I have been using the FumeClear FC-2004 personally for quite a few months now. I originally purchased the unit as part of my home office redesign, where I was converting a single large room into two separate rooms. Part of the redesign included moving my Epilog Helix 60W laser from one side of the room to the other side. This was a bit challenging because in the original location I had installed direct ventilation to the outside. I did not want to continue direct ventilation in the new location, so I knew that a good air filtration system would be necessary. I'm very familiar with various laser engraving applications and I wanted something compact, economical and I wanted replacement filter media that was affordable and could be easily changed out. I needed a filtration unit with a good pre-filter system to collect the larger particles, keeping the HEPA and the carbon filters from becoming prematurely clogged. It was also important that the filter unit had the ability to vary the extraction power.
These requirements were top of mind as I began my search. I quickly ruled out the brands I was already familiar with, and did not find any economic reasons to attempt to build my own filter system. It was soon that my research led me to FumeClear. I found a few YouTube videos of various filtration options that made me believe that the FC-2004 should be my next filtration unit. I purchased the unit and was amazed at how fast the unit delivered. The unit was packaged well and included two packs of pre-filter media, which was something that I knew I would be wanting to change out whenever I felt the need. I experimented with a few connection methods to my laser using the silicone cones that were included but I ultimately designed and 3D printed my own attachment (photo included below) that worked perfectly for my laser and my filter placement choice. The connection is snug and allows no smoke or fumes to escape while traveling to the filter unit. The unit was happily in use in my home office for several months before putting it to the ultimate test.
My full-time job is in a facility where we laser engrave thousands of powder coated items per day. During our peak season we were engraving around 6,000 units each day and I decided to bring my little FC-2004 to work to help with the filtration as a supplemental fume extraction system. While the FC-2004 would certainly never work for this particular application alone, the help it provided in clearing the smoke was immediately noticed! I kept the FC-2004 at my work during the busiest two weeks, knowing that this application and volume would completely kill my filter media. To my surprise and amazement, when I brought the FC-2004 back home I immediately took out the filters fully expecting a deep clean to be necessary. As I suspected, the HEPA filter was quite clogged, but this was after filtering the smoke from well over 20,000 engraved powder coated items. When I pulled out the HEPA, the carbon filter showed a slight amount of particulate around the edges of the filter, but it seemed like it was fine. When I removed the carbon filter to access the bottom of the unit where the fan resides, I was amazed to find the unit completely clean. Absolutely spotless! At this, I decided to vacuum the top of the HEPA filter and assembled the filter pack back into the FC-2004 with a fresh pre-filter. To my amazement, the filter has continued to function quite well even with the mostly clogged original HEPA filter still in place.
I have just received my first set of replacement filters for the FC-2004 and can say that the unit functions as new. For my particular application on my 60W CO2 laser (Epilog Helix) I would not hesitate to purchase this filter again and I certainly recommend it to anyone with a similar application. I also do a lot of 3D printing in the same area as the laser engraver and I occasionally will turn on the filter system and leave the top of the laser open to collect any fumes or particulate matter that may be emitted by the 3D printers. I have a smart home PM sensor that will occasionally alert me of the air quality and I find that running the FC-2004 will quickly bring the air quality back into check. This also is the case when using isopropyl alcohol in the room. That will quickly trigger air quality alerts and the FC-2004 will remedy that as well. I don't think I could be more pleased with my purchase for my specific application, and look forward to the FC-2004 being in operation for years to come.
