Exhaust setup from basement through egress window

Waiting to receive my glowforge. I saw several posts regarding exhaust setup and a little confused about what to do.

I decided to keep my GF in the basement which is below the ground label. There are a couple of egress windows and I am thinking of venting out of that window. I saw in one post where someone mentioned the ashes can pile up where you vent out. In that case, should I extend the exhaust pipe and move it up to the ground label? Also, I saw it was recommended no more than two 90 degrees turn and try to keep the exhaust as straight as possible. What will be the best way to setup the exhaust from my basement then? Or, should I think about a different place?

I tried to create a quick illustration of my setup. Red line shows the exhaust setup. is that okay to do? or I can just vent outside the egress window? or I should find a location above ground?

Hmm there have been several people who had setups like this and posted about it. Let’s see if we can find them.

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https://community.glowforge.com/search?q=basement%20window

Maybe some of these threads can help?

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I’m several years in and have never seen ashes coming out of my exhaust :no_mouth:

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Never seen that. I’ve got it exhausting out to a dryer vent with a grid cover (to keep small critters from sneaking in). Worst thing I’ve seen is some dirt/dust on the grid. No ashes or anything apparent on the ground a couple of feet below the exit.

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Nothing in the hose beyond the first foot or so from the machine, either.

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When cutting a lot of oak I used a chimney sweeper in the exhaust and managed a wad of unburnt oak fibers as much as the cotton you might find in a pill bottle and a bit darker but not that different. Nothing else has near as much solids heading out.

You would need to cut up a couple of large oak trees to have a noticeable level of such fiber. I would be more worried of water or snow building up there, and thus put the opening of the exhaust as high as possible in the window.

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Thanks everyone for the reply. Based on everyone’s reply I think I can just exhaust into the egress window area. I will setup the exhaust little higher than egress ground label to make sure the heat from the GR don’t touch anything on the ground there. I have a decent size egress area and I do not have cover on top of it, so it shouldn’t heat up much. I have spent couple winters already there and haven’t seen much snow pile up there either. Let’s see how it goes.

I have seen a few videos on how to keep the GF noise lower and improve ducting efficiency. Couple easy suggestion I liked:

  • Use a 4" inline duct fan which will improve the exhaust performance.
  • use an insulated vent duct on top of the regular duct to keep the noise lower.

What do you guys think about these? Is this going to help or just another sales speech?

Thanks again for your valuable suggestion.

Yes. A 190 cfm fan will work alone (and is cheapest) for acrylic and most others but needs the main fan for smokey jobs, 400 CFM and 6 inch duct needs a connection stepping down to the Glowforge’s 4 inch but you will not need the noisy internal fan unless that dies. That 6" duct can be insulated but you might have trouble knowing if the Glowforge is working by listening.

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Thanks for the reply. Should I use 190 cfm fan and GF main internal fan both together or just the 190 cfm one?

I saw another video showed by using a 6" duct fan instead of GF internal fan will reduce the noise label. Is that true?

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I have the Vivosun 190 CFM and it is insufficient alone for heavy smoke. However, I have been doing a lot of acrylic lately and the difference in sound is a lot. When I need to go back to wood I know I will be annoyed by the sound where I was not before.

Then again trying to hookup 6" to 4" is also annoying and also a lot more expensive which is more annoying to some than others.

BTW The way the air moves through and (hopefully) the tiny amount being burned at one time does not significantly heat the air enough that you could tell. The air coming out of a dryer is way hotter.

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I made my own 4"-6" adapter. Works like a charm.

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Just buy an insulated one and throw the plain one away - don’t try to slide the plain one into the insulated one!
I had the 4" vivosun and it worked great 90% of the time. I decided to upgrade to the 6" when I lengthened my run and it’s definitely louder, but still quiet enough that you can watch TV in the same room without turning up the sound.
You may find that the sound bouncing around in the little egress window hole is louder than you’d like, in which case extending the hose up would make sense - in that case I’d make it:

:glowforge: > short hose out the window > adapter > 6" fan > long hose > flap or screen so nobody can accidentally get in your hose

You can do both options. My 190cfm fan works great most of the time, when things are extra smoky/stinky I run both fans together.

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