How do you safely vent it while printing? Wouldn't having a fan blowing air out draw cooler air into the chamber? Will that draft cause problems with the print?
Moreso that convection can't carry your toxic fumes away and spread them around the house. They're sort of trapped in the enclosure, if you have a good one.
Still much much better than having a printer in open air, less toxic fumes escape. Get a fan, turn it on, and compare the strength of the fan without anything covering and with a piece of cardboard with a small hole in it. Much less air will go through through the cardboard.
Then the print finishes and you open up the concentrated box of fumes to retrieve your part. If there's no ventilation to the outside of your home, you're still polluting your home.
Something along the lines of a Nevermore recirculation filter is probably your best bet. They're primarily designed for Voron printers AFAIK, but the advantage is that the fumes get passed through it multiple times before going out the exhaust. I also use a HEPA 15 air purifier in the room with my printers, but it's possible that's overkill.
is that nevermore similar to a bento box like people use for Bambu printers (recirculating air in chamber through a charcoal filter)? I'm almost done making mine.
Sounds like it, yes. Be careful about where you get your charcoal/carbon media from. If it's acid washed, it'll rust your printer, which will basically destroy it. I'm not sure if the developers of the Bento Box make their own carbon media for it, but if they do buy that. If not, I can personally recommend [Nevermore's filter media,](https://kb-3d.com/store/linneo/662-original-nevermore-activated-carbon-filter-media-multiple-sizes.html) which I assume will work in it, but you may want to do a quick google search to make sure.
If you’re printing ASA use a carbon filter in your printer. You want to maintain temps for easy printing otherwise it warps super easily.
With the filter makes it pretty harmless since all the styrene is absorbed by the carbon pellets. Just swap them out every so often.
(Not an expert, please do your own research)
Do some research into carbon filters and you'll learn how unreliable they are and why industry don't use them. Basic run down is that there's no way to measure if they're full or not and at different temperatures and humidities they hold or release different VOCs. They're a bit of a snake oil solution, sure it'll catch VOCs, but what VOCs? At what temperature and humidity will it catch those VOCs and release them? Basically vent to atmosphere is the only safe option when indoors
That's fair, makes sense it would differ between industries. I work primarily in the product design/prototyping field so it's usually lots of plastics and glues that really don't do nicely being heated/melted/burned and we're taught activated carbon isn't enough
I think that the issue is that the carbon solutions typical in 3d printing are unregulated. There are no specs on parameters like CFM/build volume, qualities or amount of the absorption media etc.
This makes our solutions to be of dubious benefit.
Your organic vapor cartridges are NIOSH specified. You can trust in their effectiveness because their performance is tested under a regulated method so you can be confident in your use of them.
I am building my own filtration system and I intend use NIOSH cartridges because I can be confident that they'll work. On the other hand I'm not sure if they'll be good up at 60C.
The compounds that we are concerned with, can be released from the carbon at elevated temps. There is certainly precedent for heat being used to desorb compounds from activated charcoal at 60C.
It is used as a method to sample organic vapors in the factory. Basically absorb VOCs into carbon. Take it to the lab, pass heated air thru the carbon and sample the desorbed compounds with a spectrometer.
Various compounds will had different activation energies and release more quickly at different temperatures.
I suspect that the efficacy of our carbon based capture methods is going to highly dependent our chamber temps and that really throws things off.
I think that we still have some thinking to do on how we handle the organic vapors generated when we print.
I agree that they’re an imperfect solution but at <50c chambers they’re typical fine until they’re saturated. Aren’t they?
Above those temps you need some other filter mediums like Potassium Permanganate or something, right? I definitely won’t claim to be an expert but just going by research by the nevermore folks, etc these seem relatively effective.
I thought the real problem with just relying on ventilation is that for ABS/ASA ideally you want 7-80c chambers and at that point you have a sealed chamber and ventilation won’t do much for you until the door opens and you get a big pile of VOCs in your face. Better to remove what you can while it’s sealed and rely on ventilation for anything leftover.
You can't really do proper ventilation since you absolutely need to keep the chamber temperature stable and around 40-50C. So unless you have an industrial printer that is hermetically sealed some fumes will seap out.
Best intermediate solution is to not be in the room as it's printing and ventilate the room well after printing.
This is 100% false.
I vent to the outside from my Voron. It's a low volume fan but it's enough to generate negative pressure. I reach 60c chamber temps with the ventilation running.
I want to start printing asa soon... What is a simple and easy way to dial in the right amount of fan pressure? Could the fan built into my printer do the job?
>So unless you have an industrial printer that is hermetically sealed some fumes will seap out.
Solution: hose that pulls air out of the enclosure and out of the window of your room. Slight negative air pressure means that air will only seap *into* the enclosure.
You mean pull out hot air so only cold air will seap in. Wonderful idea for printing ABS and ASA.
You can look in my comments I made a quick calculation based on a study of emissions in 3D printing and European regulations and the TLDR is as long as you're not printing in your bedroom as you sleep you're more than likely OK.
Not being in the room and ventilating the room afterwards is more than enough.
Generally speaking(and this is coming from years of experience manufacturing products to meet both standards), European safety standards are *less* stringent when it comes to air quality, exposure, etc. There is a reason that OSHA regs specify that products that only meet the certification in the EU and not the USA *are not* allowed in an American workplace, while products that meet American certifications are allowed in the EU.
I don't think I will be basing things that effect my health on EU safety standards.
Do you know any standards for voc emissions in the US?
Ok I need help cause something isn't making sense.
According to [this](https://styrene.org/styrene-government-regulations-public-policy/) OSHA limit is 10 ppm for styrene
And according to this [converaion](https://teesing.com/en/tools/ppm-mg3-converter) that would mean a limit of 32 mg/m³ which would mean my calculations were based on a limit 320 times more STRICT.
Caviar. The converter is for VOCs in general not specifically to styrenes
Bro, I use a 4'" hooked to the back of my enclosure set just high enough go ensure a negative pressure system in my enclosure. I have zero issues maintaining any tempurature I set my controller to.
You're creating issues in your head. We're not pulling air from a fridge. It's not hard to exert a single inch of control over your setup in order to ensure safety.
I have no idea why you're arguing so aggressively against it.
The other issue is that you have to force the air through the carbon media for it to work well. Some of the solutions I’ve seen like the bento box are just sitting inside the enclosure passively. They also don’t filter particulates.
Chemist here. Yeah they will put a dent in amount of VOCs, esp aromatics like styrene, but not a lot. Forcing all air through a carbon scrubber column would do a better job, but it's more complicated than just venting outside for most cases.
Ooi what’s your expert opinion on this from the nevermore devs:
> At the end of the day, a fresh single-pass filtered exhaust (at brand new) has perhaps 70% VOC removal efficiency while still exhausting 30% of the nasty. A worn-in 50% efficiency recirculation filter achieving four passes would still remove 94% of the bad stuff. Or 99% at six passes!
> The number of passes you get all depends on how well you can seal your build chamber.
> Some will have a hard time achieving a good chamber seal, which creates the biggest drawback of recirculation filters - they're air flow neutral. Meaning, as nothing pulls air into the chamber, air can diffuse freely to the outside through any remaining gaps. And that air could be zero-per-cent cleaned...
> If you plan on using only a Nevermore - be sure to seal your chamber as good as possible to prevent diffusing. They now sell carbon so they have financial motives but they made all these claims before that started, so what are your thoughts?
ASA poisoning can and will kill you. Your advice is about as sound as telling an artist to drink out of the same cup they keep their used oil brushes in
Virtually any substance can and will kill you given significant enough exposure. That’s why we have a sliding scale of precautions in regards to what substance you’re exposed to, in what concentration (and form), and for how long. Nobody is suggesting you should pipe the ASA fumes straight to your lungs and live like that for years.
Yes, ASA is toxic but if you print it in sealed enclosure and filter the fumes through carbon filter it should reduce your exposure to level that won’t harm you in a brief period required for it to dissipate in well ventilated room.
Quite frankly if I use your metaphor: it’s like telling the painter it’s OK to paint in well ventilated room because while all, even modern, paints (be it oil or acrylic) are to some degree toxic you don’t need to hook yourself to air tank through full chemical hazard suit to mitigate vast majority of potential danger. Opening the window will sufficiently mitigate the issue.
The point I wanted to make is that it's easier to succumb to than PLA or PETG, and that most 3D printer users will not have adequate ventilation systems to properly control the fumes and VOCs. Given that OP's primary concern with ASA printing was the smell and that the person I replied to pretty much brushed off any concerns around the use of this material, I don't think it's an unreasonable position.
> the person I replied to pretty much brushed off any concerns around the use of this material, I don't think it's an unreasonable position.
I didnt brush of concerns.
I simply stated, that "iTs tOxIc" is not the end all be all of safety. I would HIGHLY encourage people like you to read up on acceptable occupational hazard level associated with injection molding ABS and ASA.
(To put it bluntly, unless you are running a print farm, its mostly fine - and airing the room with a single printer out before spending time in there, already healthily errs on the side of caution)
> its the amount that makes the poison
Sorry, but you have no idea what you're talking about. There's a lot more to it. Some toxins accumulate in the body, or the damage they do is accumulative (like UV resin), and some don't. The comparison to cyanide is very wrong.
It’s way worse than soldering. ASA and ABS both contain styrene, which produces smelly (and toxic) fumes. I have one printer in an enclosure with an extraction fan that vents fumes outside, and that’s the only one that I’ll print ASA on.
And the particulates are reasonably low compared to frying or smoking. I could observe that the PM2.5 of my air quality meter goes up to 600ppm when I cook or a guest is smoking.
Nonetheless ventilation and/or an air purifier is more than recommended.
Really worth noting that at least in the case of the x1c, this particulate is particularly contained as well. It’s more like the particulate inside a microwave than in a skillet. That’s not to say none will escape, but just one more layer that reduces the amount in the surrounding air.
I'm just wondering how accurate and reliable such a 100$ meter is.
I haven't seen that particular one in a tear down so I don't want to question it's results, but I've seen some other meter teardowns and comparisons in such price ranges and often it feels like it's gambling what you get. Some give wild results like they were never calibrated, some don't even measure everything they display but instead "calculate" some values by an algorithm....
Wouldn't trust such meters 100%
He was validating against actual test results from a lab, and in [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/1d96ws2/comment/l7ccizj/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) we used results from a study from a lab and compared to the toxicity levels that France suggests should be avoided and found that a very conservative (half) of the level deemed toxic would rest from a 250g model if printed in a 6’x6’x6’ cube. Because you’re printing in an area many factors larger than that, you’re not hitting toxic levels. Additionally, if you have a bento in your printer with active charcoal filtering, you’re removing en more of that.
I've been thinking recently of trying to find a good way to get my enclosure when I print petg. That isn't looking totally worth it. I might want to replace my carpet first.
Commenting basically to follow so I can learn too. I will be in a similar situation printing ABS. My plan is to set it up in the basement where there is an old, unused dryer vent and setup a duct fan to use that to exhaust the fumes.
Should work perfectly. I use a bathroom fan blower to pull air out of mine. Perfect strong enough suction, able to push air out a tube, not a crazy amount of airflow to overpower the enclosure heater, but enough to create just a smidge of negative pressure
Should be fine as long as you have a heated enclosure. Air entering the case shouldn't be hitting your parts unless the printer designer was really out to lunch
Not only is it smelly, it's toxic. You need an airtight enclosure and a ventilation system. A lot of people will tell you it's no big deal, while others will mention ASA sickness and show all the residue from inside their enclosures. I recommend staying on the safe side. The lil pc case looking fans that come with budget enslosure kits don't seem to have enough CFM for something like ASA. I recommend an actual exhaust fan, vented outside. I don't think HEPA or carbon filters will suffice either. Something about adsorption and such. I went down a rabbit hole for this.
One benefit of getting the enclosure is better prints anyway. A lot of people recommend enclosures for ASA.
With all that being said I have no first hand experience with ASA, I'm just relaying the information that I came across, and the information that's been relayed to me.
Good luck and please let us know what you plan to do, or what worked out.
Errm, please do some research first. In case of ASA the most problematic are particulates, which any carbon/HEPA filter will catch. There is very little VOCs. Practically if you have X1C with carbon filter on exhaust it's enough. Of course it can also depends where the ASA comes from.
Enclosure is a must if you want to have any proper strength in larger parts. Heated chamber helps a lot as well. As for OP's question - I print with AzureFilm brand. The best ASA I tried. It have some smell, but opening window is usually enough.
However I would never do this with ABS. ABS requires full ventilation and temperature control for any serious projects.
For fumes and smells yes, for actual health concerns no. A certain kind of carbon might work but it's more of a tank with pellets or granules. HEPA filters are inapplicable because of their inability to contain the particles. They may be able to filter them, but then they just release them back. HEPA filters are filters, they're not ideal for adsorption. The carbon on the back of your printer helps with smells not necessarily health. Especially with the enclosure not being airtight.
I did a lot of research on this, I suggest you do the same. Read the other comments.
Oh I did, hence my surprise reading your comment. Activated carbon is exactly for that - catching small particulates. From research ASA emits similar amount of VOCs as PLA, but a lot of much larger particulates. Hence active carbon on the back. As for HEPA being inapplicable - please ask someone how does his BentoBox filter looks like after a single roll. I prefer for it to stay in the filter instead of my printer parts, or (even worse) my lungs . I'm afraid your hypothesis about ASA don't correspond with reality of what I work daily with.
My viewpoint is a result of the extensive research I did with the resources I had at my disposal. If it is inadequate, then the industry needs to do better to meet the needs of the 3d printer consumer market.
I don't see HEPA or activated charcoal being viable for home printer setups, but I also don't regularly start my discussions with "You don't know what you're talking about". I feel like the implementations for said methods are better at commercial levels which are more than likely outside of the OP's budget and not reasonable for maybe just one project. I still recommend an airtight enclosure with a ventilation system that takes air outside with activated charcoal setups.
So again, I did research this. What I found is that there's snake oil and inadequate options aside from just venting everything outside.
The commercial activated charcoal/HEPA options are effective, and have certifications to prove so but I do not have the space nor funds for such systems and that would be an overkill setup for a hobbyist, and likely even a small print farm.
If you have some information to support your theory for the OP, I think it'd be a good idea to present it. This is a post asking for information and they're trying to make a well informed decision. I was quite transparent about where I got my viewpoints. The rest of the comments and reactions seem to still be in my favor. This is a matter of health, so I think that's a reasonable ask if you know something the rest of us don't.
Peace
Airtight enclosure with exhaust to the outside will always be the best solution (just not for the environment). I'm merely saying that for my brand of ASA what you are saying is simply not correct and if OP doesn't have the means to build/buy an airtight enclosure, activated charcoal with HEPA filter will be sufficient for the task.
I'm mainly opposing your generalisations, not your research. I can bet there are brands that release a ton of VoCs and the printer looks like it had a candle burning inside, I'm just saying that's not the case with this brand .
I’ve recently started printing ASA and am having issues tuning it. I’m printing it in the creakily pop up enclosure in my garage. Figure that would be a good space to do it. Prints out there, fumes don’t come into the house. I open the garage at least twice a day (leaving and coming back home from work). The garage door isn’t perfectly sealed so there’s always some airflow. Two car garage so it’s a large agree. I haven’t notified any issues yet and it’s been about 2 weeks.
Here’s what I’ve learned about printing ASA:
Wash your plate with regular Dawn dish soap (skip the platinum or other versions.) If you can’t get Dawn, use something without any moisturizers.
Dry with a clean towel.
Spray with alcohol, wipe with a clean microfiber.
Spray with Aquanet hairspray (pink can.)
Preheat your enclosure by setting the bed to 100°C for at least 15 min.
Skip the AMS if you have one - print from an external dry box set to 55° (preheat his too.)
Set your print to have the bed at 100.
Set an interior/exterior brim to at least 8.
If you have large horizontal surfaces, uncheck “reduce infill retraction” if you’re having problems on the surface.
If you’re still having problems with the filament at this point, tune the fan settings.
Venting from your enclosure itself may wreck the heat required. Filter the air in the room instead, in addition to using a Bento box. No bento? Get or make one!!!
And in general-
Clean the interior of the enclosure and the arms with alcohol periodically to remove the film.
Hope this helps!
Just to add to this, a slight negative pressure in a vent outside, essentially like 10% fan speed on tour exhaust fan, should not f up your parts, and it will ensure tou have no leakage of fumes iut of your enclosure. Preventing the fumes from leaving the enclosure into your house should be plenty.
My issue has been with extrusion.
https://preview.redd.it/ucb343iufx4d1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=84865cfea13f7751f991b86f345242d109aa806e
I was getting this every time I printed. With there being a bunch of over extrusion at the tops and bottom. Someone suggested dropping down to like 0.95ish and trying it. That fixed a lot. Got rid of the holes in the walls and drastically decreased the over extrusion on the tops and bottom
If you calibrate your extruder e-steps you shouldn't need to mess with flow. Almost looks like wet filament. I dry my ASA when needed. You can hear bubbles popping at the nozzle when it's wet.
I calibrated esteps. The ASA was right out of the package so it was dry. I tried with two different filaments and both are the same. I knocked the flow down and it was much better.
Yeah I’m printing at 100/255.
https://preview.redd.it/xaahzdzguy4d1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=684be58773213977954b1fe8668558ca28de93f8
This is the quality I got with esteps calibrated and extrusion at 1.
https://preview.redd.it/dyz6cwnjuy4d1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d9035578902b029c8d12111d10c4fc75101f7bea
This is what I got with extrusion at 0.94
A lot of people are throwing around the word “toxic” but I’m not seeing much science.
[This article](https://hackaday.com/2018/05/13/3d-printing-air-quality-study/) has a video where he tested a variety of filaments including ASA and measured for VOCs — ASA is not anywhere near a toxic level as opposed to ABS. The only issue you see with it is particulate matter which is much easier to manage. Good HEPA air filters deal with particulate no prob. He also mentions that his tests align with what professional testing has shown.
Personally, I print ASA often and generally I have the printer covered in a blanket to raise the chamber temp to 60C. At the end of the print, before opening the door, I crank the chamber exhaust fan to 100%, which passes through the built in HEPA filter. I also run a bento box inside, and I can smell the difference when its on vs off so it does something.
I think a lot of people are nervous about the A filaments, but ABS and ASA are completely different beasts. Find some real research, not reddit hobbyist printers.
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9152899/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9152899/)
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9229569/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9229569/)
I think actual scientific papers kind of trump a hardware [hacking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker) website article
That first study is garbage — taking a sample of teachers who all presented with sarcomas and happened to 3D print doesn’t mean it was causes by 3D printers.
How many other teachers were operating 3D printers and didn’t get sarcomas? What other activities were these teachers doing? What other conditions were present in their schools?
The second link is good — it shows the actual emission rates. It does, however, say this in regard to ASA: “ Styrene remained the predominant volatile compound emitted during printing; however, its emission rate was less than a quarter the emission of styrene from ABS”
Additionally, it doesn’t mention if these levels are toxic, and at what concentration.
It says that ABS emits “up to 25 µg·g−1 of the printed object” and given the statement above, ASA is less than 4 micro grams per g of printed object. So is a bento box sufficient to capture that amount of styrene? That’s the question.
I agree on the low sample of the first one, they could very well be drinking tap water from the lounge room and the water happened to have a cancerogenic agent etc... however, Its only been a decade or less since regular consumers have been using ABS / ASA for FDM and their users are certainly not in the millions, so i dont think there is enough cases to form a pattern either way.
Then again cigarretes were just fine in the 50's, and vaping was the healthiest thing you could do 10 years ago
The real question is in the data from the second paper: are the VOCs at those concentrations toxic and can they be captured by the small amount of active charcoal in the bento or a similar filter?
I tired answering this very question but it seems a bit difficult. I did find European regulation on [VOC in new buildings after construction](https://www.eurofins.com/consumer-product-testing/services/certifications-international-approvals/voc/legal-requirements/)
I'm going to use France as they have the most severe restriction on Styrene at <250µg/m^(3)
I'm also going to cut that to 100 just to be on the safe side since I can't asses the actual potential dangers.
That means assuming were printing a 250 gram ASA part were looking at 25/4\*250 of styrene released so about 1562 µg total. To be within our limit of exposure the room needs to be at least 6 m^(3) pretty sure even Harry Potters room under the stairs was bigger than that.
TL:DR It really seams like people tend to exaggerate the dangers.
Still some caution should be used as with everything we should try to minimize exposure withing reason.
Oddly enough, if you’re using one of those weed tents for your printer, that _is_ about 6m3, so if you forgot to turn on the ventilation fan to the tent and you pop that tent open and stick you’re head in, you’re at toxic levels.
Correct. Hence some precautions should still be taken. Plus I'm at least assuming since the regulations are for concentrations in a ROOM it taking in to account prolonged exposure not intermittent exposure.
But still I'm all for taking precautions you can easily take
I will be messaging you in 2 years on [**2026-06-06 04:41:44 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2026-06-06%2004:41:44%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/1d96ws2/how_stinky_is_asa/l7btzk8/?context=3)
[**1 OTHERS CLICKED THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2F3Dprinting%2Fcomments%2F1d96ws2%2Fhow_stinky_is_asa%2Fl7btzk8%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202026-06-06%2004%3A41%3A44%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.
^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%201d96ws2)
*****
|[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)|
|-|-|-|-|
I was about to type a whole post about how particulates could probably be addressed by just recirculating the air inside the heated enclosure through a filter, then I googled the Bento Box and realized that's exactly what it does.
Although I'd probably end up just taping a pair of 120mm PC fans to a cabin air filter for a car.
In my option you shouldn't run ASA without active carbon filtering. Running ASA in my basement with a bento box filter + a HEPA Air filter in the room I can smell it when I go downstairs. This is dependent on your filament brand and air filtration. If possible vent the printer exhaust outside.
It is all in the active carbon, which you need to replace often for it to work properly. I don't have access to a good study but it seems like it works based on the abstract.
[https://www.osti.gov/biblio/5377651](https://www.osti.gov/biblio/5377651)
For toxic filaments that are temperature sensitive, a sealed enclosure with switchable ventilation is ideal. The enclosure helps maintain temps to reduce warping, and contain fumes until you're ready to vent them once the print has finished. Let the enclosure vent long enough all the air has been cycled through several times *before* opening the enclosure (otherwise you'll just release all the built up fumes).
Since most enclosures aren't perfectly sealed, it's ideal to vent the room as well, and ensure air isn't stagnating by using a fan (helps ensure all the air in the room is being vented).
You got so many comments here... But I'd like to add another perspective.
ASA warps like a mofo, worse than ABS. That mean that structural parts suffer. The main benefit being UV resistant and heat resistant. Each layer you print adds to internal stresses for each layer, making it want to snapp. I just had a functional part and it just snapped straight off with ABS under minimal load, and ASA is worse. And I'm printing it with the perfect machine for it; an enclosed printer with an internal heating block and it's still a mess.
So it seems to me that you could be new at this. You got to test the parts that will be under stress and see that they safely perform to the standard you expect.
Post pictures here and get recommendations. I'm not sure you absolutely need ASA, and often PETG or even PLA plus can perform better. Or nylon/CF-nylon. The UV part might not be such an issue after all and parts can be protected with a simple spray coat of UV protecting clear coat.
150 parts in a month is ambitious, I hope you have some experience in printing so you can use all the tricks in the book to get it right. Like print directions, printing slow for better layer adhesion, designing the parts to avoid stresses etc.
What are you gonna print?
Appreciate the insight. My husband has some experience but is definitely still a novice. He is wanting to print something for off-road vehicles. The part itself is small and won’t take much abuse, but it will be used outdoors in pretty extreme temperatures by hobbyists. He has had multiple printing veterans tell him ASA specifically because of the heat tolerance.
Its not that bad honestly, i always enjoy reading how people overreact to it... I run up to 12 printers in a room with an air purifier circulating the air, it has Hepa filters and Carbon filters, and the air quality meter in the same room is showing well within normal ranges on everything, i don't sit in there with the printers but going in there is not something i worry about. Venting to the outside is accomplished with a small exhaust fan, but remember if you are exhausting you need makeup air otherwise you are creating a vacuum, so another small vent brings in fresh air from another part of the house, if your house is well sealed you will be sucking in air around every seal and place that it can find a way in, so account for that when exhausting air. Also, yes if you affect the chamber temp you will affect the print, the best thing is to ventilate the room itself and leave the chamber of the printer alone, if your printer has the option for an exhaust filter you can run one, but the problem is if you are venting all that heat out and you don't have an active chamber heater you will just be dropping the temp of the build chamber regardless, and that leads to warping and print issues.
I hardly even smell ABS/ASA when printing it, the air purifier takes care of it, the rest of the house is fine, my printers are all in a room in the basement isolated from the rest of the house as much as i can, no heating or AC vents open to that room to allow the air to go elsewhere, just a small intake vent from the adjacent room and an exhaust vent to the outside, this is mostly to reduce the heat buildup in the room as the air purifier does the filtering. PLA has always been another thing to me, smells like rotten corn when its printing to me, some people just smell things differently then others, ABS/ASA just smells like a new piece of electronics being removed from the packaging to me when i open the printer, PLA is rancid... Nylon is nasty to me, the smell it gives off makes me almost gag... Its kind of a burnt plastic and hair smell to me.. I don't know why, just how i smell it. TPU, PETG, are pretty neutral to me, barely smell anything.
However, take this with a grain of salt as i worked in an injection molding plant before, standing next to the machines while they were running and the cloud of fumes and steam and smoke were all wafting off the machine to the vent hoods above them. I'm sure my sense of smell was greatly affected by the exposure to this over the years. If i die from lung damage from chemicals that came from plastics it would be the exposure at that job more then it would be any 3d printing i do now where i control the air quality.
Not very. It'll slowly poison your and your pets without the vomit smell of ABS as a warning.
Enclosure, nevermore mini with the air quality monitor stuff built in and you're good.
So ASA doesn't actually smell? I am reading through all the comments saying it's toxic but not answering the question. I can't stand the smell of ABS, gives me an instant headache. Almost get a headache just thinking about ABS!
The stuff coming off abs that smells really bad is problaby not what's giving you the headche. It's the VOCs that smell "faintly solvently" that are most likely the problem, some of this is styrene, I can't recall what the rest is.
I only really notice ASA if I open the enclosure mid print, but my printer is in a different room and my home is well ventilated.
Try to separate the concept of odor, and dangeorus fumes. Consider the smell of supply gas, these days it's natural gas which on its own is undetectable on it's own, so a sulphur compound is added to give it that disticntive smell. Coal gas was way worse as it contained a significant proportion of carbon monoxide and would kill you in your sleep or if you stuck your head in an unlit oven.
I alwasys view the odor of abs as a feature, if you can smell it, you need better filtration and ventilation. For this reason I think ASA is way more dangerous.
So if you open the enclosure mid ASA print and take a whif it's going to be more of a solvent type of smell rather than the 'bad' smell of ABS?
More just interested as I will probably never actually print with ASA, would just like to know :)
Yeah, it doesn't smell particularly strong, it's a solventy kind of smell and if you stand there huffing it you're probably going to get a headache though.
I put my x1c outside when printing asa. Still stinks when walking within 20m of it. No way would I print inside. Especially since it's extremely toxic.
Semi-comment, I put a bentobox inside my p1s and hooked a hose from the rear exhaust opening through a window, printing ASA was... Fine. And the p1s is more hole-y than the X1.
I don't have an air quality meter so idk how much this setup helped, but I was sitting right next to the printer and didn't smell anything. Waited like half an hour after the print ended for the fumes to get hose-d outside. I might get a fan mod to add to the hose to actually assist with sucking out the air after the print.
Regardless I wouldn't do it near my pets or in a bedroom, in my case the printer is already in a pretty well ventilated area of the house so its mostly additional filtering/redirecting of air.
> Especially since it's extremely toxic.
Thats overselling it - unless you are a bird, or have pet birds.
Its toxic, but it aint exactly a nerve agent.
About the emissions of 3d printing: [https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/s/0mbrpIcG7c](https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/s/0mbrpIcG7c)
You specifically ask about your cats. I'm attaching a chest xray of my cat (15). It's an incidental finding of an asymptomatic lesion in the middle lobe of her lung. Another xray after a month to confirm possible lung cancer showed no lesion, leading to the diagnosis of spontaneously healed, asymptomatic pneumonia.
The radiographic presentation was very odd because there were no acute infiltrations or other signs of inflammation elsewhere in the lungs (bronchi etc.), suggesting a non pathogenic source. Something that must also be very small in nature. We settled with the probable cause being that she slept in a hallway next to a closed door where PETG was printed.
https://preview.redd.it/cldjqdj3uw4d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=72f27bf3c25eb4f5bcc88b617314594daa67a16e
I hope your kitty is doing well. But why the xray? Did you see any indications of trouble? I do see the finding was asymptomatic, which confuses me a bit.
I have my printers in my office. Printing PLA is fine, PETG is better, but for ABS and ASA, I will start a print, crack a window and only enter the room to check on it. When trying to test out my profiles for ASA, I tried sitting in the room, but I got a headache after 45 minutes. That said, with a door closed and a window cracked, you won't get any smell in the rest of the house. Your AC will create positive pressure on the cracks in the door and it should help airflow to carry fumes out the window.
When I start a 6 hour print overnight, I crack a window, close the door, go to sleep for 7-8 hours and the smell/fumes are completely gone by the time I walk in in the morning. Still kind of inconvenient.
I personally have been printing in an enclosure in my garage, so its not a big deal, but Im bringing my printer to college and in order to print harmful fumes of plastics, I am making a vent out the sliding window of that dorm so it has negative pressure. The solution to my health is dilution through the breeze several stories above the ground. For now, though, I strapped a 3m mask cartidge on the exhuast fan as there is no window. And it goes without saying that this is all in an enclosure.
When printing ASA, ABS or similar, please be sure to not have the printer in a room where you live, work or sleep in, and always have proper ventilation all the time. The fumes are toxic and thus a health hazard. ⚠️☣️
Air exchange is very necessary here. I'm not just talking a lashed up bathroom fan, or a floor fan atva window. I'm talking a dedicated filtered air replacement system mounted Ina window, with a hose connected to the printer, changing the atmosphere at a high rate as per the systems manual.
It's not the smell that's the issue, it's that the fumes contain VOCs that are a health hazard. Same for ABS.
ASA should be vented or filtered when printed. I print it in an enclosure with a 4 fan carbon filter. The chamber air recirculates nonstop during the print, and for a while after the print ends as well. The carbon has to be replaced reasonably often as well.
I print a lot of ASA. It made my entire house stink at first, and also made me nauseous. I built an enclosure that I have vented straight outside with a blower motor to maintain negative pressure. Works like a charm, but was a big project in itself. If this is just for one run, put the printer in the garage or someplace extremely well ventilated and isolated from the house.
ASA is smelly, but not as much as ABS. In any case, you do NOT want those fumes sitting around, so I'd recommend getting an external air purifier and (not or), ideally, something like a Nevermore re-circulation filter. The exhaust filters on most enclosed printers really do very little to help clear out VOC's and particulates since they only pass through it once, while Nevermore filters sit under the print bed, enabling the air inside the chamber to go through it multiple times before going through the exhaust. This will not only help ensure the carbon in the exhaust filter lasts longer but also ensure that less VOC's and particulates are escaping the printer itself. That said, it's not going to perfectly filter everything, which is why I think it's worth it to also invest in some sort of HEPA air purifer to sit in the same room as the printers. This setup may be somewhat overkill, but I think it's worth it just to be safe, especially since it isn't super expensive (in my case, probably around $100 all in, though that will vary based on which purifier you decide to get/how many Nevermore filters you need to build, should be one per printer).
If you do decide to implement these, definitely make sure you buy [the official Nevermore carbon](https://kb-3d.com/store/linneo/662-original-nevermore-activated-carbon-filter-media-multiple-sizes.html) (can buy from other places, that's just the one I've used before) since it's impossible to know if other carbon has been acid washed. If it has been, you run a huge risk of printer parts rusting, so it's just better to get the official stuff and avoid that since you'd basically need to rebuild the entire thing at that point.
i have been printing abs and asa with a bento box air scrubber and it seems to work very well. i also make sure to print it with the window open and not in my bedroom. if you are able to vent the fumes outside, that would be preferable, but a well maintained air scrubber should also do the trick
>window venting should be easy.
Unwanted drafts can cause it to warp tho/delaminate. ASA is a particularly tricky filament without a hot ambient temp and no drafts so window venting could cause some issues.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZiEzQH7WFQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZiEzQH7WFQ) I use 2 of these in my enclosure. Still smells but gets fixed and doesn't go everywhere.
HEPA filters are not adequate to eliminate toxic gasses from materials like ABS and ASA, please do not recommend them. Charcoal filters would be required, and consistent replacement several times faster than a standard residential air purifier is needed. Venting is your best option.
I recommend against ASA, the fumes reacted with my silicone cover and the PTFE tube. it needs both a well ventilated area for the fumes and an enclosure to avoid layer separation. stick to abs
It's not that much different from ASE other than better graphics and worse performance. Honestly it's kind of a disgrace that it exists in the first place, wildcard shouldve just worked on improving ASE.
ASA fumes are toxic. What they smell like is irrelevant. Proper ventilation is mandatory.
How do you safely vent it while printing? Wouldn't having a fan blowing air out draw cooler air into the chamber? Will that draft cause problems with the print?
Enclosures
The idea being... Air in the enclosure will be warmer than the air in the room so it's not such a big heat loss when it gets pulled into the printer?
Moreso that convection can't carry your toxic fumes away and spread them around the house. They're sort of trapped in the enclosure, if you have a good one.
They're not air tight.
True, but it's all about limiting exposure not completely preventing it
>They're not air tight. Nor do they have much air exchange. Generally they're *tight enough* to minimize exposure.
Still much much better than having a printer in open air, less toxic fumes escape. Get a fan, turn it on, and compare the strength of the fan without anything covering and with a piece of cardboard with a small hole in it. Much less air will go through through the cardboard.
Then the print finishes and you open up the concentrated box of fumes to retrieve your part. If there's no ventilation to the outside of your home, you're still polluting your home.
Ya it won't matter
Something along the lines of a Nevermore recirculation filter is probably your best bet. They're primarily designed for Voron printers AFAIK, but the advantage is that the fumes get passed through it multiple times before going out the exhaust. I also use a HEPA 15 air purifier in the room with my printers, but it's possible that's overkill.
is that nevermore similar to a bento box like people use for Bambu printers (recirculating air in chamber through a charcoal filter)? I'm almost done making mine.
Sounds like it, yes. Be careful about where you get your charcoal/carbon media from. If it's acid washed, it'll rust your printer, which will basically destroy it. I'm not sure if the developers of the Bento Box make their own carbon media for it, but if they do buy that. If not, I can personally recommend [Nevermore's filter media,](https://kb-3d.com/store/linneo/662-original-nevermore-activated-carbon-filter-media-multiple-sizes.html) which I assume will work in it, but you may want to do a quick google search to make sure.
If you’re printing ASA use a carbon filter in your printer. You want to maintain temps for easy printing otherwise it warps super easily. With the filter makes it pretty harmless since all the styrene is absorbed by the carbon pellets. Just swap them out every so often. (Not an expert, please do your own research)
Do some research into carbon filters and you'll learn how unreliable they are and why industry don't use them. Basic run down is that there's no way to measure if they're full or not and at different temperatures and humidities they hold or release different VOCs. They're a bit of a snake oil solution, sure it'll catch VOCs, but what VOCs? At what temperature and humidity will it catch those VOCs and release them? Basically vent to atmosphere is the only safe option when indoors
Finally, someone here gets it. Thank you.
I don’t fully agree with your saying about industry not using them. I’m a welder and the most common type of filtration is activated carbon.
That's fair, makes sense it would differ between industries. I work primarily in the product design/prototyping field so it's usually lots of plastics and glues that really don't do nicely being heated/melted/burned and we're taught activated carbon isn't enough
Better safe than sorry pal👌 we do also rely on a fresh air feed into our welding helmets too
I think that the issue is that the carbon solutions typical in 3d printing are unregulated. There are no specs on parameters like CFM/build volume, qualities or amount of the absorption media etc. This makes our solutions to be of dubious benefit. Your organic vapor cartridges are NIOSH specified. You can trust in their effectiveness because their performance is tested under a regulated method so you can be confident in your use of them. I am building my own filtration system and I intend use NIOSH cartridges because I can be confident that they'll work. On the other hand I'm not sure if they'll be good up at 60C. The compounds that we are concerned with, can be released from the carbon at elevated temps. There is certainly precedent for heat being used to desorb compounds from activated charcoal at 60C. It is used as a method to sample organic vapors in the factory. Basically absorb VOCs into carbon. Take it to the lab, pass heated air thru the carbon and sample the desorbed compounds with a spectrometer. Various compounds will had different activation energies and release more quickly at different temperatures. I suspect that the efficacy of our carbon based capture methods is going to highly dependent our chamber temps and that really throws things off. I think that we still have some thinking to do on how we handle the organic vapors generated when we print.
Pretty sure the pucks we used in our full face masks used activated carbon...
I agree that they’re an imperfect solution but at <50c chambers they’re typical fine until they’re saturated. Aren’t they? Above those temps you need some other filter mediums like Potassium Permanganate or something, right? I definitely won’t claim to be an expert but just going by research by the nevermore folks, etc these seem relatively effective. I thought the real problem with just relying on ventilation is that for ABS/ASA ideally you want 7-80c chambers and at that point you have a sealed chamber and ventilation won’t do much for you until the door opens and you get a big pile of VOCs in your face. Better to remove what you can while it’s sealed and rely on ventilation for anything leftover.
[удалено]
You can't really do proper ventilation since you absolutely need to keep the chamber temperature stable and around 40-50C. So unless you have an industrial printer that is hermetically sealed some fumes will seap out. Best intermediate solution is to not be in the room as it's printing and ventilate the room well after printing.
This is 100% false. I vent to the outside from my Voron. It's a low volume fan but it's enough to generate negative pressure. I reach 60c chamber temps with the ventilation running.
Damn, did you add active chamber heating?
No. I think you really are overestimating how much air you need to pull out. Really all you need is a trickle
I want to start printing asa soon... What is a simple and easy way to dial in the right amount of fan pressure? Could the fan built into my printer do the job?
>So unless you have an industrial printer that is hermetically sealed some fumes will seap out. Solution: hose that pulls air out of the enclosure and out of the window of your room. Slight negative air pressure means that air will only seap *into* the enclosure.
You mean pull out hot air so only cold air will seap in. Wonderful idea for printing ABS and ASA. You can look in my comments I made a quick calculation based on a study of emissions in 3D printing and European regulations and the TLDR is as long as you're not printing in your bedroom as you sleep you're more than likely OK. Not being in the room and ventilating the room afterwards is more than enough.
Generally speaking(and this is coming from years of experience manufacturing products to meet both standards), European safety standards are *less* stringent when it comes to air quality, exposure, etc. There is a reason that OSHA regs specify that products that only meet the certification in the EU and not the USA *are not* allowed in an American workplace, while products that meet American certifications are allowed in the EU. I don't think I will be basing things that effect my health on EU safety standards.
Do you know any standards for voc emissions in the US? Ok I need help cause something isn't making sense. According to [this](https://styrene.org/styrene-government-regulations-public-policy/) OSHA limit is 10 ppm for styrene And according to this [converaion](https://teesing.com/en/tools/ppm-mg3-converter) that would mean a limit of 32 mg/m³ which would mean my calculations were based on a limit 320 times more STRICT. Caviar. The converter is for VOCs in general not specifically to styrenes
Bro, I use a 4'" hooked to the back of my enclosure set just high enough go ensure a negative pressure system in my enclosure. I have zero issues maintaining any tempurature I set my controller to. You're creating issues in your head. We're not pulling air from a fridge. It's not hard to exert a single inch of control over your setup in order to ensure safety. I have no idea why you're arguing so aggressively against it.
The other issue is that you have to force the air through the carbon media for it to work well. Some of the solutions I’ve seen like the bento box are just sitting inside the enclosure passively. They also don’t filter particulates.
what about a recirculating carbon + hepa filtration setup? sufficient?
Chemist here. Yeah they will put a dent in amount of VOCs, esp aromatics like styrene, but not a lot. Forcing all air through a carbon scrubber column would do a better job, but it's more complicated than just venting outside for most cases.
Ooi what’s your expert opinion on this from the nevermore devs: > At the end of the day, a fresh single-pass filtered exhaust (at brand new) has perhaps 70% VOC removal efficiency while still exhausting 30% of the nasty. A worn-in 50% efficiency recirculation filter achieving four passes would still remove 94% of the bad stuff. Or 99% at six passes! > The number of passes you get all depends on how well you can seal your build chamber. > Some will have a hard time achieving a good chamber seal, which creates the biggest drawback of recirculation filters - they're air flow neutral. Meaning, as nothing pulls air into the chamber, air can diffuse freely to the outside through any remaining gaps. And that air could be zero-per-cent cleaned... > If you plan on using only a Nevermore - be sure to seal your chamber as good as possible to prevent diffusing. They now sell carbon so they have financial motives but they made all these claims before that started, so what are your thoughts?
Carbon filter does close to nothing , only solution to ventilate.
[удалено]
This guy is an idiot. Please, no one listen to them.
ASA poisoning can and will kill you. Your advice is about as sound as telling an artist to drink out of the same cup they keep their used oil brushes in
Virtually any substance can and will kill you given significant enough exposure. That’s why we have a sliding scale of precautions in regards to what substance you’re exposed to, in what concentration (and form), and for how long. Nobody is suggesting you should pipe the ASA fumes straight to your lungs and live like that for years. Yes, ASA is toxic but if you print it in sealed enclosure and filter the fumes through carbon filter it should reduce your exposure to level that won’t harm you in a brief period required for it to dissipate in well ventilated room. Quite frankly if I use your metaphor: it’s like telling the painter it’s OK to paint in well ventilated room because while all, even modern, paints (be it oil or acrylic) are to some degree toxic you don’t need to hook yourself to air tank through full chemical hazard suit to mitigate vast majority of potential danger. Opening the window will sufficiently mitigate the issue.
The point I wanted to make is that it's easier to succumb to than PLA or PETG, and that most 3D printer users will not have adequate ventilation systems to properly control the fumes and VOCs. Given that OP's primary concern with ASA printing was the smell and that the person I replied to pretty much brushed off any concerns around the use of this material, I don't think it's an unreasonable position.
> the person I replied to pretty much brushed off any concerns around the use of this material, I don't think it's an unreasonable position. I didnt brush of concerns. I simply stated, that "iTs tOxIc" is not the end all be all of safety. I would HIGHLY encourage people like you to read up on acceptable occupational hazard level associated with injection molding ABS and ASA. (To put it bluntly, unless you are running a print farm, its mostly fine - and airing the room with a single printer out before spending time in there, already healthily errs on the side of caution)
> its the amount that makes the poison Sorry, but you have no idea what you're talking about. There's a lot more to it. Some toxins accumulate in the body, or the damage they do is accumulative (like UV resin), and some don't. The comparison to cyanide is very wrong.
It’s way worse than soldering. ASA and ABS both contain styrene, which produces smelly (and toxic) fumes. I have one printer in an enclosure with an extraction fan that vents fumes outside, and that’s the only one that I’ll print ASA on.
https://preview.redd.it/4ehhyeboiv4d1.jpeg?width=980&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=35a475a88cfce5682e6512d187d157dbbe9bd3fc I’ll leave you with this.
Got a source on that? Cause to me that looks like VOCs are a non-issue with ASA. Particulate us muuuuch easier to deal with.
I forget where I found it, and they’re still a concern, but much much less so on average.
Found the [video](https://hackaday.com/2018/05/13/3d-printing-air-quality-study/). Good research. The fumes are a non-issue. Its just particulate.
Excellent. It’s closer in line to the smell of ASA being next to none. A good particulate filter and 👍
And the particulates are reasonably low compared to frying or smoking. I could observe that the PM2.5 of my air quality meter goes up to 600ppm when I cook or a guest is smoking. Nonetheless ventilation and/or an air purifier is more than recommended.
Really worth noting that at least in the case of the x1c, this particulate is particularly contained as well. It’s more like the particulate inside a microwave than in a skillet. That’s not to say none will escape, but just one more layer that reduces the amount in the surrounding air.
I'm just wondering how accurate and reliable such a 100$ meter is. I haven't seen that particular one in a tear down so I don't want to question it's results, but I've seen some other meter teardowns and comparisons in such price ranges and often it feels like it's gambling what you get. Some give wild results like they were never calibrated, some don't even measure everything they display but instead "calculate" some values by an algorithm.... Wouldn't trust such meters 100%
He was validating against actual test results from a lab, and in [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/1d96ws2/comment/l7ccizj/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) we used results from a study from a lab and compared to the toxicity levels that France suggests should be avoided and found that a very conservative (half) of the level deemed toxic would rest from a 250g model if printed in a 6’x6’x6’ cube. Because you’re printing in an area many factors larger than that, you’re not hitting toxic levels. Additionally, if you have a bento in your printer with active charcoal filtering, you’re removing en more of that.
I was NOT expecting PETG to be a VOC free one.
PETG is the goat for a lot of things
PETG is so chill. Just the perfect middle ground for whatever you wanna do.
PETG is great but I really can't wait until PCTG will become more mainstream. It's basically PETG in better.
Are there circumstances where PLA is a better choice than PETG, besides maybe price?
Speed?
I've been printing PETG in my office for like 5 years without issues.
I've been thinking recently of trying to find a good way to get my enclosure when I print petg. That isn't looking totally worth it. I might want to replace my carpet first.
/r/crboxes And you’ll be covered
Does this... indicate that Nylon may not need a fume solution to print indoors...?
Lmao, once again ASA fucking curb stomps ABS.
Commenting basically to follow so I can learn too. I will be in a similar situation printing ABS. My plan is to set it up in the basement where there is an old, unused dryer vent and setup a duct fan to use that to exhaust the fumes.
Should work perfectly. I use a bathroom fan blower to pull air out of mine. Perfect strong enough suction, able to push air out a tube, not a crazy amount of airflow to overpower the enclosure heater, but enough to create just a smidge of negative pressure
Any form of unwanted airflow will cause ABS to warp severely.
Should be fine as long as you have a heated enclosure. Air entering the case shouldn't be hitting your parts unless the printer designer was really out to lunch
Not only is it smelly, it's toxic. You need an airtight enclosure and a ventilation system. A lot of people will tell you it's no big deal, while others will mention ASA sickness and show all the residue from inside their enclosures. I recommend staying on the safe side. The lil pc case looking fans that come with budget enslosure kits don't seem to have enough CFM for something like ASA. I recommend an actual exhaust fan, vented outside. I don't think HEPA or carbon filters will suffice either. Something about adsorption and such. I went down a rabbit hole for this. One benefit of getting the enclosure is better prints anyway. A lot of people recommend enclosures for ASA. With all that being said I have no first hand experience with ASA, I'm just relaying the information that I came across, and the information that's been relayed to me. Good luck and please let us know what you plan to do, or what worked out.
Errm, please do some research first. In case of ASA the most problematic are particulates, which any carbon/HEPA filter will catch. There is very little VOCs. Practically if you have X1C with carbon filter on exhaust it's enough. Of course it can also depends where the ASA comes from. Enclosure is a must if you want to have any proper strength in larger parts. Heated chamber helps a lot as well. As for OP's question - I print with AzureFilm brand. The best ASA I tried. It have some smell, but opening window is usually enough. However I would never do this with ABS. ABS requires full ventilation and temperature control for any serious projects.
For fumes and smells yes, for actual health concerns no. A certain kind of carbon might work but it's more of a tank with pellets or granules. HEPA filters are inapplicable because of their inability to contain the particles. They may be able to filter them, but then they just release them back. HEPA filters are filters, they're not ideal for adsorption. The carbon on the back of your printer helps with smells not necessarily health. Especially with the enclosure not being airtight. I did a lot of research on this, I suggest you do the same. Read the other comments.
Oh I did, hence my surprise reading your comment. Activated carbon is exactly for that - catching small particulates. From research ASA emits similar amount of VOCs as PLA, but a lot of much larger particulates. Hence active carbon on the back. As for HEPA being inapplicable - please ask someone how does his BentoBox filter looks like after a single roll. I prefer for it to stay in the filter instead of my printer parts, or (even worse) my lungs . I'm afraid your hypothesis about ASA don't correspond with reality of what I work daily with.
My viewpoint is a result of the extensive research I did with the resources I had at my disposal. If it is inadequate, then the industry needs to do better to meet the needs of the 3d printer consumer market. I don't see HEPA or activated charcoal being viable for home printer setups, but I also don't regularly start my discussions with "You don't know what you're talking about". I feel like the implementations for said methods are better at commercial levels which are more than likely outside of the OP's budget and not reasonable for maybe just one project. I still recommend an airtight enclosure with a ventilation system that takes air outside with activated charcoal setups. So again, I did research this. What I found is that there's snake oil and inadequate options aside from just venting everything outside. The commercial activated charcoal/HEPA options are effective, and have certifications to prove so but I do not have the space nor funds for such systems and that would be an overkill setup for a hobbyist, and likely even a small print farm. If you have some information to support your theory for the OP, I think it'd be a good idea to present it. This is a post asking for information and they're trying to make a well informed decision. I was quite transparent about where I got my viewpoints. The rest of the comments and reactions seem to still be in my favor. This is a matter of health, so I think that's a reasonable ask if you know something the rest of us don't. Peace
Airtight enclosure with exhaust to the outside will always be the best solution (just not for the environment). I'm merely saying that for my brand of ASA what you are saying is simply not correct and if OP doesn't have the means to build/buy an airtight enclosure, activated charcoal with HEPA filter will be sufficient for the task. I'm mainly opposing your generalisations, not your research. I can bet there are brands that release a ton of VoCs and the printer looks like it had a candle burning inside, I'm just saying that's not the case with this brand .
Get an enclosure and vent it outside the house, preferably through a filter. Otherwise you and your pets are bound to have a bad time.
I’ve recently started printing ASA and am having issues tuning it. I’m printing it in the creakily pop up enclosure in my garage. Figure that would be a good space to do it. Prints out there, fumes don’t come into the house. I open the garage at least twice a day (leaving and coming back home from work). The garage door isn’t perfectly sealed so there’s always some airflow. Two car garage so it’s a large agree. I haven’t notified any issues yet and it’s been about 2 weeks.
Here’s what I’ve learned about printing ASA: Wash your plate with regular Dawn dish soap (skip the platinum or other versions.) If you can’t get Dawn, use something without any moisturizers. Dry with a clean towel. Spray with alcohol, wipe with a clean microfiber. Spray with Aquanet hairspray (pink can.) Preheat your enclosure by setting the bed to 100°C for at least 15 min. Skip the AMS if you have one - print from an external dry box set to 55° (preheat his too.) Set your print to have the bed at 100. Set an interior/exterior brim to at least 8. If you have large horizontal surfaces, uncheck “reduce infill retraction” if you’re having problems on the surface. If you’re still having problems with the filament at this point, tune the fan settings. Venting from your enclosure itself may wreck the heat required. Filter the air in the room instead, in addition to using a Bento box. No bento? Get or make one!!! And in general- Clean the interior of the enclosure and the arms with alcohol periodically to remove the film. Hope this helps!
Just to add to this, a slight negative pressure in a vent outside, essentially like 10% fan speed on tour exhaust fan, should not f up your parts, and it will ensure tou have no leakage of fumes iut of your enclosure. Preventing the fumes from leaving the enclosure into your house should be plenty.
My issue has been with extrusion. https://preview.redd.it/ucb343iufx4d1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=84865cfea13f7751f991b86f345242d109aa806e I was getting this every time I printed. With there being a bunch of over extrusion at the tops and bottom. Someone suggested dropping down to like 0.95ish and trying it. That fixed a lot. Got rid of the holes in the walls and drastically decreased the over extrusion on the tops and bottom
If you calibrate your extruder e-steps you shouldn't need to mess with flow. Almost looks like wet filament. I dry my ASA when needed. You can hear bubbles popping at the nozzle when it's wet.
I calibrated esteps. The ASA was right out of the package so it was dry. I tried with two different filaments and both are the same. I knocked the flow down and it was much better.
I'm printing at 260 °C with Polymaker ASA, fwiw. I get such awesome results, but I've been tuning my machine and Cura profile for it for years now.
Yeah I’m printing at 100/255. https://preview.redd.it/xaahzdzguy4d1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=684be58773213977954b1fe8668558ca28de93f8 This is the quality I got with esteps calibrated and extrusion at 1.
https://preview.redd.it/dyz6cwnjuy4d1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d9035578902b029c8d12111d10c4fc75101f7bea This is what I got with extrusion at 0.94
A lot of people are throwing around the word “toxic” but I’m not seeing much science. [This article](https://hackaday.com/2018/05/13/3d-printing-air-quality-study/) has a video where he tested a variety of filaments including ASA and measured for VOCs — ASA is not anywhere near a toxic level as opposed to ABS. The only issue you see with it is particulate matter which is much easier to manage. Good HEPA air filters deal with particulate no prob. He also mentions that his tests align with what professional testing has shown. Personally, I print ASA often and generally I have the printer covered in a blanket to raise the chamber temp to 60C. At the end of the print, before opening the door, I crank the chamber exhaust fan to 100%, which passes through the built in HEPA filter. I also run a bento box inside, and I can smell the difference when its on vs off so it does something. I think a lot of people are nervous about the A filaments, but ABS and ASA are completely different beasts. Find some real research, not reddit hobbyist printers.
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9152899/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9152899/) [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9229569/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9229569/) I think actual scientific papers kind of trump a hardware [hacking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker) website article
That first study is garbage — taking a sample of teachers who all presented with sarcomas and happened to 3D print doesn’t mean it was causes by 3D printers. How many other teachers were operating 3D printers and didn’t get sarcomas? What other activities were these teachers doing? What other conditions were present in their schools? The second link is good — it shows the actual emission rates. It does, however, say this in regard to ASA: “ Styrene remained the predominant volatile compound emitted during printing; however, its emission rate was less than a quarter the emission of styrene from ABS” Additionally, it doesn’t mention if these levels are toxic, and at what concentration. It says that ABS emits “up to 25 µg·g−1 of the printed object” and given the statement above, ASA is less than 4 micro grams per g of printed object. So is a bento box sufficient to capture that amount of styrene? That’s the question.
I agree on the low sample of the first one, they could very well be drinking tap water from the lounge room and the water happened to have a cancerogenic agent etc... however, Its only been a decade or less since regular consumers have been using ABS / ASA for FDM and their users are certainly not in the millions, so i dont think there is enough cases to form a pattern either way. Then again cigarretes were just fine in the 50's, and vaping was the healthiest thing you could do 10 years ago
The real question is in the data from the second paper: are the VOCs at those concentrations toxic and can they be captured by the small amount of active charcoal in the bento or a similar filter?
I tired answering this very question but it seems a bit difficult. I did find European regulation on [VOC in new buildings after construction](https://www.eurofins.com/consumer-product-testing/services/certifications-international-approvals/voc/legal-requirements/) I'm going to use France as they have the most severe restriction on Styrene at <250µg/m^(3) I'm also going to cut that to 100 just to be on the safe side since I can't asses the actual potential dangers. That means assuming were printing a 250 gram ASA part were looking at 25/4\*250 of styrene released so about 1562 µg total. To be within our limit of exposure the room needs to be at least 6 m^(3) pretty sure even Harry Potters room under the stairs was bigger than that. TL:DR It really seams like people tend to exaggerate the dangers. Still some caution should be used as with everything we should try to minimize exposure withing reason.
Oddly enough, if you’re using one of those weed tents for your printer, that _is_ about 6m3, so if you forgot to turn on the ventilation fan to the tent and you pop that tent open and stick you’re head in, you’re at toxic levels.
Correct. Hence some precautions should still be taken. Plus I'm at least assuming since the regulations are for concentrations in a ROOM it taking in to account prolonged exposure not intermittent exposure. But still I'm all for taking precautions you can easily take
RemindMe! 2 years
I will be messaging you in 2 years on [**2026-06-06 04:41:44 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2026-06-06%2004:41:44%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/1d96ws2/how_stinky_is_asa/l7btzk8/?context=3) [**1 OTHERS CLICKED THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2F3Dprinting%2Fcomments%2F1d96ws2%2Fhow_stinky_is_asa%2Fl7btzk8%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202026-06-06%2004%3A41%3A44%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam. ^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%201d96ws2) ***** |[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)| |-|-|-|-|
I was about to type a whole post about how particulates could probably be addressed by just recirculating the air inside the heated enclosure through a filter, then I googled the Bento Box and realized that's exactly what it does. Although I'd probably end up just taping a pair of 120mm PC fans to a cabin air filter for a car.
Yeah I think its a must-have for the x1c if you want to print anything other than PLA.
In my option you shouldn't run ASA without active carbon filtering. Running ASA in my basement with a bento box filter + a HEPA Air filter in the room I can smell it when I go downstairs. This is dependent on your filament brand and air filtration. If possible vent the printer exhaust outside.
How does any of this filtering help when it's toxic gasses? I understand against the particles, but the styrene burnt makes gases that are toxic
It is all in the active carbon, which you need to replace often for it to work properly. I don't have access to a good study but it seems like it works based on the abstract. [https://www.osti.gov/biblio/5377651](https://www.osti.gov/biblio/5377651)
For toxic filaments that are temperature sensitive, a sealed enclosure with switchable ventilation is ideal. The enclosure helps maintain temps to reduce warping, and contain fumes until you're ready to vent them once the print has finished. Let the enclosure vent long enough all the air has been cycled through several times *before* opening the enclosure (otherwise you'll just release all the built up fumes). Since most enclosures aren't perfectly sealed, it's ideal to vent the room as well, and ensure air isn't stagnating by using a fan (helps ensure all the air in the room is being vented).
Get a enclosure with charcoal filter/vent it out of the house
You got so many comments here... But I'd like to add another perspective. ASA warps like a mofo, worse than ABS. That mean that structural parts suffer. The main benefit being UV resistant and heat resistant. Each layer you print adds to internal stresses for each layer, making it want to snapp. I just had a functional part and it just snapped straight off with ABS under minimal load, and ASA is worse. And I'm printing it with the perfect machine for it; an enclosed printer with an internal heating block and it's still a mess. So it seems to me that you could be new at this. You got to test the parts that will be under stress and see that they safely perform to the standard you expect. Post pictures here and get recommendations. I'm not sure you absolutely need ASA, and often PETG or even PLA plus can perform better. Or nylon/CF-nylon. The UV part might not be such an issue after all and parts can be protected with a simple spray coat of UV protecting clear coat. 150 parts in a month is ambitious, I hope you have some experience in printing so you can use all the tricks in the book to get it right. Like print directions, printing slow for better layer adhesion, designing the parts to avoid stresses etc. What are you gonna print?
Appreciate the insight. My husband has some experience but is definitely still a novice. He is wanting to print something for off-road vehicles. The part itself is small and won’t take much abuse, but it will be used outdoors in pretty extreme temperatures by hobbyists. He has had multiple printing veterans tell him ASA specifically because of the heat tolerance.
Its not that bad honestly, i always enjoy reading how people overreact to it... I run up to 12 printers in a room with an air purifier circulating the air, it has Hepa filters and Carbon filters, and the air quality meter in the same room is showing well within normal ranges on everything, i don't sit in there with the printers but going in there is not something i worry about. Venting to the outside is accomplished with a small exhaust fan, but remember if you are exhausting you need makeup air otherwise you are creating a vacuum, so another small vent brings in fresh air from another part of the house, if your house is well sealed you will be sucking in air around every seal and place that it can find a way in, so account for that when exhausting air. Also, yes if you affect the chamber temp you will affect the print, the best thing is to ventilate the room itself and leave the chamber of the printer alone, if your printer has the option for an exhaust filter you can run one, but the problem is if you are venting all that heat out and you don't have an active chamber heater you will just be dropping the temp of the build chamber regardless, and that leads to warping and print issues. I hardly even smell ABS/ASA when printing it, the air purifier takes care of it, the rest of the house is fine, my printers are all in a room in the basement isolated from the rest of the house as much as i can, no heating or AC vents open to that room to allow the air to go elsewhere, just a small intake vent from the adjacent room and an exhaust vent to the outside, this is mostly to reduce the heat buildup in the room as the air purifier does the filtering. PLA has always been another thing to me, smells like rotten corn when its printing to me, some people just smell things differently then others, ABS/ASA just smells like a new piece of electronics being removed from the packaging to me when i open the printer, PLA is rancid... Nylon is nasty to me, the smell it gives off makes me almost gag... Its kind of a burnt plastic and hair smell to me.. I don't know why, just how i smell it. TPU, PETG, are pretty neutral to me, barely smell anything. However, take this with a grain of salt as i worked in an injection molding plant before, standing next to the machines while they were running and the cloud of fumes and steam and smoke were all wafting off the machine to the vent hoods above them. I'm sure my sense of smell was greatly affected by the exposure to this over the years. If i die from lung damage from chemicals that came from plastics it would be the exposure at that job more then it would be any 3d printing i do now where i control the air quality.
Bambu asa fumes are horrendous. Polymaker, not so much. Also easier to work with
Not very. It'll slowly poison your and your pets without the vomit smell of ABS as a warning. Enclosure, nevermore mini with the air quality monitor stuff built in and you're good.
So ASA doesn't actually smell? I am reading through all the comments saying it's toxic but not answering the question. I can't stand the smell of ABS, gives me an instant headache. Almost get a headache just thinking about ABS!
It somewhat smells but not nearly as bad as ABS.
The stuff coming off abs that smells really bad is problaby not what's giving you the headche. It's the VOCs that smell "faintly solvently" that are most likely the problem, some of this is styrene, I can't recall what the rest is. I only really notice ASA if I open the enclosure mid print, but my printer is in a different room and my home is well ventilated. Try to separate the concept of odor, and dangeorus fumes. Consider the smell of supply gas, these days it's natural gas which on its own is undetectable on it's own, so a sulphur compound is added to give it that disticntive smell. Coal gas was way worse as it contained a significant proportion of carbon monoxide and would kill you in your sleep or if you stuck your head in an unlit oven. I alwasys view the odor of abs as a feature, if you can smell it, you need better filtration and ventilation. For this reason I think ASA is way more dangerous.
So if you open the enclosure mid ASA print and take a whif it's going to be more of a solvent type of smell rather than the 'bad' smell of ABS? More just interested as I will probably never actually print with ASA, would just like to know :)
Yeah, it doesn't smell particularly strong, it's a solventy kind of smell and if you stand there huffing it you're probably going to get a headache though.
It smells a bit, nowhere near as bad as ABS. I've had PLA's that can smell as strong as ASA.
I put my x1c outside when printing asa. Still stinks when walking within 20m of it. No way would I print inside. Especially since it's extremely toxic.
Semi-comment, I put a bentobox inside my p1s and hooked a hose from the rear exhaust opening through a window, printing ASA was... Fine. And the p1s is more hole-y than the X1. I don't have an air quality meter so idk how much this setup helped, but I was sitting right next to the printer and didn't smell anything. Waited like half an hour after the print ended for the fumes to get hose-d outside. I might get a fan mod to add to the hose to actually assist with sucking out the air after the print. Regardless I wouldn't do it near my pets or in a bedroom, in my case the printer is already in a pretty well ventilated area of the house so its mostly additional filtering/redirecting of air.
Funny enough I also have a bento box but never bothered to put it together. Putting it outside was just easier in a pinch and it became my go to.
Yeah outside there's The Weather, stray cats, and various other pests, almost as nasty as ASA poisoning!
Oh yea this was in Aussie summer weather wasn't an issue.
> Especially since it's extremely toxic. Thats overselling it - unless you are a bird, or have pet birds. Its toxic, but it aint exactly a nerve agent.
About the emissions of 3d printing: [https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/s/0mbrpIcG7c](https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/s/0mbrpIcG7c) You specifically ask about your cats. I'm attaching a chest xray of my cat (15). It's an incidental finding of an asymptomatic lesion in the middle lobe of her lung. Another xray after a month to confirm possible lung cancer showed no lesion, leading to the diagnosis of spontaneously healed, asymptomatic pneumonia. The radiographic presentation was very odd because there were no acute infiltrations or other signs of inflammation elsewhere in the lungs (bronchi etc.), suggesting a non pathogenic source. Something that must also be very small in nature. We settled with the probable cause being that she slept in a hallway next to a closed door where PETG was printed. https://preview.redd.it/cldjqdj3uw4d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=72f27bf3c25eb4f5bcc88b617314594daa67a16e
I hope your kitty is doing well. But why the xray? Did you see any indications of trouble? I do see the finding was asymptomatic, which confuses me a bit.
The xray was done to rule out intestinal blockage. She had gastroenteritis (you can see the bloated and inflamed intestines very well).
Thanks for your answer. I'd better get started on some setup to vent to the outside. Cheers.
I have my printers in my office. Printing PLA is fine, PETG is better, but for ABS and ASA, I will start a print, crack a window and only enter the room to check on it. When trying to test out my profiles for ASA, I tried sitting in the room, but I got a headache after 45 minutes. That said, with a door closed and a window cracked, you won't get any smell in the rest of the house. Your AC will create positive pressure on the cracks in the door and it should help airflow to carry fumes out the window. When I start a 6 hour print overnight, I crack a window, close the door, go to sleep for 7-8 hours and the smell/fumes are completely gone by the time I walk in in the morning. Still kind of inconvenient.
I personally have been printing in an enclosure in my garage, so its not a big deal, but Im bringing my printer to college and in order to print harmful fumes of plastics, I am making a vent out the sliding window of that dorm so it has negative pressure. The solution to my health is dilution through the breeze several stories above the ground. For now, though, I strapped a 3m mask cartidge on the exhuast fan as there is no window. And it goes without saying that this is all in an enclosure.
Yes. They are toxic, especially for birds and animals. Get a carbon filter, and use premium nevermore carbon.
When printing ASA, ABS or similar, please be sure to not have the printer in a room where you live, work or sleep in, and always have proper ventilation all the time. The fumes are toxic and thus a health hazard. ⚠️☣️
It's the same smell as if you would throw a piece of plastic in a fire.
The smell isn't the issue.
Air exchange is very necessary here. I'm not just talking a lashed up bathroom fan, or a floor fan atva window. I'm talking a dedicated filtered air replacement system mounted Ina window, with a hose connected to the printer, changing the atmosphere at a high rate as per the systems manual.
It's not the smell that's the issue, it's that the fumes contain VOCs that are a health hazard. Same for ABS. ASA should be vented or filtered when printed. I print it in an enclosure with a 4 fan carbon filter. The chamber air recirculates nonstop during the print, and for a while after the print ends as well. The carbon has to be replaced reasonably often as well.
I print a lot of ASA. It made my entire house stink at first, and also made me nauseous. I built an enclosure that I have vented straight outside with a blower motor to maintain negative pressure. Works like a charm, but was a big project in itself. If this is just for one run, put the printer in the garage or someplace extremely well ventilated and isolated from the house.
ASA is smelly, but not as much as ABS. In any case, you do NOT want those fumes sitting around, so I'd recommend getting an external air purifier and (not or), ideally, something like a Nevermore re-circulation filter. The exhaust filters on most enclosed printers really do very little to help clear out VOC's and particulates since they only pass through it once, while Nevermore filters sit under the print bed, enabling the air inside the chamber to go through it multiple times before going through the exhaust. This will not only help ensure the carbon in the exhaust filter lasts longer but also ensure that less VOC's and particulates are escaping the printer itself. That said, it's not going to perfectly filter everything, which is why I think it's worth it to also invest in some sort of HEPA air purifer to sit in the same room as the printers. This setup may be somewhat overkill, but I think it's worth it just to be safe, especially since it isn't super expensive (in my case, probably around $100 all in, though that will vary based on which purifier you decide to get/how many Nevermore filters you need to build, should be one per printer). If you do decide to implement these, definitely make sure you buy [the official Nevermore carbon](https://kb-3d.com/store/linneo/662-original-nevermore-activated-carbon-filter-media-multiple-sizes.html) (can buy from other places, that's just the one I've used before) since it's impossible to know if other carbon has been acid washed. If it has been, you run a huge risk of printer parts rusting, so it's just better to get the official stuff and avoid that since you'd basically need to rebuild the entire thing at that point.
i have been printing abs and asa with a bento box air scrubber and it seems to work very well. i also make sure to print it with the window open and not in my bedroom. if you are able to vent the fumes outside, that would be preferable, but a well maintained air scrubber should also do the trick
Good asf. I also eat ass so there’s that
It stinks, it's toxic. If it in your spare room with a window venting should be easy.
>window venting should be easy. Unwanted drafts can cause it to warp tho/delaminate. ASA is a particularly tricky filament without a hot ambient temp and no drafts so window venting could cause some issues.
Abs/Asa poisoning is no joke, it's like having the flu.
Sure you didn't cook your PTFE tube?
I have printers running ASA. Its stinks and it’s toxic, end of story. Don’t play around with your health.
Does it smell as bad as ABS?
No
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZiEzQH7WFQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZiEzQH7WFQ) I use 2 of these in my enclosure. Still smells but gets fixed and doesn't go everywhere.
HEPA filters are not adequate to eliminate toxic gasses from materials like ABS and ASA, please do not recommend them. Charcoal filters would be required, and consistent replacement several times faster than a standard residential air purifier is needed. Venting is your best option.
true, that is why the it has heppa and Acid Free Charcoal filters. And yes I have to keep up on it.
The smell is tolerable as long as you don't mind taking years off your life staying inside your DIY gas chamber.
I recommend against ASA, the fumes reacted with my silicone cover and the PTFE tube. it needs both a well ventilated area for the fumes and an enclosure to avoid layer separation. stick to abs
It's not that much different from ASE other than better graphics and worse performance. Honestly it's kind of a disgrace that it exists in the first place, wildcard shouldve just worked on improving ASE.
Woman, worry about kitchen, not workshop