So tried out some PETG for the first time, and the first couple prints went really well. but I believe it’s picked up quite a bit of moisture, sitting in the basement.
What’s the current recommendation for a filament dryer? there was one on /r/3dprintingdeals a bit back, a Sunlu S2. is the S1 good enough, or should someone who’s fairly recreational with everything spring for a S2? I see food dehydrators recommended sometimes, is there anything specific to look for in one?
A food dehydrator or the purpose built Sunlu would work great for this purpose, but in my opinion there are easier procedural ways that don’t require additional appliances.
I just keep my spools in a large sealing storage tub with an oven safe tray of loose silica desiccant beads at the bottom. Every few weeks the tray of desiccant gets put through a heat cycle in the oven (about 150-75 for 10-15 minutes) and goes right back in the bin. You really only have to fight the moisture that gets absorbed by the spool while on the printer before going back in the tub, and the moisture within the air exchange every time the tub is opened.
Keeps my spools nice and dry without much fuss.
I just keep my spools in a large sealing storage tub with an oven safe tray of loose silica desiccant beads at the bottom.
This, but I use Damp Rid, which is quicker to replace and not that expensive.
Also, I have an Inkbird temperature/humidity sensor in there to check the status without opening.
I do something similar. I keep mine in large zip lock bags I got from Ikea with the desiccant packs that came with the spool. These spools then all go in a large Rubbermaid container (which holds 13 1kg spools) so they’re doubly sealed and all packed neatly in one place.
With all the rain we’ve been getting the past month I’ll probably need a dryer too… I heard an oven works pretty well in a pinch.
The number of photos I’ve seen of completely melted filament rolls, due to either poor oven thermostats or inattentive users … I cannot endorse this technique.
If you’re on a budget, probably better to just power up your heated bed, with a box over top, and dry your spool inside there.
Repurposed food dehydrators seem to rate highly, if you can find a used one for cheap.
I ended up biting the $40 bullet and grabbing a Filadryer S2 when it was on sale.
That, and if your filament has anything toxic that can off-gas when you heat it, you probably don’t want it in your oven (if you use your oven for cooking food).
I’m not sure which filaments are or are not going to have any additives that might be problematic, but since almost nobody actually says what’s in their filaments, it’s probably a good idea to just assume it’s all not good for you and keep it away from your oven.
I haven’t tested this myself, but supposedly you can make a dryer using a cardboard box and a heated bed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC3jvuq-uq8
Adding a fan to circulate the air probably improves energy efficiency: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1DoJxY6v_U
From what I’ve seen the cheap hobby driers look like they suck. I think there is supposed to be some kind of hazard with silica desiccant, and maybe with the color change type specifically, I honestly don’t recall the details. However, if you use the color change type spread out in a drier/container in different areas, and you leave the filament in there for several days with the heater running you’ll see how moisture is distributed.
I’ve seen tear down videos of several filament drier units, and have never been impressed by any of them. They are made to look a certain way, but the designs suck. I built a drier with a small convection oven and a PID controller. This has a circulation fan and heating element that is more than capable of maintaining any temp I want. The problem is the size of the dumb thing. Most of the time I end up using a plastic cereal container with a layer of color change desiccant, the filament, and an old food hotplate warmer placed in the container. The hotplate is not adjustable. It has a 60C thermal switch. I’ve left filament in this setup for several days just to see what happened. You could see the convection current pattern in the color change. Even with the filament standing up, and the hotplate upright beside it, the moisture color pattern didn’t completely cover the filament on the spool. I use one of the ancient 1970’s hotplates with a rectangular glass element surface and frame. Inside it is just mica and nichrome wire, but it is a much larger element than any of the cheap filament driers at 100 Watts and it stands at around 2/3rds the size of a typical 1kg spool. If this barely not quite works to create an effective dry area larger than a spool in a sealed container, the commercial drier units are very sketchy. I think this is why most people end up using other stuff and why I’ve avoided them. The biggest problem IMO is a drier that works well while printing and doesn’t take up a lot of space.
I got the eibos cyclops, it works amazingly but it’s not cheap.
I have Sunlu S1 dryer. I added fan and changed thermistor position. I tried it with PLA, PETG, ASA with good experience. S2 have two heater plates, touch display. But for me, it have filament out way in bad position.
I have the Sovol 2 roll dryer and it works well. Only complaint is the touch display, needless. I print in my garage, mostly due to the particulate matter from FDM, so I usually dry my rolls before a print.
I have a cheap food dehydrator i got on Amazon and it works fine. I mostly use it when I have multiple spools to dry, o if I have a particularly saturated spool. I will run for a few hours in the dehydrator and then move to spool dryer.
I had sain smart dryers, but i really didn’t like how you set the temps. Instead of specify the temp, it had level 1,2, and 3 and depending on the number it meant a different set of filaments. I lost the manual at one point so I could never remember if ABS was 2 or 3.
I replaced that dryer with one from Tecbears.
https://www.tecbears.com/product-page/filament-dryer-box-white
It was a deal i found online at one point and I think it was $40 at that time ($20 off). I like it because you specify the temp you want it to heat up to. It has 2 heat elements so it heats the top and bottom of the spool and it has a readout for the current humidity inside the dryer. My only complaint with it is that it only goes to 70c. I had spools of ASA that say to dry them at 80c and I don’t have anything that goes to that temp. I left it in the tecbears dryer for 24hrs at 70c and it seems like it printed better than it had in the past.
Get the cheapest food dehydrator that still fits your spools. You will have to cut out the middle of the racks. Also get yourself a thermometer. In my experience the dryer dial is off by 10-20 degrees centigrade.
I have a couple S1s that I like. They don’t have a built in fan or hygrometer like the new ones, but they seem to work. You can print mounts for cheap hygrometers if you want (not necessary but interesting to see the humidity change with the dryer running). I usually run the dryer with whichever spool I’m using when printing and it seems to keep the filament in good condition.
Thats pretty cool. I wish I knew this before I bought my Sunlu. I used to use my toaster oven that had a food dehydrator function, but my so got tried of me using it for hours. I had to get a dedicated dryer.
