Difficult ambient temp VS humidity - where to put the unit?
Hello all,
Eagerly awaiting the arrival of my kit this week. I’m starting to clear some space and figure out where its going to live.
Trouble is, I’m sharing a house so I’m limited on where it can go.
Wherever it ends up, I’m planning on building a (mostly) sealed enclosure with a duct/vent fan and an intake fan I can trigger as needed. I plan to add a temperature probe in there and eventually rig a system so I can set a temp for it to shoot for.
Even with the vent rig, I’m not sure I want to put it in my bedroom… seems I have two options.
Option 1 - Garage:
Best for fumes, but its uninsulated and I’m in a very hot/dry climate. It can get up to 105F/40C inside during summer/day, and down to 45F/7C during winter/night. No reasonable way to adjust ambient temp. Inside temp is always changing throughout the day, and can drop substantially after sunset.
Option 2 - Bathroom:
Private bathroom with space enough for me to build an enclosure with small vent duct to window. Obviously more humidity from showers/etc, but it does have a ceiling vent and the ambient temperature is pretty stable in there. I'm leaning toward this option, but I've heard humidity can be super bad for some filaments and cause a lot of printing problems. Curious what the more experienced printers think.
TL;DR
If you had to choose between uncontrollable ambient temperature swings OR a sometimes - more humid environment, which would be better?
Thanks all, appreciate any input!
Re: Difficult ambient temp VS humidity - where to put the unit?
I will be interested to see what others say, but hands down I would do the garage. Those ranges are within the printers abilities, and you will hate tripping over it in the bathroom, and water+electronics=bad.
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Re: Difficult ambient temp VS humidity - where to put the unit?
Agreed with Aaron. Slow temperature swings are not that big a problem. Especially not with PLA. They may be a problem when printing large ABS objects that print overnight. But in that case, why not make an enclosure in the garage? The printer bed will probably keep it warm enough, depending how you build it.
Condensation may be a concern though. Store your filament in sealed boxes with some silica and make one to hold the current filament. Something like this: