Inline exhaust fan

Hello, Newbie here…lol…Is there pics of how the installations goes? I am going to order one asap…what do I need beside the Vivosun 4 inch…? Cheers

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Thank you!!..I originally just had coroplast, but winter is here, going to have to do plywood. Did you use a dryer vent to keep the weather from coming thru?

Yes, the side you can’t see has the little shutters on them. When the time comes (before you know it) to clean the fan, be sure and clean them as well.

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Good to know…many thanks again! Cheers…

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LMAO! I had ordered a filter (before we knew anything about the filter that ended up being delivered) so my venting was out a small basement window. Since it was only temporary I used some 2" pink foam insulation board.

That was something like 4 years ago :slight_smile:

I did eventually get the filter but I’ve never installed it or even turned it on. The venting works fine and the filter isn’t the GF low-unit that was initially advertised so it’s relegated to its box and awaits use for some indoor Makerfaire or something.

But yeah, I should put in a piece of plywood.

One of these days.

:wink:

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Can someone help me!! I just want to make sure that the side that has the red arrow sticker should be facing out towards the vent. I took it apart and can’t remember now.

Thank you!

Just turn on the fan and see which direction the airflow is. The end blowing out is the end that goes to the vent.

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That’s the trick I learned the hard way.:grin:

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I too ordered the filter way in advance of understanding the nature of the beast. Managed to sell the unopened box. Initially vented under the front of the garage door because it was easy. It was one of those, just gonna try this sucker out sort of things that lasted over a year. Eventually built a proper adaptor to allow me to vent out of an existing garage vent.

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I just installed an inline fan! Terrabloom 4" from amazon.com. I have a very short vent hose to the outside, so it does a fine job. OMG, now I can actually hear myself think while the Forge is running. I had no idea the machine itself made so many funny little noises til now. I did take out the factory fan–absolutely clogged with stuck on gunk, cleaned it and put it away in case I need to put it back in someday. I even got the left side glass top off after reading some posts on how to do it, so it was EASY.

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i kept wondering why I had waited so long.

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Is it best to have the internal fan on or off when venting outside? I had the GF filter installed and didn’t change the setting for the vent when I swapped over. I’m going to switch it and see what happens.

It’s best to have the internal fan off if you have an external exhaust fan installed - to do so the filter switch in the GFUI is set to On.

You can vent outside with the fan that came with the :glowforge: , so it would be bad to turn it off if that were your only fan!

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Off. You will be amazed at how quite it is too with just the external fan.

Internal fan off.

My 6" Vivosun is virtually silent, I sometimes forget to turn it off and find it’s been running for days when I next go to use the machine!

I also use it to draw cool air thru the house at night in fall and spring when conditions are right, by opening the lid, and a door on the opposite side of the house.

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I’ve never seen where someone explained why using both fans is not a good idea. I get the reduction in noise from the internal fan, but is that it? Would it cause damage or something to the unit? Or is it really just about the level of noise?

Main advantage of the inline exhaust fan is the reduction in noise. Can you opt to run both, the inline and the internal? certainly. Will there be a benefit to running both? I highly doubt it. The limiting factor will be the volume capacity of the exhaust duct; you can only move so much air through the hose. Most (from what I have seen), use the 6” inline fan, which already exceeds the air volume capacity of a 4” duct. In other words, the volume of a 4” duct is already maximized.
If you don’t care about the noise of the internal fan, why bother with the expense and time to install an external inline fan? If your only goal is to maximize the exhaust volume, I can’t see how an external fan will really help. If your goal is noise reduction, then an external inline exhaust fan is the answer.

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While the noise level of the inline fan is a HUGE plus , the greatest advantage over the internal fan is that it is drawing air out instead of pushing it out. This greatly reduces the amount of fumes and odors that are present in the room. No matter your best efforts, the duct leaks and as @jim.kathy.alexander pointed out the capacity of the fan to move air exceeds the ducts capacity to carry. Air, like liquid will travel along the path of least resistance, add this to the increased pressure and you will have smoke, fumes and odors escaping at every opportunity until it reaches the end. If you will place the inline fan at the end of the ducting where it only pushes out the window/wall, all of the air being expelled was pulled along its path.

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I have an external fan ( 6 inch) but have been running the internal as well for a few months. I originally bought the external fan to reduce the noise and provide an alternative to the internal fan that was becoming a pain to keep clean. I ran with only the external fan for a long happy while. Then that forge died and the while the replacement is still under warranty it still has the internal fan in place.

Thus, I am running both. I hate the noise but fear not running the internal fan will result in a rapid growth of gunk upon it, leading to the need for removal sooner than later. I think the warranty on my replacement forge is just about up so that surgery will happen as soon as the next big cleaning.

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