Heat drying for ABS/ASA? Confused what dryer/AMS to get

Bambu Lab AMS AMS 2 Pro
1

Hi - I’m about to pull the trigger on a P1S but can’t decide what kind of AMS/dryer I should go for before purchasing any combos. I plan to be printing a good amount of ABS/ASA at some point and dabble in nylon too which would probably benefit from higher drying temps (~85C vs AMS2’s 65C) to dry quicker. I’d also like to print overnight without too much interaction once I am dialed in.

The thing I am most unsure about is if active heating to dry (in addition to desiccant) is even necessary. From what I can tell there are three options for an AMS filament dryer system that could also print while drying:

  • Sunlu S4 with AMS lite mod
  • Sunlu (or eibos) AMS upgrade for AMS 1
  • Wait for AMS 2 Pro updates to print while drying (if ever)

Curious what everyone’s thoughts are on this. Seems like an evolving situation with some of these not even out yet!

2

Filament drying is dependent on diffusion. Water molecules have to escape the plastic. Drying would work with desiccant alone, but it’d be very slow. Heat really accelerates that diffusion process. Especially for ABS/ASA and PA, which are both very hydrophilic, you’re probably talking weeks if you try to dry it without heat.

Once the filament has been dried, though, desiccant does a good job of keeping it dry. So if you dry it first, keeping it hot while printing probably doesn’t buy you much.

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