Setting Up Ventilation

[emilymnelsen]

My GF arrived today & I’m trying to set up my proper ventilation. The hose that came with everything was not long enough to get 3’ away from our house - Can I add extra hose? Anything specific I am looking for when buying more? I bought some ‘flexible aluminum foil duct’ and want to be sure it’s safe. (All the safety reading has me freaked out).

Second question - I plan to run my GF in the basement. There are windows that are up higher than my table…so the GF will have to push the air up and out of our house. Is that okay?

Thanks for your help! Excited to get started, but don’t want to do anything that will be unsafe!

[marmak3261]

Welcome @emilymnelsen. You are fine with using the full extent of the supplied hose as long as you don’t add more that two 90 degree turns. Going up and out the window is just fine. Heat rises so the idea of pushing up stuff isn’t a concern here.

If I can figure correctly, you would like to have some type of external setup to ensure the that exhaust continues further away from the house, rather than having a window or wall mounted opening with just a flap, much like a drier vent.

If you are adding extra runs than the distance of the full stretch of the supplied hose, you might want to consider adding an inline fan to boost the exhaust further. That is a bit beyond my experience, but there are many topics that discuss this and share the solutions.

Here is one:

DIY in-line fan venting setup

It’s ugly but it works. Hose goes directly from GF out the wall and into the ice chest that houses an in-line fan. Now I have added ventilation and the in-line fan stays on before and after cuts to get all the fumes and smoke. [50338975_10156053947791547_7324016170032431104_n] [50119412_10156053947896547_8488789048482070528_n]

You will want to search on venting setup and exhaust setup.

I found out I was getting a Glowforge on a Monday totally unexpected. Delivered on a Wednesday. I had given a little thought to venting, but not much. Used materials I had on hand.

Prototype Quick Disconnect Magnetic Vent Hose Coupler

I really was caught unprepared to physically receive a Glowforge. I was ready in terms of design ideas, workflow and materials but other than putting the exhaust hose out a window, I didn’t really picture what I was going to do. Luckily the few weeks before I had transformed the basement office into a work room and had picked up the table and gave a few thoughts to the window situation. I procured a piece of Celotex from a parishioner and used a 28 oz. tomato can to pierce the two layers of Cel…

Welcome to the community and good luck.

[deirdrebeth]

Setting up a booster fan at the end of your extended hose seems to be the way to go - but why 3’ away from the house? Mine is 100% in the house, with solely the opening at the window and it works just fine. The only issue I ever had was having the door right next to it open and managing to suck the exhaust back in!

Length of venting question

@dan has said that the internal fan is designed for an 8 foot flex/dryer vent hose. When you need a longer run, there may be issues. Several discussions have been made about extended vent lengths, but you mileage may very as to your extension and fan boosting. https://community.glowforge.com/t/over-10-feet-vent-hose-for-glowforge/ Also, these might help Duct Calculator Friction Loss in Air Ducts http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/duct-friction-pressure-loss-d_444.html On-Line Duct Fr…

[emilymnelsen]

I read in the manual that “You can also put the hose out an open window, so long as the end of the hose is at least 3 feet from the window” on pg 23…

[deirdrebeth]

Ahh, I think that’s if you’re just throwing it out a window - as opposed to having some sort of holder for it.

If you’ve got something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Window-Vent-Adjusts-Through-Works/dp/B01LYFWKIN (mine is a straight plastic one, there are lots of versions out there) you don’t need the 3’

[jamesdhatch]

@emilymnelsen

Second question - I plan to run my GF in the basement. There are windows that are up higher than my table…so the GF will have to push the air up and out of our house. Is that okay?

Probably similar to me.

I have mine in the basement on a Home Depot tool cabinet so it’s 4 ft off the floor. I ran the included venting hose up to the window (one of those short window well types as my basement is mostly below grade). I replaced the window with a plywood & foam insulation sandwich. I cut a 4" hole through the sandwich and passed a standard dryer vent through it and sealed it with caulk. The vent has an angled cover and a flap that opens when the Glowforge pushes air out.

Works great & didn’t need to have any booster (I did seal everything with foil HVAC tape). If yours is a similar setup you should be fine. I did not extend the dryer vent out from the house - you don’t need 3 feet outside the house.

[averly]

This question is outside our team’s scope in configuring exhaust differently. I’ve moved it to the Beyond the Manual so the discussion can continue there.