New Line of Misting Nozzles & Systems - Sneak Peek!

[LaserGecko]

Hi everyone,

Well, I'm sure some folks out there won't want to read this, but someone who cares more about the animals than the almighty dollar is about to turn the reptile misting scene upside down. That Habba Mist is a piece of junk. We all know it. It should be called the HabbaSpit because that's all it does.

So, I'm working on a way to provide real misting for only slightly more than the cost of a HabbaMist and a premium misting system for only slightly more still.

Here's a sneak peek at my new line of misting nozzles!

(Note: Natural color tubing shown in the NoBulkHead model for illustrative purposes only. I will be carrying black tubing to prevent algae growth.)
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• Safe - All components except the nozzles are 100% NSF certified food grade components, so they are safe for use with humans.
• Safer - Made with the most reliable components on the planet! This pump system is engineered to the manufacturer's safety specifications with a properly rated thermal fuse!
• Simpler - The use of a single size bulkhead means a simpler installation and your system is much more flexible should your needs change in the future. Other systems require a 5/8" hole for the flush mount and a 1/2" hole for the swivel units.
• Optimized use of components allows the most affordable implementation of these premium nozzles on the planet!
• Customizable - Nozzles available in both standard and NoDrip units, in a wider variety of patterns and flow rates, your choice at no additional cost. Tailor your system to fit your needs.
• More money for you! Significantly more affordable than other systems on the market. (SuperSwivel nozzle $17.75, SwivelNozzle $16.25, FlushMount $13, NoBH $9, the "Junior Pump" that sells for $90 elsewhere, $70 or less here)
• Affordable component cost! You won't pay a MistKing's Ransom for replacement parts. (like $9.99 for a thermal fuse that costs under a buck!)
• Special bulk pricing for breeders and large systems.

These are preliminary prices only. I'm working with several different suppliers and directly with the manufacturers to try to get the costs even lower. Also, I'm still working on the website and getting the pump details worked out completely but I hope to be up and running soon. My nozzles shipment probably won't arrive for another couple of weeks.

Let me know if you have any thoughts or questions.

 

[Dankmeleon]

just out of curiosity, what makes these nozzles less prone to clog

i've never used commercial misting systems but am very familiar with micro irrigation parts, the red mister nozzles you have almost look similar to the e/z clone 360 degree barbed misters which are higher end misters, that still eventually clog with the use of tap water

also its pretty clear that misters get clogged very easily by particals in tap water because the holes in them that create the misting effect are so small which makes them go from MIST to SPIT, what makes yours different


a lot of 360 misters and 1/4micro tubing can be purchased at home depot for under 10 dollars....i'm guessing this system comes with some sort of propulsion, as in the diy route you would need either a strong pump or water pressure.....for 70 dollars you can buy a really strong submersible pump at a hydroponic store for example I purchased a eco 1056 for 90, and smaller pumps that are strong enough can be purchased for as low as 30.....what are your pumps rated at?

 

[Electric]

well, you sound like a man with a plan! and if it ends up being everything you say it will, I'm sure your system will be a success.

please tell me you'll ship to Canada ^_^

 

[Vegas Chad]

I will buy them all!

 

[summoner12]

Here is a photo of my cham but you can see the type water jet I use. I have been using this jet for about 2 months and only cleaned it once. I didn't clean it because it was clogged, I just had it out of the cage so it was convenient.

 

[LaserGecko]

All misting nozzles will clog if you use them with hard water. Good luck getting around the physics involved with that with any system. Heck, the water in Las Vegas is so hard, you can scratch your paint when washing your car. Seriously though, we did find that some sort of defect with certain fire sprinkler heads that resulted in a changes to their design nationwide because of the hardness. Even the hundred dollar, micro ruby based nozzles will clog if you use them with hard water, but feed them with $.35 per gallon RO water from a water store or even cheaper with your own RO unit, and you're good to go.

These aren't Home Depot cheapy nozzles. No barbs or hose clamps here! These have been used in the reptile hobby and industry for awhile. The droplet size is around 60 microns and the built in check valves dramatically reduce dripping after the system is off on the NoDrip nozzles.

The HabbaMist's problem is the pressure and the overall cheapness of the unit.


Electric,

Oh yeah! Now that the USPS has made some very nice changes to the online Global Priority Mail system, shipping to Canada is a breeze! The integrated customs declaration form makes it much easier than it used to be and for pretty cheap, too.

 

[summoner12]

I like to filter my water.

 

[booshified]

i def think their are gonna be a few people interested in seeing your whole package and costs. keep us posted.

 

[LaserGecko]

Quick update: I'm still waiting on the nozzles, but the parts are all in stock, the business licenses and corporate paperwork ducks are all in a row, and I am now setup to sell the big pumps this afternoon.

I may not mess with selling the "junior" brick style pump. I will have to analyze the cost of specific part numbers for the bigger pumps, but there might not be enough of a cost difference to justify carrying three seperate pumps.

Watch this space!

 

[booshified]

Watch this space!

will do...as i am sure others will too

 

[Fate X]

how much will the system cost in the basic form 1 nozzle,pump,tubing ?

 

[summoner12]

how much are nozzles?

 

[LaserGecko]

Sorry I "mist" the new response (yuk, yuk, yuk)

Well, it's still not set in stone yet since I'm still getting everything setup, but depending on the type of nozzle, somewhere around $115 for the "standard" pump with the most affordable nozzle. Well, my "standard" pump, anyway. I'm definitely not going to sell the "junior" brick style, inline pumps that others do. There's no point in it, IMHO since I can sell a system that's UL and NSF listed, can run dry, rated for 30,000 hours, self primes, and can run continuously without melting and sounding like a huge aquarium pump for ~$8 more.

I think it's money well spent. My cost is actually about $16 more for the diaphragm pump (parts and shipping), but it's an investment in the customer's safety and happiness that I'm willing to take. My real job as a theatrical lighting technician has taught me far too much about liability issues to sell those component pumps! Besides, it will be easier to interface my misting controller to the lower voltage pump. (oops, get back in that bag, cat!) The Breeder Pump (high flow version) should be about $115.

Here's a couple of action shots from the recent retrofit:

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It's very easy to install them into a screen cage. The corner braces are from scrap 1/4" melamine now, but I will have them available in acrylic for pretty cheap.

Anyway, I will save the rant for the website.

 

[booshified]

website?

you selling through a website? if so when do you plan on being operational?

 

[LaserGecko]

Eh, as soon as possible, but you know how that goes in the online world. I'm just waiting on the last bit of paperwork to clear.

 

[Fate X]

i thought you were putting a 1 nozzle system together for about 80.00-90.00$.it would only be a few dollars more then the habba mist.
i quess the water pump is what is driving the cost over 100.00.

i woner if a spay system would benefit a chameleoen because i could put a 1 nozzle spray system together for about 60.00 but its not a mist its a spray.

 

[LaserGecko]

Yeah, I was really trying to hit that price point, but I do not feel comfortable recommending that inline, brick style pump to anyone. It's not that it's a bad design; it's great for intermittant use in an espresso machine, but it is actually a component of a pump system and not a complete system. It is intended to be designed as part of a system and not run by itself. It needs to have both overcurrent and overtemperature protection designed into the circuit. I found a component that could do both and automatically reset itself when the temperature dropped, but it was $7 each in 100 quantity.

If you run the brick dry, it will melt. The thing could actually run continuously if you had some sort of active cooling on it, but the last time I checked, I don't have a degree that would qualify me to design and test such a system and I want to sleep at night, so I just can't sell the thing.

I wouldn't have it in my house, so I won't sell it to anyone just to make a few bucks. I want you to keep your house just as much as I want to keep mine. According to this thread on GardenWeb, that is a very real possibility.

So, after all of the work I put into that stupid brick pump, I find out that it's really not worth selling since a UL listed, diaphragm pump is only a little more. I have the UL Requirements document from the manufacturer. Even if I did all of the engineering correctly, didn't miss carrying a 1, or screw up anything else, it still wouldn't be UL listed without an investment of tens of thousands of dollars to have them test it. I've been through a UL certification; it ain't fun and it ain't cheap!

I'm still looking for a quality, affordable pump for a HabbaMist killer system, but it's hard to compete with that kind of build quality. Until then, it will be slightly more than I had hoped, but you get a top-shelf system for the $30 extra bucks than my previously targeted price point.

Relatively speaking, that's pretty cheap in this hobby!

 

[Fate X]

does the habba produce mist or spray ?

i am not familiar with the brick pumps.

i seen some hydroponic pumps that have intake and output fittings to run the sprayers for there aeroponics systems.theres like 5 differnt kind of nozzles 180,360 etc and most of them have a barbed fitting that fits 1/4 od tubing like drip depot sells.
i just have not experimented yet,i bought one spray nozzle ive not connected to a pump yet,im gonna connect it to a eco pump like 264gh it pumps to 8ft i think.it got a input and output with all the water spraying in the cage you gotta have direct drainage i would think if they use lots a water i think they do to because for aeroponics they re-use the water over n over again.
think is if i could get a spray/drip effect and a chameleons respond to it by drinking or cooling off etc it might be useful and then sell it for 50.00 n it might cost me 22.00 for the parts.thats a very high number but i could have them make nice boxes with graphics n shrinkwrap plastic .
i was thinking those laser spray nozzles might be useful

 

[LaserGecko]

The brick style pump to which I am referring is the one sold in the Rainmaker Junior kit (Ecologic Environments) and the regular Misting Kit by MistKing.

The Rainmaker Junior apparently has no temperature protection and the MistKing unit has a "thermal fuse" that's appears to me to be improperly rated and not installed correctly to boot.

I spoke with the manufacturer's Applications Engineer. He provided all of the engineering and design data to me and was a font of knowledge (as he should be). The coil in the pump should never exceed 100°C. That's the UL rating for the component.

Their engineer told me that the thermal gradient between the coil and the outside of the enclosure is 40°C, so the exterior of the pump should never under any circumstances exceed 60°C and that (naturally) temperature monitoring should happen on the surface of the pump.

It appears that MistKing is selling an 84°C thermal link that is wired inline in the power cord. I don't know how or if it actually contacts the case of the pump in any way. Even if it does, it is 24°C above the rated temperature for the case, so the coil would be allowed to exceed the rated temperature by a significant margin. (Good luck finding one rated for exactly 60°C, btw.)

Perhaps there is some engineering principle at work here of which I and the applications engineer are unaware. That's very possible for me, because I'm not a certified engineer of any sort, but doubtful for the manufacturer. I will gladly retract my statement and change my opinion if it can be demonstrated mathematically how I'm wrong.

There are two concepts that my employers have spent thousands of dollars to ensure that I understand since I hang thousands of pounds of lights above the unsuspecting publics' collective heads:

First, changing the manufacturer's or engineer's design specs without written, stamped approval is a horrible idea and opens up an incredible amount of liability, both civil and criminal.

Second, the phrase "that's the way we've always done it" is what gets people killed. Doing something incorrectly for 3,000 times doesn't make it safe.

Sorry, went into a bit of a rant, but I'm considering a "trade-in" discount on the pumps I sell just to get those things out of service. This isn't meant to run anyone else's product down, but one other thing they taught us in all of those classes:

If you see something dangerous, don't wait until after an accident to speak up!

 

[Fate X]

i have one of those pumps i ran 4 mist nozzles on.i ran it for 4-5 mn at a time due to thermal issues.

it had run for hours after left on by accident well over a dozen times until the tension spring cracked but she never burnt up on me.

i ran it for 15 mn at a time ,it did get hot ,it never actually burned or tripped a fuse.


why dont u use a shurflo 12v pump ?

i was just reading the habba mist thread and people say its produces a spray so its better then nothing so i might design my own habba mist it would be more powerful and hold a little more water,like a upgraded habba mist i think these 360 sprayers might work.it might cost 17.00 for the parts n sell it for 43.00