There are two basic choices for cooling a patio or other outdoor space: misting fans or a standard high pressure misting system with lines of misting nozzles.

If you have an outdoor space with a patio cover, gazebo, or similar structure, mist lines are a great way to go. This is really the best application for patio misting systems. Typically you would attach misting lines around the perimeter of the shade cover on any open sides (If any sides of the structure are against a house or building, you would not want the misting lines there.) The idea is to create a curtain of mist around that space within, so that every bit of air that enters the space is pre-cooled as it enters. And the evaporation of the mist itself creates the best cooling of all.

If you have a very large patio area to cool, or if you have no patio cover at all, misting fans make a nice choice, too. The breeze of the fans is used to carry the mist and cool, “evaporated mist” air over a larger distance. Of course the breeze of the fans cools you nicely as well! The misting nozzles are placed directly on the face of the fans, and the mist is launched into the breeze of those fans and out across your patio area.

Other options include misting risers coming up out of adjacent planter areas, or a line of misting along the top of a wall against your building or even along the top of a fence. For restaurants and some patios we have even strung a tight cable across the space and hung the misting lines from that.

There are many options, the bottom line is if you can’t do the ideal “curtain of mist” around a patio cover, you just need to evaporate water into the air within that outdoor space, and distribute it as evenly as possible.

For patio misting systems, nozzle sizing is one of the most important factors for successful system design. Whether your area is dry or humid, your hotter days are 105 degrees or 90 degrees, if you mount the mist nozzles at 8 feet high or 12 feet high on the patio, and how far apart the nozzles are spaced on the misting lines will all determine the right size to choose.

For a starting point, we will use a typical scenario. In our example the usual high temperatures in summer time are 92-95 degrees. Humidity is reasonable (25-50% in the afternoon) and the mist lines will be hung at 8 feet high. This is our most common story. In this case, we would recommend a nozzle spacing of 24 inches, and nozzle size of .008”.)

If you live where it is much hotter (like 97-100 for a typical high) we would recommend a jump to the .012” nozzles. Same recommendation if you are mounting the lines at around 10 feet, as our fine mist tends to evaporate and you would need more of that water in the air to be able to fill that larger space with cool, evaporated mist.

Alternatively, if you live where it is cooler (like 80-90 for a high) or in high humidity (over 50%) or you would be mounting the lines at 6-7 feet, we would recommend the .006” nozzles.

With so many factors and combinations of factors determining the right choice in patio misting system nozzles, it is hard to describe them all here in one place. This should be a great starting point, and feel free to call us at (877)877-MIST if you’d like more guidance on it. Hope this helps!

This is the biggest myth in misting. Yes, if you are used to a cheap, “connect-it-to-your-garden-hose” system, you have probably dealt with some wetness. We aren’t selling the flimsy stuff here! This is the whole reason you up the budget a bit and introduce a high pressure misting pump into the mix. The difference is like night and day!

With higher pressure, you create a much finer mist…and way more of it! The mist is fine enough that it will completely evaporate into the air without hitting the ground. And the evaporation is where the cooling comes from…not the wetness. The chemical process of evaporation actually requires or “uses” heat to occur. So every drop of mist that evaporates into the air actually takes heat with it! When you are evaporating millions of droplets into the air every minute, the effects are dramatic. And no…you won’t get wet!