I’ve been operating my GlowForge in Wisconsin since May 2020. I had it running in my garage and vented through a garage window without much issue. I was never bothered by the burn smell that filled my garage.
However, I have just (just over a week ago) moved to the suburbs of Orlando, Florida. The home I bought does not have garage windows (though I am guessing that this is common in Florida due to managing heat. My wife thought that we should operate our GlowForge in our laundry room and vent it through the laundry vent. I had a spare inline fan to accelerate the flow of air out through the ventilation system. I thought that I should wait for five minutes before I open the Glowforge to minimize the scent. Despite these efforts there is still a pervasive scent of burnt wood in my laundry room and I’ve only run the Glowforge for approximately an hour.
I am running a Blue Air Purifier in the room to try to get rid of the scent, but I do not expect that I’m going to be content with this option long term. My wife and I use the GlowForge for making products to sell and I’m loathe to shut down operations on this part of our business.
So, I was wondering if there was anyone else in Florida that could give me insight on a new place or way to operate my Glowforge safely while saving my upstairs from smelling like burnt wood.
In advance, I greatly appreciate any support, advice, or suggestions that you provide!
With a proper ventilation set up you should not be smelling much of anything. That, I do know. I’m sure someone else in the community can give you some suggestions to resolve that.
I’m in South Florida and I have been running my Glowforge through my office window with the cloud inline fan for the past 2 years. I put the hose right up to the screen and it is held there with a frame made out of styrofoam. I only put it in the window when I am working on the machine because otherwise the AC leaks outside and makes the bill shoot up! Right after I finish there is some odor but by running the fan and ac it dissipates quickly.
Like @eflyguy I have an extended exhaust run, and there is zero odor even with operations that take 4 hours. I’m guessing you have a leak in your exhaust run somewhere. If you put your booster fan at the laundry room vent, then everything is being pulled out instead of being pushed - any leak and the smoke is pushed out. Make sense?
I am in Florida. I have the glowforge in a bedroom/office next to the window. I canceled my filter order and run the exhaust out the window. I have a 4" external fan and 2’ of hose connected to removable window insert. I added landscaping to hide the exhaust from the street.
This looks like it could be a problem as venting through the laundry vent would send the smoke two ways, Out the vent but also into your dryer where it could bake into your clothes very nicely
If you added a second exhaust so the dryer and Glowforge were not connected you might find it all would make it outside and not back into the room
