That happens if the exhaust is insufficient to move the air out of the Glowforge, If the filter is running correctly and not clogged you will not see smoke coming from your machine. They are not magical and will clog quickly if over fed, and of course need to have their own blowers running properly. I do not have that one but many report surprise at how fast they can clog and why a prefilter to get the big stuff is a good idea,
Please stop telling me that I do not need a hole! In my opinion relying on recycled air is not very wise. My small room needs ventilation, to get rid of heat build-up and to get new oxygen for my lungs. And of course for security, the fumes can be poisonous, if the filter gets 99% out, which I would consider excellent, I still do not want to breathe the remaining percent.
1 Like
You shouldn’t be cutting anything that makes poisonous fumes.
The filter is probably not designed to be exhausted outside, so the exhaust may not be something you can hook into a hole. It may be a large panel. Adding ducting to this may cause the filter to not work correctly due to back pressure. Until it is released we won’t know. You will need to just wait for the final release information.
If you are working in an airtight room, you have other problems than a laser exhaust. You should not be relying on the GF to manage this for you; it needs to be already in place before you use the GF. If your room is really that airtight you need to strongly consider a change in work area. The GF won’t make a huge difference in this behavior as it will not use a lot of oxygen. You are the largest user of oxygen in your room.
If your room isn’t cooled, you will run into problems with the GF anyway and will need to address this.
If you want to poke a hole in your wall, feel free. I think the other users are trying to simplify your preparations.
2 Likes
If there is a reason you do not wish to breathe the exhaust, I would suspect that sending it to an enclosed area where other people are would find them objecting as well. There must be some sort of air conditioning system to keep the air moving in the building as well that would distribute what ever was happening in each room in any case. I smoke detector and CO detector are also good ideas for the room regardless.
1 Like
Sure, but normally I am alone in the basement, and I have a 3400 m3/h fan not far from my small GF room blowing to the outside, which is seriously stormy, great for spray gun with solvents and dusty woodwork. Took me several days to drill a 40 cm diameter hole through the 1 meter thick wall 
Now I still don’t know where the hole in my small GF room is going to be…
Never mind, I’ll wait for the filter to arrive.
Considering what it is designed for dealing with I think you might find it filling up really fast but please report out what you find. I have a similar Vivosun Duct fan that was not adequate working alone when the exhaust of my previous machine died but is great with the new one moving the air out so fast that gunk does not build up near as fast. as before.
The Blu-Dri is designed for as bad or worse but I have discovered that while the prefilter is cheap and the carbon not bad the HEPA filter is in the same price range as other HEPA filters but will perhaps work a lot longer as the prefilters take up most of the burden.
1 Like
huh?
where what
I have no toggle, maybe if it had a way to set it it wouldn’t to blowing smoke out at me.
New Filter, I get it without any instruction and it wouldn’t fir in my work area so I had to reconfigure everything. Over a month later and this.
the fumes from the GF acrylic make me feel ill
They were actually being quite helpful, as most people don’t want to cut holes they don’t need. GF uses standard 4” hose, but I’m not sure there’s an exhaust out port on the filter, for reasons mentioned above.Definitely wait to cut holes.
thats for closet cannabis grows, but do tell us how it works.
Click on this setting to switch it on, like this:
That disables the exhaust fan that’s built into the Glowforge, allowing the fan in the filter to do the work instead. (If you ever detach the compact filter, be sure to change this back!)
4 Likes
Well, I asked for the measurements of the filter to prepare my small dedicated room, and I got no help with that. Instead I wasted time defending why I really need that exhaust hole. And of course there must be an exhaust out on the filter, it is not going to compress the dirty air into nothingness 
If I would know where the hole goes, I could already move the GF in that dedicated room that I built last year and stick the hose in the hole as long as the filter is not yet there. But sure, I waited 4 years and will wait a few more months. Its just that I love making holes in walls and my fingers are tingling.
There is obviously an exhaust, but not necessarily one that you can easily connect to a hole. But have at it. If you cut a few holes, you may not need a vent at all. 
1 Like
Thanks, Tim…I was just going to post the same screen shot. 
1 Like
I can tell you’re frustrated. I think there’s been a communication breakdown here…and perhaps some misunderstanding on your part about how exactly the compact filter works…or perhaps we’re not understanding exactly what you’re trying to describe. If you vent to the outside, it goes directly from your Glowforge through the exhaust hose through a hole in your wall to the great outdoors. If you’re using the compact filter, it connects directly to your glowforge and exhausts into the filter box itself, passing through a filter. There is no exhaust going out from the compact filter…or if there is, it’s nothing (as ChristyM said) that you can connect a hose to.
1 Like
the compact filter has fins near the bottom but my air draw is so poor that my house is filling up with smoke. Maybe I have a defective unit, there has to be a way to increase the draw of the fan
Edit;
I followed the instructions and eventually I turned the knob to 1/2 way to get the filter to draw the smoke from my machine that sits right above and beside it with a firm solid vent with silicone ends and screw on hose clamps so the lack of draw power was not from a leaky vent or connectors
@tim1724, Thanks I contacted support. I updated my browser and it is loading fine but there isn’t enough air draw to stop the smoke from pouring out of the door and lid.
I’ve read some comments through the forums that use similar methods and they seem to work “alright”; not a high end professional system by any means, but it’s a cheap alternative. $35 per filter and while it may add up quickly; it should be hopefully around the same price in the end. All depends on the longevity and so forth.
Ordering started Oct 2015. It’s now one week away from Oct 2019. The latest slippery timeline says these will be available by the end of Oct 2019. I’m pretty sure that’s close enough to call it four years.
Let’s be realistic, at this point they’ve missed more deadlines then they have actually delivered on. It’s more likely this new deadline is going to be lapsed too.
2 Likes
As a heavy user of the compact filter I have to say it has its uses, but isn’t good for significant amounts of cutting. I’m sad that the promised design failed, but honestly I’m not surprised after having used the compact filter for months. The pre-filter piece they are adding is critical to making it actually work, especially with wood. I had to make one for my compact filter because the filter life was so bad, and one good pre-filter doubled the life of the expensive cartridge.
That said, even with the pre-filter doubling the life it is still not a very cost effective option. The current cartridges contain around 10lbs of carbon at a $250 price tag. If you invest in a more professional fume extractor, it’s $330 for 40lbs of carbon in the filter. The compact filter has about 25hrs of life with a pre-filter because of the carbon amount, and it’s probably safe to assume the larger units filter life is about 4x that.
The other downside of the compact filter is no monitoring of airflow. When the filter is full is mostly a matter of guesswork. As the airflow slows down, you also get more buildup inside the laser and have to clean more often, in my experience.
The good side of the compact filter is that it does its job well and compact really is the key word. If you wanted to take your Glowforge to a convention or something it’s great. The price tag there makes less of a problem since the service is so unique. The life on the filter is also almost exactly what you would need for a weekend of heavy use.
Overall, unless the next generation of filter costs is close to 50% of what it currently is I wouldn’t recommend it for consistent, daily use. It’s currently around $.16 per minute just for the filter cartridges even with a pre-filter extending the life.
5 Likes
If I choose “Cancel your air filter” option, what would refund be, the price of the air filter and the shipping cost associated with it, or just the air filter price?
Another question I wanted to clarify with regards to cancellation is, in what form the refund is going to be? Would it be some kind of credits (I hope not), cash, check, cashiers check?
I purchased my GF with a credit card, and the credit card is now gone. I hope you are not planning to send the refund and credit it back to the type of payment that was used?
I would really appreciate any favorable response you may have.
Thank you!