Since I’m so cheap buying filament, I’m thinking of doing a bulk purchase for a few common types to get a discount. But I don’t think I’ll be going through it very fast.
So… how long would brand new filament still in the original packaging last?
I found this quote elsewhere, does it sound about right?
If it’s well made and properly sealed, it’ll last until Jesus comes back.
(If that does happen I want to make sure he can still print with his X1C.)
Does the filament type matter in this situation? They were also claiming that it depends on the manufacturer (I was just going to go with Bambu’s store). It doesn’t look like they have any info on longevity on the store.
Unopened sealed spools of filament can arrive with moisture in the filament.
That said, once dried, it functions fine.
I have 150 filaments with around 120 open and partially used. I have a lot of colours, filament types and sub-types.
Once off the printer I place them in a zip sealed bag (1 gallon) with the same silica pack it came with and placed back in the same box it shipped in (except for BL refills, they get a new box recycled from a different manufacturer).
I regularly grab one of those various spools, kept on a shelf for various time periods, sometimes months and use it again.
I have only needed to dry filament twice since I started this 3D printing journey 5 years ago. I have gone through far more filament than I have in shelves now during that time.
In short, store it well, handle it correctly when you open it, seal it up when storing it for later and you should be fine to buy a years worth or five.
Interesting question. Changed my mind after thinking about it a bit. So I guess I have a different view. That being, whether it lasts until Jesus comes back is more a question of when Jesus is coming back than the plastic’s longevity.
PLA is a concern for long term storage. If you let it absorb too much humidity, it gets brittle and has been known to break just sitting on a spool. Sealed bags do not provide a 100% humidity-proof barrier.
But all plastics contain chemicals that impart key properties to the plastic. These chemicals are called “plasticizers” and they are more volatile that the plastic itself. Over time, even in a dark cool space, they’re going to cook off.
It’s why old plastic is often brittle. And the haze you get on the inside of the windows of your car, especially when it’s been hot for a while, are in large part plasticizers from the various materials in the car cooking off (it’s that new car smell).
I bought my first printer on November 2014, and a lot of filaments with it.
Some of them are still unopened. Las month I used one of those with no problem at all. I only let it in a sealed bag with silica gel for 24h before using it.
It was a Nunus PLA filament.
Hello,
I opened a “new” PLA spool filament today that I purchased in 2021 and made in 09-2020.
It was in the original tightly sealed vacuum packaging, no leaks.
Well, it is useless. It is as brittle as uncooked spaghetti, snapping into multiple pieces when even trying to unroll it. I have tried drying it in an oven for 2 hours at 57dC and whilst it feels more flexible than before, it still breaks like crazy. It took me an hour to get all the tiny bits out of the the Bambu AMS.
This raises a question that I’ve had in my head for awhile. We know old, wet filament is brittle. Does drying make the PLA pliable again or one it’s brittle it’s useless?
I have 2 pla spools that are 12 years old and about a year ago I tried drying them and using them and they would break in the extruder again and again. They must develop cracks over time.
How long filament will last in an unopened, vacuum-sealed bag depends on the material, the manufacturing quality, and your storage conditions at home. I had an old spool of Prusa Gray PLA that printed fine in 2024, even though I’d bought it in 2019—probably not as tough as new, but the model turned out well.
That said, I wouldn’t count on more than a few years even in an unopened package.
like S474n said, there are a variety of factors that could (usually do) affect, over time, the properties of a filament spool, no matter how well that filament spool is conserved.
I have a bit more faith in those mylar bags than I do the generic plastic. Anecdotally I think the quality of filaments has been overall increasing across all vendors together. This muddies the context a bit when you crack an old roll. If it was, by definition given it’s mfr date, “■■■■ that was made for peoples enders”, the bar was pretty low to begin with, and so maybe age is treating initially bad stuff worse. Only a couple brands like prusament would meet current day higher standards.
Anecdotally again the oldest roll I remember using recently was some 4 year old ABS from a vendor who is out of business and it printed fine. Clear plastic bag.
