Smoke System
 

I see a few different smoke system's out there, looking to purchase one for a jet I am currently building.

Suggestion Please.

Thanks

I’m going to go with the kingtech smoke pump and build my on pipe. I order two 5 foot pieces of 3/16 OD stainless for 15.00. I figured if I’m going to be running Kingtech Turbine I’ll use the smoke pump too.

Attachment 2247588

powerbox dual outlet pump, 2s lipo for power to it.

Holy Smokes
Sold by PAU

I've tested several, this is the schnizzle

Powerbox pump is the best quality, Simple as that.

I finally got sick of fighting with the the others and went with Kingtech. I won't look back...

https://pacificrcjets.com/collection...ech-smoke-pump

Sullivan Skywriter Ftw. And it’s 1/2 price of everything out there.

I have had had dozens of them and I have 1 that is ten years old and another that is 8 years old.

Each has had 100’s of gallons of smoke fluid ran through them.

I am on the other end of that brand, I have had 3 Sullivan skywriter pumps fail in 2 years,,they are junk imo, two of them had the motor spin in the housing and tear the leads off the motor, not to mention the case had oil in it on the backside of the pump, my last one had a board failure after about 6 mos. Maybe they used to be made better, but the ones I bought recently,, no good, the one I have in my 3d plane has been in there for 5 years,no trouble go figure??Ravill is right, the price is good. The POWERBOX pump is good, the kingtech pump is supposed to be good as well.
I am currently using a kingtech fuel pump with a brushed ESC for my smoke on my lightning,,works great tons of smoke

Which Switch
 

Which transmitter switch do you guys use to activate the pump?

I have my pump turned to 100% and use the right upper corner 2 pos. switch, I would also tell you set an alarm for when you power the transmitter up so that if the switch is on it will warn you. Nothing cool about turning the plane on and the smoke pump spraying oil everywhere.

You know, now that you mention it, I had 1 pump die 7-8 years ago. The motor stopped working. But other than that, I've had WILD success with them. Go figure. I don't even run filters.

I also like the right upper 2 position switch. I mix smoke with throttle, so it takes two events to start smoke in my jets.

I have had bad luck with the Sullivan ones.... multiple early fails.

Can anyone give tips on avoiding the sporadic smoke? I have the powerboat and king tech smoke pumps... used a header tank, one set up has the CAT smoke UAT... still get sporadic smoke...

Is there is any difference between a smoke pump and our turbine fuel pump ? Or it's the same thing.

Basically the same, but a turbine fuel pump needs to be much more precise. Years ago I had to replace the fuel pump on my Ram500. The old one still worked, but not well enough to reliably run the engine. I installed it in one of my jets as a smoke pump and it's been working great. I added an ESC to control pump speed and mix it to throttle.

I had read a while back that some guys were buying Jetjoe fuel pumps and using them for smoke. Those pumps were cheap and not very reliable for running a turbine, but were fine for pumping smoke fluid.

I didn,t think about the ESC, as smoke pump came with an integrated esc... Thanks!

So you have experience with each and every pump mentioned and that's your conclusion?

Or you could just use it on-off, but I prefer it with an ESC. Brushed ESC's are hard to find these days, perhaps you have an old one laying around.

I've had 4 of them go to crap withing 5 flights. 2 went bad sent in, got them back and they just went bad again.
Had the Sullivan smoke pump to fill the planes, went bad after 6 fill ups.
Don't trust anything Sullivan anymore

A header tank is the usual solution. Just make sure you have a heavy clunk and flexible line in the header tank to keep up with the movement of the fluid. Maybe even a center pickup if that's not working. I've gone with using 6mm lines in my smoke systems to maximize volume and minimize restriction. This is a 12oz header in my Natrix and it works great.


FYI, I've had good luck with Tam's pump (no longer available I suppose) and JetCat pumps.

Craig

If you want good smoke you can waste money time on the Sullivan pump, TME pump and alot of others. Been there done that.. the biggest problem with all the others is they will leak, breakdown or what I had is siphon and keep smoking when turned off. I had in the past even had a fest valve plumb inline with servo to keep that from happening. The powerbox works flawlessly. I have it my Havoc also. No cut off valves needed. I use an air-trap to keep the flow even during whole flight. The one in the picture on the left is for smoke, right one is the turbine. If you haven't seen my Hawk in action its hard to describe how good the smoke system works. I am a kingtech person but haven't use their pump. I am sure it is very similar to the powerbox and should work great.

Attachment 2247671Attachment 2247672Attachment 2247673

Yep, just about. I don’t just throw thing in like that without good knowledge.
Id say the Sullivan Skywriter was the worst of the bunch, I don’t know anyone who had good luck. The KT unit we don’t see much KT stuff in the UK, so it is an unknown. But the other smaller manufacturer units that come and go i’ve seen enough to know I don’t need the hassle. I have sold a lot of Powerbox pumps and other that the lack of understanding some people have and use dirty or contaminated oil and eventually jam the gears ( mainly through lack of use while full of crud) I’ve had very few back. Sold some of the JetCat smoke pumps which have all been good, but much more expensive.

The PB pump has been around a long time, it was improved a few years back and been a great product to be involved with if you don’t like messing with stuff-I know some people seem to get a kick out of making stuff work properly!

+1 for Powerbox, 25 gallons this year with no issues, just works when you want it to.

Best setup PowerBox pump and PowerBox smoke oil !

Great video. Who is the music by?

Don't know a friend did the video and put it together for me. I like the music also..