If you want to take it lower using a consumer grade filament dryer, your best bet is Mzip’s method, which is now proven out to be quite effective, easy to build, and fairly inexpensive. I’m using a variant of it to keep filament dry while printing, and it works well even in my garage, which has much higher ambient humidity than indoors. In fact, I’m debating whether to expand it to an entire printer enclosure to prevent rust on some of my other garage-located 3D printers. It may sound exotic, but the overhead is surprisingly low, as only very small positive pressure is required to maintain dryness.
1 Like
Sunlu S4 Dryer. Put your most water absorbing filaments in there and I have timer set to 99 hours and if I see it has timed out, I restart it.
So filaments such as PA-CF go in the AMS hot and dry. I have had no problems with Bambu PLA so it resides on a bookshelf Why put a filament in the dryer if it doesn’t need it? Even with the S4, there are only 4 slots so you have to manage that.
Based on some instruments in my house, it stays, on average, at about 50% RH and I printed a part using Bambu Lab PLA Basic that has been in my AMS for at least a month and it is flawless. Same results with all different colors of PLA so why waste a slot in ANY dryer for PLA but, YMMV
You don’t need to set for 99 and restart. The S4 has a storage mode where you set the target RH% and it will maintain that.
Mode 2
What’s the minimum RH% you can set as the trigger point? I think I read that on the S4 it’s 20%. Unfortunatley, I ended up returning the S4 I bought because I ran out of time before I could evaluate it before the return window closed. Well, since then the price seems to have dropped anyway, so maybe it’s not such a bad outcome after all.
1 Like
Something to keep in mind in super dry environments is static electricity. Was just telling @NeverDie in a different thread how silica gel beads can pick up quite a charge and jump like jumping beans all over everywhere.
The other probably isn’t too big a deal but folks might consider being particularly careful near electronics that have been in that environment especially as static gets to be an issue anyway for those in the northern hemisphere.
30% is as low as it can be set, although it will show lower while operating.
It’s not spot on, but close. I have another hydrometer/thermometer in to check.
1 Like
@johnfcooley At least to me, 30%RH seems like a pretty high cut-off point. If you were to unplug the S4 while it was drying filament normally and then plug it in again, does it resume drying or does it stay off? If the former and not the latter, then one could maybe brute-force hack it with an inkbird to dry to a lower RH% and stay low by simply having the inkbird turn the AC power off and on to the S4.
1 Like
Can I get back to you on that, or maybe someone else can unplug and plug in. Mine is coming from my UPC which is not easy to reach and I don’t want to kill it.
IF (big if) I remember when I tripped it, it maintained my setting. Keep in mind it’s set at 30 but reading 27. I know it goes lower than 30. I don’t know where it’s getting the reading. My guess is from below. So I’ve put a different one in the top near the door. I expect that one to read differently but I have no idea how different yet. Couple of days I should see. I want to completly dry whats in there first.
Yes, of course, whenever it’s convenient. Just try not to go all Shrek on me, where me said, “Farewell, gentlemen! Someday, I will repay you … unless of course I can’t find you or if I forget.”
On one of the other threads, someone said they got their S4 at just $99. He didn’t say where, but that seems like a very good price. Now that we’re close to Black Friday, maybe we’ll see that price again.
1 Like
Malc said he bought one, I think near that price. I’d have to go back through messages.
Yeah, I think it was him. And he’s in England, where prices are usually higher.
1 Like
Moist air rises so depending on air circulation in the chamber there could be a bias. And being the super helpful guy I am, I don’t have a clue how much of a difference to expect. It might be nothing if the effect is small, or “big” if it’s not to state the glaringly obvious…
If you see much difference with the top hygrometer reporting higher, you might try it again positioned low and see if it even matters.
1 Like
LOL, took me a bit to track it down. We go back and forth a lot. It was him, was 100…er…pounds…shillings…half-pence.
@NeverDie I had to get coffee so killed power to it. When it comes back it maintains settings and starts a 6 hr drying cycle at whatever temp you last dried at.
1 Like
Jay, it starts that 6 hour drying cycle all on its own when power comes back on? It sounds like it doesn’t just finish whatever you had it doing when the power was interrupted where it could assume it was ok to get back to work? If it’s off and the power glitches does it stay off or wake up and turn on heaters?
3 Likes
Since I didn’t pay attention the first time, I did this time.
Was an hour into a 6 hour cycle.
Cut all power.
Restored power, it stays off. If I touch the screen to turn it on it sets a 6 hour cycle that I can either allow to run or turn off. My bad.
1 Like
No, no. That’s the right answer. Thanks for checking!
1 Like
That works. I downloaded the instruction manual and must have missed that part. Can I set the RH% TO 5% and the S4 will never shut down??
I have found it interesting to read people’s philosophy about drying in this post.
One thing that has never required drying, even in super humid South Carolina is PLA
Nope, and you wouldn’t want/need that.
Set it at 30 and let it go, unless you add a spool, then set it to whatever to dry it. It will then maintain after that timer has expired.
I got eSun Ebox Lite a couple of weeks ago. Anyone know if the drying is better with a little silica gel inside?
Printed a small box for silica that goes in the fan slot and closed the hole in the front. New spool of some cheap PLA, 8h on first setting. According to my kitchen scale the spool lost 2g. No fogging inside the dryer, orange silica did darken a little in colour.
Tryed another spool, again 1-2g weight loss, don’t see any difference in print before and after. Maybe filament is dry OOB 
What do you think about the performance?
I was using food dehidrator before, but wanted something small, quieter and with less energy consumption 
I have these too and I’m okay with it. But I left the hole in the front open and dry my filaments (mostly PETG, ASA and TPU) between 12 and 24 hours after I open a new box. After drying I put it in a self-made dry box with Silica gel or a AMS. Sometimes I print TPU directly out of the eBox Lite.
1 Like