A lot of air fryers have a dehydrator mode and it can reach the needed temps. If you dont already have one sitting unused you can probably get one for next to nothing. They were kind of a kitchen fad a few years ago. Works perfect and unlike dehydrators you dont have to hack up the trays to make it work.
@@ModBotArmy Its for sure not as elegant as one of the purpose built filament dryers, but for me space really isnt much of an issue and the one I have you can fit 3 typical spools in it. Plus you are likely to be able to pick one up for free to dirt cheap as people realize they dont want them in their kitchens. I got mine from someone who was going to toss it away because they never used it and it took up valuable kitchen counter space, I like free.
I used an air fryer, it's great because the fast circulating fan dries things out super fast. Mine only goes down to 83C, so I've only used it for nylon, but I've seen a lot of them go down to 60C - just something to check for before buying one.
Air fryers rock and put most ovens to shame when it comes to how fast they cook and how much electricity they use. However they get hot as shit at least both the ones I have do. They are meant to cook a frozen piece of chicken in 15 minutes, I can't imagine destroying one just to dry plastic out.
@@mattchristine675 some new ones have a dehydrator mode that does low temperatures for up to 8 hrs. It should be similar to a regular dehydrator except with a higher temperature cap should you need it. I use mine to dry out carbon fiber Nylon, I would rather do that in an air fryer in my garage than in the oven in my kitchen. I don't use my air fryer for cooking though.
I took my old dehydrator I used for making tons of deer jerky and turned it into a 2-roll dryer. Then I got a huge case about 4"x 2"x 2"ish that is completely waterproof, and I just put my rolls in there bagged up with tons of desiccant. Works for me and they were both stuff I already own. Also, I now got an excuse to buy a nice smoker since I can't use my dehydrator anymore. 😁😁
I just bought an amazon food dehydrator for $90 that holds 4 spools and temps up to 80C with no modifications needed. It was a front load, pull out the racks, and dries filament like a champ!
I just use a $30 food dehydrator with a thermostat, and keep calcium chloride dessicant in my storage boxes. Put closed cell foam seals between the lid and box, most aren't anywhere near air tight. Silica gel can only hold 30% its own weight and don't do anything below ~30% humidity. Calcium chloride converts up to 7 times its own weight to an unsatirated goopy liquid that doesn't reevaporate, and will work down below 10% humidity. But you have to have it in a bowl in there, can't spread it around like silica, so be careful when moving your filament storage boxes around so it doesn't spill. Just flush it or throw it out when spent, it's environmentally inert.
Same. I use one of the "smart" thermometer and humidity monitor that graphs out the temperature and humidity so I can see when the filament is dry (Humidity is low and constant). It also helps to see what the actual temperature is vs what the cheap dehydrator is set to.
@@Martin42944 Humidity readings _inside_ a dehydrator doesn't neccessarily say much, because of the very rapid, short travel flow through. Ideally, you'd want to measure humidity at an exhaust point. Can be tricky though, most of these are positive pressure setups where air just "leaks out" anywhere it can.
@@pr0xZen I poke holes in the top of the container and place it on top of the spool, so far I’ve found it does a pretty good job tracking the humidity.
The industry I work in we work with CaCl, CaBr, and ZnBr fluids. They will pull so much moisture out of the air it'll give you a nose bleed if you spend too much time in the storage rooms.
The difference in warping between wet and dry nylon might be because moisture changes the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of resins. Also there's something called the coefficient of moisture expansion, that characterizes the elongation of a material with moisture absorption. This phenomenon isn't widely known, and material suppliers never list it in datasheets, because it's hellish-difficult to measure. Depending on the print duration, the wet nylon might have contracted as it lost moisture from the heat of the bed.
Hygrometers (the little moisture sensors) measure the moisture of the air, not the moisture level of the filament. Even if the filament was super wet and cracking if you bend it, it isn't going to release its moisture when you stick the filament into the dryer. I've tried all the solutions I think? For storage, I'm using the 21L Rubbermaid with a bunch of desicant. I've tried the resealable bags, but I didn't get the right sized ones (since they were not specific for filament rolls), so they were either too big (annoyingly bulky), or too small. They seemed like the perfect solution but after some days/weeks, I'd see they'd lose their vacuum so they weren't really air tight. Maybe the EIBOS bags are better? If I find a filament I want to use is too wet (like it cracks), then I'll throw it into my 1st gen PrintDry (basically a rebranded food dehydrator) for a few hours to dry it out.
exactly this. Mine can get up to 85 °C and it's price was about 40 Euros. I just 3D printed walls instead of removing grill from the separate levels as I want to dehydratate food there too. I see no point in this expensive solutions which are exactly same, but much more expensive. If somebody needs much higher temps than 80 °C, micro owen is not that expensive too.
'Dryers' like the Sunlo are just heaters- there is no airflow through the box, so no way to carry off the moisture. Even the ones with fans are not insulated, so massively inefficient. If you are heating the box the RH will fall (which is what the meter reads) but the actual moisture is still there. Remember, you are measuring the air RH, what you are actually interested in is the amount of H2O inside the filament- a quite different matter. Two steps with drying- first get it dry, and then keep it dry. The first is best done with desiccant- true moisture removal, but it can take days. The second is by NEVER letting the air to the reel. That is achieved by using a cassette system, holding a reel in a container even when in use. Putting the desiccant into the cassette means it will be drying always, right up to as dry as it can get. Yes, it takes more space, but it saves a lot of time- slotting a cassette is way faster than unpacking/packing a reel and then mounting it. So, the best drying you can get, and the fastest mounting- isn't that worth a bit of space?
Nice video, is very informative for all the people that had issues with PETG mainly, I personally only put my filaments into my car under the seats by one day at sunny day, is very simple a cheap, great results without expending a dime.
I checked out the EIBOS one a few months ago and the Amazon reviews showed a few people experienced filament melting since the heater regulates poorly or lack of fan. Honestly, the best investment I made was the PrintDry Pro. I went with the full setup so I can dry up to 4 1kg spools or even the larger spools . Once dry, into the air tight cereal boxes with desiccant. I am now using Polymaker Polyboxes as a filament dry box while printing. It sits on top of the 3D Printer enclosure and using a reverse bowden setup (Capricorn tube from dry box into the extruder)....this way the filament isn't exposed to the outside air. I looked at putting heated filament boxes next to the printer while printing but why use up so much electricity? Thanks for your video!
I just encountered this with the Eibos two roll one. With the PD Pro how is the air flow directed from the heat source? the EIBOS one it blows right on the filament which is why people have had it fuse it. The unit probably should have been wider have sat the rolls up higher. It works perfectly fine on half used rolls but a full roll it blows right on the product, I had to respool two PETG rolls to unstickify it.
Im in the UK so most of the time we dont need a filament drier. But now winters here i use a old fridge freezer, Two old school glass light bulbs 60w in the bottom 40w up top with 2 100mm holes joining the top and bottom to let the air move, It sits around 48-50'c. I used it to dry wood for turning before i got into 3D. Wouldnt be good to dry out in a hour or two but leave/store the filament in there 24/7 and its ready to roll.
The Sunlu has a second generation box that has some improvements like it goes to 55c (and has 2 temperature sensors now) and the screen is actually viewable now (backlit even) and I did a mod to it which adds a nice fan inside that is powered whenever the unit has power and it works really well and I put a humidity meter inside. I recently went overboard on storage and use air tight plastic boxes (used for cookies and cakes) as well at buying a $150 food dehydrator that can hold 7 rolls (1.kg) of filament at one time, I also use it to dry out my silica gel packs that I put in the storage boxes with the filament. I built some shelving as well and everything (except the Sunlu box) is stored there. I have the Sunlu behind my Prusa MK3S and use it when I need to quickly print something that is slightly damp (leaving it on an hour before printing actually does help).
but one thing i wanted to share, dry it once and buy some heavy foil ziplock bags with a shiteload of moisture absorbers. once dry chuck it into a bag with moisture absorbers. I even added air style fittings to those bags and feed the filament out of the bags. easy.
I had left my filament connected to my printers and one printer had really bad stringing. I usually have the A/C on all summer and it must not get humid enough to cause problems with PLA but I had opened my windows and the humidity came in and evidently got sucked into my filament. I switched filaments to one that had been in a box and it printed pretty well except for some cratering, little pin prick holes. So I got a Sunlu dryer like you have and am drying some of the filaments out now. A couple companies make a double dryer with a humidity sensor and a fan and I might get one of those unless I see something on UA-cam that everyone raves about.
I just have a bin filled with 1kg of silica with a threaded rod that rotates on some bearings, also added a hygrometer and a bowden push fitting. I have used it for weeks and it stays pinned at 10% and haven't had to dry out the silica yet. Total cost was around 25$ and stores 4-5 rolls of filament.
Only recently have I had Wet filament issues. I fried my Amazon Basic PETG filament for arount 8-10 hurs in my Food Dehydrator and that helped. I could dry mu filament even a few more hours. I think I here some light popping and I just purchased this filament. I like the close up of smoke steaming from the printer. This confirmed that I did have wet filament. My house Humidity is 58%. I also, bought the Eva-dry E-333 Renewable dehumidifier. Y^ou just plug it in to charge it up. $15 on Amazon. Recommended from another UA-camr. He stated that the dehumidifier would drop the humitidty down to 20%. I have read that you really need 10-15% humidity rating. I'd like to know if 20% is good enough. I am also going to look for A couple of Humidity sensor I can place in each box.
I live in a VERY humid country where on a typical day humidity is around 50-70%. Tried alot of filament dryers. Eibos cyclops did wonders for me, from PETG, TPU even nylon
For the price you should probably just get a good food dehydrator which can fit a number of spools at the same time and you can run your own PTFE tube from the top of the dehydrator to the printer. I used one from Magic Mill and just took out the trays. It's a lot more accurate on internal temperature than the cheap ones and I didn't have to hack my own container for the spools this way. Best part I can dry 4 or 5 spools at once and for not much more I could have bought a larger unit that could fit 8 or 9 spools.
When i switched prom PLA to other filaments my first venture was PETG. Unfortunately i got a role that was soaked straight from the factory. The Internet seems to think that wet filament isn't that bad, but honestly it is. I couldn't even print a temperature tower, because all the layers looked the same. Shit. So i figured i have tried everything except drying this brand new filament. It fixed EVERYTHING. Only adjustment i had to make after that was more cooling and a bit less volumetric flow rate.
I found that the "Ezy 19L/18Qt waterproof storage tote" from Home Depot holds four 1 kg spools perfectly. With 4 spools of dry filament, I put a large 100 g pack of dessicant in there and a couple of smaller packets of indicator dessicant, and after 3 months the dessicant is still fresh. It does a good job of keeping filament dry in one compact space.
Just curious, why the heck wouldn’t you use a Flexzion food dehydrator? It is adjustable to max 70c, has a fan and vents, and can hold several spools of filament. You can put a spool holder in it for active use. Just cut out the center, of the five trays, and it’s only $50.
You can definitely use one and many do. My thing is spools sitting sideways I am not crazy about, and if you have them standing up you lose space plus they are larger and space is a massive issue for me. Not saying they are not viable as I have owned one previously that did work, just that its not right for my current setup.
@@ModBotArmy I 2nd this. I use one myself, but don't print directly from it. One unfortunate, big retraction jerk and 5-10 rounds spring off the spool when situated horizontally. The model I use can't fit a spool vertically. It works wonders for drying though, and it was only $30. Tested the thermostat with a separate thermocouple to make sure it's PLA safe as lowest setting is 50 (and some of these dehydrators have very inaccurate thermostats), and it turns out it's less than 1°C off 😃
YES as I just posted you can. I like that the other more expensive solutions have a few features that I like. And these are more suited for actual printing to keep you filament dry on a long print. These are not meant to just dry your filament. But to dry as you print. There is no spool holder in a Food Dehydrator. Although if you buy a bigger one you could DIY one with a spool holder so you could print from it. But it probably be quite abit larger to place on you desk next to your printer.
I live in Phoenix AZ and we had a wee winter for once. I ended up getting and modifying a food dehydrator along with using the nanovac storage bags. My only issue is that the bags crease and leak. I mainly print tpu and petg, which is fine leaving out most of the time, but this last monsoon season I definitely noticed a difference.
I'm lucky to live in a very dry climate so moisture is not really a problem. But I do store all my filaments in a large plastic box with ~1kg of dessicant. So far it has worked great for me, low tech and simple
I'm in the Phoenix area, so I don't really know if I would have moisture problems; however, I still put the material into sealed bags with desiccant in-between uses. I like the bags you have. The bags I'm using came with a straw and I have to manually suck the air out. That looks a lot nicer.
Living in Florida, we have a lot of humidity. I use EIBOS Cyclopes for my Nylon and it works very well. It does take 12 hours to complete but the difference in my printing is impressive. I have had an issue with a spool or two expanding and wish the Cyclopes would slowly rotate the filament while drying but it does not. Once dry, I use PrintDry storage containers to keep my filament dry for extended periods of time.
I’m new to 3DP and took dry filament seriously. I’ve built two dry boxes and use a combination of activated alumina and silica gel. I got an order from Printed Solid of two spools of Prusament and one spool of Jessie (PETG). I couldn’t figure out why the settings for Prusament I came up with (I started with two spools of Prusament PETG straight from Prusa CZ) and took time to print temperature towers and dial in the temperature for my machine. I printed temp towers for the stuff received from Printed Solid and all the sudden I needed to print the same material at 260 instead of 225-230 for similar results. On the filament of the second order there was NO temperature where stringing didn’t occur and the Jessie was particularly bad. Well me being a genius I used my oven. Well my oven SAYS it can go down to 170F, they lie. It ruined the two spools of Prusament, welding the rolls together. Since the printing temp is higher on the Jessie, it was the only roll that survived. Don’t make my mistake, either get a dehydrator or get a specific filament drying solution (I have both now). I now have a 6 spool dry box that I print out of (after drying every spool for 24hrs after receiving it), an Eibos Easedry for single spools, their bags with silica gel for storage after drying and a food dehydrator for drying the spools when I get them. If you’re getting frustrated with zits in your prints, stringing, having to crank up the temps, etc with PETG do yourself a favor and dry your spools, you won’t regret it.
I live in a climte with 80% humidity 90% of the time. Its either slightly lower or slightly higher humidity here 365 days a year. Ive only been into printing the last 12 months and At the start i tried drying everything making sure its all perfect etc etc etc. then i gave up i adjusted printing settings to just print at high humidity. No problems now.
Had to experiment with drying in the oven for TPU a few weeks ago. TPU is really annoying with that. Found a combination of drying in the oven, then drying in a bad with desecant over a few days give the best results.
Ive got 3 of the sunlu dryers, im actually about to fit them with a fan mod that will vent them of the humid air out the top shell. I only print with PLA, TPU and PETG, so the sunlu box is enough in conjunction with a similar ziploc vacume bag solution to yours, it aalso comes with a USB pump,I store every filament in one of these bags with a decicant container that sits inside the spool centre hole while not on the printer and in a dryer whilst out of its bag. I live in the UK next to the Thames river, also have a fish tank in my printing room and my system is working well even with a 20 gallon box of water in the room.
I have the eSUN dryer and the EiBOS Easy dry. Love the EasyDry for all the reasons you state. One thing to mention is that this dryer only has a 72mm volume size. So it will not work with my Amazon Basic filament 80mm spools. Bummer! You can feel the heat so you know it is working. I can not feel much heat with from my eSUN dryer. I just bought the Cyclopes version. I also have a cheep Food dehydrator. I have to print out a taller top cover for my Food Dehydrator so I can fit 2 80mm spools,
Sunlu is just good for keeping something dry as you print. Food dehydration is the cheapest for the best results for under $100. But if you do have a convection oven you have already your answer right infront of you.
I do feel the Sunlu works fine for maintaining. The issue with the convection oven is that both myself and Erin arent crazy about putting filament where our food goes. Especially with the dirt/dust that is on alot of the spools I have.
@@ModBotArmy Than keep them darn spools clean LOL. And yes not everyone has a convection oven so I get that point too. Me I do have a double convection oven so one is barley ever used at the house so :-)
Note that this company is in China and has "free shipping". The web site says 7-10 days to just ship, then wait for the slow boat (but hopefully it would ship by air). That usually means a 6 to 8 week delivery in to the US. Definitely not a xmas gift :-)
The sunlu dryer doesn't do much for drying but maybe keeping dry while printing. My issue with filament drying is the time it takes to fully dry a roll, even brand new rolls can be bad.
I have been using PLA and PETG for years and never had to dry either to get good prints. In fact only nylon would not work without drying - it sounds like bacon sizzling on a griddle from all of the steam released in the nozzle.
Same here!!! I have tried both as well and neither one seems to hold moisture at all. I get a great print whether I dried the filament or not. Some of these guys must live In the jungle or something to have as many moisture issues as they do.
@@mattchristine675 I keep the temperature of my home between 66 and 68°F year round. Winter here is naturally dry (40-50% RH) and the Air conditioner keeps it about the same in the warmer weather. I don't do anything to protect my filament except put it back in the plastic bag when not in use. The spool on my printer often sits uncovered for weeks. BTW, most people do not realize that most plastic bags and bottles are permeable to water. If the humidity outside the bag is greater than inside, the moisture content in the bag will increase to an equilibrium. That's why desiccants are needed. Water molecules (H2O) are smaller than the oxygen (O2) we breathe and can go through plastic even while under a vacuum.
I tried the Easdry based on your recommendation and it's great but half my spools don't fit and it would be nice to be able to see which filament I have inside, so I'm thinking about returning it and getting the Cyclopes while it's still on sale for $109.
built and enclosure that holds printer and spools together seemed to help so much. spools hang on closet rod above printer and gets fairly warm in there. print mainly ASA and Nylon. nylon is hit or miss with enclosure storage
I have a sunlu and modded it to have a blow fan to circulate the air inside, but not to pulls air in and such for fresh air. I also cut to size a square hole in the front and inserted a humidity sensor, be it the sensor is right smack at the front portion of the inside of it and not truly inside inside. I live in the Puget Sound (larger area of Seattle) part of Washington state. No joke it rains 50% of the time, so very high humidity. That being said I typically can get the sunlu chamber to get down and hold (be it the 20 hours out of every 24 hours it recommends).... down to 18%. My question is with these other two ones you speak of dual and single from Eibos. What % humidity can you get it down to, and for how long can you hold it at the lowest typical humidity? Because i am trying to aim for the lower single digit humidity levels.
I live in the tropics and humidity is a big problem. I found a rice container that's sealed with a gasket so I store the very sensitive filament like tpu and petg. I also have a filament dryer from esun which has a fan and I think it can reach 65 to 70 celcious but I lost the manual so I can't check.
I modded a food dehydrator. I get 3 #2kilo rolls in at a time. It also goes up to 85c. Never had much of an issue until my filaments were exposed to cold moisture during a move. Needless to say i had to dry everything.
I don’t know if they have perfected the pump and bags yet but I purchased these along with extra bags when they first released them last year and more than half the bags did not stay sealed and after a day or two were filled with air again. I played around with the zipper over and over but the bags never stayed sealed.
Wow, that's a great testimony for the Overture PTEG. No drying at all and a pretty flawless print. Do they make a low gloss (aka matte or semi-matte) PETG? I'd love to have some PETG that does'nt print like cheap shiny plastic (like most PETG I've seen) and that doesn't require drying and can just be picked off the shelf and printed.
Love the channel! What's your take on the vacuum bags now (1 year later)? I have the feeling that, regardless where I buy those bags, they are only ever good for 2 months or so. After that, they lose all the vacuum.
Just printed voron 0.1 skirts in TPU along with the feet and the mounting brackets for the board and pi….the rest will be in ABS…can’t wait to get my hands on a LDO kit so I can start the build….
@@ModBotArmy I went with what voron recommend for the printed parts but with triangle infill...will be uploading a video of the brackets being printed on my channel
Eibos vacuum bags user here. I have an observation and a question for Daniel or anyone that's tested it more than I have. Like most Ziploc style vacuum bags, it doesn't hold vacuum worth a ****. Within hours the bags are full of air again. I've also used the PrintDry canisters (individual canisters analogous to the Ziploc bags idea, bought on MatterHackers), which do hold vacuum for at least days or weeks. Does this really matter? I had assumed that allowing air into the bag lets moisture in too, and that they're not working well enough to protect something like nylon if they leak, even when stored with desiccant. The hygrometers I store with the bags generally have shown wetter conditions than I want. Has anyone had a similar experience with leaking but then tried printing with the stored filament and gotten good results?
I got a print dry which is similar to cyclopse for 50$ turns out they are 2-300 new lol got lucky. I live in a desert so I only use it when I get filament from wetter places that's not sealed properly
I am curious how your bags have been holding up? I had some Airlock vacuum bags (made just for 3D filament storage) and after 4-5 uses they started leaking. I would also put desiccant in with them and it showed moisture after again 4-5 uses. Contacted the company and got the response that I should replace the bags after 2 uses (meaning throw them away). So I am curious if your bags have held up any better than this?
In fact, that's really depends on the material quality of the vacuum bag. For example the thinkness, there are multiple options, from 0.5mm to 1.5mm and the difference is obvious. If you touch it, you will know. And of course, the better the material is using, the more times the bag can be reused. In addition, there are also some advice about how to use these vaccum bag, or we say increasce the reuse times of these vacuum bags. 1.Please make sure to use the sealing strip correctly after putting the filament in. 2. make sure the pump has connected well with the bag. (there is a situation in our test that we haven't made a good connection between pump and bag which leads to the issue that this vacuum bag cannot be vacuumed.) 3. make sure the lid has connected well with the bag. (the pressure between in and out will lead the bag to lose the vacuum.) 4. Be-careful about the tips of the filament (it is sharp), it may break the bag while you're pumping the air out, and leave a small hole in the bag. (#4 occur quite often because most of the users did not realize this may lead to the leak. ) 5. Ensure that the sealing the strip is compressed. We will prodivde these to our customers while they pruchased our vacuum package, especially #4. Hope these can help you. Kind regards, EIBOS Team
Thanks for the vid! If your filament is wet when you vacuum seal it does it stay the same wetness or does the vacuum seal help to reduce the moisture in the filament? Have you looked into these humidity disks that change color and throwing them into the bag (although I'm not sure how accurate they are for this application)?
Also I would rather have to deal with string then Have to deal with partial head clogs. I have pretty must narrow down my issues but finding a solution is the hard part.
I also use MH Build Series: PETG, TPU, and PLA. I also have NEAT and eSUN filament. I really could not get NEAT to print at all. eSUN translucent Orange PETG prints OK. My test is how easy is the filament to flow out the nozzle when I manually push filament through. If I have not mentioned I have the eSUN dryer and a Food dehydrator. I don't here any Hissing when I print. but I tried drying the filament anyway. I wonder if Leaving the filament in the hotend after turning off my printer could cause my under extrusion issue.
I live in New Zealand and on a costal city, even on PLA I get stringing on a spool half way through the spool, this is a very bad area to 3D print without dryer lol
one other thing: I do the push test on filament. How hard do I have to manually push the filament through the nozzle. Good filament I should not have to push filament that hard at all. It is had to find that quality of filament. Geared extruders should not have to work to the point of Skipping steps or grinding filament. It seem like most people's solution is just to push the filament harder and up the temp.
Sorry if I missed it but was you printing the dry versions wile it was in the unit? The main problem I have is I won't be able too print wile it's inside the unit with my current setup. But I would still expect too see a difference after drying for a few hours first.
What about using a 2nd hot-end to dry your filament , before the actual hot-end ? Like 1 feet (or so) before the actual hot-end , the 2nd hot-end not having a nozzle and only heating (drying) around 170 F ? Would this not work ?
I have wanted a dryer but i knew that sunlu dryers had a lot of limitations. Im glad i waited! When did you get your prusa mini?! (Also, rocky road is clearly the best ice cream)
I got that one maybe a monthish ago? It was from someone local that was getting rid of 1 (they had 3). I have another showing up Monday that I bought from Prusa on Black Friday and am going to build a clone in the next month. It has been a great printer. Probably 100ish hours on it so far. Just wanted a printer that I could use without mods and it seems to be the ticket. Also, Rocky Road is up there for me as well. It is one of my dad's favorites.
The S1 has a humidity display, just hold the temp button for three seconds. If you are using a fan to suck-in humid outside air, what are you accomplishing? My S1 keeps 22% humidity within a few minutes after starting.
I wanna diy a modular filament drying station and boxes. but I'm too lazy :s make a master heater box that when you insert it, it blows hot air into it, maybe even an RFID tag to remember the temp for drying, or since it's a docking station it can just stick to 50c and let it dry long term. then it has a lot of desiccant and it stays "Charged" for a while. I have a shitton of different materials that need drying "Nylon, PC, NylonCF, petg tpu and so on" so it's expensive to buy 4-6 of these.
It’s just a heated box. As air heats it will expand increasing the airs volume. Relative humidity is just the percentage of moisture relative to the volume of air it’s contained in. Air heats up and it expands thus lowering the percentage level of moisture relative to that air. Objects within will wick out their moisture trying to reach an equilibrium. That said it doesn’t matter which heated box you use, 2 units that can heat a specific volume of air to a specific temperature will have identical results as dictated by physics. Additional features and controls are the only differences. Long term storage requires an active method of dehumidification if moisture is a problem in your area. I use a dry box with a plug in rechargeable desiccant (from Home Depot labeled as a “dehumidifier”) with a hygrometer in there to monitor it. Dry bags slowly leach a certain amount moisture in, this will reach the plastic without a desiccant like shipped from the manufacturer. Shouldn’t be too much of a surprise really, you are using plastic to prevent your plastic from getting wet.
I use a dehydrator to dry my filament but I've been looking for something better and it looks like that dryer is it. I usually store my filament in ziplock bags.
Dehydrators are great for drying, but many are less great for active printing if they can't fit a spool and holder vertically. I get extremely low humidity long term with plastic tubs, just put a closes cell foam seal along the rim and some calcium chloride dessicant in a small container inside the tub. Vastly superior to silica, and super cheap.
Watch out guys I have bought similar thermometers / humidimeters as are installed in EIBOS and every single one gives different reading and after some time they become even more out of alignment.
I just bought the Easydry filament dryer. A good price. I have the eSUN dryer as well. In your video you talk about all the issues I have be having. You are the first person I cam across that has almost the exact same issues that I have ben fairing my hair out with over the past few years. I am excited to thing with your help maybe I can finally print something. Although I still don't print nearly as well as you do. On my ender 3 Max for example I can't get layers to even stick together. Even with bad wet filament you are printing tons better than I.Right now I would be happy with even a print like your benchy wet filament print.
What about a vacuum dehydrator? Instead of heating, suck the water out. I know they use them for removing air from epoxy resin, but they should work well with removing water. The low pressure allows liquid water to turn into a gas and this could take as little as 20min. I've been thinking of adding a small fan to my SunLu run by an arduino and turn it on for 20sec once every 10min to clear the moisture from the box. Suck the air in through a pile of desiccant.
so with either machine you leave it at the C it needs per material and it turns off after the time it needs or it keeps going until you stop it i think i only noticed a timer on the cyclopes?
The Nutrichef food dehydrator on amazon does 4 spools up to 75C for $88 right now.. There is also another larger version (9 rack) that may hold 6-8 spools for $129.
Are there any drying units out that will handle a 5k or 10k roll? I am printing large items with PETG and need the bigger rolls. I am currently using a modified food dehydrator but would love to have a unit like the Cyclops that could run while printing.
Thanks for a very nice video. I live in Bangalore, India where the weather is normally dry but off late i have been observing popping sounds in my ender 3 pro printers while printing PLA. I just learnt from your video that moisture is the possible culprit. I normally print at 200-205 deg C and 70 deg bed. I need help because my prints also warp slightly and in my requirement that is a failed print. I am averaging 20% wasted prints normally. My printers are not enclosed but in a room where there is no air circulation or open windows. I am still clueless whether moisture is causing this or am I printing at too high temp. Any advice to fix this would be very helpful. Thanks in advance 🙏
A lot of air fryers have a dehydrator mode and it can reach the needed temps. If you dont already have one sitting unused you can probably get one for next to nothing. They were kind of a kitchen fad a few years ago. Works perfect and unlike dehydrators you dont have to hack up the trays to make it work.
Interesting I have seen dehydrators used but not an air fryer. They can be quite bulky though right?
@@ModBotArmy Its for sure not as elegant as one of the purpose built filament dryers, but for me space really isnt much of an issue and the one I have you can fit 3 typical spools in it. Plus you are likely to be able to pick one up for free to dirt cheap as people realize they dont want them in their kitchens. I got mine from someone who was going to toss it away because they never used it and it took up valuable kitchen counter space, I like free.
I used an air fryer, it's great because the fast circulating fan dries things out super fast.
Mine only goes down to 83C, so I've only used it for nylon, but I've seen a lot of them go down to 60C - just something to check for before buying one.
Air fryers rock and put most ovens to shame when it comes to how fast they cook and how much electricity they use. However they get hot as shit at least both the ones I have do. They are meant to cook a frozen piece of chicken in 15 minutes, I can't imagine destroying one just to dry plastic out.
@@mattchristine675 some new ones have a dehydrator mode that does low temperatures for up to 8 hrs. It should be similar to a regular dehydrator except with a higher temperature cap should you need it.
I use mine to dry out carbon fiber Nylon, I would rather do that in an air fryer in my garage than in the oven in my kitchen. I don't use my air fryer for cooking though.
I took my old dehydrator I used for making tons of deer jerky and turned it into a 2-roll dryer. Then I got a huge case about 4"x 2"x 2"ish that is completely waterproof, and I just put my rolls in there bagged up with tons of desiccant. Works for me and they were both stuff I already own. Also, I now got an excuse to buy a nice smoker since I can't use my dehydrator anymore. 😁😁
I haven't had a solution, but I've had the problem, which is why I'm here.
Thank you, I might now have a solution!
I just bought an amazon food dehydrator for $90 that holds 4 spools and temps up to 80C with no modifications needed. It was a front load, pull out the racks, and dries filament like a champ!
Which one did you get?
I just use a $30 food dehydrator with a thermostat, and keep calcium chloride dessicant in my storage boxes. Put closed cell foam seals between the lid and box, most aren't anywhere near air tight. Silica gel can only hold 30% its own weight and don't do anything below ~30% humidity. Calcium chloride converts up to 7 times its own weight to an unsatirated goopy liquid that doesn't reevaporate, and will work down below 10% humidity. But you have to have it in a bowl in there, can't spread it around like silica, so be careful when moving your filament storage boxes around so it doesn't spill. Just flush it or throw it out when spent, it's environmentally inert.
Same. I use one of the "smart" thermometer and humidity monitor that graphs out the temperature and humidity so I can see when the filament is dry (Humidity is low and constant). It also helps to see what the actual temperature is vs what the cheap dehydrator is set to.
@@Martin42944 Humidity readings _inside_ a dehydrator doesn't neccessarily say much, because of the very rapid, short travel flow through. Ideally, you'd want to measure humidity at an exhaust point. Can be tricky though, most of these are positive pressure setups where air just "leaks out" anywhere it can.
@@pr0xZen I poke holes in the top of the container and place it on top of the spool, so far I’ve found it does a pretty good job tracking the humidity.
The industry I work in we work with CaCl, CaBr, and ZnBr fluids. They will pull so much moisture out of the air it'll give you a nose bleed if you spend too much time in the storage rooms.
@@Martin42944 Aye, that would be that aformentioned exhaust point 😉
The difference in warping between wet and dry nylon might be because moisture changes the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of resins. Also there's something called the coefficient of moisture expansion, that characterizes the elongation of a material with moisture absorption. This phenomenon isn't widely known, and material suppliers never list it in datasheets, because it's hellish-difficult to measure. Depending on the print duration, the wet nylon might have contracted as it lost moisture from the heat of the bed.
>coefficient of moisture expansion
I recognize that, it's a made-up word used to trick students!
Hygrometers (the little moisture sensors) measure the moisture of the air, not the moisture level of the filament. Even if the filament was super wet and cracking if you bend it, it isn't going to release its moisture when you stick the filament into the dryer.
I've tried all the solutions I think? For storage, I'm using the 21L Rubbermaid with a bunch of desicant. I've tried the resealable bags, but I didn't get the right sized ones (since they were not specific for filament rolls), so they were either too big (annoyingly bulky), or too small. They seemed like the perfect solution but after some days/weeks, I'd see they'd lose their vacuum so they weren't really air tight. Maybe the EIBOS bags are better?
If I find a filament I want to use is too wet (like it cracks), then I'll throw it into my 1st gen PrintDry (basically a rebranded food dehydrator) for a few hours to dry it out.
I've been using a food dehydrator with some mods to fit the spools and feed the filament. Works great and goes to 70C. It wasn't too expensive either.
exactly this. Mine can get up to 85 °C and it's price was about 40 Euros. I just 3D printed walls instead of removing grill from the separate levels as I want to dehydratate food there too.
I see no point in this expensive solutions which are exactly same, but much more expensive.
If somebody needs much higher temps than 80 °C, micro owen is not that expensive too.
This video cam at the perfect time. I moved from a dry dessert state, Utah, to a humid state and for the first time I have to deal with humidity
'Dryers' like the Sunlo are just heaters- there is no airflow through the box, so no way to carry off the moisture. Even the ones with fans are not insulated, so massively inefficient. If you are heating the box the RH will fall (which is what the meter reads) but the actual moisture is still there. Remember, you are measuring the air RH, what you are actually interested in is the amount of H2O inside the filament- a quite different matter.
Two steps with drying- first get it dry, and then keep it dry. The first is best done with desiccant- true moisture removal, but it can take days. The second is by NEVER letting the air to the reel. That is achieved by using a cassette system, holding a reel in a container even when in use. Putting the desiccant into the cassette means it will be drying always, right up to as dry as it can get. Yes, it takes more space, but it saves a lot of time- slotting a cassette is way faster than unpacking/packing a reel and then mounting it. So, the best drying you can get, and the fastest mounting- isn't that worth a bit of space?
Nice video, is very informative for all the people that had issues with PETG mainly, I personally only put my filaments into my car under the seats by one day at sunny day, is very simple a cheap, great results without expending a dime.
I use PrintDry and love it. Im in Florida as my name implies, so humidity is a huge issue.
I checked out the EIBOS one a few months ago and the Amazon reviews showed a few people experienced filament melting since the heater regulates poorly or lack of fan. Honestly, the best investment I made was the PrintDry Pro. I went with the full setup so I can dry up to 4 1kg spools or even the larger spools . Once dry, into the air tight cereal boxes with desiccant. I am now using Polymaker Polyboxes as a filament dry box while printing. It sits on top of the 3D Printer enclosure and using a reverse bowden setup (Capricorn tube from dry box into the extruder)....this way the filament isn't exposed to the outside air. I looked at putting heated filament boxes next to the printer while printing but why use up so much electricity? Thanks for your video!
I just encountered this with the Eibos two roll one. With the PD Pro how is the air flow directed from the heat source? the EIBOS one it blows right on the filament which is why people have had it fuse it. The unit probably should have been wider have sat the rolls up higher. It works perfectly fine on half used rolls but a full roll it blows right on the product, I had to respool two PETG rolls to unstickify it.
Im in the UK so most of the time we dont need a filament drier. But now winters here i use a old fridge freezer, Two old school glass light bulbs 60w in the bottom 40w up top with 2 100mm holes joining the top and bottom to let the air move, It sits around 48-50'c. I used it to dry wood for turning before i got into 3D. Wouldnt be good to dry out in a hour or two but leave/store the filament in there 24/7 and its ready to roll.
I use a slow cooker to dry my filament. I invert the pan over the roll as the lid. Just like you, I use a vacuum bag for storing each roll.
The Sunlu has a second generation box that has some improvements like it goes to 55c (and has 2 temperature sensors now) and the screen is actually viewable now (backlit even) and I did a mod to it which adds a nice fan inside that is powered whenever the unit has power and it works really well and I put a humidity meter inside. I recently went overboard on storage and use air tight plastic boxes (used for cookies and cakes) as well at buying a $150 food dehydrator that can hold 7 rolls (1.kg) of filament at one time, I also use it to dry out my silica gel packs that I put in the storage boxes with the filament. I built some shelving as well and everything (except the Sunlu box) is stored there. I have the Sunlu behind my Prusa MK3S and use it when I need to quickly print something that is slightly damp (leaving it on an hour before printing actually does help).
You mean 65°C, the S1 already goes to 55°C.
@@timmturner Actually 70c
I spent over 100 on the cyclopes... It works I guess? Wish I would have shopped around more.
I have yet to see a more effective solution other than maybe PrintDry which is more expensive. Unless you diy a dehydrator.
but one thing i wanted to share, dry it once and buy some heavy foil ziplock bags with a shiteload of moisture absorbers. once dry chuck it into a bag with moisture absorbers. I even added air style fittings to those bags and feed the filament out of the bags. easy.
I had left my filament connected to my printers and one printer had really bad stringing. I usually have the A/C on all summer and it must not get humid enough to cause problems with PLA but I had opened my windows and the humidity came in and evidently got sucked into my filament. I switched filaments to one that had been in a box and it printed pretty well except for some cratering, little pin prick holes. So I got a Sunlu dryer like you have and am drying some of the filaments out now. A couple companies make a double dryer with a humidity sensor and a fan and I might get one of those unless I see something on UA-cam that everyone raves about.
I just have a bin filled with 1kg of silica with a threaded rod that rotates on some bearings, also added a hygrometer and a bowden push fitting. I have used it for weeks and it stays pinned at 10% and haven't had to dry out the silica yet. Total cost was around 25$ and stores 4-5 rolls of filament.
Only recently have I had Wet filament issues. I fried my Amazon Basic PETG filament for arount 8-10 hurs in my Food Dehydrator and that helped. I could dry mu filament even a few more hours. I think I here some light popping and I just purchased this filament. I like the close up of smoke steaming from the printer. This confirmed that I did have wet filament. My house Humidity is 58%. I also, bought the Eva-dry E-333 Renewable dehumidifier. Y^ou just plug it in to charge it up. $15 on Amazon. Recommended from another UA-camr. He stated that the dehumidifier would drop the humitidty down to 20%. I have read that you really need 10-15% humidity rating. I'd like to know if 20% is good enough. I am also going to look for A couple of Humidity sensor I can place in each box.
I live in a VERY humid country where on a typical day humidity is around 50-70%. Tried alot of filament dryers. Eibos cyclops did wonders for me, from PETG, TPU even nylon
For the price you should probably just get a good food dehydrator which can fit a number of spools at the same time and you can run your own PTFE tube from the top of the dehydrator to the printer. I used one from Magic Mill and just took out the trays. It's a lot more accurate on internal temperature than the cheap ones and I didn't have to hack my own container for the spools this way. Best part I can dry 4 or 5 spools at once and for not much more I could have bought a larger unit that could fit 8 or 9 spools.
When i switched prom PLA to other filaments my first venture was PETG. Unfortunately i got a role that was soaked straight from the factory. The Internet seems to think that wet filament isn't that bad, but honestly it is. I couldn't even print a temperature tower, because all the layers looked the same. Shit.
So i figured i have tried everything except drying this brand new filament. It fixed EVERYTHING. Only adjustment i had to make after that was more cooling and a bit less volumetric flow rate.
I found that the "Ezy 19L/18Qt waterproof storage tote" from Home Depot holds four 1 kg spools perfectly. With 4 spools of dry filament, I put a large 100 g pack of dessicant in there and a couple of smaller packets of indicator dessicant, and after 3 months the dessicant is still fresh. It does a good job of keeping filament dry in one compact space.
My oven has a dehydrate mode so I just put mine in at 130• for about 4 hrs. And it seems to work great.
No lingering smells contaminating your actual cooking?
@@pr0xZen I’ve only done pla so far and it doesn’t seem to put off a smell.
Just curious, why the heck wouldn’t you use a Flexzion food dehydrator? It is adjustable to max 70c, has a fan and vents, and can hold several spools of filament. You can put a spool holder in it for active use. Just cut out the center, of the five trays, and it’s only $50.
You can definitely use one and many do. My thing is spools sitting sideways I am not crazy about, and if you have them standing up you lose space plus they are larger and space is a massive issue for me. Not saying they are not viable as I have owned one previously that did work, just that its not right for my current setup.
@@ModBotArmy I 2nd this. I use one myself, but don't print directly from it. One unfortunate, big retraction jerk and 5-10 rounds spring off the spool when situated horizontally. The model I use can't fit a spool vertically. It works wonders for drying though, and it was only $30. Tested the thermostat with a separate thermocouple to make sure it's PLA safe as lowest setting is 50 (and some of these dehydrators have very inaccurate thermostats), and it turns out it's less than 1°C off 😃
Daniel thanks for replying to me. Why don’t you like to put the spools on their side?
@@Smackdabinu the comment above says why, it can de-spool and you can't print while drying which is a necessity with nylon.
YES as I just posted you can. I like that the other more expensive solutions have a few features that I like. And these are more suited for actual printing to keep you filament dry on a long print. These are not meant to just dry your filament. But to dry as you print. There is no spool holder in a Food Dehydrator. Although if you buy a bigger one you could DIY one with a spool holder so you could print from it. But it probably be quite abit larger to place on you desk next to your printer.
Design Prototype Test designed a part to use the bed as a dryer that works amazingly well if you only need to dry the occasional spool.
I just dried some 4+ year old filament on my print bed with just a cardboard box and two spanners to prop it up, it actually works.
I live in Phoenix AZ and we had a wee winter for once. I ended up getting and modifying a food dehydrator along with using the nanovac storage bags. My only issue is that the bags crease and leak. I mainly print tpu and petg, which is fine leaving out most of the time, but this last monsoon season I definitely noticed a difference.
I'm lucky to live in a very dry climate so moisture is not really a problem. But I do store all my filaments in a large plastic box with ~1kg of dessicant. So far it has worked great for me, low tech and simple
I'm in the Phoenix area, so I don't really know if I would have moisture problems; however, I still put the material into sealed bags with desiccant in-between uses. I like the bags you have. The bags I'm using came with a straw and I have to manually suck the air out. That looks a lot nicer.
Living in Florida, we have a lot of humidity. I use EIBOS Cyclopes for my Nylon and it works very well. It does take 12 hours to complete but the difference in my printing is impressive. I have had an issue with a spool or two expanding and wish the Cyclopes would slowly rotate the filament while drying but it does not. Once dry, I use PrintDry storage containers to keep my filament dry for extended periods of time.
It takes 12hrs?? (I’m new, so, i really don’t know)
I’m new to 3DP and took dry filament seriously. I’ve built two dry boxes and use a combination of activated alumina and silica gel. I got an order from Printed Solid of two spools of Prusament and one spool of Jessie (PETG). I couldn’t figure out why the settings for Prusament I came up with (I started with two spools of Prusament PETG straight from Prusa CZ) and took time to print temperature towers and dial in the temperature for my machine. I printed temp towers for the stuff received from Printed Solid and all the sudden I needed to print the same material at 260 instead of 225-230 for similar results. On the filament of the second order there was NO temperature where stringing didn’t occur and the Jessie was particularly bad. Well me being a genius I used my oven. Well my oven SAYS it can go down to 170F, they lie. It ruined the two spools of Prusament, welding the rolls together. Since the printing temp is higher on the Jessie, it was the only roll that survived. Don’t make my mistake, either get a dehydrator or get a specific filament drying solution (I have both now). I now have a 6 spool dry box that I print out of (after drying every spool for 24hrs after receiving it), an Eibos Easedry for single spools, their bags with silica gel for storage after drying and a food dehydrator for drying the spools when I get them. If you’re getting frustrated with zits in your prints, stringing, having to crank up the temps, etc with PETG do yourself a favor and dry your spools, you won’t regret it.
I live in a climte with 80% humidity 90% of the time. Its either slightly lower or slightly higher humidity here 365 days a year. Ive only been into printing the last 12 months and At the start i tried drying everything making sure its all perfect etc etc etc. then i gave up i adjusted printing settings to just print at high humidity. No problems now.
Had to experiment with drying in the oven for TPU a few weeks ago. TPU is really annoying with that. Found a combination of drying in the oven, then drying in a bad with desecant over a few days give the best results.
Ive got 3 of the sunlu dryers, im actually about to fit them with a fan mod that will vent them of the humid air out the top shell. I only print with PLA, TPU and PETG, so the sunlu box is enough in conjunction with a similar ziploc vacume bag solution to yours, it aalso comes with a USB pump,I store every filament in one of these bags with a decicant container that sits inside the spool centre hole while not on the printer and in a dryer whilst out of its bag. I live in the UK next to the Thames river, also have a fish tank in my printing room and my system is working well even with a 20 gallon box of water in the room.
eryone and esun for me! esun lite dryer box is also a game changer for me
I have the eSUN dryer and the EiBOS Easy dry. Love the EasyDry for all the reasons you state. One thing to mention is that this dryer only has a 72mm volume size. So it will not work with my Amazon Basic filament 80mm spools. Bummer! You can feel the heat so you know it is working. I can not feel much heat with from my eSUN dryer. I just bought the Cyclopes version. I also have a cheep Food dehydrator. I have to print out a taller top cover for my Food Dehydrator so I can fit 2 80mm spools,
Thanks just ordered since I know my diy dry boxes help but not enough in the basement so drying and bagging after will be better.
Sunlu is just good for keeping something dry as you print. Food dehydration is the cheapest for the best results for under $100. But if you do have a convection oven you have already your answer right infront of you.
I do feel the Sunlu works fine for maintaining. The issue with the convection oven is that both myself and Erin arent crazy about putting filament where our food goes. Especially with the dirt/dust that is on alot of the spools I have.
@@ModBotArmy Than keep them darn spools clean LOL. And yes not everyone has a convection oven so I get that point too. Me I do have a double convection oven so one is barley ever used at the house so :-)
Note that this company is in China and has "free shipping". The web site says 7-10 days to just ship, then wait for the slow boat (but hopefully it would ship by air). That usually means a 6 to 8 week delivery in to the US. Definitely not a xmas gift :-)
I liked when you said that cookies and cream was one of the best ice creams.
Ziplock makes the same kind of bag but the xl ones hold 9 spools flat pr you can stack them and do like 20
The sunlu dryer doesn't do much for drying but maybe keeping dry while printing. My issue with filament drying is the time it takes to fully dry a roll, even brand new rolls can be bad.
I have been using PLA and PETG for years and never had to dry either to get good prints. In fact only nylon would not work without drying - it sounds like bacon sizzling on a griddle from all of the steam released in the nozzle.
Same here!!! I have tried both as well and neither one seems to hold moisture at all. I get a great print whether I dried the filament or not. Some of these guys must live In the jungle or something to have as many moisture issues as they do.
@@mattchristine675 I keep the temperature of my home between 66 and 68°F year round. Winter here is naturally dry (40-50% RH) and the Air conditioner keeps it about the same in the warmer weather. I don't do anything to protect my filament except put it back in the plastic bag when not in use. The spool on my printer often sits uncovered for weeks. BTW, most people do not realize that most plastic bags and bottles are permeable to water. If the humidity outside the bag is greater than inside, the moisture content in the bag will increase to an equilibrium. That's why desiccants are needed. Water molecules (H2O) are smaller than the oxygen (O2) we breathe and can go through plastic even while under a vacuum.
I tried the Easdry based on your recommendation and it's great but half my spools don't fit and it would be nice to be able to see which filament I have inside, so I'm thinking about returning it and getting the Cyclopes while it's still on sale for $109.
I live in the UK where it rains all the time, like 80% humidity, I've never had a pla popping and steaming! Lol 🤷
I use the wifes convection oven set on dehydrate mode for four hours. During printing its stored in a Sunlu box...
Yep out here in riverside ca I have not found the need for a dryer. However toaster ovens are cheep.
built and enclosure that holds printer and spools together seemed to help so much. spools hang on closet rod above printer and gets fairly warm in there. print mainly ASA and Nylon. nylon is hit or miss with enclosure storage
I have a sunlu and modded it to have a blow fan to circulate the air inside, but not to pulls air in and such for fresh air. I also cut to size a square hole in the front and inserted a humidity sensor, be it the sensor is right smack at the front portion of the inside of it and not truly inside inside.
I live in the Puget Sound (larger area of Seattle) part of Washington state. No joke it rains 50% of the time, so very high humidity. That being said I typically can get the sunlu chamber to get down and hold (be it the 20 hours out of every 24 hours it recommends).... down to 18%.
My question is with these other two ones you speak of dual and single from Eibos.
What % humidity can you get it down to, and for how long can you hold it at the lowest typical humidity?
Because i am trying to aim for the lower single digit humidity levels.
Thanks for the good reviews. I went for an Eibos Easdry in the end. Let's hope it works! :)
Nice review. Overture PETG is why I am looking for a dryer. I have the sunlu but I just ordered the Eibos Easdry because I'd like some more heat.
Daniel you should try the new sunlu s2 dryer and compare it to the eibos easy dryer
I live in the tropics and humidity is a big problem. I found a rice container that's sealed with a gasket so I store the very sensitive filament like tpu and petg. I also have a filament dryer from esun which has a fan and I think it can reach 65 to 70 celcious but I lost the manual so I can't check.
There also appears to be noticeable dimensional variance in the nylon part wet vs dry
Cheapest way - plastic paint bucket :D Holds 3 reels if chosen properly. I use 10 L bucket with cover.
I modded a food dehydrator. I get 3 #2kilo rolls in at a time. It also goes up to 85c.
Never had much of an issue until my filaments were exposed to cold moisture during a move. Needless to say i had to dry everything.
I don’t know if they have perfected the pump and bags yet but I purchased these along with extra bags when they first released them last year and more than half the bags did not stay sealed and after a day or two were filled with air again. I played around with the zipper over and over but the bags never stayed sealed.
Wow, that's a great testimony for the Overture PTEG. No drying at all and a pretty flawless print. Do they make a low gloss (aka matte or semi-matte) PETG? I'd love to have some PETG that does'nt print like cheap shiny plastic (like most PETG I've seen) and that doesn't require drying and can just be picked off the shelf and printed.
Love the channel! What's your take on the vacuum bags now (1 year later)? I have the feeling that, regardless where I buy those bags, they are only ever good for 2 months or so. After that, they lose all the vacuum.
I really appreciate your videos about the driers. Subbed.
Never had an issue with we filament before iv left a roll of PLA on the shelf for months blow of the dust never had an issue
Just printed voron 0.1 skirts in TPU along with the feet and the mounting brackets for the board and pi….the rest will be in ABS…can’t wait to get my hands on a LDO kit so I can start the build….
Ooh I like that. What infill/perimeters did you go with for the feet??
@@ModBotArmy I went with what voron recommend for the printed parts but with triangle infill...will be uploading a video of the brackets being printed on my channel
@@beebees3d Awesome! TPU for skirts seems like a pretty good spot to have them. Sort of a bumper for the electronics from outside objects.
The newer version of the Sunlu S1 does have a fan, but not much venting.
Sovol makes a good cheap dual spool dryer with a fan, but it is limited in its max temperature
Eibos vacuum bags user here. I have an observation and a question for Daniel or anyone that's tested it more than I have. Like most Ziploc style vacuum bags, it doesn't hold vacuum worth a ****. Within hours the bags are full of air again. I've also used the PrintDry canisters (individual canisters analogous to the Ziploc bags idea, bought on MatterHackers), which do hold vacuum for at least days or weeks. Does this really matter? I had assumed that allowing air into the bag lets moisture in too, and that they're not working well enough to protect something like nylon if they leak, even when stored with desiccant. The hygrometers I store with the bags generally have shown wetter conditions than I want. Has anyone had a similar experience with leaking but then tried printing with the stored filament and gotten good results?
I got a print dry which is similar to cyclopse for 50$ turns out they are 2-300 new lol got lucky. I live in a desert so I only use it when I get filament from wetter places that's not sealed properly
oooh the smaller unit looks interesting, im using a small food dehydrator, but that easedry looks pretty shmick
The small one is rad. I am getting more of them after the holidays. It is just so convenient.
I am curious how your bags have been holding up? I had some Airlock vacuum bags (made just for 3D filament storage) and after 4-5 uses they started leaking. I would also put desiccant in with them and it showed moisture after again 4-5 uses. Contacted the company and got the response that I should replace the bags after 2 uses (meaning throw them away). So I am curious if your bags have held up any better than this?
In fact, that's really depends on the material quality of the vacuum bag. For example the thinkness, there are multiple options, from 0.5mm to 1.5mm and the difference is obvious. If you touch it, you will know. And of course, the better the material is using, the more times the bag can be reused. In addition, there are also some advice about how to use these vaccum bag, or we say increasce the reuse times of these vacuum bags.
1.Please make sure to use the sealing strip correctly after putting the filament in.
2. make sure the pump has connected well with the bag. (there is a situation in our test that we haven't made a good connection between pump and bag which leads to the issue that this vacuum bag cannot be vacuumed.)
3. make sure the lid has connected well with the bag. (the pressure between in and out will lead the bag to lose the vacuum.)
4. Be-careful about the tips of the filament (it is sharp), it may break the bag while you're pumping the air out, and leave a small hole in the bag.
(#4 occur quite often because most of the users did not realize this may lead to the leak. )
5. Ensure that the sealing the strip is compressed.
We will prodivde these to our customers while they pruchased our vacuum package, especially #4.
Hope these can help you.
Kind regards,
EIBOS Team
Thanks for the vid! If your filament is wet when you vacuum seal it does it stay the same wetness or does the vacuum seal help to reduce the moisture in the filament? Have you looked into these humidity disks that change color and throwing them into the bag (although I'm not sure how accurate they are for this application)?
I don't print with PLA very often but I notice that when my PLA sits out too long it gets really brittle and often breaks while I am printing.
What's the little orange block around your nozzle/hot end on the PRUSA Mini?
The S1 is working good when you mount a blower fan in it and move the thermistor.
Also I would rather have to deal with string then Have to deal with partial head clogs. I have pretty must narrow down my issues but finding a solution is the hard part.
I live in Louisiana, so I laugh in humidity! :D
I see you invested big in an Ikea tool board. How is that working for you?
I also use MH Build Series: PETG, TPU, and PLA. I also have NEAT and eSUN filament. I really could not get NEAT to print at all. eSUN translucent Orange PETG prints OK. My test is how easy is the filament to flow out the nozzle when I manually push filament through. If I have not mentioned I have the eSUN dryer and a Food dehydrator. I don't here any Hissing when I print. but I tried drying the filament anyway. I wonder if Leaving the filament in the hotend after turning off my printer could cause my under extrusion issue.
I live in New Zealand and on a costal city, even on PLA I get stringing on a spool half way through the spool, this is a very bad area to 3D print without dryer lol
I wonder if vacuuming the bags is necessary, there really can't be that much moisture in the air that's in the bag, right?
one other thing: I do the push test on filament. How hard do I have to manually push the filament through the nozzle. Good filament I should not have to push filament that hard at all. It is had to find that quality of filament. Geared extruders should not have to work to the point of Skipping steps or grinding filament. It seem like most people's solution is just to push the filament harder and up the temp.
OT: How do you get that PET-G to stick so well to that particular surface?
Sorry if I missed it but was you printing the dry versions wile it was in the unit?
The main problem I have is I won't be able too print wile it's inside the unit with my current setup.
But I would still expect too see a difference after drying for a few hours first.
What about using a 2nd hot-end to dry your filament , before the actual hot-end ? Like 1 feet (or so) before the actual hot-end , the 2nd hot-end not having a nozzle and only heating (drying) around 170 F ? Would this not work ?
I have wanted a dryer but i knew that sunlu dryers had a lot of limitations. Im glad i waited! When did you get your prusa mini?! (Also, rocky road is clearly the best ice cream)
I got that one maybe a monthish ago? It was from someone local that was getting rid of 1 (they had 3). I have another showing up Monday that I bought from Prusa on Black Friday and am going to build a clone in the next month. It has been a great printer. Probably 100ish hours on it so far. Just wanted a printer that I could use without mods and it seems to be the ticket. Also, Rocky Road is up there for me as well. It is one of my dad's favorites.
The S1 has a humidity display, just hold the temp button for three seconds. If you are using a fan to suck-in humid outside air, what are you accomplishing? My S1 keeps 22% humidity within a few minutes after starting.
I wanna diy a modular filament drying station and boxes. but I'm too lazy :s
make a master heater box that when you insert it, it blows hot air into it, maybe even an RFID tag to remember the temp for drying, or since it's a docking station it can just stick to 50c and let it dry long term. then it has a lot of desiccant and it stays "Charged" for a while.
I have a shitton of different materials that need drying "Nylon, PC, NylonCF, petg tpu and so on" so it's expensive to buy 4-6 of these.
Great video!
Great subject/Project
Thanks for sharing your experinceses with all of us :-)
It’s just a heated box.
As air heats it will expand increasing the airs volume. Relative humidity is just the percentage of moisture relative to the volume of air it’s contained in. Air heats up and it expands thus lowering the percentage level of moisture relative to that air.
Objects within will wick out their moisture trying to reach an equilibrium.
That said it doesn’t matter which heated box you use, 2 units that can heat a specific volume of air to a specific temperature will have identical results as dictated by physics. Additional features and controls are the only differences.
Long term storage requires an active method of dehumidification if moisture is a problem in your area. I use a dry box with a plug in rechargeable desiccant (from Home Depot labeled as a “dehumidifier”) with a hygrometer in there to monitor it.
Dry bags slowly leach a certain amount moisture in, this will reach the plastic without a desiccant like shipped from the manufacturer. Shouldn’t be too much of a surprise really, you are using plastic to prevent your plastic from getting wet.
I use a dehydrator to dry my filament but I've been looking for something better and it looks like that dryer is it. I usually store my filament in ziplock bags.
Dehydrators are great for drying, but many are less great for active printing if they can't fit a spool and holder vertically. I get extremely low humidity long term with plastic tubs, just put a closes cell foam seal along the rim and some calcium chloride dessicant in a small container inside the tub. Vastly superior to silica, and super cheap.
Watch out guys I have bought similar thermometers / humidimeters as are installed in EIBOS and every single one gives different reading and after some time they become even more out of alignment.
I just bought the Easydry filament dryer. A good price. I have the eSUN dryer as well. In your video you talk about all the issues I have be having. You are the first person I cam across that has almost the exact same issues that I have ben fairing my hair out with over the past few years. I am excited to thing with your help maybe I can finally print something. Although I still don't print nearly as well as you do. On my ender 3 Max for example I can't get layers to even stick together. Even with bad wet filament you are printing tons better than I.Right now I would be happy with even a print like your benchy wet filament print.
What about a vacuum dehydrator? Instead of heating, suck the water out. I know they use them for removing air from epoxy resin, but they should work well with removing water. The low pressure allows liquid water to turn into a gas and this could take as little as 20min.
I've been thinking of adding a small fan to my SunLu run by an arduino and turn it on for 20sec once every 10min to clear the moisture from the box. Suck the air in through a pile of desiccant.
Question. As plastic is actually porous, does anyone vacuum seal their filament in Mylar, with desiccant?
so with either machine you leave it at the C it needs per material and it turns off after the time it needs or it keeps going until you stop it i think i only noticed a timer on the cyclopes?
I have a printdry pro which is a great machine. Over priced maybe a bit but I like that it's expandable to hold 4 spools.
Yeah they are not bad machines at all. I think price is really the biggest deterrent for many. Expandability is great.
The Nutrichef food dehydrator on amazon does 4 spools up to 75C for $88 right now.. There is also another larger version (9 rack) that may hold 6-8 spools for $129.
SOME GOOD INFO ... THANKS
Are there any drying units out that will handle a 5k or 10k roll? I am printing large items with PETG and need the bigger rolls. I am currently using a modified food dehydrator but would love to have a unit like the Cyclops that could run while printing.
adding to my last comment; I have the Zesty Nimble a 30:1 gear Ratio Extruder. Do I really need to say more!!!
Thanks for a very nice video. I live in Bangalore, India where the weather is normally dry but off late i have been observing popping sounds in my ender 3 pro printers while printing PLA. I just learnt from your video that moisture is the possible culprit. I normally print at 200-205 deg C and 70 deg bed. I need help because my prints also warp slightly and in my requirement that is a failed print. I am averaging 20% wasted prints normally. My printers are not enclosed but in a room where there is no air circulation or open windows. I am still clueless whether moisture is causing this or am I printing at too high temp. Any advice to fix this would be very helpful. Thanks in advance 🙏