too complicated. Hope that helps.

 

[Kate]

Forgot to say it can come with timer which is easy to program.

 

[BoopDoop]

I just sent mine in, they will replace it for free, there's a two year warrenty, and they paid for the shipping, I had the same problem as you and wanted my money back but they said they don't give refunds. I wish I would have gotten a mist king, so when this monsoon breaks I'm going with a mist king.

 

[Kate]

I sent mine back twice. I have decided to keep monsoon for a spare as it took 6 weeks to ship mistking to uk. I have also used lucky reptile super rain but it packed in after 5 months and was so noisy we couldn't hear tv when it was on.
Mistking is indeed KING.

 

[UrbanChameleon]

Thanks for all of the replies. I finally got ahold of them (it took 2 weeks) and they told me to send them my defective Monsoon. It was clearly the pump that had gone bad. I had to pay to ship it to them, but they took care of the rest. Regardless, I'm going to buy a Mistking next paycheck. I currently have two cages on opposite sides of my room. I'll use the Monsoon for my baby Ambilobe, and the Mistking for my adult Veiled. Once Loki is big enough, I'll have their adult cages side by side and then completely rule out the Monsoon. Fingers crossed that it lasts long enough. Lol.

Speaking of Mistking.. which one should I go with? I'm thinking I could buy the starter package and get an extra nozzle. Would that be ideal, or should I go with the next package up?

 

[Rottsko]

Thanks for all of the replies. I finally got ahold of them (it took 2 weeks) and they told me to send them my defective Monsoon. It was clearly the pump that had gone bad. I had to pay to ship it to them, but they took care of the rest. Regardless, I'm going to buy a Mistking next paycheck. I currently have two cages on opposite sides of my room. I'll use the Monsoon for my baby Ambilobe, and the Mistking for my adult Veiled. Once Loki is big enough, I'll have their adult cages side by side and then completely rule out the Monsoon. Fingers crossed that it lasts long enough. Lol.

Speaking of Mistking.. which one should I go with? I'm thinking I could buy the starter package and get an extra nozzle. Would that be ideal, or should I go with the next package up?

i have both and i'd go w/ the ulitimate value kit. i'll probably have to get a third mist king in the near future and i'll be getting the ultimate value kit again. www.mistingdepot.com has a special right now for free shipping on order over $150. just an fyi...

 

[Kate]

If you can afford the ultimate I would say go for it. It does seem to have more components than the starter kit. With our ever growing menageries this will serve a few vivs in the future.

 

[UrbanChameleon]

Ok cool. Thanks for the info, and the tip on the free shipping Rott.

I wasn't sure about going with the Ultimate. Only because if I have more nozzles, it will just give me more reason to get more Chameleons. Haha. The most I can have at once is 3. I will have to remove my chair for Loki's adult cage, and one more will probably mean removing something else. I'm probably going to end up only having my bed in my room.

 

[Rottsko]

Ok cool. Thanks for the info, and the tip on the free shipping Rott.

I wasn't sure about going with the Ultimate. Only because if I have more nozzles, it will just give me more reason to get more Chameleons. Haha. The most I can have at once is 3. I will have to remove my chair for Loki's adult cage, and one more will probably mean removing something else. I'm probably going to end up only having my bed in my room.

You're welcome!!! LOL! that's the cham addiction taking over. it's good to have a spare nozzle anyways, just in case a nozzle gets clogged or malfunctions in some other way. and...when you're ready for your 3rd cham, it'll be there to use!

 

[Hdale85]

Do you think clogging problems may be related to using regular tap water? Would distilled water or something be better? Just curious, I'm not sure I have 100 bucks to spend on a mister right now lol. I may have to look into something else

 

[Kate]

It depends on where you live. We have soft water here , so have no problems. I Also use a filter.

 

[UrbanChameleon]

Do you think clogging problems may be related to using regular tap water? Would distilled water or something be better? Just curious, I'm not sure I have 100 bucks to spend on a mister right now lol. I may have to look into something else

Distilled and RO (Reverse Osmosis) water are ideal to use. The distilled is boiled, and the RO is filtered. Regular tap water will have a lot of unnecessary minerals and will also leave calcium deposits on glass, plants, etc. Tap water will most definitely eventually clog a misting system. Especially if you live in a region with harsh water. I used to use distilled and then switched to RO. Either is fine, but some of the forum members prefer RO. You can buy both at Walmart, which is where I get mine. The Reverse Osmosis is also cheaper where I live. I'm sure the other members will chime in and give you some other suggestions on where to buy your water. I live in a small town, so I don't have too many places to choose from.

And by the way.. buying a mister is totally worth it. Money well spent. It was one of the best purchases I made for my Chameleons. One tip though.. don't buy the Exo Terra Monsoon. Lol.