I’ve recently moved my Form 3 to the basement and started using the Prime function so I can get a print going while being as lazy as possible. But I went down there and I can hear a fan spinning inside. Does priming use electricity to run the heater inside while it’s waiting for a job? I don’t want to spend money on electricity for this convenients or potentially wear something out in the process.
I think the heater runs when the printer is primed. I whined about it not doing that, incessantly, for a while, some time back…
My printer lives in my basement. The space is heated, but I don’t run the heat when I’m not planning to be in my workshop. So in the winter it can get down to the low 60ºFs. Much below about 68ºF, the time it takes to reach the printing temperature can be exorbitant. Starting in the low 60ºFs, heating time could be long enough the printer would time out before reaching temperature. As part of preparing to do a print, I got in the habit of turning on the heater an hour or so in advance. And I tented the printer so it had a little more insulation.
Some others complained of similar issues. I missed it in the release notes, but someone recently commented that the heater now runs when the printer is primed.
It’s not using a lot of electricity. I think the heater is only around 20W. So it’s equivalent to a dim lightbulb when it’s on…
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I see. That’s good info, thank you
Hi @dome.node,
@Randy_Cohen has hit the nail on the head with this one (I always appreciate your contributions, Randy!); there is very low power draw but it does indeed start the heating cycle so that once you send a job the print can start as soon as possible.
Again a reason to allow (with some common sense) remote priming - that way we can leave the printer on low power standby, and if a print is planned, we can prime it and therefore ‘preheat’ in advance, without physically being there (as long as the physical stuff is done first - the ‘common sense’)!
Or perhaps alternatively have the firmware in the printer retain the primed status after power is returned - that way a smart socket can be remotely used to disconnect power (once primed) and turn it on again in advance of printing, and printer would still be ‘primed’.
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