Free Home Snowmaker Plans
To help you get started with snowmaking, we’ve put together some free plans for simple and effective home snow guns. Most of the required parts can be purchased at your local hardware store, but you may not be able to find the right nozzles locally. Snow State stocks a selection of snowmaking nozzles to help you get up and running!
Internal Mix "Combo Gun" Snowmaker
This is a plan for a simple, but effective internal mix “combo” snow gun. This design requires an air compressor (at least 4 cfm @ 90 psi) and pressure washer to operate properly. Most of the parts required can be picked up at your local hardware store, with the exception of the nozzles. Snow State stocks snowmaking nozzles for this design, and can help you select the correct nozzles with our nozzle guide.
In this design, air and water mix internally, and exit through the nucleation nozzle. The flow of water to the nucleation nozzle is controlled by a ball valve. It doesn’t take much water flow for proper nucleation, so a needle valve may be used to provide a fine adjustment.
Additional Resources
There are many other designs that will allow you to make snow with varying degrees of success. We have included some links below to additional resources that show different designs.
Tee Gun
The most basic design is a “tee gun”, which does not require a pressure washer. We have not included a plan for this type of snow gun because it is very inefficient at the home scale, and results in minimal snow production. For under $100, you can add a brand new pressure washer to your system and make a lot more snow. However, all required parts for a tee gun can be found locally, so it’s great for a quick build when shipping time is a concern.
External Mix Snow Gun
Unlike internal mix designs (such as ours), air and water mix outside the snow gun body for nucleation. This design has some advantages (easy to deal with nozzle clogs), and drawbacks (air nozzle is quick to freeze-up, and design requires a heating element for low flow rates), but has proved fairly reliable for setups with larger air compressors. To perform well, this design may require machined parts, unlike the combo gun that can be built entirely out of pipe fittings.
Home Snowmaking Forum
Snowguns.com, the home snowmaking forum, is a great place to see a variety of snow gun designs, including fan guns!
