HI,
We just bought the 3L with cure and wash and I gotta say I’m amazed how shitty the construction on the Wash L is. It contains almost 40L of IPA and it’s not airtight. I wonder how the reasoning went there?
Has anyone designed or modded their Wash L to counter this?
I ordered the Form Cure L but decided against the Wash L. I instead purchased through my business a simple parts washing unit that has a pump and tank. I have not filled it yet but it should do the job. The unit was only $150 my cost and far less than the wash unit from formlabs.
As far as airtight the parts washer i have has rubber gasketing around the top but I am sure that I will loose some.
I have the same opinion. Just received the Wash L and already noticed significant IPA drop. It constantly smells of IPA. It barely seals when I have it open, the lids are loose.
My work has purchased the Wash L and Cure L. Immediately we noticed the same issue with it as you. In fact, I noticed the lid to our Wash L has a very noticeable defect in it. It’s definitely bent out of shape, it can be popped in & out of place. We haven’t modded it yet, but I’d be curious to find a way to do so. Maybe an adhesive-backed rubber around the edge?
I love that Im reading this now after we just purchased our Wash L a couple of days ago…
For what these cost that’s not cool.
Lets hope mine comes in perfect… 
The quality of the parts is shocking. Not even 2 weeks in and one of the brackets to hold the pump is broken. I’m surprised that a lot of the parts in these things are 3D printed.
Just got the Wash L and I’m amazed at how much IPA it allows to evaporate- we have been losing about a gallon of IPA to evaporation weekly. This is not sustainable, and it makes the air in the room unbreathable unless we increase circulation with fans. Top edge of the tank is complex, unreachable, non-magnetic, and eats adhesives, so it’s hard to figure out how to cover or seal it better. Interested in hearing from anyone who has found a way to make this machine more usable.
I got a reply from Formlabs regarding this and their response was something like “that it would create a pressure of fumes in the tank the would be dangerous when released (opening the lid).”
I think a solution is to get a better pump and after use you pump it to another container that you can close properly.
oooor you can skip the IPA and use TPM, its expensive but doesn evaporate nearly as much as the IPA and they say it doesnt smell.
TPM info below
Thanks for your response! Maybe it’s me, but I think Formlabs should disclose when they are selling a product without having addressed the fundamental engineering implications of that product. TPM is an interesting option, but as you say, it is an $800 option. If that doesn’t work, we might pull the old Form Wash Jr. out of storage and only use the giant, expensive Wash L when we run a Form L job. Unfortunately, our IPA comes in gallon bottles so it’s hard to pump out, but that should all be evaporated soon, so we can graduate to a drum!
Hi @corlettt,
As @Vitajens mentioned, the Wash L is not intended to be airtight. With that said, if you would like to limit the rate of evaporation, you can keep the Z-axis raised so that the inner lid doors are closed. We’ve found that this slows evaporation compared to keeping the Z-axis down, where the inner lid remains open.
Hi Jesse, thanks for the reply. I’ll try this! Are the inner lid doors supposed to close tightly? Ours kind of hang down- the springs aren’t powerful enough to bring them horizontal.
Hi @corlettt,
The inner lid doors should close fully rather than hanging down. Just to double check, try removing the solvent monitor and the wash basket to make sure they are not obstructing the inner lid, and also make sure the wash bucket is fully seated in the unit. Otherwise, I would recommend getting in touch with Support and sharing some photos/videos of the issue.
