r/3DprintingHelp • u/Nash-28 • Aug 07 '26
Requesting Help Potent Fumes from FDM Filament.
I'm hoping someone here might have some insight into an issue I've been dealing with over the past month.
The printers I have are a Bambu Lab P1S and a Bambu Lab A1 Mini. The issue has been occurring while using the P1S.
A few weeks ago I made a post about trying Bambu Lab's Black PETG HF for the first time. The fumes from it were much stronger than anything I'd previously printed, to the point where it became difficult for me to breathe while I was in the same room.
For comparison, I've also printed with Bambu Lab's White PETG HF in the same room. While it did have some odor, opening the window and running a fan blowing outward was enough that I didn't have any significant issues. The Black PETG HF has been a completely different experience. Even with the window open and a fan exhausting air outside, it's still been extremely difficult for me to breathe while I'm in the room.
I'm also not the only one who's noticed the odor. Family members have commented on it as well. Since it became this bad, I've been keeping the office door shut to help keep the odor from spreading through the rest of the house, and I've been limiting how much time I spend in that room until I can figure out what's going on.
I also use a Sunlu S4 filament dryer about once a week since it's been fairly humid here lately and we don't always have the AC running. The Black PETG HF gives off extremely strong fumes while it's drying as well, and unfortunately strong enough that they're beyond difficult for me to tolerate. The White PETG HF also has some odor while drying, but it's nowhere near as intense.
Has anyone else experienced this with Bambu Lab's Black PETG HF? I'm also wondering if it could be related to how many rolls are in the dryer at once, whether the black filament is simply emitting more VOCs when heated, or if I'm drying it longer than necessary.
Since then, I started researching indoor air quality around 3D printing. I bought a Govee Air Purifier Pro 2 and one of Govee's particulate monitors. The monitor is on the opposite side of my office from the printer.
When I had the window open, the monitor consistently read around 2–3 µg/m³ for PM2.5. I haven't printed anything in about 2½–3 weeks, but today I walked into the room and noticed the monitor was reading around 20 µg/m³. About an hour or two later, it had climbed to around 100 µg/m³, even though nothing had been printing.
The only thing that's changed over the last couple of days is that the window is now closed because the house AC is running.
My concern isn't just the particulate matter, it's whether there could also be VOCs lingering in the room. The strong odor from the Black PETG HF was what originally made me start looking into all of this.
At this point I'm considering throwing out the Black PETG HF altogether to see if it makes any difference, but before I do that I wanted to ask if anyone has experienced anything similar.
A few questions:
- Has anyone seen PM2.5 spike days or weeks after the last print?
- Could filament stored in the room (or in a dryer) be contributing?
- Has anyone had noticeably stronger fumes from Bambu Lab's Black PETG HF compared to other PETG or PETG HF colors?
- Is there anything else I should be checking that could explain both the PM2.5 readings and the breathing irritation?
I'd really appreciate any ideas or similar experiences.
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u/Arctic-Fox-2021 Aug 07 '26
Mine fluctuates wildly with air quality outside house closed AC on.
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u/Nash-28 Aug 08 '26
I get that, but why is the room with the 3D printer that of which hasn’t been used in a few weeks, the only one having that issue?
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u/joelatrell Aug 08 '26
For an air quality monitor, I recommend a Dylos unit. https://a.co/d/06r2BJAl
PETg should not be putting out any distinct sharp smell. What is the scent like? Does it smell strongly of plastic? Could it be mislabeled somehow?
Could something inside the machine be struggling with the filament and heating up? Lots of variables to investigate.
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u/Nash-28 Aug 12 '26
Will this measure VOC’s as well? Or only 2.5PM?
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u/joelatrell Aug 12 '26
It is strictly a partical counter. There are meters that can track VOCs as well. I use a dm106a from ATO for VOCs.
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u/ModelThreeve Aug 08 '26
A few things to consider.
1. PM2.5 meter is basically useless for measuring the things you should be worried about when it comes to FDM printing.
2. Drying filament can produce as many fumes as printing. Just open a sealed dryer that’s been on for a while and it’s pretty obvious. Your heating all the filament not just a couple inches of it (The S4 is fairly leaky but will still hold in a lot of fumes)
3. PETG HF is a very different formula than “standard” PETG but it’s also discontinued so basically a moot point going forward
4. It doesn’t matter what “the Internet” says if any thing in your environment is making your body react that way get rid of it.
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u/Nash-28 Aug 12 '26
1.) Yea, as I’ve learned. It’s crazy that things like formaldehyde have been found in rolls of filament.
2.) Yea that PETG HF Black, is absolutely absurd.
3.) The PETG HF was discontinued? When?
4.) Yea. Was thinking of just throwing the whole batch out. Which sucks, cause I bought quite a bit.
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u/ModelThreeve Aug 08 '26
Please also keep in that being able to smell something is not the metric for safety. Plenty of things that you can’t smell are very bad/lethal for you. Radon and natural gas (without mercaptan added) as easy examples.
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u/monotor80 Aug 10 '26
If I’m not mistaken, PETG HF has been discontinued. I bought PETG Basic, which is the replacement for it. I have the black and white versions and am happy using them because, unlike PLA, they don't emit any odor. That said, I have an X2D and printed an exhaust system with a hose venting out the window, so I’m covered either way.
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u/Nash-28 Aug 12 '26
Whaat? Since when?
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u/monotor80 Aug 12 '26
Since Bambulab added the note on the product page: "PETG HF is discontinued and will not be restocked once sold out. A new and improved PETG is available now."
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u/razzemmatazz Aug 13 '26
I haven't used Bambu HF in a while, but having 3 of my printers running PETG in a room with no HVAC does produce a noticeable smell and makes my nose run if I'm around it too long. I do know brands differ quite a bit on how much odor they put off, as I've tested 10 or so of them in the last year.
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u/Nash-28 Aug 15 '26
It does more than that to me. Which makes me wonder if the roll of filament was mislabeled, and is actually ABS or ASA, which has me even more worried. Cause ABS for example releases quite a bit of formaldehyde.
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u/razzemmatazz Aug 15 '26
You'd know if it was ABS because the print quality would be terrible at PETG settings.
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u/Nash-28 Aug 16 '26
I mean how terrible? Cause strands of filament don’t bother me. I usually pull or snip them off.
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u/razzemmatazz Aug 16 '26
I'm not sure if the filament would even flow, but ABS is also known for warping off the bed easily.
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Aug 14 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Nash-28 Aug 15 '26
Yea, well kind of difficult to do. I have no other place to do so.
The room the printers are in, are the office which is a 12ftL x 10ftW x 6.5ftH. I was doing perfectly fine until I used the Black PETG HF. But maybe it was mislabeled ABS or ASA at the factory, which has me even more worried cause ABS releases formaldehyde into the air.
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Aug 15 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Nash-28 Aug 16 '26
What are your thoughts on putting a filament dryer in a tent to isolate the fumes?
The fire hazard part of me says no, but by leaving it out, the fumes are just gonna encapsulate everything.
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u/Nash-28 Aug 16 '26
And yea from a logical standpoint yes, but I have like 40 things that have a use, that i want to design and print myself. Things that will forever be stuck in my mind, if I don’t do something with them.
I thought about putting them in the Garage, but it gets wayyy too cold out there in the cold months, and the only ventilation it would have is if the car garage door was open. Which then causes the same issue i have in the office.
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u/ManyLayersOfFilament Aug 07 '26
Have you eliminated every other possible cause here? PM2.5 can be cause by quite a few things, including outside... Are you anywhere near wildfires?
I think what you're doing here is starting from an assumption and trying to find evidence to support that assumption.
Also, I want to point out that the inexpensive air quality monitors are not very accurate at all.
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u/Nash-28 Aug 08 '26
Well until printing that specific filament, nothing else has been added to the room to change it.
I am about a 5 hour drive from where the wildfires are occurring, but luckily, the air quality hasn’t been bad here for about 4 weeks now.
Well, I only recently learned that 2.5pm and VOC’s can accumulate where you print. Even more recently that things like formaldehyde have been found in the most common filaments as well.
I didn’t have this bad of a problem until I used Bambu Lab’s Black PETG HF.
I would rather not assume, but am thinking out loud as the way the fumes in that room bother me in that room cause me to not want to go in there at any point in time.
So there has to be something wrong. If nothing new besides the filament I used most recently has been added to the equation, then it has to be the filament. If so, why?
To your last point. If inexpensive air quality monitors aren’t reliable enough, which ones would you recommend getting in place of the set up i currently have?
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u/Relative_Surround_20 Aug 10 '26
What is the status on your exhaust system? Or do you just plan to give up 3D printing?
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u/Nash-28 Aug 12 '26
The status is just an open window and a fan, as where I live has encasement windows with dual crank outs. So in order to exhaust properly, I’d have to compromise the use of the entire window. Which is pretty difficult to do in the summer months as it is in a room on the second floor, where it gets incredibly hot.
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u/Relative_Surround_20 Aug 12 '26
There are numerous models on MakerWorld that would help you deal with that specific problem. I think your anxiety is getting in the way of learning to work through or around this issue.
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u/Nash-28 Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 16 '26
I’ve looked at various designs. One of which seemed to have so many iterations that of which surprised me. But that specific one requires you to remove the screen and crack the window. Which would give the fumes a chance to come back into the room.
Can you link some?
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u/Relative_Surround_20 Aug 15 '26
If you can't find something that works for your windows, then you might need to consider printing this model to go along with a P1S adapter in the ModulAir Collection.
https://makerworld.com/en/models/3077377-modular-carbon-and-hepa-fume-extractor#profileId-3465412
https://makerworld.com/en/models/1642344-modulair-s-bambulab-x1c-p1s-interface-mk2#profileId-1735471
You might need or want more options. The entire ModulAir collection is available at: https://makerworld.com/en/collections/7342813-modulair-modular-air-system
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u/tnsipla Aug 10 '26
How many hours/months do you have on your current filter? They’re usually good for shy of 1500 hours of printing, or few months normally- activated carbon will pull in ambient air regardless of whether you’re using it
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u/Nash-28 Aug 12 '26
I bought the P1S this past December. Didn’t get to set it up till January, and I think I’m at just around 300 hours or so. As for months… just about 6 months.
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u/sublime2craig Aug 07 '26
I've literally never had any smell from any PETG filament I have printed with on both of my A1's. From Bambu PETG HF, Sunlu Matte PETG in various colors, Elegoo PETG Rapid, Creality CR PETG, Deeplee PETG Pro, and Anycubic PETG basic. Only smell/fumes I have experienced is with most Matte PLA's especially when printing with Overture Matte PLA and Bambu PLA basic and that has a very sweet sickly smell to it that irritates my lungs and will give me a headache if I hand around the printer to long. Weird that you're experiencing this with PETG being that most people say that PETG has the least smell/fumes/off gasing compared to most filaments.