Don't know if this will help anyone but I purchased a MBT Brute II FM-850 from Cheap Lights last year.  It worked great and when I went to store it I ran some plain old tap water through it for a few minutes.  There has been a lot of talk on the Halloween-l about fogger storage so this might help someone.  Anyway, the this year I fired up the fogger and nothing.  I could tell the core was getting hot as I burnt my finger (no picture of that) on the outlet.

I get a lot of emails asking where I got my replacement pump at.  I went to MBT Lighting and called their Customer Service at 1-800-641-6931.  At that time they could not sell me a pump but gave me the number to a music store in the local area that could order it for me.  It got here in about 1 week.  An individual emailed me saying his Radio Shack fogger had the same pump and they sold replacement pumps for $20.00.  You can get the Radio Shack part number here.

** Update **
A gentleman sent me some information about the Radio Shack pump.

"---
I just installed the pump that I got from Radio Shack and it works great. It even came with the proper connectors. Seems to be that Radio Shack is using the same pump.  I went to my local Radio Shack on 12/08/03 and ordered their # 12192449 PUMP SP-12A. It shipped from Texas on 12/09/03 and received exactly what I needed on 12/13/03 in the mail. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised.  Total cost was $ 25.31 pump $ 19.99 shipping $ 3.50 CA Tax $1.82
---"

For the price of the pump vs the price of a new fogger it may not be worth the money to get a pump unless you really hate to part with your fogger.  The one thing I have learned is DON'T CLEAN YOUR FOGGER!!!  Cheap Lights recommended their fog cleaning fluid which is basically watered down vinegar as far as I could tell.  This killed the first and SECOND pump!!!  Now I just leave my fluid in the fogger and fire it up about every 6 months and about 1 month before Halloween.  I have been told the cleaning fluid should only be used for foggers that are used for weeks at a time and not the occasional 30 or 40 hours that I do.  Someone said if you want to clean them just run some distilled water, not tap water, through the fogger but I just leave the fluid in the tank and don't clean them.

I took the fogger apart because I figured if it's already busted I can't do much more damage so I took out the pump.  I took the pump apart and cleaned it with vinegar and distilled water.  It worked for several days and then it quit again so I cleaned it a second time and got about 1 more day out of it and after that I could not get it to work correctly.

The fogger was way out of warranty so I called MBT and got a source to order me a pump.  The pump was $50.00 and I think I paid $78.00 for the fogger a year ago.  When I called Cheap Lights they said I should buy a new one instead of fixing this one but I figured everything was still working so I'd take the chance.  Works like a charm now.

A couple of notes here.  I don't think the tap water killed my fogger to be honest.  When I got the fogger, it seemed to me the pump was rather loud anyway and the new one is much more quiet.  Maybe a bad pump.  The first time I took the pump apart a tiny piece of metal fell out, like a shaving which makes me think the pump was defective from the get go or at least a weak component.  In the first picture Item 8 screws into item 1 and as long as I did not crank it down tight the pump would still pump or vibrate but just not strong enough to send any fog juice to the heat core.  In my opinion I think the main coil was going bad which was an electrical problem and no matter how much I cleaned it, the pump would not work again.

The yellow wire goes to the heat core and the black wire goes to the neutral (AC)  When the core gets hot enough, power is turned on to the pump which makes me think if you had a fogger with a dead pump you could possibly wire up a different kind of pump and get it to work.  I do not recommend this and do not accept any responsibility if you try.

In case anyone wants to know the pump is labeled AC-120V60HZ SP-12A(M12063)  Antari Lighting and Effects LTD.  The new pump was labeled the same way but I had to order it by part number FM800P.

As you can see from the photo there isn't much to this tiny pump and only a few small rubber pieces.  I don't know if vinegar would attack these pieces but mine were in good shape.  On the left of item 1, this piece plugs into the little plastic tank on the fogger and inside of the black fitting is a screen.  Mine you couldn't remove but I could blow air through the piece so the screen was not clogged.  Plus if you hold it up to the light you can see if the screen is clogged.

This is a picture of the inside of the main pump coil (Item 1).  

This is a close up of item 8.  There is a rubber seal inside but you can see the little hole in the back.  This is a very tiny hole and could clog pretty easily.

Last but not least this is item 4.  On the right shaft there is a heave black rubber washer, then a brass washer and then a red rubber washer.   On the left side there is a small spring inserted inside.  I did not try to remove this when I was cleaning it.

12/22/03 06:56:06 AM

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