I don't want to come across as the voice of doom, but I bought a cheap system, installed it (the nozzles were brass though) and in a few days all but one of the nozzles were plugged up with hard water. I have about 15 grains of hardness and very low iron content. I guess if your have soft water to hook one to, it would last a little longer. I also bought the inline filter they suggested and that didn't help a bit. (I never liked those things anyway) I also bought a little bottle of the liquid they sold to clean the nozzles. Don't waste your money.
In my limited opinion, this is a great idea if you don't mind doing the maintenance. They do drop the temp about 10° but you will get wet before long.
They drop the temperature anywhere from 10-30 degrees, all dictated by humidity, sunlight, ambient temperature, wind speed. The best application is against buildings where the sunlight is beating off the brick or concrete, or large paved areas where the sun is reflecting, including roofs.
The "quality" of these systems are all dictated on the cost of product and pressures involved. If you spent less than $100 on mist line then you'll get slightly above a wet mist.
The systems I operate are high pressure with 3 different filtrations before it leads to the nozzle itself.
I run ceramic/stainless steel nozzles as they above the line in quality, longer lasting.
A true misting system will run into the hundreds which most are reluctant to spend.
http://www.aeromist.com/
Anything that operates off of the water pressure of a home only will be a wet mist all the way.
High pressure misting involves micro-misting and in relation to the sun, flash evaporation is created.
In this video,
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq9XbgUfXok]Example of Misting[/ame]
the girl and the dog I'm speaking to is not getting wet, and she's less than 6 feet from the misting fan.
That pump is running at 750psi through 6 nozzles in combination with a 7800 cfm fan.
If you look at the top of the screen you see at the front opening of the tent a mist line dropping mist to the entrance. People absolutely loved the comfort it created.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yquWRdZsvHg"]Here's a $19.99 answer[/ame]
Draining the pipe will keep it from dripping after being shut off. I know mine did the same thing. Seems like it would never quit dripping.
I have never had any luck with CLR. I have had people tell me how great it is, but it just doesn't work for me. Maybe Vinegar for the calcium/magnesium, Muriatic for sulphur, Iron out for iron etc.
All I know for sure is that it didn't take me long to tear the whole mess down out of frustration and throw it into the garbage.
The quality systems incorporate no-drip nozzles which are spring loaded and instantly seal off when the required pressure stops.
Brass nozzles are fine, but not for long term uses. I however had brass nozzles last 10 years under a deck, used it year to year and just replaced nozzles when they stopped flowing. Cheap like $3.40 a nozzle.
The filters I use on my systems are more dense than a cigarrette filter, has to be to protect the pump system and all the components.
