Are the fume extraction options from eufyMake worth the added cost?
To save the suspense, my answer is yes, absolutely.
In my testing the smell and headaches were pretty much eliminated, at least enough that I can now stand being in the same room as the machine when it is printing. Your health, and the health of those around you, is definitely worth it if you can afford the additional cost.
It was bad enough that until we got the fumes dealt with, I refused to use the larger bed that requires the doors of the printer to be open. If you are interested in the machine itself rather than the air quality side of it, that is in my eufyMake E1 review.
Why the eufyMake E1 needs this at all
UV ink gives off volatile organic compounds as it cures, and that is what you can smell during and after a print. eufyMake are upfront about it, and they point out that in a 30 cubic metre test space with 40% ventilation the emissions fall inside the safe range, with GREENGUARD Gold certification on the printed objects themselves.
I believe them, but it still gave me a headache. A lab figure for a room the size of a double garage does not tell you much about your normal room with the door shut, and it tells you nothing at all about how sensitive your nose or brain happens to be to it. That gap between “measurably safe” and “pleasant to sit next to” is the reason these accessories exist.
It also depends which print bed you use. With the mini bed the printer runs fully enclosed and the built in filter copes fine. With the standard bed, or the roll to film attachment, the side door has to stay open, and at that point the built in filter cannot stop what escapes. That is why I had been avoiding the larger bed.
The two fume extraction options
There are two options that suit different scenarios.
| Exhaust Fan Kit | Purifier P1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $199.99 (launched at $179.99) | $699.99 / £589.99 (launched at $629.99) |
| How it works | Vents the air outside | Filters it and recirculates |
| Needs a window | Yes | No |
| Consumables | None | Filter sets at $199.99 |
| Noise | From 40 dB | 45 to 55 dB |
| Control | Manual, three speeds | Three speeds plus Auto and Standby, button on the unit or use the phone app |
| Size | 215 x 180 x 198 mm, 1.45 kg | 320 x 386 x 456 mm, 11.1 kg |
Both draw 48 watts and both use a 2 inch hose, so neither is going to trouble your electricity bill too much. The fan kit ships with a 1 metre or 3 metre hose, the P1 with 1.5 metres.
UK buyers: the P1 is £589.99 on the UK store, against $699.99 in the US. Worth noting because a lot of this gear gets priced at the same number in both currencies, which of course works out badly for us. This one does not.
Due to offers and launches, pricing shifts about, so here is where to check the current price if you want to look before reading on. That is an affiliate link so I get a small commission while you pay exactly the same either way.
We decided to go with the eufyMake Purifier P1 because our eufyMake printer is not located near a window, plus venting out of the window can be problematic on days where the weather is not good. It does mean an ongoing consumable cost of replacement filters.
Venting out, on the other hand, requires no consumables as the problem air is pushed outside, but it does require being able to physically locate the machine close enough to a window, and for that window to accommodate the setup without the fumes coming straight back in to your room. eufyMake also warn that in heavy rain, wind or snow you need to think about what blows back down the hose, which in this country is not a rare thing to consider.
What’s inside the Purifier P1
The reason you cannot just stand a normal air purifier next to the printer is that the majority of household units are built for pollen, dust and pet hair, and laser extraction is built for smoke and soot. UV printing produces neither. It produces gases rather than particles, which is why trapping them is a job for activated carbon rather than a HEPA element.
The P1 has both. A HEPA 13 filter rated at 99.99% of PM2.5 particles, and behind it 2.4 kg of high density carbon in six layers, with 8.4 square metres of contact area. eufyMake quote SGS certified testing at 99.54% removal of volatile compounds. Their argument for the layered construction is that loose carbon granules let air flow around them, while the dense layers force it through.
I have no way to verify a 99.54% figure at home, so treat it as their claim rather than mine. What I can tell you is what my nose says, and my nose says the problem went away.
For comparison, the closest thing I have tested is the xTool AP2 fume extractor, which is built for laser smoke rather than UV ink.
What comes in the box
Everything you need is right there, which is not always true of kit at this price. It is sold as the Purifier P1 Kit with Exhaust Duct, and there are eight items in there:
- The purifier unit
- A filter, fitted
- Power adapter (strangely we got two, one euro and one UK plug style!)
- A 1.5 m (4.92 ft) exhaust hose, 2 inch diameter
- Exhaust duct
- Exhaust duct cover
- Connector
- Quick start guide
That plug thing was a surprise. Not every maker brand bothers to include the correct plug, and I have had review kit turn up needing an adapter on an adapter before. I would have been quite happy with one of those universal wall warts with the slide on pin adapters, but this was cool too!
The ducting is three separate pieces, a duct, a cover for it and a connector, rather than one moulded part. That is what makes it flexible enough to line up with the printer, and it is also why it comes apart when you knock it. Even a little.
1.5 metres of hose is all you get, and there are no longer options listed. The purifier therefore has to live within about a metre and a half of the printer without 90 degree bends, which given it is 11 kg and the size of a small drawer unit, is worth measuring for now before you order rather than after.
Ongoing costs
A consumable filter you cannot see the state of is a filter you will forget about. eufyMake publish rated lifespans, and the P1 also tracks its own filter use and shows the remaining percentage in the app, which is more than most machines bother with.
There is a button to control the fan on the unit as well as in the software, so it still runs if the wifi is down.
The app shows it as a percentage and an hours-left figure side by side, so 75% reads as 1,275 hours remaining. Note what that implies: 1,275 is 75% of 1,700, the Silent mode figure, so the countdown appears to be in Silent-equivalent hours and will drop faster than the clock when you are running Standard or Strong. I will confirm that once mine has enough hours on it to see the rate.
A replacement filter set is $199.99, or £149.99 on the UK store. That is the same money as the entire Exhaust Fan Kit, which is worth sitting with for a second.
| Mode | Rated filter life | Roughly per hour |
|---|---|---|
| Silent | 1,700 hours | 12 cents |
| Standard | 540 hours | 37 cents |
| Strong | 300 hours | 67 cents |
eufyMake summarise all that as “up to 9 months“, when you read their small print it assumes 2 hours of use a day, split 25% Strong, 35% Standard and 40% Silent. So you get roughly 580 hours of mixed use per filter, which at 2 hours a day is about 9 and a half months.
Fortunately we do not do many textured or raised prints, because those are the ones that want Strong mode, and Strong is the 300 hour column.
To mitigate costs, eufyMake say a filter auto-delivery subscription is coming to the USA in November, bringing the replacement down to around $129.
When the filter reaches the end of its rated life, Auto mode stops being available. You can still run Silent, Standard and Strong by hand until you fit a fresh set. I have not reached that point yet, so I am going on what eufyMake say, and I will report back when my own filters run out.
The remaining objections, other than cost, will be is it noisy and how much extra room does it require?
Is it noisy?
Using my unscientific tests of “my ears” and a phone app, I would say it is not noisy at all. It puts out less noise at full strength than a vacuum cleaner as far as I can tell. Certainly not enough to annoy a neighbour, and quiet enough that my daughter and I had a normal conversation over it without difficulty.
eufyMake rate it at 45 dB on Silent, 50 on Standard and 55 on Strong, and the fan kit from around 40 dB. For some Google-acquired context, a quiet library is about 40 dB and normal conversation is around 60 dB, so even flat out this stays below the level you would talk at.
How much room does it need?
The additional space isn’t too bad, but repositioning the two machines did make the front flap come off easily and for the filter attachment to come loose. Not a problem once you find a home for it, something to keep in mind if you have to rearrange things or have to pull the printer out to use it then tuck it back away when you are done.
eufyMake describe both accessories as connecting cleanly and installing quickly, and in fairness the initial setup was straightforward. It is the moving them about afterwards that showed up the loose fit, and if your printer lives on a shelf you pull out and push back, that is worth knowing.
What about doing it yourself?
At this price DIY options become more attractive, and people were doing that before either accessory existed. There are printable vent adapters for the E1 on MakerWorld, and no shortage of setups built from those plus dryer hose, tape and a window insert.
A printed adapter and a hose gets you most of the way to the fan kit, for the price of a bit of filament, if you have a window that you can reach. What it will not get you is the filtration, because household activated carbon options are often made for kitchen smells or aquarium filters rather than the compounds UV ink gives off, and a poorly fitted adapter could potentially upset the printer’s own airflow. So DIY for sure replaces the cheap option, not so much the expensive one.
Which one should you get?
If you only ever use the mini bed with the enclosure shut, you may well need neither, because the built in filter is doing the job it was designed for.
If you print near a window you can open, the Exhaust Fan Kit is the cheaper answer by a wide margin and it has no ongoing consumables cost at all. The problem leaves the building instead of being captured.
That’s not just me saying so, eufyMake split it the same way. Choose the fan kit for semi enclosed spaces with a window or external ventilation, the P1 for enclosed spaces with neither. Their own FAQ also confirms two things that came up when I was deciding: it still filters properly with the printer lid open, and the cleaned air is meant to go straight back into the room rather than needing anywhere else to go.
If you print in a room without a usable window, in a basement, at craft fairs and other shared spaces where venting outside is not an option or there may be air quality rules, the P1 is the only option that works, and the recurring filter cost is the price of that convenience.
In conclusion, if you can find the additional money, it is a must-buy.
Of course I will follow up when I have had it longer and filters wear out, but I think it is a very worthwhile purchase and I thank the eufyMake folks for sending me it to try!
If you have decided you want to get more information and check today’s prices, the Purifier P1 and the Exhaust Fan Kit can both be found here. As mentioned before, affiliate links, same price to you, and these little commissions are what helps pay to keep the site going for this sort of thing.
Next thing I will test is an air quality monitor in the room when printing, with and without the filter, to try to answer the question properly rather than by nose: how dirty is your studio air? Look out for that follow up by joining the newsletter or subscribing on YouTube, to see the testing on video.
Disclosure: eufyMake sent me the Purifier P1 to test. They had no say over what I wrote, saw no draft before you did, and there was no payment involved.
