I recently purchased the glowforge pro and live in a condo in Minnesota so I am worried about 3 things…noise, smell, and venting in the cold. Since it is cold most of the year here I don’t know if I want to vent out the window. I also worry my neighbors will complain about the smell and noise since I’m in a condo.
Do you have any suggestions for an indoor filter? I didn’t get the glowforge filter because it says it’s on backorder for about 6 months.
Tyia,
Congratulations, you’re going to have so much fun.
You HAVE to vent it outside or into a filter unit.
There is no safe way to vent indoors.
Does your condo have a fireplace? You could run the vent up the flue.
There are Glowforge users that live in climates even colder than Minnesota so you will be ok to vent outside if you insulate the area around the vent in your window. The good news is that your neighbors won’t smell anything because their windows will be tightly closed until spring.
I am also in a condo and haven’t yet had any neighbors complain, but I don’t use the laser much and usually run it at night. They also mostly smoke so they may not even smell it. I assume my second story window also helps.
I would suggest hooking up an inline fan & turn off the Glowforge exhaust fan to reduce the noise. As far as the smell it is way less than what a fire place produces. I would also suggest to get to know your neighbors & give them a free item from your Glowforge & that goes a long way.
I’m in Madison, WI and have been venting out a window to the outdoors without issue since February. I got a window seal plate, an adapter to attach the tube to the plate at the proper size, and some legit ducting clamps to help.
On the outside I’ve got a louvered dryer vent cover (not that one, but a similar one I picked up at Ace for a third of the price). The flaps close when air is not actively being forced out, and even the cheapo plastic one I got is chugging along in the teens here without the unit getting cold.
I know some folks also use blast gates to help with this but I’ve found that to be overkill with the louvered vent cover.
I live in a duplex and basically as long as you a) Talk to your neighbors and b) Vent somewhere pointed not like, straight at their air intake, you should be fine.
Thank you so much for all this great information and the links. I really appreciate it and can’t wait for my machine to arrive and get it up and running!!
This topic was automatically closed 32 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.