Golly gee wowsers. Far out. So then …
To be clear — THIS WAS NOT A REVIEW. I mean, come now; a single post with three photos and a summary rant? Settle down folks. Enough with the hate already.
My original post clearly stated that the filament from the first photo was NOT dried, at all. Directions were obviously not followed. I’m not sure why people felt the need to reiterate that as if I didn’t know. shrug
The second photo was from partially dried (obviously) with some mention of some length of time to get it that far and a some surprise added on the end. Why surprise? Well, because this is supposed to be PETG, not some version of Nylon 12 only worse. I digress.
The third photo was of print using fully dried, as incidentally evidenced under a microscope, seen with essentially zero steam bubbles, popped or otherwise. (There were maybe three or four but those could have been from effects other than water in the filament itself.)
I made no claims that this or that temperature over some or another time period should or should not be enough, whether recommended or otherwise. Mistakes were made in the OP resulting in subsequent confusion over what the drying temperatures and device actually were but WHO CARES?! OMG It’s doesn’t matter!
Dry is dry. Wet is wet. Steam bubbles are steam bubbles and they only happen when filament contains water. No steam bubbles, no water. Simple. For the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone would argue that. Print settings indeed! Oops. Digressed again.
In the end, the best possible print I could manage using BambuLab’s recommended settings for their own PETG HF product, remained in my opinion more or less the same as any other PETG print, with some stringing on internal curves etc. I am guessing the prints’ physical and chemical compatibility properties would be very similar to PETG Basic. It’s still Polyethylene Terephthalate being melted and squeezed through a hot nozzle at the end of the day.
Sure, it prints a little faster. I guess if the marginal overall decrease in print time matters to you more than having to wait 6-12 hours to dry the stuff before you even start the print, then, well, you do you. Have at it. Enjoy the matte finish but accept that there will still be some stringing not present on a PLA prints, especially on internal arcs.
Personally, PETG Basic prints with no more stringing for me, when it’s dry. Again, most people do not dry their filament and are unaware of the marginal improvement it can get them. Only people who experience poor printing even look for a solution. Most don’t even do that. Consequently, most people currently enjoying PETG printing do not own a filament dryer, let alone caring to. Because PETG-HF is REPLACING PETG Basic, they certainly will need one now — if they want to keep BambuLab as their PETG filament supplier.
Make no mistake! EVERYONE needs to dry this stuff before use and thoroughly. No exceptions. PETG HF is (subjectively) super sensitive to moisture — as much or worse than any other material, including Nylon.
Imagine an FDM print farm where they print PETG on hundreds of printers day and night. Now imagine they have to change to this “new and improved” version of PETG HF (because the previous version got discontinued) only to find they now need high temperature active drying at every station for every roll — and for what? A less shiny version of essentially the exact same thing? It’s absurd.
BambuLab. Please. Allow me to be among the first to beg you not to replace PETG Basic with this PETG HF stuff. If you feel a need to introduce a hydroscopic superior material, then how about working on a formular for PA 12 Nylon instead? PA outperforms PET in most every other way, does it not?
