Hard to tell how much CFM you're pushing with still pics but that looks much better. As long as you don't notice a 'large' change when you slightly lift the top section to allow air to bypass the Blue Mesh (poly), you should be good! There will be some change, but it should sound like when you change out a dirty, plugged air filter in the home A/C. Nice idea on the smoke machine!!
I've been using mine in the garage, you know, for science and testing.

(Its 110'F daily here now) I've timed how much water it goes through too many times to count. Pouring in a gallon at a time. I think I've run 50+ some gals through it already. At this rate I will need to replace the media before I leave to BM. LOL (We have very hard water here.) When the dew point is below 40'F, temp above 100'F, I can evap 1.5+ gals/hr.
Mine actually does better with the bin full of water. I believe it has to do with the smaller surface area for air flow when the water level is high. 1.5+gal/hr full, drops to 1gal+/hr when almost empty. Holds 6 gallons total.
I'll try to get some pics, but to better disperse the water I flipped the header hose so the holes point up. Then I cut up a t-shirt and tried to become Ratty.

Pulled out the sewing machine and made a cloth tube out of strips of t-shirt. Slide the tube over the header hose. Now the header fills the space between the header tubing and the t-shirt tube. Allowing water to spread more evenly over my media pads. Ice Machines use a similar, though plastic, type of header to allow even ice thickness for each harvest.
The media I am using can be seen by the piece sticking out of the overflow tub in front. It's an 'expanded paper' type similar to 'Aspen pads' but thicker and flows more air than poly pads. Problem is HD did not have the pre-cut panels when I was building so I had to go to an HVAC wholesale house and by a giant roll. I have media for 5 of these things now.....
sorry for the 'HTC One purple haze'....
IMAG1749a.jpg
Being a grey water evap unit, I am draining grey water from the RMC, (Rolling Man Cave) to the 5 gal bucket. I have valve on the tubing from bucket to bin. I will bleach/chlorine, (haven't decide yet) treat the water in the bucket and it gets filtered twice. Once entering the bucket and again entering the bin. I have tried a few different soaps doing shower tests for water amount per shower and suds generation. The 'Body Wash' (ie liquid) soaps suds like a bad boy and turns the bin into a 'sudsy bath tub'.

Bar soap dilutes much better and does not 'suds up' in the bin. It's more like Dishwasher soap, suds-less.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.