This Home-Built Fog Machines Will Add an Eerie Touch to Your Space This Halloween (2024)

A do-it-yourself Halloween could be as simple as positioning a few scary props at strategic locations throughout your home, or as elaborate as a movie-grade haunted house. But one thing you’ll definitely want either way? Some creepy fog to set a mysterious mood. You can build a simple DIY fog machine to make that vision a reality.

The good news is that we’ve got a couple ways to make fog without forking over a bunch of cash. The first method, using glycerin and a candle, is a popular hack easily found in one form or another all over the internet. It can be a little finicky and won’t produce a ton of fog, but it’ll make enough to lend your pumpkin some extra creepiness. Our second method, using an ultrasonic atomizer, is equally inexpensive, requires less fiddling, and produces more reliable fog. You can make either one for under $20. That’s cheaper than the ol’ dry ice-in-a-bucket-of-water routine—since a 10-pound block of dry ice can cost anywhere from $10 to $30 and lasts about 20 minutes.

Glycerine-Based Fogger

➡️ Supplies you’ll need

• Candle (you can use what you have, but pillar candles with multiple wicks work best)
• A 5-inch aluminum pie plate
• A gallon of distilled water
• A bottle of food-grade glycerin
• A 12- to 15-ounce coffee can
• An empty 2-liter soda bottle

Now that you’ve got all your ingredients, it’s time to build your very own fog machine.

Step 1: Make your “fog juice” by mixing a solution of one part glycerin to three parts distilled water. The “fog” is created when the solution is heated to the point of evaporation. The process leaves an accumulation of dense vapor, which becomes cloudy when it hits room-temperature air.

Step 2: Cut the top off the 2-liter soda bottle, invert it, and tape it to the small aluminum pie plate to create a chimney. Be aware, plastic melts. If your fog juice completely evaporates, the soda bottle could melt and possibly burn.

Step 3: Take the empty metal coffee can or a large soup can—without the lid, of course—and add vent holes all the way around the edge on the bottom and the top. You can use a stepped drill bit for this or the pointed end of an old-fashioned can/bottle opener.

Step 4: Place the candle in the can and light it—multi-wick candles work best. Place the pie tin/fog machine over the can’s open top, add a couple of teaspoons or so of fog juice, and place the chimney on top. In a couple of minutes, you should have fog. To replenish the fogger, just pour additional teaspoons of fog juice into the fog machine as needed.

Ultrasonic Atomizer Fogger

➡️ Supplies you’ll need

• An ultrasonic atomizer/mist maker (you can get one with LED lights built in)
• A glass bowl (a steep-sided, 4-cup Pyrex bowl works well)

Now build your fog machine.

Step 1: Assemble the splash guard that came with your ultrasonic atomizer. You’re going to need to trim it so that the edge of the cone on top is ¼ inch above the lip of your bowl. Put the assembled guard in the bowl, measure to the bottom of the cone, and subtract a ¼ inch—this is how much to trim off the bottom of the splash guard.

Step 2: Fill the bowl with water to within ½ inch from the top. Place the ultrasonic atomizer in the center of the bowl and slip the splash guard over the top. When you plug in the atomizer, the fog will start almost immediately.

Using Your Fog Machine in a Pumpkin

Tips:

• You’ll need a large pumpkin to fit either of these fog machines inside.
• Make sure there’s enough room for a couple of candles.
• When carving the pumpkin, make a wide, low mouth to allow the fog to roll out of it.

Need More Fog?

If you need truly copious amounts of fog, you can always turn to commercially available fog machines. But, they require the use of a special fluid—and, they often have small reservoirs that need to be refilled frequently. Using an ultrasonic atomizer like the one above, but with multiple atomizing heads, you could build one that runs for hours using a 20 gallon storage tote. Just fill it up, drop in the ultrasonic atomizer, and use a small fan to direct the fog where you want it to go.

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