High-Pressure VS. Low-Pressure Misting Systems: Ultimate Comparison
Misting systems are luxuries that most can afford, but many don’t quite understand why they’re so important. Well, they can make or break your enjoyment of the hot season when just enjoying the weather can mean overheating and being forced back inside.
Misting systems fill the air with cool mist, cool down a pocket of air, and make even the hottest days comfortable.
However, misting systems aren’t all made alike.
There are two main types of misting systems, and the one you choose will have a major impact on your experience. These are high-pressure misting systems and low-pressure misting systems.
We’re going to go in-depth and compare high-pressure vs. low-pressure misting systems so you can choose the right system for your needs.
What Misting Systems Do: A General Overview
Before we get into all the fine details between misting systems of particular types, you should probably understand what a misting system is.
At first glance, a misting system can look like the sprinklers that water greenhouses automatically. By design, they are kind of similar. After all, they both tend to be a series of tubing lined with holes for water to come out of.
The difference with a misting system is that those holes are equipped with nozzles that have a lot of very fine holes in various patterns across their surfaces. Then, the water isn’t just pumped through a hose. It’s pumped through a pressurized machine that forces small amounts of water to push through the tubing and out the nozzles; creating a cloud-like mist that evaporates instantly rather than creating a rain-like situation all over your porch.
This is enough to cool your porch area down, but it doesn’t soak everything.
The Two Main Types of Misting Systems
As we said, misting systems come in two main varieties.
Here are complete overviews of high-pressure vs. low-pressure misting systems, and at the end, we’ll give our opinion on which one is the best for most residential consumers.
Low-Pressure Misting Systems: General Overview
Low-pressure misting systems are a lot like the sprinklers we talked about earlier. Except, they're slightly better.
A low-pressure misting system consists of tubing (typically made from PVC), nozzles, and an adaptor point. This is because like the sprinklers we talked about, low-pressure misting systems are simply hooked up to a hose or water line. They’re not actually pressurized by anything other than the hose.
However, they perform better than a greenhouse sprinkler due to the nozzles being finer and forcing the water to separate into smaller droplets.
This has some pros and cons.
First, we’ll get the good stuff out of the way.
It’s cheaper to buy a low-pressure misting system because it’s basically just a hose accessory.There are no special parts other than nozzles and tubing. It will also cool you off fairly well because the cold water droplets will coat your skin and cool the air temperature around you at the same time.
The bad news is that it costs more in the long run due to higher water usage, and it will get everything on your porch wet. You can’t bring your phone out on the porch, set up a radio while you enjoy time with your friends or anything like that. You won’t be soaked immediately, but you’ll eventually notice it.
High-Pressure Misting Systems: General Overview
Every part of a high-pressure misting system is identical to what we listed above. However, there’s one major difference. The system isn’t hooked up to a hose.
Instead, a part of the high-pressure misting system kit, high-pressure water pump, is used to force water through the tubing at around 1000 PSI. This allows the system to use a very small amount of water, and that small amount of water is forced out across a large area, creating a cloud-like mist instead of tiny droplets.
The mist generated by high-pressure misting systems can cool a patio by 20 degrees or more on a hot day, costs less to operate since it uses far less water to cool an area, and the area it cools will remain dry.The water is so finely separated by pressure and nozzles that it instantly evaporates. This means you can truly enjoy the patio environment, and you don’t have to be careful about what you have outside when you turn the system on.
There is a downside to this, though. The pump system is more expensive upfront than simply using your hose. Also, you have to keep the nozzles very clean and free of debris, or you’ll notice a major drop in performance.
Which One is Better?
For most customers, between high-pressure vs. low-pressure misting systems, a high-pressure misting system will be a far better choice than a low-pressure option.
There’s the obvious benefit that the cooled area remains dry, but there are other benefits as well. Mostly, you’ll notice a far lower price in the long run. While the high-pressure pump is definitely more expensive than attaching your hose onto an adaptor, less water is used to create the mist. This means your water bills will be a lot lower each month using a high-pressure system compared to a low-pressure system. Also, the cleaning procedure for the nozzles is simple. You just submerge them into white vineger every once in a while. So, that’s not a drawback that’s big enough to hold high-pressure misting systems back.
With that being said, a low-pressure system can be useful if you’re trying to water plants in an area that you don’t want to get absolutely soaked, or if you’re trying to create a quick cool-off area for workers or another situation where it doesn’t make sense to invest in a fancier system for prolonged use. Most people who would benefit from a low-pressure system are business owners, not residential consumers looking to enjoy their patios more.
If you’d like more guidance on how misting systems work in high humidity, how to cool a patio, where you can get one for your home, or how to properly maintain a misting system once you have it, check out aerMist, advanced misting system specialists.
