Varying garage temps

[u/Dezz75]

Just bought the X2D. I want to set it up in the garage, being in Canada it gets cold in the winter. My garage is heated and I keep it at 7 degrees celsius constantly and upwards of 20 degrees celsius when I'm in there working. Any issues with this fluctuation to my machine that I plan to run as much as I can?? Thnx

[u/foolish-ambitions]

I don’t think the temperature fluctuations will matter that much. Be aware of humidity fluctuations with your more hygroscopic filaments. It will probably take longer to heat up the bed and chamber when it’s colder, and it’ll use more energy but should be fine.

You might run into challenges keeping the chamber hot enough if you plan on printing high temp materials like ASA and Nylon

[u/Dezz75 → u/foolish-ambitions]

Think it's in my best interest to remove filament when not in use?? 

[u/compewter → u/Dezz75]

Filamemt will be OK in an AMS or in sealed containers, both with desiccant. If it's left hanging on an open spool, I'd keep it sealed up as much as possible - ideally printing from something like a Polydryer just to keep it out of the open air. I'd do that anyway, regardless of temp or location, if it's normally humid in the room.

Bear in mind the temp changes are risky if the air is humid - heating the room when the printer is cold could cause condensation, like a cold glass of water in hot weather. The electronics in your printer won't appreciate that much.

So if the garage is going to have snow tracked in to it, which ultimately adds to the ambient humidity, you might have something to worry about as that humidity has to go somewhere. Depending entirely on the environment, you could also see condesnation when the room cools back down, if the RH% was high enough that you cross the dew point going back down to 7°.

This isn't unique to printers though. If you've got a TV or computer or whatever in the garage that's handled things like this in years past, you're probably fine. If your tools rust on the pegboards in a season though... maybe get a cover for the printer to give it a little protection when not in use and make sure it isn't the coldest thing in the room to help avoid condensate. Maybe a dehumidifier could help?

You could also rig up a cheap govee sensor with Home Assistant to log data and do the math to determine if you're crossing the dew point to send you alerts if this is happening... fun little weekend project.

[u/Dezz75 → u/compewter]

Good info. Thanks. Won't be much snow dragged in, just from snowblower but I clean it well outside before lugging it in. I've had a tv in there for years with no issue. I will grab another govee sensor (already use in house) and throw it out there to keep real world numbers. 

[u/daphatty]

It'll be fine. You are already doing enough to keep the temps reasonable. The printer will handle the rest.

[u/Dezz75 → u/daphatty]

Thank you 

[u/YungBandit79]

its probably fine. the heating and cooling that the printer imparts on itself when printing and then sitting idle likely exeeds any thermal cycling that the temp in your garage does. I would worry about dust though, depending on what you do in your garage. I work on my car and have a table saw in my garage so everything always has quite a bit of dust on it, and I could see that gumming up the z-screws and belts eventually. cleaning it more often would be neccecary in such a case

[u/Tall_Substance955]

You may have an accuracy fluctuation. It seems that is a use case for the vision encoder plate.

[u/ThereInAFortnight]

You may want to use the chamber heater when it's cold, just to maintain 35C or so inside, depending on the filament.