I’ve was looking for a good humidity\/hydration solution for Bertie, my Panther chameleon. To benefit others in the same spot as me 2 months ago, I’m posting my experiences. I hope you find this helpful.<\/p>\n
{gallery [bertie_spray]}<\/p>\n
After much consideration and advice from members of Chameleon Journals forum<\/a>, I purchased a Rainmaker I system from Ecologic Technologies<\/a>. I am happy with my decision. <\/p>\n Pros:<\/p>\n Cons:<\/p>\n Other Systems I considered were the Rainmaker Jr. system (also from Ecologic), the Pro-Mist<\/a> system, wetworks Mr Moisture<\/a> system, and the MistKing<\/a> system. I found that the Rainmaker I had the best combination of features and customer loyalty, so I purchased it. But before I go into detail why, let me tell you about the old system<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Before I had this system, I had a home-made pump system that I made from instructions on the Mr. Binx<\/a> site and the Barr<\/a> site. I used a garden timer instead of the fancy X-10 computer timer. It also had a 2.5 gallon reservoir. Other than that my old system was identical to Mr. Binx. Here are some pictures of it taken apart.<\/p>\n {gallery [old_system]}<\/p>\n With the 2.5 gallon R.L. sprayer pump, the fancy DIG timer, nozzles, in line filter and lot’s of irrigation hose, clamps and connectors it ended up costing me over $100. Originally trying to save money by going DIY, I ended up spending more through wasted time and materials.<\/p>\n It worked pretty good, nevertheless. It produced enough pressure to spray pretty fine mist. Since there was no motor, it was almost silent (except for the sound of water through the nozzle). I had plenty of programs I could set with the timer. I could add or remove however many spray nozzles I wanted because I used off the shelf irrigation parts from Home Depot. And I got the pride of building it myself. <\/p>\n The only problem with it was I could not leave on weekends and depend on it retaining pressure. Because garden sprayers require manual pumping, I’d have to get someone to come over every day to pump the thing. So it was handy for spraying mid-day while I was at work, but not for weekend trips to see my girlfriend in Prince George<\/a>. Knowing this would eventually wear on the good nature of my friends and family, I decided to buy an electric pump sprayer. <\/p>\n Now to figure out the system requirements<\/a>. So in February I began to compare various misting systems. Some of my requirements were:<\/p>\n I read a horror story about a misting system that almost burned someone’s house down. <\/em><\/li>\n The rainforests of Madagascar aren’t filled with the sound of piston pumps, so why should my Chameleon’s home be?<\/em><\/li>\n If I’m going to pay someone else to build this, I need to be sure they take pride in their work and give me a new system if mine fails.<\/em><\/li>\n This may seem like a lot, but since I already tried to save money by building a system that was inadequate, I was not going to make the same mistake again. <\/em><\/li>\n I need to be able to leave for the weekend.<\/em><\/li>\n Bertie doesn’t usually begin drinking until you’ve sprayed him for 7 or 8 minutes. And the spray must last long enough after that for him to have access to enough water to drink.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n Non-essential, icing-on-the-cake, features. <\/p>\n A variety of nozzles I can use to tweak the spray would be nice.<\/em><\/li>\n I want to have everything I need sent to me so I don’t need to make an extra trip to home depot.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n So, armed with my requirements and a fast web browser<\/a>, I investigated my options<\/a>. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Check out the Comparison sheet<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. Each had a combination of continuous duty pumps, claims of being quiet (except Mr Moisture), and what looked like good quality nozzles. <\/p>\n Pro Mist PM 70.<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n Mist King.<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n Mr Moisture Pro.<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Rainmaker I.<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n Now that I’ve made up my mind, let’s move on to ordering and shipping<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I ordered the system on February 26. I received it on March 24. I thought this was kind of a long time to wait, even though the company is located in Maryland and had to throw in a couple extra nozzles. My complaint, however, is not that it took a long time. It was how they handled the situation. <\/p>\n I got an order confirmation shortly after ordering. I forgot to tell them I wanted to experiment with all of their different nozzle types, and Steven Kovalik responded quickly saying they would include them, and gave me the estimate. He also told me that hey were behind schedule and that it would take them an extra week to get the order shipped. No problem, I appreciated the warning ahead of time. He told me to expect it the second week of March. <\/p>\n When I didn’t receive it at the time he estimated, I emailed him again. I asked him what the status of my order was and for a tracking number. He said he would try to get a tracking number for me and that it would ship soon. Another week went by and I didn’t hear anything. I called him and emailed him to find out what my order status was. He never responded. But the order arrived on the next day.<\/p>\n Because of this, I give them a C+ for customer service. While they were good early on at keeping me up to date on status, they became difficult to reach towards the end. I never recieved notifications of shipment or a tracking number even though I expressly asked for one. In my opinon, there are no excuses for not sending shipment notificaitons because all major carriers, even USPS gives tracking information with their packages automatically these days. <\/p>\n While this experience didn’t ruin Ecologic for me, I would just warn people to expect a little less notification than usual and have to wait a little longer than expected for your order.<\/p>\n Now that my rant is over, I will talk about receiving my order<\/a>. When I received my order, I was very impressed at the quality of the packing. The system was neatly packaged in a single box. Inside the box was the reservoir. Inside the 5 gallon plastic reservoir was the entire misting system, ‘packed with peanuts.’ You can see the packing job, along with some inital installation shots below.<\/p>\n {gallery [Rainmaker]}<\/p>\n These photos may be a little out of order, but you get the idea. They obviously take pride in their product if they take the time to wrap everything up neatly in bubble wrap, each nozzle set in a separate baggy, and include detailed instructions for installation. I only needed a single nozzle for my setup, so most of the hardware was unnecessary. But I appreciate having it in case I do expand later.<\/p>\n The bucket came pre-fitted with the neoprene bulkhead gasket, which meant I didn’t have to install it myself. I did have to tighten it a bit to get it not to leak.The fittings were all pre-wrapped with teflon, which was a very nice feature. I was able to get the whole system installed in under an hour, with a crescent wrench and a standard screwdriver because the setup was so simple. Step by step instructions were handy, but I’d like pictures along with text for idiots like me.<\/p>\n You’ll notice that the pump had nice rubber feet. This made operation a little quieter and you can stick the pump anywhere.<\/p>\n The bucket was made of high quality opaque plastic. It had a close-able spout on top, which I don’t think I’ll use, but who knows? The lid had a rubber gasket on it, so spills will be unlikely. It also came printed with the components of the Rainmaker I System on the side as a sort of permanent packing list.<\/p>\n The hose is made of very flexible uv resistant plastic. It was semi-see through. I found I had plenty enough hose for my installation. However, if you have a lot of cages you’ll probably need more.<\/p>\n They included way more pieces than I needed for my simple install. It’s good to have lot’s of spares. I’m happy that I bought an assortment of nozzles from them at an extra price ($1.25 a piece). For the record, they sold these to me at below retail price.<\/p>\n The timer was the most complex piece of the install. It took me 15 minutes to get it programmed with the right time and three programs. I set it to come on at 7:30, 12 and 6 for 15 minutes. It came with tiny watch batteries for backup, which I appreciate whenever I have to unplug the timer from the wall. Saves me from having to go through that again. <\/p>\n I double checked the time so that it didn’t come on at 7:30 am and end at 7:30 pm, which would have flooded poor Bertie. The design of these timers could be improved if they just let you set the “on” times and then the interval (5 min, 10 min, 15 min, …). That is how the DIG irrigation timer works. Saves people from making silly mistakes, like I almost did when I was quickly setting the timer. I guess they are multi-purpose timers, though, and it wouldn’t be practical for all applications. <\/p>\n The timer did have a daylight savings time setting, which came in handy this morning when we sprung ahead. I only had to hit the DS button to set the clock ahead one hour. Smart.<\/p>\n After installing all the hoses and screwing on the red nozzle, I filled the reservoir with warm water from my kitchen sink an hit the ON button for the timer. I have to say I was a little suprised at how loud it was. While I was used to a totally silent sprayer (because it was a hand pump model) this seemed a lot louder than their claim of it being ‘very quiet’. I guess I can still hold conversations in my kitchen with it on, so it’s not unusable. But maybe if they put an mp3 recording of the sound when it’s on it would help people make decisions to see if it’s right for them. Or at least provide decible ratings. In my comparison shopping, I had nothing to go on except the manufacturer’s claim that their pump was quiet.<\/p>\n Louder than your Kenmore.<\/p>\n {gallery [Rainmaker_Movie]}<\/p>\n Download a 20 MB movie (about 315 days on at 28.8k modem.) of the pump during operation. You can judge for yourself whether the pump is noisy or not.<\/p>\n {gallery [Rainmaker2]}<\/p>\n Here are some additional pictures of it in use. Doesn’t Bertie look happy?<\/p>\n Wrap it up<\/a>. The misting system I chose was the Rainmaker I system by Ecologic Technologies. I am happy with my decision. The system works perfectly, although it is a little loud. I was a little disappointed at their over-promising and under-delivering when it came to delivery estimates, but the quality and care they take in their product has made up for that.<\/p>\n I’ve used the system for a week, and it’s still going strong. I got the bucket too close to the baseboard heater, and it melted some of the plastic causing the handle to fall off. That is my fault, obviously. <\/p>\n Future plans include installing an inline heater<\/a> for warmer showers and a filter top.<\/p>\n Special thanks go out to Rob Carpenter, Dave Weldon, and the rest of the Chameleon Journals crew for their excellent feedback on their misting systems. <\/p>\n Do it yourself<\/p>\n Commercial solutions<\/p>\n\n
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Old System<\/a><\/h3>\n
\n<\/p>\nRequirements<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Nice to have<\/h3>\n
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The Competitors<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Ordering and shipping<\/a><\/h3>\n
\n<\/p>\nUnpacking<\/a><\/h3>\n
20 MB AVI Movie<\/h3>\n
Rainmaker I in action<\/h3>\n
\n<\/p>\nConclusion<\/a><\/h3>\n
One week after<\/h3>\n
Other resources<\/h3>\n
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