Changing bed temp during prints

This is a multi part question. First, is there any disadvantage to dropping the bed temp after the first few layers of a print? It seems like most of the power consumption for an A350 is keeping the bed hot. I’m running a 20+ hour print right now, and it would be a nice power savings to turn the bed off after everything is stuck down and the print head is far enough off the bed to not be influenced by the heated bed.

Second, can SM do this? Cura has a setting for build plate temperature initial layer separate from the regular temp, but I remember reading somewhere that Snapmaker doesn’t accept this instruction.

Third, if turning off the bed heat is possible and not harmful to the print, how tall does the print need to be before turning of the bed? Is first layer like in Cura enough? The print I’m running now is 190mm high, so even if I had to leave the bed on for the first 50mm, there would still be a lot of savings killing the bed heater for the last 140mm.

If you are getting acceptable prints with no bed adhesion issues, then no downsides. As prints cool they shrink, and can pop off the bed.

That’s not the case, it will work fine.

I drop the bed 10-20C after the first layer. I wouldn’t recommend turning it off.

Not really. A 150W bed heater, on for 50% duty cycle over your 20 hour print, billed at 14c/kWh, calculates out to:
image

1 Like

i agree with @jcknox, unless you’re off the grid and need every kWh you can get, do it if helps your prints turn out better. Gotta figure the cost of wasted filament. (and it’s environmental impact)
-S

1 Like