you can make a snowmaker with a air compressor, is there any way to just use a hose with a certain nozzle.?

Answer 1

The problem with just a hose, no matter what the nozzle, will be to get heat absorbed from the droplets as a large quantity of cold air from a compressor does.

Answer 2

There are commercial snowmaking companies that provide a wide range of products for ski resorts. the issue is to create a small enough droplet that remains airborne in frigid enough air to freeze before the droplet falls to the ground. The typical system used in the USA is to use compressed air to pressurize the launch and dispersal of the water. In some cases a chemical agent is added to the water to lower the freezing point of the water. Obviously any of the snowmaking systems depend on the temperature of the exterior air (and that of the water leaving the nozzle), the colder the air temperature the quicker the freeze. Wind chill effects can also help in cooling down the droplets and keeping them aloft longer. So the higher off the ground you locate your nozzle the longer the droplet will stay aloft. Anyone who has used a pressure washer in frigid temperatures has seen the edges of the discharge rapidly descend and freeze. Of course the volume is more ice than snow like.

Answer 3

This answer comes out of the basic thermodynamics/chemistry equation: PV=nRT (ideal gas law)

P=Pressure
V=Volume
n=n is the number of moles of gas present
R= is the universal gas constant
T=Temperature

Essentially the air compressor adds energy to the air when the air is compressed. When the air comes out of the compressor nozzle, the air cools VERY rapidly being introduced into atmospheric air pressure. The cooling air tries to extract heat out of the air as it comes down to the lower pressure. In snowmaking conditions, water is sprayed into the air stream so that the heat it extracts is the heat contained within the water.

Therefore, the cooling effect the air exhibits when coming out of the compressed air line then cools the water instead thus converting it from water to ice (snow).

Water couldn't cool fast enough with any kind of nozzle that would allow a phase change (change from one physical state of liquid to solid).