# Mistking, or build my own?



## backafter20 (Mar 11, 2011)

I've done a search, and read some pretty good reviews about Mistking. So is it really worth it? I mean the high pressure and extremely small fog-like droplet size that increases humidity without over watering? Is that what I want? I can put together a mist system from Home Depot for considerably less, without a fancy timer, but it'll be lower pressure and much larger droplet size. It just seems that those Mistking sprayers are so expensive. I'll be eventually running at least 12 nozzles in 10 enclosures, and I do see the advantage of automated misting. I don't mind spending more to do it right, but hate to spend more if it really isn't necessary. I welcome your opinions.


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## kochizzle (Sep 7, 2016)

Great question! I've been using a monsoon system in each tank for years and have been thinking about upgrading to a mistking almost solely to be able to have a five gallon jug to fill instead of a bunch of 1 gallons...


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## Jay2 (May 19, 2016)

I've had my Mistking for a few weeks now and love it. Comes on at the exact time set and mists for the exact duration.

The automated system is a life saver. If you're every out of town there's no need to worry about misting.

IMO it's worth the cost and can save a lot of time in the long run.


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## Boboluke (Apr 12, 2013)

I don't know of anyone with a MistKing that ever said it was not a worthwhile purchase.



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## Pubfiction (Feb 3, 2013)

I have not seen very many people post about alternative misting strategies. You are welcome to try it and let us know how things work out. 

I would say that just because people don't complain about a product doesn't mean it's perfect or anything. For the longest time here people raved and channeled everyone over to jungle dawn LEDs. They weren't bad there were just options that were better IMHO and no one really broke down the pros and cons. It took alot of time and brave people but slowly the LEDs made for aquariums have gained acceptance here and many people just consider them to be a better option in most cases. 

Here is some food for thought. 

First of all a mistking is a brand name for a diaphram pump that can push a higher PSI through a nozzle that puts out a fine mist. All the parts, can be bought as packages from other sellers that are not mist king, or from separate places for different uses. So what are you really paying mistking for? The answer is for the convenience of putting together a package that is targeted at our industry. This will save you time, just order it up and you are good to go. 

We are not discussing the merits of automated misting, we already know the advantages we are discussing the merits of using a higher pressure misting system vs a lower pressure misting system as that is what is being proposed by the original poster. 

It is my opinion that there an advantage to higher pressure misting largely in that the fine droplets tend to spread out more throughout the enclosure. 

However there is nothing wrong with lower pressure misting we know this because lots of people hand mist tanks with spray type misters without any problems. 

Overwatering is complex, I don't know exactly what this means, I only mist my frogs once per day and I have high pressure misting systems some mistking, some other brands. Overwatering IMO is a symptom of how long you run the mister. But given proper drainage which you need you cant over water. And you need that regardless of having a high pressure or low pressure or even hand misting strategy. 

Now I will mention a couple of options based on comments. 

If you have a monsoon system I don't see any reason you cannot modify it to take a much higher volume of water. You can probably just take the top off the body and set it on a 5 gallon bucket or plastic tote. Mistking doesnt send you a reservoir you have to provide your own. And I have found that if you look around you can find all sorts of containers to fit in any sized place you want. 


Also if your only problem with mistking is that its more expensive then I suggest you look into alternative connectors and strategies to save money. Mistking pre-configures massive heads with a bunch of parts to put in your vivarium and I have found you can have a cleaner look that also happens to be less expensive by just skipping the bulkhead and all the moving parts.


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## backafter20 (Mar 11, 2011)

Great comments! Much appreciated!


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## Reptihab (Sep 23, 2020)

If you have time to do a little research you can build a superior misting system for a fraction of the cost. For example, the mistking starter pump, 12v .55L/M is a 20 dollar pump before they branded it a mistking.


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

Pubfiction had some great wisdom in his post above and I agree with all of it. I will add a little bit of extra information to the discussion, though. When I bought my Mistking, I knew nothing about misting systems. If I had tried to build my own DIY system at that point, I would have probably messed it up. The fact that I could ask the guy at Mistking what I needed and he guided me toward the right stuff and provided an instruction book for how to put it all together was crucial for where I was in my knowledge and skill level at the time. 

I now know a lot more about misting systems, but not all that much still because my Mistking system just _works_ and I haven't needed to replace anything (or expand very much). There is no reason for me to have anything else. I could definitely build a system that would work and would cost a lot less now. However, that system would have a lot of shortcuts and ugly (to my eye) components to it. I now know that big box stores stock a lot of the connectors (just ask the associate for John Guest fittings), but they usually come in white. Ouch  Likewise, I can buy the quarter inch tubing (or even 3/8"), but it is white or transparent-ish which I am told can lead to algae growth in the tubes which can end up clogging nozzles. Nozzles are a bit tougher to just go to the store and buy, but they can be had lots of places on the internet (as can the fittings). Mistking nozzles put out very fine droplets which I think is an advantage. Many of the off-brand options would probably not produce quite as fine a mist. 

What I am trying to say is that you can save money by putting your own system together. That might even be a fun exercise for some folks. However, if you want something that is going to work the first time and for a long time, I think Mistking is a great option. Both approaches will get you where you need to go and I think that there is merit in both approaches depending on your use case and your personality. For me, the quality of a Mistking system makes the cost worthwhile. If you suspect, however, that you might enjoy trying to DIY something a system, I suspect you might be right  Go for it!

Mark


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## fishingguy12345 (Apr 7, 2019)

I'll agree with what Mark said above. I went with a Mistking after months of reading because it was an all in one package that had everything I needed. The convenience was worth the extra cost. Trying to make a system that would do everything I needed and has a timer, etc. would cost me more in time, than I'd save from a potentially lower cost for the components. I'll also add that I'm not a DIY guy, so premade is going to win with me.


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## Pubfiction (Feb 3, 2013)

I will add a couple of points. how good your system looks will depend on what you are looking for. But IMO mistking is a middle of the road solution. It looks ok, and thats it. Actually the major motivation that made me learn how to build my own systems was because mistkings were not attractive to me and I wanted a better looking system. The upside was I ended up with better looking and cheaper but I was very willing to pay extra to get better looking. My misting systems in all builds now are extremely sleak and streamlined.


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## Reptihab (Sep 23, 2020)

I love the comments about not being a DIY person as a reason to buy the mistking kit when the assembly of buying the components separately is identical. Mistking has brainwashed people that their product is superior when in fact it's rather inferior.


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

Reptihab said:


> I love the comments about not being a DIY person as a reason to buy the mistking kit when the assembly of buying the components separately is identical. Mistking has brainwashed people that their product is superior when in fact it's rather inferior.


I guess opinions vary. DIY is not just about plugging tubes into connectors. It's also about sourcing the items and figuring out whether they are going to do what you want them to do. Figuring out where in my system I wanted to use 3/8" vs. 1/4" tubing, for instance, could have been a major headache. I was happy to have Mistking to tell me what has worked for hundreds or thousands of people in my situation rather than figuring it out for myself. Likewise figuring out how the zip drip system is suppose to work. That stuff all takes time and I feel that my time is worth the difference between what I paid for the Mistking vs. what it would have taken me to figure it all out for myself. So, yeah, the actual assembly of the unit once you have all the stuff figured out is identical, but the time needed for creating a DIY solution makes the difference less of a slam dunk. 

Now, if you are talking about doing it a SECOND time, I would be 100% with you  You have already put all the design and sourcing effort in and now it's just duplication of what you did before. Before you know what you are doing or when you aren't particularly interested in doing that kind of research for yourself, though, I still see Mistking as a viable option. I certainly don't regret spending the money even if I could have done it cheaper.

Mark


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

Pubfiction said:


> I will add a couple of points. how good your system looks will depend on what you are looking for. But IMO mistking is a middle of the road solution. It looks ok, and thats it. Actually the major motivation that made me learn how to build my own systems was because mistkings were not attractive to me and I wanted a better looking system. The upside was I ended up with better looking and cheaper but I was very willing to pay extra to get better looking. My misting systems in all builds now are extremely sleak and streamlined.


Pubfiction, do you have any pictures of how your system looks? I never really thought of the Mistking nozzles as ugly, but I have never seen what a more streamlined setup would look like, either. 

Mark


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## fishingguy12345 (Apr 7, 2019)

Reptihab said:


> I love the comments about not being a DIY person as a reason to buy the mistking kit when the assembly of buying the components separately is identical. Mistking has brainwashed people that their product is superior when in fact it's rather inferior.


Can you show us your misting setup that you consider so superior? 

I've never seen one that looks, or functions, better than a Mistking, in my opinion.


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## dwllama (Aug 29, 2020)

I don't have any direct experience yet (still waiting for it to ship), but I ordered a MistKing for a couple reasons, and the one I haven't seen mentioned is the inclusion of a timer that runs in seconds. It's my understanding that a lot of people run their misters for only 30-40 seconds at a time, which a minute-timer wouldn't give you the precision to do.


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## minorhero (Apr 24, 2020)

When I needed an auto misting system I did some research through reading old threads and did some work pricing out components and eventually decided to go with the mistking. I figured I could save about 10-20 dollars buying similar quality parts myself and putting it together but then I wouldn't have any support if it went wrong and I wasn't convinced I could not make as nice or as flexible a nozzle if I went the DIY route. Since the nozzle is the only part actually visible in the viv, it was important to me that it looked nice. 

Now I'm in need of a second system. Not because my first one has reached capacity (its only on a single tank) but because I am building a new viv in a completely different part of my house and there is no good way to use the same pump to power the new system (would need to drill through a few walls and I'm not interested in doing that). 

So if anyone has a successful diy alternative to the mistking where they save more then a couple of dollars I am very interested in hearing the details. So far I have found the mistking to be extremely competitively priced not only with other commercial competitors but with the DIY options. I am very very very willing to be wrong about this, since I will literally be shelling out another 150 dollars for a mistking within a month if I can't find something cheaper.


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## jgragg (Nov 23, 2009)

> Quote:
> I guess opinions vary. DIY is not just about plugging tubes into connectors. It's also about sourcing the items and figuring out whether they are going to do what you want them to do. Figuring out where in my system I wanted to use 3/8" vs. 1/4" tubing, for instance, could have been a major headache. I was happy to have Mistking to tell me what has worked for hundreds or thousands of people in my situation rather than figuring it out for myself. Likewise figuring out how the zip drip system is suppose to work. That stuff all takes time and I feel that my time is worth the difference between what I paid for the Mistking vs. what it would have taken me to figure it all out for myself. So, yeah, the actual assembly of the unit once you have all the stuff figured out is identical, but the time needed for creating a DIY solution makes the difference less of a slam dunk.
> 
> Now, if you are talking about doing it a SECOND time, I would be 100% with you  You have already put all the design and sourcing effort in and now it's just duplication of what you did before. Before you know what you are doing or when you aren't particularly interested in doing that kind of research for yourself, though, I still see Mistking as a viable option. I certainly don't regret spending the money even if I could have done it cheaper.
> ...


*Exactly*. Mark nailed it.

It's pretty easy, and kind of obnoxious, to look at something another guy has already figured out and put together in a tight little package and say "ah, shit - _I coulda done that_". Maybe so, maybe not. But either way, what's invisible to you is all the trial and error, all the sourcing and scaling. Lots of time and effort, _plenty of not nailing it_ on the road to eventually nailing it.

It's kind of like re-tiling your shower surround. Ever done that? It's pretty easy, _sort of_, but you can definitely fuck it up bad. And tiling is something you get faster at and you get better at. First time you're not gonna be quick at all (you're going without a shower for a while), and you'll do OK at best. Not epic, just OK.

So anyway, let's say you did it. If you did it OK (doesn't leak, looks good enough) you'll never have to do it again and saved a little cash. If you fucked it up, you're tearing it out and either doing it again - hopefully right this time - or you're paying a tile pro to come do it right this time for you.

Getting a MK is like just paying the tile guy the first time. Boom, plug and play done, you lay out some money to nail it the first time, but you also do not suffer all the material and time expenses involved in _not nailing it_ right away.



> Mistking has brainwashed people that their product is superior when in fact it's rather inferior.


Wow, just wow. Oh, sorry, *NO*. MK hasn't "brainwashed" anyone. They have captured a lot of market share by providing a reliable, hardworking, reasonably priced product and - more importantly - both fronting it and backing it with absolutely stellar customer service. Absolutely stellar. In my experience. I've got 2 of the bigger pumps, run maybe 40-50 mist heads through about a mile of tubing and all kinds of tees and elbows and shit, and have been running them a long time. Through several generations of their timers, anyway - a dozen or more years? How many days broken down? Zero.

I'm not brainwashed, I'm just a highly satisfied repeat customer. And I _started_ with DIY, back in the mid 90s. It worked, and eventually it worked pretty well, but I sure spent a lot of time dicking around with it. Both to get to the point of "works pretty well" as well as just dealing with entropy for years thereafter. So - plug & play, works first time, works for _a fucking long long time_? Yeah who doesn't like that?


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## Tihsho (Sep 21, 2009)

The problem with DIY contains a few things that a few people touched on, do you want the recipe of parts that someone has tested or do you want to try to reinvent the wheel per se and come up with your own solution? At the end of the day, if you want something that works you're looking at either a proven off the shelf solution or a bill of materials (and most people want the supply sources spoon fed to them) and from there will just assemble and go. 

If you're looking at trailblazing your own way the costs tend to add up. Keep this in mind when it comes to testing. A lot of the time you're either 'content' with the end result or you're constantly tinkering because you can't find one part you used to get, or something failed because it was cheap and not designed/manufactured for the application we are forcing some products to do. 

Some people that want the latter option are also looking for a side project or enjoy tinkering. I myself am a mix of the two, I buy known good products for exactly the reason that they are known and tested in the community to be good. When I got into Chameleons over a decade ago I went with MistKing, I wanted a solution and didn't want the debug headache. I wanted to focus on what was inside the viv/enclosure, rather than making sure the life support systems were running optimally constantly. Their products were not only tested in the viv world, but people provided their feedback and MistKing came up with a solution that worked wonders for screened enclosures! That positive experience transferred years later when I got into Crested and Gargoyle geckos, I wanted a tried and true solution and stuck to a product I knew. Now years again down the line I already know I can fall on the MK products because I've used them, the product line exists and parts are readily available from multiple vendors. 

On another hobby, freshwater planted aquariums, I tend to not only enjoy the tanks, but I enjoy tinkering with hardware. With my experience with the MK products I knew what I was getting into when I decided to setup some grow out enclosures to hydroponically grow emersed plants so I had sources for displays and to trade. On this route I didn't want to expand my MK setup to another project, so I decided to try the DIY route as I wanted to tie in my technical and programming background into a controller. Certain parts of the DIY process are easy, others not so much, and others are easy until they are not. Let me tell you when dealing with nozzles and sourcing them... You need to either find a company that's been around for decades and go with what they have when you find a product you like, and I cannot say it enough *stock up*, or be ok with starting over constantly. If you don't, you need to be OK with the "dammit" moments when your initial source of nozzles are no longer available because the seller no longer exists, or the sellers bulk source from China runs out or decides to change the design and not tell you. I've tested drip emitters, to fogging and mist nozzles and well I'd have to say that hundreds of dollars ended up being spent on the DIY portion and I could have just gone with an out of the box solution and called it quits. MK has the supply chain of their products down and I don't have to worry about them disappearing anytime soon. I've lost part suppliers that were local hydroponic shops that ended up changing wholesale vendors which meant their #X nozzle was no longer available to even one of the stores just up and closing their doors. Another headache being online vendors just having bulk stock and then at some point running out from their pallet inventory and not updating the product description. It seems for comfort misting or irrigation the end clients are not as concerned if a nozzle changes in particle size by a few microns it's not a big deal, but for my applications it did. Then you have the Amazon and eBay sellers who just up and change products all the time, so replicating an order a year or so later is next to impossible. With all those issues that leads you to either starting from scratch so everything matches or rigging up a new DIY system to cover an expansion. In my case I just ended up stopping my expansion. When nozzles clogged over time I ended up just cutting down on my plant collection because I didn't have enough spare nozzles to drop in to replace the failed ones and I couldn't source the exact replacements. Some nozzles work up to a certain PSI, so the push to lock fitting style MK has is great! Going with irrigation sprayers that use barbed fittings, not so much. New nozzles that didn't match what I had running either blew out of the hose or provided too little to too much mist. Due to that the plants would be too dry or I'd have too much water into the tank that would cause one setup's fertilization cycle to not match the others with the nozzle putting in too much water causing my overflow system to take out more water than I calculated for my fertilization schedule. 

Besides nozzles you have to worry about the pump. While trying the DIY setup, I ran through about $300 in various pumps. All pumps generally were imports of some sort, either they worked with one set of nozzles and not others, some were horrendously loud, others were just mislabeled for the application and just returned. Just like the nozzles, if you go DIY get extra pumps just in case one fails or you ever plan to expand and max out the nozzles that one pump supports and you require a second pump. 

At the end of that rant, I'll put it this way. If you plan to DIY and learn for yourself, don't plan on it being a cheap project. If you plan to follow someone else's DIY build, make sure the parts are available from the same vendors as the person who put together the bill of materials (BOM) and that the build/project they posted was recent. If you just want to be headache free go with an out of the box solution that has been around for years.

All of this said, I'm actually in the market for another setup soon for a stand alone display so if anyone has active misting projects going on I'd be down to tag along with the debug process. As much as I love MK, I can't justify the price for a single setup with a single nozzle. Anything above two nozzles I'm all for going with MK. Plus, I'm trying a Monsoon I got from another hobbyist years ago and in my opinion they are junk. Right now it 'works' but I'd rather hand mist based on the nozzles being crappy and them just leaking a bunch in general.


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## Marty (Feb 27, 2004)

wow, thanks guys for the loyalty and feedback. My favourite is the brainwashing comment. I'll have to mention that on the next Illuminati meeting when we discuss 5G and MistKing LOL

Dendrobaord is where MistKing started for me, I used to 'live' on this site back in the day. As of now, there is 32,614 registered users. I'm user #69 and that's because took me days to decide to sign up. Let me give you a bit of a perspective.

There's so much effort that went into MistKing that most don't really have the slightest idea. When MistKing started I had a full time IT position and an all consuming obsession with dart frogs in personal life. I used to get really ticked off when I'd put time, sweat, personal savings, sleepless nights into making the product just to have someone with no clue discount and discredit the whole process. The amount of risk and frustration and getting it wrong that went into this is crazy. I remember testing nozzles in basement in laundry room sink at 3am to make sure I'm not late with orders for some DB members and going to work next day. Or flying from a reptile expo and going straight from the airport to my day job. 

One of my cold sweat moments and buckling knees and throwing [email protected]#[email protected] at the top of my lungs was when I invested a lot of savings into some parts that I was extremely excited about. These were custom, non refundable made just for MistKing and they all turned out bad, every single one was leaking and wasn't suitable at the pressure I used. It was a nightmare and a very expensive lesson.

I've always tweaked and tweaked and would not take shortcuts in any aspect of MistKing. We now have extremely small droplets (but not fog and not spray) a true mist. Reduced or zero dripping depending which you prefer. Totally custom timers for various applications (seconds timers, hygrostats and repeat cycle timers). Extremely robust pumps that are made especially to our spec to suit our misting nozzles perfectly. 

Even a little thing like a reservoir bulkhead that we just had redesigned to improve things in ver 5 was engineered from ground up specifically for MistKing application. Every single one is machined out of metal. We had to invest tens of thousands into it and we will sit on that inventory for a long time. Sure it's little frustrating when someone will say in the end ... that's shit, I can get one from Amazon for half the price, but of course it's not the same, but sure it may work for you - it just doesn't work for me LOL that's why I had one made that I think is perfect.

Basically whenever I see weakness in the system due to customer feedback and my own use in vivs we try to improve upon it

I get it, there's a ton of people out there and I used to strive to appeal to everybody and we've had ton of DIY people spend much more then the system is worth just to get mediocre results and come back to us for a system and be blown away by the quality of the mist and control. 

For me the Idea is to mist but not to fog and keep the fine mist going for as long as you can without excessively drenching the environment to maximize the humidity without getting everything soaked. Many animals benefit from the duration of the mist and not just a coarse spray for a few seconds. 

but anyways, I'm not trying to brainwash anyone and if you think we are inferior and you want to build a system from Amazon and HD parts that you can get cheaper and will give you satisfaction then go for it. We try to have everything optimized and working well with each other all while being as robust as possible to provide years of use. For some that is an option, for others it's not, but still can't get over the brainwashing comment LOL. 

Nice to poke back into DB again


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

Thanks for reminding me why I am so brainwashed, Marty. I am very happy that you have been so successful and wish you all the best going forward.

Mark


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## GakiShiga (Jun 26, 2020)

I spent many years messing with off the shelf and diy builds of misters. The last system I had was a Rainmaker Jr. Which was fine because it was all I could find that was premade. But seriously not "great". So many leaks, sub par misters, manual timers only, etc etc. Since buying a Mistking I am given a solution to all of those options and more. I spent maybe $250 and got exactly what I wanted and needed straight out of the box. 

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