How does a patio mister work? Well it depends on which system you use. There are basically two types of misting systems on the market. One is an expensive system that utilizes a pump to pressurize the water and send it through pipes and tubing to spray out a nozzle in a fine mist. The finer the spray, the quicker it will evaporate, creating a cooling sensation. A good system will lower the ambient air temperature up to 30 degrees.
There are several different versions of the more expensive system, the main difference being the pump itself. In the lesser quality systems, the pump is fairly loud. With the high end systems, the pump is almost silent. You can build a screen around the pump and eliminate most of the noise and hide the system out of sight.
The inexpensive systems rely on the house hold water pressure to send the water out the spray nozzles. At one time, the quality on this type system was disappointing. The droplets were very large, which resulted in a light rain falling on you and your patio, getting everything wet in the process. It also only lowered the ambient air temperature about 10 to 15 degrees.
There have been some pretty innovative changes in the past couple of years in the spray nozzles. These now produce a finer mist at normal water pressures. As a result, the majority of the mist evaporates before it falls. This results in a lower ambient air temperature with much less mess. These systems can lower the temperature between 20 and 30 degrees, almost as well as the more expensive systems, and at a fraction of the cost.
If you are planning on getting a patio misting system, you need to determine your budget. Obviously, if money is not an object, you can opt for one of the expensive, commercial grade quality misting systems with a pressurizing pump. This will give you years of reliable service and will increase your home value.
However, for most of us, we are limited to how much we can spend on a misting system. You can choose an inexpensive system, that hooks up to your garden hose, which will produce large droplets and soak everything on your patio. Or, for about the same price, you can get a better quality system that will produce results like the systems that cost ten times as much.
When it comes to patio misting systems, it pays to do the research and find which system produces the best results.