Does misting work in humid climates?

Yes, with correct engineering. Pole placement, nozzle count and zoning are tuned to local climate data so the fog keeps evaporating instead of accumulating.

What is needed to install misting poles?

Each pole anchors to a compact base plate (169–249 mm) and connects to a 3/8 inch high-pressure line from a Fontana pump unit serving the whole array. No basin, structure or roof is required.

Misting Poles - Fontana Fountains

Q: Is the fog hygienic?

The system operates on treated, filtered water from a potable supply, atomized fresh at the nozzle — it does not recirculate standing water. Fontana specifies filtration and water treatment for each project and climate.

Q: FGP or FGU — which series do I need?

Choose FGP (directional fog) for lines: walkways, terrace edges, colonnades and façades. Choose FGU (360° umbrella fog) where people gather all around: plazas, event floors and seating clusters. Both come in 1, 3 and 6 metre heights and are often combined.

Cool the air.
Transform the space.

Fontana Misting Poles release billions of ultra-fine water droplets that evaporate the instant they meet warm air — absorbing heat, lowering the ambient temperature and wrapping any outdoor space in a weightless, luminous veil of fog. Genuine cooling relief, with the visual design Fontana has crafted since 1971.

up to 10 °C

ambient cooling in hot, dry climates

10 µm

droplets so fine they evaporate before touching you

316L

marine-grade stainless steel, made in Europe

City park promenade with rows of Fontana misting poles creating a cooling fog corridor for pedestrians

Summer has changed.
Our cities haven’t — yet.

From Paris to Riyadh, outdoor life is retreating indoors. Heatwaves arrive earlier, last longer and hit harder, turning plazas, terraces and parks into places people avoid for months at a time. The spaces cities invest the most in are empty precisely when people need them most.

24,400^†

Estimated heat-related deaths across 854 European cities in summer 2025 alone — with Rome, Athens and Paris among the hardest hit.

+7 °C

How much hotter a paved urban centre can run versus its green surroundings — the urban heat island effect that misting directly counteracts.

6+ months

The stretch of the year when unshaded outdoor spaces in the Gulf exceed comfortable temperatures — season that cooling gives back to hospitality, retail and public life.

Air-conditioning can’t follow people outdoors. Fog can. Evaporative cooling is the only technology that meaningfully lowers open-air temperature — silently, beautifully, and with remarkably little water.

The physics of a cooler summer

Flash evaporation is nature’s own cooling mechanism — the same principle your body uses to regulate temperature. Fontana engineers it at architectural scale.

Pressurise

A high-pressure pump unit drives filtered water through hidden internal piping at 70 bar – roughly 35 times the pressure of a garden hose.

Atomise

Precision-engineered nozzles shear the water into droplets around 10 microns across – a tenth the width of a human hair, closer to cloud than to rain.

Evaporate

Each droplet flashes into vapour within seconds, and every litre that evaporates absorbs 2,260 kJ of heat – drawn directly out of the surrounding air.

Cool

Air temperature in the fog zone drops by several degrees – up to 10 °C in dry climates – while the drifting mist softens sunlight and settles airborne dust.

The drier the air, the stronger the effect – which is why misting performs best exactly where summers are hardest. And because the droplets evaporate before they land, people stay completely dry.

Families walking through a shaded pergola walkway cooled by Fontana misting poles releasing fine directional fog

One pole.
Every outdoor stage.

A misting pole needs nothing but a water line — no basin, no structure, no cover. That freedom lets it slip into almost any composition, from a two-table café to a kilometre of waterfront.

Aerial view of a palm-lined park promenade cooled by misting poles

Parks & Promenades

Fog corridors that keep walking routes alive through the hottest months.

restaurant terrace with slim misting poles cooling diners

Restaurants & Hospitality

Comfortable terraces from noon to midnight – more covers, longer seasons.

Evening outdoor event with tall misting poles creating fog cooling above the crowd

Events & Venues

Pleasant cooling effect that keeps open-air audiences cool, and add spectacle of their own.

Historic European square on a hot day with discreet misting poles cooling café terraces

Plazas & Historic Centres

Discreet cooling that respects heritage architecture – no canopies, no clutter.

Kids Parks

Cooled parks where children can enjoy summer time outside.

Runner passing a single misting pole releasing a radial crown of fog on a desert exercise path

Sport & Wellness Routes

Refresh stations along running and cycling paths, even in desert heat.

Transit & Bus Stops

Cooler waiting, calmer commutes: fog turns exposed stops and platforms into shaded-feeling refuges at street level.

Shaded pergola walkway with misting poles cooling families as they walk

Gardens & Green Walks

Fine mist that keeps strolling paths fresh at the height of summer — and gives planting a gentle drink along the way.

Open-Air Retail

Comfortable shoppers linger longer: misting keeps promenade malls and shopping streets busy through the afternoon peak.

Designed
to disappear.

A 90 mm silhouette

Slimmer than a street light

A brushed cylinder of marine-grade steel that reads as landscape furniture, not machinery. All piping runs hidden inside the pole.

Precision nozzles

Engineered, not attached

Nozzles sit flush along the axis or radially at the top, machined into the body for a seamless line and reliable long-term performance.

Built to endure

AISI 316L · Made in Europe

The same marine-grade stainless steel Fontana uses in fountains across the world – engineered for remarkable reliability in the harshest conditions.

Studio detail of a Fontana misting pole in brushed stainless steel emitting four fine fog jets against a dark background

Serious cooling.
Sparing with water.

Fog cooling looks extravagant and is anything but. Because the droplets are so fine, almost every drop becomes cooling vapour – nothing runs off, nothing is wasted.

A single FGU pole running flat-out for one hour uses about 39 litres — less than a typical domestic shower. In return, it removes roughly 24 kW of heat from the air around it: the cooling work of several large air-conditioning units, delivered outdoors with no refrigerants and no hot-air exhaust.

It is the rare piece of climate adaptation that makes a space more beautiful, not less.

Water use, FGP1000 bollard

0.216 L/min13 litres per hour

Water use, FGU6000 — the largest model

0.648 L/min39 litres per hour

Heat absorbed per litre of evaporated fog

2,260 kJ0.63 kWh of pure cooling

Cooling delivered by one FGU pole

≈ 24 kWat full evaporation

Refrigerants, compressors, waste heat

Noneevaporation does the work

Two lines. Every scale.

Both series share the same DNA — 90 mm AISI 316L body, 70 bar operation, hidden piping — and differ in how they throw their fog.

Directional · Vertical fog

FGP Series

Nozzles aligned along the pole’s axis project fog to one side with progressive vertical layering — perfect for corridors, edges and façades, where cooling should follow a line.

2–5 nozzles along the upper pole
Heights of 1, 3 and 6 metres
From 0.216 L/min — the most water-frugal choice
Ideal for walkways, terraces edges, colonnades

Datasheet ↓ Tech Specs ›

Radial · Umbrella fog

FGU Series

Six nozzles arranged in a circle at the crown release a full 360° canopy of fog — uniform coverage in every direction, for open spaces where people gather all around.

6 radial nozzles at the crown
Heights of 1, 3 and 6 metres
Uniform atmospheric presence across all directions
Ideal for plazas, event spaces, gathering points

Datasheet ↓ Tech Specs ›

Technical Specifications

	FGP1000	FGP3000	FGP6000
Nozzle QTY	2	3	5
Pole Height (m)	1	3	6
Flowrate (lpm)	0.216	0.324	0.540
Operating Pressure (bar)	70	70	70
Material	AISI 316L	AISI 316L	AISI 316L
Connection	H.P. Tube 3/8	H.P. Tube 3/8	H.P. Tube 3/8

Dimensional drawings of FGP1000, FGP3000 and FGP6000 misting poles: 90 mm diameter, heights of 1000, 3000 and 6000 mm, base plates of 169 to 249 mm

Pole Ø 90 mm (3.5 in). Base plate 169 mm (6.6 in) for FGP1000 and FGP3000; 249 mm (9.8 in) reinforced gusseted base for FGP6000. Operated with Fontana high-pressure fog pump units; consult our engineers for pump sizing, zoning and water treatment.

	FGU1000	FGU3000	FGU6000
Nozzle QTY	6	6	6
Pole Height (m)	1	3	6
Flowrate (lpm)	0.648	0.648	0.648
Operating Pressure (bar)	70	70	70
Material	AISI 316L	AISI 316L	AISI 316L
Connection	H.P. Tube 3/8	H.P. Tube 3/8	H.P. Tube 3/8

Dimensional drawings of FGU1000, FGU3000 and FGU6000 umbrella misting poles: 90 mm diameter, heights of 1000, 3000 and 6000 mm, base plates of 169 to 249 mm

Pole Ø 90 mm (3.5 in). Base plate 169 mm (6.6 in) for FGU1000 and FGU3000; 249 mm (9.8 in) reinforced gusseted base for FGU6000. Six precision nozzles arranged circularly at the crown. Operated with Fontana high-pressure fog pump units; consult our engineers for pump sizing, zoning and water treatment.

Questions, answered

Will the fog make people wet? +

No. At 70 bar the nozzles produce droplets of roughly 10 microns — so small that they evaporate within seconds, before they can settle on skin, clothing, table linen or paving. What people feel is cooler air and a soft freshness, not spray. This is the fundamental difference between high-pressure fog and low-pressure garden misters.

How much cooler does it actually get? +

It depends on how hot and dry the air is: the drier the climate, the more water can evaporate and the greater the temperature drop. In hot, arid conditions such as Riyadh’s summer, fog zones can run up to 10 °C cooler than the surrounding air; in Mediterranean humidity a drop of 3–7 °C is typical. In every case the perceived relief is larger still, as the fog also tempers direct sun.

Does it work in humid climates? +

Yes, with correct engineering. Even at higher humidity the air can absorb additional vapour, and airflow design becomes the key: pole placement, nozzle count and zoning are tuned so fog keeps evaporating instead of accumulating. Fontana’s engineers design each installation around local climate data — the same discipline we apply to fountains in over 100 countries.

How much water and energy does a misting pole use? +

Remarkably little. Flowrates range from 0.216 to 0.648 litres per minute per pole — meaning even the largest FGU pole running continuously for an hour uses about as much water as one domestic shower. The only energy input is the high-pressure pump; there are no compressors, refrigerants or hot-air exhaust anywhere in the system.

What is needed to install them? +

Each pole anchors to a compact base plate (169–249 mm) and connects to a 3/8″ high-pressure line running from a Fontana pump unit, which can serve an entire array of poles. Water is filtered before atomization. No basin, structure or roof is required, which is why the poles integrate so easily into existing squares, terraces and landscapes.

Is the fog hygienic? +

The system is designed to operate on treated, filtered water from a potable supply, atomized fresh at the nozzle — it does not recirculate standing water. Fontana specifies the appropriate filtration and water-treatment configuration for each project and climate as part of the engineering package.

FGP or FGU — which series do I need? +

Choose FGP (directional) when cooling should follow a line: walkways, terrace edges, colonnades, queues, façades. Choose FGU (umbrella) when people gather all around the pole: plazas, event floors, seating clusters. Many projects combine both — FGP along circulation routes, FGU at destinations. Both come in 1, 3 and 6 metre heights.

Can the poles run only when needed? +

Yes. Arrays are zoned and scheduled from the pump unit and can be automated on temperature and humidity triggers, timed to opening hours, or switched scene-by-scene for events — so water is spent only when it is buying comfort.

Want to cool
something beautiful?

Our engineers design misting installations end-to-end — poles, pumps, zoning and water treatment.

Get in touch FGP Datasheet ↓ FGU Datasheet ↓

Misting Poles