Air Filter Latest

I haven’t compared mine with professional meters (if I could afford a professional meter, I would use it instead). I don’t really demand accuracy, and for my needs having something on my desk that turns orange when the air gets bad is good enough.

I did recently get this IQAir for the bedroom, because I wanted see how badly CO2 levels spike overnight, and it seems like it’s probably better in a few ways. But for the workshop, I like the one Foobot feature of changing color if I have a Glowforge exhaust leak.

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I submit that at the very least, owners of the Pro who are still waiting on the Air Filter deserve an official spec sheet of the replacement option from the company that has pushed their product back to ship in October 2019 for me. This is getting ridiculous. I purchased my unit in August of 2017. If I’d known this is how they were going to handle production setbacks, I would have gladly chosen a competitor. I haven’t made a decision because I frankly didn’t know where to look for actual tech specs on the alternative filtration system.

Thanks for the links.

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Just for clarity on my part: the discrepancies I am seeing are orders of magnitude, often 4x or more.

Another update… I have been running my Compact Filter now after another 10-20 hours of cutting, including about an hours worth of material with MDF (walnut plywood, and also proofgrade draftboard). I switched out my “pre-filter” and I am still on a “3” setting. I think the pre-filter is really helping! Highly recommend. I change it out once I start smelling the odor a little stronger, rather than bumping up the filter #. I just bought another 2 sets of these filters (2 filters each, so 4 total filters that fit the GF) for about $16.

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Just popped one in the cart! Thanks! :grinning:

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Thanks. (Amazon thanks you as well!)

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I’ve had the compact filter for a couple months now and am going onto my third filter for it. FWIW it does the job well while it works. The downside is that the time it works can be rather short. I log usage so numbers are fairly accurate.

I mostly work with wood on the Glowforge and so far my filter life has been 15-20 hours of use.

First filter: 22 hours of life, mostly doing 1/8th in plywood engraves (about 80% of the time) and cuts for the remainder. The filter clogged slowly until even at max fan speed it wasn’t pulling enough air to clear the Glowforge.

Second filter: 15 hours of life, still doing a lot of plywood engraves and cuts but also cutting some finished hardwoods (Red Oak). Filter clogged suddenly while doing 30 min of hardwood cuts, going from working great to almost no airflow even at max fan and smoke coming out of the machine. I’ll spend some time with the next filter figuring out if it was the material or just more cut time that used up the filter faster.

In the end my feelings on it have gone from positive to mixed. The filter is expensive, all one piece, and the life isn’t great. Almost all other fume filters have a cheap pre-filter to extend the life of the expensive main filter and/or break it into parts. I expect filter life could be 10 hours or less depending on the materials (not just MDF but hardwoods apparently), and unless the filter gets more efficient or cheaper that’s a lot of cost to absorb.

After some research, it looks like the design is directly based on (or sourced from the same parent as) the Full Spectrum Laser 100 Small fume filter (FSL-100). The only differences in cartridges seems to be a metal casing on our filters (this seems like a waste on disposable filters) and the FSL has pre-filters that are expected to be used at a 5 to 1 ratio to the main filter. Our price is a lot cheaper for the filter, but without the pre-filter it’s getting consumed that much faster.

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Did you see this post? One of the testers is still on his first filter by using these cheap pre-filters cut down and laid on top of the Compact Filter.

I’ve done the same thing, but those filters are only catching the biggest stuff and are far from an official solution. From a filter standpoint they are around a MERV 6. If you look at something like low end BOFA units, they use MERV 11 prefilters w/ surface area 10x that of our HEPA filter. I definitely need to find some kind of solution that doesn’t eat a $250 filter in 10-15 hours though. Over time the community may be able to figure out which materials are worst for the filter, but that’s going to take a lot of testing to figure out.

I trusted your order status and was strung along for over a year, not using my unit because my venting situation was not optimal and I thought i would get my air filter in Jun 18., Oct’18 and now October 2019. I’m making adjustments to use my glowforge now that I know the shipping dates cannot be trusted.

I would like to formally complain that the changes in status were not communicated in a clear matter, I never received a direct communication when my shipping dates were changed.

I believe some level of compensation is in order, perhaps an extension of our warranties.

Please advise.

-Alex

You won’t get a response to this - the least of the reasons being that this section of the forum is not monitored by GF staff - it was created for those discussions that they did not want to have official GF support for. That’s why this is the only place where posting if non-Proofgrade settings are allowed.

Beyond that though, the same suggestion was made many times during the several years between the original December 2015 promised delivery and ultimate deliveries two years later. GF never agreed to any such suggestions, demands or threats.

If you want to try though, you’ll need to post in Problems & Support where official GF staff hang out.

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Doh! My filter (that was set on 3) filled up this evening. I had used about 4 pre-filters. This was after cutting several pieces of Draft board. I’m thinking the pre-filter was still no match for the draft board, though I had cut several pieces of plywood core MDF prior.

MDF is bad, but honestly so are some of the hardwoods if the amount of smoke made when cutting is any indication. There is a reason BOFA filters have something similar to a 5" MERV 15 furnace filter before the HEPA filter. Did you get a similar number of hours out of the filter compared to mine? I expect that wood cutting is just not working great with the current filter setup.

Did you get a similar number of hours out of the filter compared to mine? I expect that wood cutting is just not working great with the current filter setup.

I think I might have gotten a little bit more, but I was also using a homemade pre-filter. I’m guessing around 25-30 hours maybe. I should have kept better track. Most of what I have been cutting is hardwood, and plywood with MDF or veneer core. I did some acrylic as well.

Just a reminder that you’ll get more life out of your filter if you run the filter after the print is complete - one minute of running for every minute of printing. It’s not precise or urgent, but for example if you printed all morning, you’ll get more filter life if you let it run all afternoon (or all night, or the next day… the timing is flexible).

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No kidding? Well, that’s good to know…I’ve been shutting it down a few minutes after the print stops. (Gonna stop that now.) :smile:

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I have found that Red Oak is as bad as any MDF as the particles are large and the gunk is thick. Since I received the new machine I have cut and engraved mainly hardwoods and no oak or oak plywood and though I will at some point need to go back there what I have done so far has barely fogged the glass on the lid where before a single job would do that.

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I just experienced my second filter failing on me tonight. I had my back to the machine, sitting about 7 feet away from it plugging away at a bright computer screen, giving it occasional glances every 5 minutes or so.(don’t stare at lasers)

Between two of these glances I didn’t even notice the entire room had filled with smoke. I’ve also been down with sinus infection/bronchitis for the last 3 weeks so I couldn’t smell and the occasional cough was believed to be the sickness.

the strongest i’ve ever ran the compact filter was at the top of the 2nd section. It always removed all the smoke with no issue. I just spent about 3.5 hours doing about 2/3 the time in engrave, and 1/3 time in cuts. When smoke was observed, I cranked the filter to max, and it was still no help.

This 2nd filter block is still very much whiter than the first one, and like the other user, had a lot less life than the first one, but i’ve done NO MDF on it.

@dan, are you suggesting that for each hour long engrave and cut job(mostly engrave) that I spend another hour with it just running before I do another job, and that will prolong the life of the filter???

I read that as just try to do a 1 to 1. Such as - 4 hours of work, be it eight 30-min jobs, four 1-hour jobs, or whatever mix - try to have a 4-hour period that the filter can just run with no job.

all well and good but this advice literally came just hours ago and i’m still choking on a room full of smoke. the block is completely clogged, running it further even with no jobs running, feels unsafe, no air is passing through the cartridge block, and its all just getting hotter, like the fan could burn out if i continue to let it run.

if/when I get a new filter block, i’ll be sure to follow the new instructions.

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