Yes, they do apply the refund to the originally used source of payment. I’m not sure they can refund to another payment source. Definitely be sure to explain the circumstances when you contact them about the refund.
(They refund whatever money you have paid, including shipping if you prepaid it.)
Dear Dan, I’ve been a GF customer for about 3 years give or take (at 72 my memory is not so good, sorry). I have started my business now and all of my products come from my wood carving and furniture making. I had hoped to be doing some new and innovative stuff on my laser (GF). I have to have a filter in order to do my work. I originally bought one, but cancelled that about a year or two ago. I figured on waiting with money in my pocket ready to jump in when you had something to offer. You know the only way to make money is to sell stuff. I figure to know demand for your filter would be to accept orders from customers.
Right now I can’t even do that. When I bought my first and only unit to begin with I did it because you were so believable in you ad. You said “my family used GF’s I want you to have one to.” You were the only guy out there I knew I could trust, especially after viewing all the Adam Savage videos on Youtube. So I’m ready to be a satisfied GF customer and advocate for GF. Please give us a date when you can accept orders and deliver the compact filter to existing customers with no Filter in the existing order. I spent 35 years in IT, the last 10 in Pharma with Wyeth and Pfizer. When we told the FDA we’d have the new lab systems running by Jan 1. we didn’t miss the date because they would shut our plants. Please help us. I would appreciate it.
Sorry Jules, been kinda busy and I lost track of the thread. I am actually right beside a window, problem is I can’t stand the stink AND I am concerned about toxic crap I might release into my neighborhood. Trying to be a Good Neighbor.
Oh yeah and I also had a pacemaker put it me a few months ago so I have to be 2feet away from the laser cutter or it tickles.
They tell me the “tickling” is actually the pacemaker going nuts due to the magnetic field being higher than a normal household appliance.
I was very much worried that the exhaust would be like a fireplace chimney and scare all the neighbors. By actual experience is that it would be hard for neighbors to even know when it was operating. Just once I was cutting a lot of oak and there was no wind so the carport got enough smoke for folk to be able to notice, but that only happened once in a couple of years.
Cool and do you use a prefilter?
My wife wants me cutting cutting cutting but I really prefer doing it at night. Maybe adding a prefilter will help alleviate my stress that my one horrible neighbor will start crap with me.
I think it will depend on how close your neighbors are. We’re in the suburbs with acre plots, but if you were in the city, your neighbors would likely notice.
My neighbors door is 25 feet from the outlet but they create far more smoke from their cigarette breaks than the Glowforge ever does, As noted the Neighbors who previously lived there saw enough smoke to be concerned once but thought we might have a house fire we were unaware of.
I have the Blu-Dri that cleans up any smell in the room for any reason, and a Vivosun inline fan to move the air faster out the window which makes less smoke leaving at any moment but no prefilter on that.
You shouldn’t be cutting anything that produces toxic results. These are usually bad for you and for the machine. Smelly maybe, but not toxic.
We aren’t smokers. 
I would probably have an issue with the exhaust near an open window, so I figured it’s worth mentioning that it could be a problem.
For the current Compact Filter: Air goes in via 4" port on top, air goes out via several fin vents along the lower sides. You’d have to build some kind of box with a port to run the outflow through a hole.
I could imagine a condo where your balcony was next door to one with a Glowforge exhaust next door that it would be an issue though even on a chilly morning when folks have a fire in the fireplace even a few acres per house would be an issue worse by far than the Glowforge. Where I am the local breezes are either east or west as there is much more resistance north or south so the wind would not blow directly toward the neighbor that was close. A good thing as their smoke would get really annoying in that condo situation noted above.
Thanks Ekla, that seems doable and I’ll be free to position the actual outlet where it fits. Wondering if the filter can be positioned vertically… I might post the solution here in a few months 
Hello all,
I have ordered my GF after years of waiting for the compact filter. Has anyone received theirs yet and used it in a enclosed room? I was going to cancel my order because I’ve heard from some local makers that it sucks. Also that if I order from Amazon I’ll get my GF faster and can just figure out another way to vent.
Any advice on what to do? Customer care has been useless.
If you have any way to vent outside, then vent outside. It’ll save you lots of money on replacement filter cartridges.
Plenty of people have the compact filter and have reported that it does the job just fine in an enclosed room. The major complaint is that it can fill up very quickly. The new filter, when it comes out, should be better. But I wouldn’t expect miracles.
Thanks! That makes me feel a bit better. The only way I would have to vent outside is by using someone else’s space, which I’d rather not, but it’s an option. I ordered the new one with the new filter but the wait game is torture. As you mentioned I’m also still worried of exactly how much replacement filters will start running me. It may not be worth it as I intend to utilize my machine alot…
You should really really research that here before you commit.
I don’t have a filter but from what I read on this forum they are much more expensive to run than I had guessed.
I made the mistake of ordering the glowforge thinking that I would decide in a few days if I wanted the filter… Once I decided that I needed to put the machine in a location that necessitated the filter I went back to order that only to find that you don’t even have an option to buy the filter separate from a glowforge. You either buy the filter at the time of getting the cutter, or you are SOL. So someone here mentioned a Blue-dri AS550 air scrubber. It’s just a bit more than HALF the price of the glowforge filter and you can get 5 charcoal filters to kill odors for ~180 dollars. So for the price of the glowforge filter that you can’t even BUY right now if you don’t want to buy another glowforge, you can get what is likely a better machine, and a dozen or so charcoal filters. So that would be my personal suggestion.
The HEPA filters for the BLU-Dri are indeed ~$250 but they have a cheap prefilter built in so should have more time on the HEPA filter. At 500 cfm the volume of pull is greater also.
Did you email customer support to change your order? They may add it for you manually.
IIRC their plan was to fill all of the air filter pre-orders and then make it generally available. As you just ordered one, and would be at the end of the line, the time between when would have gotten it and waiting for it to be available for order probably isn’t that different.
As rbtdanforth said, if you need it right away coming up with your own solution, that includes a pre-filter, is most likely the best solution.
