Hi everyone!
I just got my printer, and I want to know if I have to dry my filament. And why? I think it prints fine without it.
Also, even if it’s strongly recommended, I have no clue how to do it.
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If you are using PLA, you can get away with not drying it most of the time. Print quality can be a little lower but nothing insane.
PETG is not as forgiving, but you can still get away with not drying it most of the time if it is new.
ABS, ASA, and TPU always need to be dried.
All dryers are pretty much the same. They are mostly all cheap. Sunlu S4 is a good choice. 4 bay in the way to go.
https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/filament-acc/filament/dry-filament
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@awsome Ty TY, Save yourself time and guessing, I bought this Sunlu the other day and the quality of my prints are incredible.
Also when you dry weigh it first and then weigh it while drying until the weight stops going down.
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Nope, ABS and ASA do not need to be dried as they are hardly hygroscopic. I have 10-year-old ABS here and print with it without drying it. It has been stored openly in a box all these years. The same applies to PLA (without wood fibers) and PP.
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And how is the print quality? How brittle is it? It heavily benefits ABS to be to be dried. Thats why it is labeled as “recommend”.
Just refer to the wiki
Simple as that. No need to try and disprove someone giving advice.
A filament dryer is a great investment no matter what filament you are using.
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No brittle, It becomes brittle due to UV radiation not from moisture.
It would be better to learn a little about materials than to blindly trust manufacturers. Bamboo = Sunlu. And what does Sunlu sell? Dryers, right?
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Both are true. You can not ignore that there is more than one reason.
I work with ABS every day in thermoforming, extrusion, and injection molding applications. We use dryers on all raw material. These are the simple steps you take when you are looking for consistency and quality.
I think listening to the manufacturer is a good place to start. There is no need for a filament/dryer manufacturer conspiracy.
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I have ABS and very little PLA.
Is there a way to dry it without using a filament dryer? I’ve heard that you can use your printer homehow, and silica gel works, too.
Using silica gel isn’t very effective at drying, it’s more for keeping it dry. Here’s how to use the printer’s drying function:
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There are ways, but considering how cheap a filament dryer can be, it is a good investment.
You can also use a dehydrator or even an oven if you are careful. (I don’t recommend using an oven, but it is possible)
Silica gel or any deciscant does not work to dehydrate the filament. It will absorb moisture in the air so your filament does not get hydrated as fast, but it will not take a considerable amount of moisture out of the filament.
You need heating and cooling cycles to effectively remove moisture from filament
and thank you to @PrinterMcgee for typing faster than me
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Great minds my man, great minds..
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If you want to conduct tests for yourself, common PETG is very hygroscopic and will provide you a very cheap test material. Rip off chunks of 15g, subject them to varying sources of water/drying and print some boats!
I also think that food dehydrators make excellent dryers and you might have one in the house to try with. Heatbed and box works (not well, but works) in a pinch.
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The word that should appear in this thread, but does not (so far) is “humidity.” The whole answer to your question is “it depends upon the humidity in the location where you store your filament.” If the humidity is 35% or lower, you may never need to actively dry any filament. It might be sufficient to keep the riskiest filaments (such as TPU) in a dry bag with desiccant. If you are tolerant of imperfect prints (but still pretty good), you might be able to get by when the humidity is even higher.
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Would it not be more appropriate to say that silica gel isn’t as efficient at drying as using a heater? Because filament can be dried using desiccant alone, it just takes longer. A lot longer.
One thing I have not seen an any of the comments is cheap dryers often don’t have a vent to get rid of the water. they have heaters to help remove water from the filament. But without venting is condenses on the inside of the enclosure. that is one factor cheaper often leave out. Higher price ones have auto opening vents.
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the venting helps during drying, but the vent if left open when not heating allows the water back in.
Thats a great point. Too many people think heat is all you need. If you only use heat, the filament will soak it all back up again. I used to crack the lid of my old creality dryer in the last few hours to make it do anything.
Tomato Potato
Efficiency and effectiveness go hand in hand. Although I rather have filament that is dried to 20 percent in 8 hours with a dryer than filament that is dried to 40 percent in weeks.
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any filament can absorb water. some soak it up quickly. the common filament PLA effectively does not.
the common problem is when water goes through the nozzle it expands a lot. Materials like nylon absorb a lot of water. It sounds like bacon when you print because of the expanding water. Causing unpredictable extrusion (bad quality). Materials like PLA that absorb very little a sign of wet filament is commonly a fine hairs on the model. The biggest factor is what is the standard humidity. So the standard answer applies, “IT DEPENDS”.
Except for PLA I dry all filaments.
But I would stay away from the typical 50 bucks dryers.
- One point is that most don’t release the wet air.
- Usually they don’t reach high enough temperature for the more technical materials. E.g. for ABS you want around 80°C. And more often than not, they even don’t reach the advertised temperature.
- Many have a very uneven temperature distribution, some have 10°C or more deviation close to the heater compared to other locations.
- weak heater, taking a lot of time until they reach the target temperature.
- no isolation, so that a lot of the energy goes into the ambient.
My preferred recommendation at the moment is an air fryer. At least ours has very good and even temperature control. I think the high air flow also is beneficial, temperature goes higher than you will ever need.
And I still think, that food dehydrators are a very good choice. there are some around that do everything from the list above much better than the cheap dedicated dryers and cost the same. E.g. the Graef DA2042 goes up to 80°C and holds 2 spools. I think in USA it is sold under a different brand and name. It seems like Greaf stopped producing it. Maybe it is still available used?
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