The Competitors

I was suprised by how many misting outfits there were out there. I only considered those that had a good web presence, because I wanted to make an educated decision. I also did not choose to consider the Habba Mist system, because of the generally poor marks this has received in reptile forums.

• Rainmaker Jr.
• Rainmaker I
• Pro-Mist 60
• Pro-Mist 70
• Mr Moisture
• Mr Moisture Pro
• MistKing
• Big Apple Herp

Check out the Comparison sheet I made. I took all the values from the manufacturer’s websites, so don’t kill me if some of them are wrong. Please comment if you do find errors, though.

I eliminated The Big Apple, Rainmaker JR and Mr Moisture right away because they all had a limit on how long you could run them. One of my primary requirements was being able to run the system for at least 15 minutes.

So at this point it was between the Rainmaker I, the Pro Mist, Mist King and Mr Moisture Pro. You may want to look at the Comparison Short List. Each had a combination of continuous duty pumps, claims of being quiet (except Mr Moisture), and what looked like good quality nozzles.

Pro Mist PM 70. The most expensive of the four was the Pro Mist ringing in at $260. It also listed the lowest flow rate, the longest warranty, the longest included tubing. It also claimed it was “whisper quiet”, which was the boldest of the four claims. It lacked a reservoir, however, and only came with two nozzles. However, they claimed their metal nozzles would last longer than plastic because you can clean them.

Mist King. The least expensive of the top four at $170, the Mist King had some very sexy features like adjustable nozzles and check valves. The check valves are meant to reduce excess flow when the misting stops. This setup looked more oriented to dart frogs than chameleons. Excess flow and aim-ability weren’t a concern for me because I had a massive drainage system and would be mounting the nozzle on the top of the cage, straight up and down for maximum coverage. Notice that it came with a one year warranty and a generous return policy.

It did not come with a reservoir and had the shortest included hose length (15′). If you have a setup far away from your reservoir you’ll need to add more hose. They did include all the necessary hardware you need to install the Mist King to whatever reservoir you choose + some good instructions on how to do so.

One of the biggest reasons not to get the Mist King is that they didn’t specify the maximum duration of spray and it supported the least amount of nozzles (10). This worried me a little, because it might not be equipped to handle long 20 minute sessions that I needed.

Mr Moisture Pro. About in the middle of the pack in terms of price at $210, the Mr Moisture system seemed like a good deal. It came with three “low flow” nozzles (I’m not sure how low), a 60 PSI pump, a 100 micron filter screen and the capacity to support a whopping 125 nozzles. Most systems only come with a 200 micron screen and can only support 50 nozzles. This leads me to believe, if their claims of maximum supported nozzles are to be believed, that their pump is superior to the others. Of course, this is just a hunch and I cannot substatiate this.

Like the others it did not come with a reservoir. I think these higher end misters assume you are going to want to tailor reservoir size to your setup. This probably would have been my second choice, after the Rainmaker, because of the lower cost and what looks like a better pump. I decided against it because of the lack of a reservoir and no warranty information on their site.

Rainmaker I. Towards the high end in price was the Rainmaker at $240. It was about average in terms of being low flow at .045 L/m, claimed it was very quiet, came with the most nozzles and had the greatest variety of extra nozzles you could buy. It was the only one of the high end misters to come with a Reservoir. The only downside I saw was the short 30 day warranty.

There were a number of reasons I ended up going with the Rainmaker I over the other three. First was the available reservoir. I liked that it came with everything I needed to get started. Also, they had 5 nozzles to choose from, so I had more flexibility. Probably more than all of this, however, was the number of folks that recommended Ecologic equipment and service. A majority of the people who responded to my post on chameleon journals with misting systems recommended the Rainmaker Jr.

The only problem I heard about was a horror story about someone’s Rainmaker Jr. melting his carpet. I guess it was triggered accidentally and ran dry for hours. Remember that the Jr. was only designed for intermittent duty of 5 minutes or less. It was a miracle he found it when he did, otherwise it may have burnt his house down. The good side was that Ecologic replaced his pump for free, no questions asked. Knowing that Ecologic was willing to replace the pump, even though it clearly stated on their website that it was not designed for longer durations made me feel all warm and fuzzy about the company. And with the full duty, run dry, Rainmaker I pump, I shouldn’t have any problems with melting carpet.

Now that I’ve made up my mind, let’s move on to ordering and shipping.