I believe there was a reference to coolers (versus just a single unit).
The Peltier coolers are going to be internal (cooling the liquid coolant and exchanging the heat across the intake port on the GF )
Since the intake air goes across the crumb tray and out the exhaust, but the coolant cycles through the reservoir and through the glass tube, that will keep the liquid below the approximate 90 Degree (F) operating limit.
@dan references the coolant for temp monitoring
Continuing the discussion from Pro Heat Limits:
I don’t. But I have it in the basement which is not air conditioned but does have a dehumidifier. Unfortunately adding a/c would be about a $500 proposition. I’ve got a Pro on order so I didn’t want to do that for a short term need.
That’s correct (I’m pretty sure they announced it was a Peltier cooler). But that would also provide a way for us to increase the temp range too if the included Petlier is insufficient, it can be replaced with a bigger, better one
The Basic has a heat exchanger and the exhaust air replacement (intake) travels through it. That’s the black perforated plate that’s under the Print button.
The Pro has active cooling in the form of a Peltier cooler plumbed into the coolant system. We haven’t seen a Pro so we can’t tell how big it is or where it is located but there’s enough room above the heat exchanger for a pretty robust one.
There is a grill (above the air intake) that does the cooling on the Basic (I don’t know if there is a Peltier under the black grill) that does the cooling.
I think the Peltier would need to be between the hot and the cold side of the heat exchanger where the cooling fluid is cooled by air flowing over a radiator. It has to make the radiator hotter so it can lose more heat to the ambient air and thus the coolant cooler.
Thank for posting that link @PFI-Guy
Dan has said that they do not know for sure and thus will not say what the heat limits are for the Pro.
This might be frustrating for those who bought Pro’s with the cooling in mind but for us Internationals (who are unlikely to have either a Basic or a Pro for some time) it allows us a chance to see how effective the Pro cooling really is before we commit either way.
FYI - i ordered a Basic but i live in a country where even winters are relatively warm and the summers are down-right stinking hot. So i am quite concerned about the heat limitations on the Basic. However i will not upgrade to a Pro until i know it is significantly better
Ambient temperature doesn’t affect tube life - the print will pause to cool before reaching a temperature that might damage your machine. We put the safety and longevity of the machine first; the coolant is continuously monitored so it never goes out of specification while the laser is running, no matter how hot out it is.
It’s a single Peltier chilller. (If there is a mistaken reference to multiple chillers per Glowforge unit, please let me know so I can fix it).
Why does the manual state “To prolong the life of your Glowforge unit and to reduce the risk of fire or mechanical failure, do not put the Glowforge unit where it could experience: Extreme temperature or humidity” and then define 75F / 81F as extreme temperatures ?
Does the cooling fluid have two heat exchangers then, at opposite corners of the machine?
It must be a small Peltier to only make 6F difference. I have a 62mm one on my desk that claims to be able to give 22C delta with a heat load of 200W. It does need 540W of power to do that though.
Cheers,
So 27C in non-Burmese scale…
Hmm… a little bit better, i could use it most of the year down here without turning on the air-con
Mind you, the basic is now limited to 22C (72F = 1.5C less than the manual says) so it will be interesting to see what the REAL temperature limit for the Pro is
Yes there are different numbers all over the place and it seems very late for GF to be changing these. We were told they were doing environmental lab tests ages ago but now seem to be doing it live in the field.
I don’t have air con so in a north facing room in the UK I would be able to use the pro for most of the year but not on a few very hot days without reducing its life, or perhaps not. It depends if you believe Dan or the manual.
I am glad I didn’t order a basic because 72F isn’t an extreme temperature at all. Standard lab temperature is 25C of course.
Thanks for that correction! I’d thought the external temp could impact the tube life, but it looks like the system in the Glowforge will pause to cool it off to keep it going for it’s longest possible life, no matter what the external temp is! Awesome feature!
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