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Winter is fast approaching (for those of us on the top side of the globe, that is), and with it of course come much colder temperatures. Which means that I let my apartment generally get quite a bit cooler than in the summertime to save on heating costs. Now, I've heard that 3d printers don't work well when the temperature gets below 75F- something about it affecting the viscosity of the resin and making it less likely to print well. Is there a way to get successful prints in a cooler room? Maybe some settings I could adjust or something? Or should I just figure on letting the printer chill (pun intended) until spring? I typically keep my apartment around 69F, which might seem cold but I can still be comfortable and I don't break the bank on my heating bill.

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Winter is fast approaching (for those of us on the top side of the globe, that is), and with it of course come much colder temperatures. Which means that I let my apartment generally get quite a bit cooler than in the summertime to save on heating costs. Now, I've heard that 3d printers don't work well when the temperature gets below 75F- something about it affecting the viscosity of the resin and making it less likely to print well. Is there a way to get successful prints in a cooler room? Maybe some settings I could adjust or something? Or should I just figure on letting the printer chill (pun intended) until spring? I typically keep my apartment around 69F, which might seem cold but I can still be comfortable and I don't break the bank on my heating bill.

An enclosure for the printer is the usual solution. With a heater you can keep it at a steady temperature, or just let the heat from the printer running bring it up to a usable temperature.

https://warminiatures.wordpress.com/2021/07/12/resin-3d-printing-and-temperature/


Have a read of that post ^^. It's my summary of my experiences and problems with heat and 3D printers.

The very short version is that an insulated enclosure for the printer (to help preserve what heat you generate) and a proportional heater and proportional thermostat are what you need to heat a printing environment.

The other option is to go for room-level heating.

In general resin is really reactive to temperature changes so on-off thermostats and heaters don't work because the resin will show strange expansion/contraction lines. Room level is fine because the change is slow; but in an enclosure the up/down cycling is too sharp a change.

It might not look cheap, however in the long run its a one time investment that lets you keep printing all through the cold parts of the year instead of having your printer out of action for ages and ages.