Greetings – I received the Glowforge a few days ago and it was wet inside the inner plastic bag. So the moisture appears to have come from the Glowforge itself as the box was dry.
I sent an email to support, but haven’t heard back, so I thought I would try here in case others might know what the situation is. I’m afraid to turn it on – if it is coolant, I assume that the coolant is needed to keep from setting my house on fire.
Thanks for any insight…
Was your unit wrapped in a plastic bag? (if so, that’d be a first that I know of?)
How wet is wet? Droplets in the bag or 'there’s a cup of water at the bottom?" Could it be humidity condensation? The factory in CA is in a humid environment compared to certain parts of the country.
As you can tell, the bag is a new packaging feature, so not many owners have seen it yet.
Nah. The coolant is to keep the tube cool and allow it to operate. If you’re short on coolant the Glowforge will just not work.
The fire risk comes from the thing it does on purpose when it is in good working order. That is, it super heats a tiny spot and vaporizes the material there. The Glowforge has air assist which both aids that vaporization and cools the surrounding material so you’re less likely to keep a fire going. But that’s just air, not liquid coolant.
Another possible source of moisture is humidity when packed condensing out in a cooler environment on the way. Not sure since if you got a plastic bag, that’s different than how mine was shipped.
Yes, it came with a plastic bag around the Glowforge. It was pretty wet inside – maybe 1/8 cup of liquid. There was also a dessicant package that was pretty swollen.
I’m pretty sure it’s not just water. It feels a little greasy and my husband said he “accidentally(?)” tasted it and it was bitter. Of course, it could be condensation that picks up surface oils and stuff from manufacturing, but it does seem like more water than I would expect from condensation.
I still think I’m not going to turn the thing on until I know what is causing the moisture. Makes me nervous…
That much liquid has to be a coolant leak. Support required a swap out the last machine with a coolant leak. No danger but they didn’t want it fired up.
Well that’s new.
Let’s play it safe and say it’s in your best interest to NOT plug in and turn on the unit without official word from Support.
Take photos
Bad… bad husband! Sadly, I probably would have done the exact same thing.
I’m with the others – wait for support to contact you.
Thanks everyone – I’m glad to hear that I wasn’t being overly cautious and that this really is kinda weird.
I’ll try to be patient and wait for support… Hard to have this beautiful toy here and not play with it, though.
Thanks for the help everyone. Unfortunately, it does look like we’ll need to replace this Glowforge.
@parie, you should have just received an email from us with more details. If you have any other questions, please respond there and we’ll work together to get you printing as soon as possible!