If you need a quick easy way to dry your filament..... Most 3d printers come with a heatable printing surface. Set your print bed temp to 50 degrees. Place your filament spool on the heated bed. Put the cardboard box your filament came in over top of your spool. Wait 4-5 hours. Ta dah!!!!!
Sounds like a good idea. I have my filaments in sealed plastic boxes with moisture trapping bags (which never get saturated anyway), but in case I need actually dry filament, I might use this method
For $50 you can eliminate one group of problems that you don't have to trouble shoot - there are plenty of others. When I came back from a 2 month vacation I was unable to complete a single PLA print. I was having bubbling on the first layer , poor adhesion , the nozzle hitting the bubbles and lifting the print. I bought the exact same unit you showed and my problems disappeared. My printer is in the basement where there often is humidity so for me it works.
I usually just use the hotbed on the 3d printer to dry the filament. That also works well and has accurate temperature control. Just put something over the spool, to contain the heat. I only had to do this a few times with tpu. It wasn't necessary for PLA and PETG for me so far.
I found I had to dry out a PLA reel today. Yesterday I printed some tiny 10mm fans with PLA and they came out perfect, but I left the reel out overnight where the temperature dropped and the humidity rose from the rain, carrying on printing some today (same gcode file) the first batch had lots of tiny strings. I popped the reel in the food dehydrator at 45C for 3 hours and printed more, with the reel still in the dryer, the prints came out perfect again.
Agreed!! I've been using the cylindrical nesco for idk a decade now. It went to work drying filaments for me many years ago. I keep all of my filament in a big plastic container w a seal built in the lid, with a gallon of (indicating) silica desiccant. It's been 3 years now and none of the beads have indicated they need to be recharged yet!!! I only use my dehydrator for rolls that I forgot to put back into the box, OR electronics/shoes or whatever that accidentally get wet haha. Oh, and for beef jerky and fruit chips!!!!!! Try that last one with this silly filament heater! I had to make a lid adapter out of cardboard though, so I can use the dehydrator top on a much larger container then the trays it comes with.
The cheap and effective way I have found is to store your filament in a bucket with dehumidifier beads. Just go down to your local sports goods store and get a bucket with a lid and a safe dehumidifier from the guns section and get out at around $15. A 5 gallon bucket will also hold up to 5 spools. I recommend dehumidifying in the oven first but a good dehumidifier will do that in a day or so by itself.
Keeping filament dry is a good idea. If it's one that's highly hydrophilic, then it may be hard to do and a heated dryer is a must. I made one with a dehydrator, a bunch of extra shelves, so side cutters, and glue. Seems to work well on hips and nylon. Never had much issues with pla, petg, and tpu.
Sitting the reel on your heater bed for 30-60 minutes before printing is the latest 3D printing community development and seems to work one of the best lol.
I live in FL. and the humidity here is always high, been printing for almost 3 yrs now and i keep my filaments in its original packaging with plenty of Dessicant in them and never had any issues with moisture yet. I do replace the Dessicant every 2 months just incase.
I use a 3D printer in a humid climate - it rains a lot and the printer has been in my bathroom for more than a year - the humidity is often above 70%. The plastic box is large enough to hold the filament and paper bag with silica gel for cats works well. The humidity inside the box is controlled by a weather sensor. When the humidity inside rises above 50% (this usually happens every 2-3 months), I replace the silica gel with a new one or dry it in the oven at 150 degrees for 1.5 hours.
Weirdly I was literally looking at making my own filament box when I hoped on UA-cam and saw this. I figured it was an old video and Google had just been tracking my web searches. Turns out it was Bardwell anticipating my web searches.
Dont buy these dryers...I've tested 6 of these types of dryboxes and none of them contain enough desiccant to get the moisture below 3% the heating element isnt enough to actually remove moisture. I recommend tupperware and color changing desiccant, and print your own rollers ($10). Use a dehydrator or a convection oven (convection ovens keep the temp even across the space) to dry. You should dry every roll of TPU straight from the factory, right out of the vac bag and into the oven. TPU picks up 3-5 grams of moisture in 24 hours, which degrades quality. Your quality will improve, reduce stringing. Not a big deal with PLA, PETG, or ABS, but TPU and Nylon need to be dried immediately and again if exposed to air for more than a few hours...but it's not not like I run a print farm..oh yeah, actually, I do ;) Love you Joshua, appreciate everything you do! The eSun box scale isnt accurate enough to measure moisture gains/losses...it's just to estimate how much filament is left on the reel.
My no insulation house in Oklahoma has major humidity problems. PLA will get brittle over time. PETG and TPU will start stringing. I have to store all my filaments in bins with gaskets, and I have a dryer. Greengate PETG (recycled) is amazing, but needs to be dried out of the box. Almost 3 years of printing on 4 printers, and it does make a difference for me. BUT.. If I had a "normal" house, it probably wouldn't be an issue.
A fillament dryer can defenitly be worth it in the right occasions. When printing Nylon it's almost something you need to have. I do have some TPU that i can print about 2 or 3parts with when it comes out of the oven. I've got the Esun fillament dryer and when i put my TPU in there i can empty that spool completly without having any moisture problems. When printing small details with TPU you really don't wany any moisture at all.
From 6 years of printing pla, ppla, petg, abs and PC I have never dehydrated or even bagged my filament. No issues printing either. Usualy it's the quality of filament.
My esun box just goes up to 35 degrees altough its set to 80 😅 now i got a food dehydrator and put the spool in the esun vakuum system, works perfect for me 😊
Like you Joshua, I don't print with nylon which is really hygroscopic. Having said that I just keep my filament in a large plastic storage container with a seal. Ziplock makes them and there are other brands as well. I purchased a bunch of individually packaged desiccant from Amazon and placed that in the bottom. It is the type that turns red when it has absorbed moisture and blue when it is dry. When the packs turn red I put them in my oven for an hour or so to recharge them. My filament seems to be perfect stored like this. I don't know how well this would dry filament that had already absorbed moisture but if you start with dry stuff, this seems to keep it dry.
I have the similar filament dryer, and I ended up buying/modding a food dehydrator anyway because of of how unevenly these dry unless the spool is rotating. Since you want to dry your filament BEFORE you print, even if you can print and rotate the spool within the box, it's not going to do that while sitting idle before a print. In order for this type of dryer to be effective you'd probably want to mod it with a fan, and at that point just spend $50~ on a decent food dehydrator, cut out some of the grates, and get better drying performance. I'll say that the compact size is appealing, but in general price:performance isn't worth it.
I bought this item on sale but had a problem with temperature rise. Although it was 48 ° C on the display of the equipment, it only rose to 33.4 ° C inside, and as a result, the filament did not dry. It may be a problem with the position of the temperature sensor on the main unit. By the way, the thermometer belongs to Xiaomi, so I think you can trust it. I need a box that holds two filaments. In the future, I would like to incorporate a 12V heating element to raise the internal temperature.
When you try to print TPU and hear something like bubbles exploding when the filament comes out of the nozzle, then it means it has absorbed moisture and for sure the print quality won't be good.
it did that because you are setting it to do 70deg so it heats up really hot to get it to that temp quick hence the warping you need to start at 40deg and take it up 5 or 10 deg every half hour till you get to 70 to stop that in little ovens doing that
NylonX, The main filament I use, prints like ass if its not dried. 180f 4-5 hours in the oven.. then use a drybox while printing. Got one from amazon :P
If you have a heat pump eng dehumidifier or humidity regulation system - yeah no humidity I'm staying in a small apartment with baseboard radiators, and it's dry here in michigan. Flex PLA went from great to junk in days Sh01 fixed it. Moreover, despite the filament appearing to produce a decent print, even the small amount caused microperforations in the flex prints. Not a problem for making toys for adult children, but I was trying to make an air tight gasket for a machine pushing slightly pressurized water. The gasket was "sweating" water from the perforations. Pla gets brittle when it gets wet... not old, WET. You shouldn't have that issue with dry PLA. Dessicant does NOT drive humidity out of filament. PETG is also affected by humidity badly. Lower Temps will still work to dry nylon - just slower. Please just do a modicum of background research. If you're doing printing with anything but pla in the desert, you will need to dry filament eventually. Even if you live a dry place, you can still get poorly sealed damp filament out of the box occasionally.
Again, perfect timing! I have an Ender 3 v2 with the carborundum glass bed and a set of multi-color filaments arriving tomorrow. It is good to know how to properly dry the filament. Thanks, JB!
For me the timing is always one or two days late. At the beginning of my fpv "journey" I got a betafpv hx100 and I had a problem with the vtx's wiring harness and I had to change it. After I struggled for 5 days trying to figure out how to get the harness pins to get out, I finally changed it. Next thing you know 3 days later Bardwell releases a video called "how to change a wiring harness". I guess I am unlucky, but hey, it's more rewarding and fun if you figure it out yourself right?
PLA breaks because it gets moist. There is a very long and detailed write up online, which I have bookmarked somewhere. I just put the Sovol dryer into service and it needs some mods. Got a nice roll of filament that is slightly miswound. It is not drawing well and would hate to think it is adding stress to the extrude feeder motor. I think your idea is good to do a mod on that spot where the filament comes out. The angle needs to be changed,and a teflon tube put on there somehow. the dryer needs to be at a lower level than the printer to be able to line up with the extrude feeder. Using a Creality Ender 3 v2. I'm gonna mod it. There was a post on a review and it would be a good idea to open the dryer and check the wiring. One user reported some slap happy soldering and wire that was near the heating element and melting. So that's not good ! Otherwise I'm happy with it. Just having the moisture meter and place to put the filament is nice. Oh, another thing I noticed is that pla absorbs through the cut end. Had been using a bag on the filament with dessicant, and the part that was outside the bag had gotten moist. Thank for the vid. Bird ate part of the directions and I put it somewhere and can't find it now.
I’ve found that humidity affects filaments from some brands but not others. Living in Colorado, I don’t need it for most of the filaments I have but others will bubble a bit if they’ve sat in the air a bit too long in the spring when we get a lot of rain.
(some additional info) eSun don't heat up to 80C, only the heating element is at that temp. The air is only 45-50C. And PETG is more sensitive to moisture, ABS not. Desiccant can be placed inside a spool.
So I do not own a dryer box. I have never printed W/ nylon, but have a few spools of old ABS that the local university was going to throw out I adopted. they were bad shape. so i threw them in the oven but i did some research and one content maker said to leave the oven door cracked open a bit cuz ovens actually can create humidity. and it worked great! however im preparing to make a vary large dryer box involving an arduino! ill let you know how that works out....
I collect all the dehydration packets used in packaging, combined with some cat litter in sealed plastic containers and keep my nylon and other hydrophilic filament in those. Cheap and it works... I like that this thing can be used as a spool holder when printing though
Silica gel alone won't extract enough moisture from filaments, they need to be actively dried, silica gel beads are used in filament storage boxes because they soak up any moisture in the air before the filament can.
@@d3c0deFPV fair point but if you always or mostly keep it with the filament once you open it you should be good. Personally I’ve never even had to use it but it’s always a good backup if you have nothing. I’ve never had wet filament problems so far and I’ve been printing for several years.
@@jtg_rc1583 It depends on the filament type and the conditions you print in. If you're printing PLA, PETG, and TPU and usually pack up your filament with desiccant after each use you'll be fine. If you print with Nylon and leave your spool out for several days, even indoors, you'll find yourself with very quickly degrading prints. Even TPU or PETG can start to lose its luster after sitting out on the roll after prints for extended periods of time. I would guess that the cumulative time needs to be in the order of many days or weeks for anything but the most hygroscopic filaments though. Drying can bring that luster back.
Interesting video, at 9:00 minutes you talk about the exitof the filament, I have watched a video on the review of the comgrow unit (looks exactly the same) from "doublebits workshop" and he took the white plastic exit tube off and fitted a Bowden tube end and a piece of Capricorn tubing to protect the filament from dust up to the printer....😃
PLA gets brital - but only after 1 year. PETG is more sensitive to moisture. Everyone already owns a dryer: your 3D printer with heatbed. Just add a cardboard box around the bed.
JB on a livestream: It’s just a box with the heater, what do you want to hear? JB in regular videos: Here’s a box with the heater!😂 Great video as always!😎
DIY dry bins work great too, and can hold more spools for quite a bit cheaper than these active dryers. The DIY approach takes longer though because it's not actively drying with heat, but once it's dry it stays dry. Good for long term storage. EDIT: I should watch the entire video before commenting next time 😊
I don’t have an opinion on the Sovol or Esun dry boxes but I know they would be useful for my nylon and TPU. I like these dry boxes better than putting plastic in my oven. I print parts for R/C cars instead of drones and need special filaments for certain applications.
The esun doesnt heat up to 80c, that is how hot the heating element gets. If you measure it, it basically gets as hot as this. Another guy did a test on it and another heater and he soldered some sensors to the machines.
I just dry my filament in the airing cupboard - I know not everybody has a cupboard like this due to the different types of heating systems, but if you have one use it! Regarding the oven issue, I'm guessing your little toaster oven didn't have a fan? I bet that was the issue.
Use a food dehdrator to dry and one of these boxes to maintain the 'dryness'. These boxes just dont create sufficient airflow/heat to create a uniform temperature throughout the box.
Got a cheap IDEX so it was the cheapest option to dry 2 spools. Could have dried them in the oven or in a cardboard box on top of the print bed but those are a lot of bother, more electricity and an accident waiting to happen not worth arguing over less than 50 bucks, shame it only goes to 50C and only runs for 12 hours max though
Moisture Eliminator from Dollar Tree for $1 each and a huge storage tub (might find these at Goodwill, Craiglist, Facebook Marketplace, etc or pay full price at HD or Lowes)...will never have wet filament again.
Here's another thought for you people who want to keep your filament dry. Get an insulated cover for your 3d printer. When the printer is running, it's naturally heating up it's environment inside the tent. It gets blasted hot in there in fact. If your filament is inside the insulated tent/cover, it's getting heated too. So it dries out naturally during operation.
Some spools are bigger than others because they use a larger inside diameter of the spool. Sometimes to prevent excessive bends about a small radius, but I imagine it's also a facade to make it seem like more filament.
Just store your filament in a box with some desiccant then you dont need to dry it. unless you have long nylon prints. i got a food dehydrator to dry my filament but after getting a propper box for with desiccant i never use it anymore :)
ABS and PLA aren't particularly hygroscopic though PLA is more than ABS. PETG, nylon and TPU are the ones you want to look out for and out of those nylon is the only one you really need a box for. Tupperware bins with gaskets in the lids and a bunch of dessicant packs are all you need.
There are designs like Thingiverse 2172384 to hold capricorn bowden tubing in the side of your dry box, enabling printing without needing to take the filament out, which avoids it absorbing moisture during printing. I created a similar one for my cheap temperature controlled food dehydrator to print whilst the filament is kept warm.
the moisture filament accumulates over those few minutes is completely neglegible and the "wet" filament is purged when printing a priming strip and skirt. using a bowden tube on these looks cool but does not have much of a real benefit.
@@drkastenbrot When printing from a dry box the need of a bowden tube and how long it has to be depends on where the box & printer are in relation to each other.
Thanks for the review. The fan on mine has died. Do you know what a good replacement would be? I cannot find any info on the OEM fan CFM or RPM rating. Any help appreciated!
Does the box have a silicone seal around the top and bottom like others do? Can you use it for storage? The Sovol 2 roll box has a seal, locking clips, and plugs for the openings. Does this one?
Hi Josh Great video and review of the Sovol SH01 dry box. I know one thing, it will not be for me. As much as I want one , I just would never be able to get it working. I still don't know how to use everything in my computer. And after the discussion on the livestream. I'm glad I chose not to buy one. I would think if you lived where there is a lot of humidity, You might want one. Thanks again for the information about this product.
I store my filament in a plastic bag with the desiccants that shipped with them, otherwise whatever is on the printer sees room air, which run ~35% RH year round. I’m happy with my prints so for Ninjatek cheetah tpu, armadillo tpu, sunlu petg, & Amazon petg for me, I don’t bother with drying my filament
I Injection mold with medical grade ABS and polycarbonate that are pre dried and only the polycarbonate is the one that gives me issues with splay when not dried properly the ABS seems like it would be just fine if not dried though
So have the heater always and forever running... no thanks. Rather buy a sterlite sealed tote and just make a makeshift shelf out of PVC pipe, add desiccant that can be oven renewed that's in a pillow sheet or oven bag.
Most of those heated dry box will only run for 12-18 hours at a time and then shut off...when you really do need it to run day and night....i wont use em either, my convection oven is far more effective to remove water and tupperware to keep the filament from getting more moisture
I bought an eSun dryer that fits one roll because my tpu was affected badly in a short time, but I live in Australia so humidity might be different. My prints went from perfect to terrible and went back to perfect after drying. My PLA doesn’t seem to be affected by leaving it out.
dry filament is a must, but.... As long as your filament is stored in a house / place that's air conditioned you should be ok. but if your like me and live in Florida and have your printer on the screened in porch like a IDIOT, you need a dryer LOL
The best thing to use is a food dehydrator. A couple years ago there was a purpose built filament dryer called "PrintDry" and my mind couldn't get away from the fact that it looked just like a food dehydrator my family had as a kid. So I did some searching around Amazon and low and behold, it was a food dehydrator, just marked way up in price! I ended up buying the food dehydrator and a clear rubbermaid container to make the "top" and it works amazing well. It fits 3+ standard rolls of filament and I haven't had an issue with it in almost 3 years. Here is the food processor: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0797CVXKN/ and here is the rubbermaid to make the top: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00237S2IU/ Apparently they don't have the exact one in stock but if you look around, it is one of those products where 10 different companies just rebrand something made at one factory for all of them. But, the best tip overall is to store your filament properly so that you don't need to dry it, unless it is nylon because even stored properly nylon is so hydrophilic it will suck up water from a mile away in a vaccuum sealed bag. I would recommend getting large vaccuum seal bags for clothes (the ones you see on infomercials, they actually DO have a purpose) and then get some desiccant packs that can be recharged by plugging them into an outlet. They are so simple to use, just toss them in the bag when you seal it, and then you can monitor how much water it has absorbed without opening the bag. Then the recharge phase takes a few hours in any standard outlet. Here is what I mean: www.amazon.com/Improved-Eva-dry-333-Renewable-Dehumidifier/dp/B000H0XFCS/
Crap... I bought one. Hey... I hear that the creality Ender 3 pro is open source. I wonder if that means it can print most of its parts to rebuild one by oneself? Have you heard of anyone doing this? I just bought an SVo3 Sovol as well for the bigger build volume. I need multiple printers because some projects take up lots of bed time. I wonder if you can print more than one piece on one be? I have never looked into that. So much to learn. I got the sovol svo3 with a filament dryer and An Ender 3 pro for printing statuary and characters.
TPU absorbs moisture really fast. Even a day exposed it's starting to get worse. Depends on humidity level. When moist, you get terrible "foamy" prints from steam at the hot end during printing. I dry all my TPU with a dedicated filament roll dryer and store with double bagged rolls with lots of silca gel and small humidity monitor in each bagged roll. PLA barely absorbs moisture, even long term
Hey Josh Question about my rssi. I have the xmplus receiver. It’s not working properly so I’m running with one antenna so it’s like an xm. My rssi shows normally 10 but when I thrust it goes up. The more I thrust the higher my rssi goes up. Why is that? Thanks in advance.
Question: is the set/displayed temperature that of the heater or the air inside the dry box? For most one spool dryers is is the heater element .... which can be as much as 20 degrees lower than the air.
@@JoshuaBardwell I suspect that is going to be a deal breaker for many people then. Pretty much limits it to be used for PLA, PVA and TPU. Even PETG is very hygroscopic and needs higher temperatures for effective drying.
I found my TPU & PETG prints have come out noticeably better (both the visual and mechanical properties) since drying the filaments and storing them in airtight tubs with silica gel beads in.
@@jakeh3144 ahh yes. I have been using TPU and back in the day there was NinjaFlex which is similar of not the same but yeah maybe that would be a different story. I just haven’t had any issues. I used to keep them all bagged with silica packets but I’m not as concerned about it anymore.
@@JoshuaBardwell Yes, the air inside the box gets more humid, which puts more pressure on the filament to absorb some of it, so you reach equilibrium sooner. And when you cut the heat the moisture will go back into the filament, so at least let it out before you put it away, if you store your filament in the box.
I think that for *most* filaments, as long as you are in a climate controlled environment moisture in filament is not an appreciable issue. *there are certain filaments that are more sensitive to moisture (I'm looking at you, nylon)
You need to open your oven door a bit. I got away with 170F with the door cracked (1inch or so). I folded 2 rags and sandwiched the spool, then layer it on a pan. Just gotta insulate it from the radiative heat of the coils and let the heat/moisture out. You can make cheap DiY JERKY 🍖 like this 😁
Fantastic review, Joshua! 😃 I... Still didn't have a 3d printer... 🙄 BUT I'm thinking about making a big cabinet for filaments from a huge plastic box and use desiccants(?)... But, well... We'll see. I hope I can get my first 3d printer until the end of the year. Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
No clue how you avoided moisture with TPU. I have to be VERY vigilant with drying/keeping dry TPU. Nylon, PC, and TPU are the only ones I have had moisture issues with so far. Never had any issues with ABS.
and a timer. and a display with a display driver chip (maaaybe), a sensor - probably combined, an additional temp probe for fail-over one would hope, power chip, LC & R and some glue logics. Some kind of microprocessor - likely a one shot if they are really keen on bringing down BOM cost. I suspect you could run most of the logic with a 1cent chip from lcsc (seems like a PID /INT loop) and perhaps some flash ram/rom for kicks. So it's a box with couple of dollar in electro-BOM and some heating elements. Could you make one for less: Most certainly. Would it be white plastic with an injection moulded fit for the gaskets. Unlikely :)
PETG can be wound on the same spools as PLA, but annoyingly, as Joshua found out, there's no set standards regarding spool dimensions for manufacturers to comply with. The diameters of most are fairly consistent, center diameter generally ranges between 50-60mm and the outer diameter 190-200mm, but the wideness varies a lot. My guess is because filaments are sold by their weight not their physical volume.
If you need a quick easy way to dry your filament.....
Most 3d printers come with a heatable printing surface.
Set your print bed temp to 50 degrees. Place your filament spool on the heated bed.
Put the cardboard box your filament came in over top of your spool.
Wait 4-5 hours.
Ta dah!!!!!
Sounds like a good idea. I have my filaments in sealed plastic boxes with moisture trapping bags (which never get saturated anyway), but in case I need actually dry filament, I might use this method
9:23 that is the biggest 1kg roll of filament I've ever seen in my life, I have 2kg rolls that are that big.
For $50 you can eliminate one group of problems that you don't have to trouble shoot - there are plenty of others. When I came back from a 2 month vacation I was unable to complete a single PLA print. I was having bubbling on the first layer , poor adhesion , the nozzle hitting the bubbles and lifting the print. I bought the exact same unit you showed and my problems disappeared. My printer is in the basement where there often is humidity so for me it works.
I usually just use the hotbed on the 3d printer to dry the filament. That also works well and has accurate temperature control. Just put something over the spool, to contain the heat. I only had to do this a few times with tpu. It wasn't necessary for PLA and PETG for me so far.
I found I had to dry out a PLA reel today. Yesterday I printed some tiny 10mm fans with PLA and they came out perfect, but I left the reel out overnight where the temperature dropped and the humidity rose from the rain, carrying on printing some today (same gcode file) the first batch had lots of tiny strings. I popped the reel in the food dehydrator at 45C for 3 hours and printed more, with the reel still in the dryer, the prints came out perfect again.
Nice idea
What temp do you keep the bed when drying tpu? And for how long do you keep it there?
I usually use 55°C for tpu and pla,. That worked well for my tpu so far, without changing the raw material.
Food dehydrator works well, and it's round, with a circle in the middle...just like a filament spool.
Definitely, just make sure it has temperature control.
One shortcoming of these filament boxes is that it doesnt have the high air flow rate that food dehydrators have, which can result in condensation
It surely is the best way to dry.
Agreed!! I've been using the cylindrical nesco for idk a decade now. It went to work drying filaments for me many years ago. I keep all of my filament in a big plastic container w a seal built in the lid, with a gallon of (indicating) silica desiccant. It's been 3 years now and none of the beads have indicated they need to be recharged yet!!! I only use my dehydrator for rolls that I forgot to put back into the box, OR electronics/shoes or whatever that accidentally get wet haha. Oh, and for beef jerky and fruit chips!!!!!! Try that last one with this silly filament heater!
I had to make a lid adapter out of cardboard though, so I can use the dehydrator top on a much larger container then the trays it comes with.
I tried that method, but my kids ate the filament
Out of all the 3D printing videos I have seen, as an FPV pilot, yours are my favorite!
Thanks man just bought this online felt a bit foolish for buying it but your perspective has put my mind to rest. Thanks for sharing.
The cheap and effective way I have found is to store your filament in a bucket with dehumidifier beads. Just go down to your local sports goods store and get a bucket with a lid and a safe dehumidifier from the guns section and get out at around $15. A 5 gallon bucket will also hold up to 5 spools. I recommend dehumidifying in the oven first but a good dehumidifier will do that in a day or so by itself.
For me PLA, PETG and TPU: stick in the oven for 30-60 minutes at 50-70°C, works perfectly
Keeping filament dry is a good idea. If it's one that's highly hydrophilic, then it may be hard to do and a heated dryer is a must. I made one with a dehydrator, a bunch of extra shelves, so side cutters, and glue. Seems to work well on hips and nylon. Never had much issues with pla, petg, and tpu.
This is good, made ikea box which can contain 4 spools, added desiccant, added reptile heat mat, dry box ready, dirt cheap 😄
Sitting the reel on your heater bed for 30-60 minutes before printing is the latest 3D printing community development and seems to work one of the best lol.
I live in FL. and the humidity here is always high, been printing for almost 3 yrs now and i keep my filaments in its original packaging with plenty of Dessicant in them and never had any issues with moisture yet. I do replace the Dessicant every 2 months just incase.
@JB did you try the tpu after drying it? In the box? I think a lot of times we assume the filament straight out the box ia dry when it really isn't
I use a 3D printer in a humid climate - it rains a lot and the printer has been in my bathroom for more than a year - the humidity is often above 70%. The plastic box is large enough to hold the filament and paper bag with silica gel for cats works well. The humidity inside the box is controlled by a weather sensor. When the humidity inside rises above 50% (this usually happens every 2-3 months), I replace the silica gel with a new one or dry it in the oven at 150 degrees for 1.5 hours.
You can get silica packs with color changing beads that will let you know when they're spent.
Weirdly I was literally looking at making my own filament box when I hoped on UA-cam and saw this. I figured it was an old video and Google had just been tracking my web searches.
Turns out it was Bardwell anticipating my web searches.
Dont buy these dryers...I've tested 6 of these types of dryboxes and none of them contain enough desiccant to get the moisture below 3% the heating element isnt enough to actually remove moisture. I recommend tupperware and color changing desiccant, and print your own rollers ($10). Use a dehydrator or a convection oven (convection ovens keep the temp even across the space) to dry. You should dry every roll of TPU straight from the factory, right out of the vac bag and into the oven. TPU picks up 3-5 grams of moisture in 24 hours, which degrades quality. Your quality will improve, reduce stringing. Not a big deal with PLA, PETG, or ABS, but TPU and Nylon need to be dried immediately and again if exposed to air for more than a few hours...but it's not not like I run a print farm..oh yeah, actually, I do ;) Love you Joshua, appreciate everything you do! The eSun box scale isnt accurate enough to measure moisture gains/losses...it's just to estimate how much filament is left on the reel.
My no insulation house in Oklahoma has major humidity problems. PLA will get brittle over time. PETG and TPU will start stringing. I have to store all my filaments in bins with gaskets, and I have a dryer.
Greengate PETG (recycled) is amazing, but needs to be dried out of the box.
Almost 3 years of printing on 4 printers, and it does make a difference for me.
BUT.. If I had a "normal" house, it probably wouldn't be an issue.
A fillament dryer can defenitly be worth it in the right occasions. When printing Nylon it's almost something you need to have.
I do have some TPU that i can print about 2 or 3parts with when it comes out of the oven. I've got the Esun fillament dryer and when i put my TPU in there i can empty that spool completly without having any moisture problems. When printing small details with TPU you really don't wany any moisture at all.
From 6 years of printing pla, ppla, petg, abs and PC I have never dehydrated or even bagged my filament. No issues printing either. Usualy it's the quality of filament.
My esun box just goes up to 35 degrees altough its set to 80 😅 now i got a food dehydrator and put the spool in the esun vakuum system, works perfect for me 😊
Like you Joshua, I don't print with nylon which is really hygroscopic. Having said that I just keep my filament in a large plastic storage container with a seal. Ziplock makes them and there are other brands as well. I purchased a bunch of individually packaged desiccant from Amazon and placed that in the bottom. It is the type that turns red when it has absorbed moisture and blue when it is dry. When the packs turn red I put them in my oven for an hour or so to recharge them. My filament seems to be perfect stored like this. I don't know how well this would dry filament that had already absorbed moisture but if you start with dry stuff, this seems to keep it dry.
8 quart InstantPot with an airfry lid in dehydration mode works like a charm.
I have the similar filament dryer, and I ended up buying/modding a food dehydrator anyway because of of how unevenly these dry unless the spool is rotating. Since you want to dry your filament BEFORE you print, even if you can print and rotate the spool within the box, it's not going to do that while sitting idle before a print. In order for this type of dryer to be effective you'd probably want to mod it with a fan, and at that point just spend $50~ on a decent food dehydrator, cut out some of the grates, and get better drying performance. I'll say that the compact size is appealing, but in general price:performance isn't worth it.
I bought this item on sale but had a problem with temperature rise. Although it was 48 ° C on the display of the equipment, it only rose to 33.4 ° C inside, and as a result, the filament did not dry. It may be a problem with the position of the temperature sensor on the main unit.
By the way, the thermometer belongs to Xiaomi, so I think you can trust it.
I need a box that holds two filaments. In the future, I would like to incorporate a 12V heating element to raise the internal temperature.
When you try to print TPU and hear something like bubbles exploding when the filament comes out of the nozzle, then it means it has absorbed moisture and for sure the print quality won't be good.
You can also put packs of decadents in the center of the spool.
I use a food dehydrator modified a bit but only 50.00 . Real good for PETG or TPU! Great to point out ..
I have an air fryer. It works awesome on the dehydrate setting at 170⁰
it did that because you are setting it to do 70deg so it heats up really hot to get it to that temp quick hence the warping
you need to start at 40deg and take it up 5 or 10 deg every half hour till you get to 70 to stop that in little ovens doing that
NylonX, The main filament I use, prints like ass if its not dried. 180f 4-5 hours in the oven.. then use a drybox while printing. Got one from amazon :P
If you have a heat pump eng dehumidifier or humidity regulation system - yeah no humidity
I'm staying in a small apartment with baseboard radiators, and it's dry here in michigan. Flex PLA went from great to junk in days
Sh01 fixed it.
Moreover, despite the filament appearing to produce a decent print, even the small amount caused microperforations in the flex prints. Not a problem for making toys for adult children, but I was trying to make an air tight gasket for a machine pushing slightly pressurized water. The gasket was "sweating" water from the perforations.
Pla gets brittle when it gets wet... not old, WET. You shouldn't have that issue with dry PLA.
Dessicant does NOT drive humidity out of filament.
PETG is also affected by humidity badly.
Lower Temps will still work to dry nylon - just slower.
Please just do a modicum of background research. If you're doing printing with anything but pla in the desert, you will need to dry filament eventually. Even if you live a dry place, you can still get poorly sealed damp filament out of the box occasionally.
Again, perfect timing! I have an Ender 3 v2 with the carborundum glass bed and a set of multi-color filaments arriving tomorrow. It is good to know how to properly dry the filament. Thanks, JB!
For me the timing is always one or two days late. At the beginning of my fpv "journey" I got a betafpv hx100 and I had a problem with the vtx's wiring harness and I had to change it. After I struggled for 5 days trying to figure out how to get the harness pins to get out, I finally changed it. Next thing you know 3 days later Bardwell releases a video called "how to change a wiring harness". I guess I am unlucky, but hey, it's more rewarding and fun if you figure it out yourself right?
PLA breaks because it gets moist. There is a very long and detailed write up online, which I have bookmarked somewhere. I just put the Sovol dryer into service and it needs some mods. Got a nice roll of filament that is slightly miswound. It is not drawing well and would hate to think it is adding stress to the extrude feeder motor. I think your idea is good to do a mod on that spot where the filament comes out. The angle needs to be changed,and a teflon tube put on there somehow. the dryer needs to be at a lower level than the printer to be able to line up with the extrude feeder. Using a Creality Ender 3 v2. I'm gonna mod it. There was a post on a review and it would be a good idea to open the dryer and check the wiring. One user reported some slap happy soldering and wire that was near the heating element and melting. So that's not good ! Otherwise I'm happy with it. Just having the moisture meter and place to put the filament is nice. Oh, another thing I noticed is that pla absorbs through the cut end. Had been using a bag on the filament with dessicant, and the part that was outside the bag had gotten moist. Thank for the vid. Bird ate part of the directions and I put it somewhere and can't find it now.
And.......... it’s a box with a heater in it! You did it JB 😜☺️
I watched this because of your FPV videos.
I’ve found that humidity affects filaments from some brands but not others. Living in Colorado, I don’t need it for most of the filaments I have but others will bubble a bit if they’ve sat in the air a bit too long in the spring when we get a lot of rain.
(some additional info) eSun don't heat up to 80C, only the heating element is at that temp. The air is only 45-50C. And PETG is more sensitive to moisture, ABS not. Desiccant can be placed inside a spool.
So I do not own a dryer box. I have never printed W/ nylon, but have a few spools of old ABS that the local university was going to throw out I adopted. they were bad shape. so i threw them in the oven but i did some research and one content maker said to leave the oven door cracked open a bit cuz ovens actually can create humidity. and it worked great! however im preparing to make a vary large dryer box involving an arduino! ill let you know how that works out....
I have the esun drying and it works very well. For most drying I use the Ebox but I dry large batches of filament in a food warming drawer.
I collect all the dehydration packets used in packaging, combined with some cat litter in sealed plastic containers and keep my nylon and other hydrophilic filament in those. Cheap and it works...
I like that this thing can be used as a spool holder when printing though
Silica gel packets (dessicant). Simple and cheap.
Free if your filament comes with it
Silica gel alone won't extract enough moisture from filaments, they need to be actively dried, silica gel beads are used in filament storage boxes because they soak up any moisture in the air before the filament can.
@@licensetodrive9930 is correct. Desiccant is used to maintain already dry filament. Once wet, you need to dry.
@@d3c0deFPV fair point but if you always or mostly keep it with the filament once you open it you should be good. Personally I’ve never even had to use it but it’s always a good backup if you have nothing. I’ve never had wet filament problems so far and I’ve been printing for several years.
@@jtg_rc1583 It depends on the filament type and the conditions you print in. If you're printing PLA, PETG, and TPU and usually pack up your filament with desiccant after each use you'll be fine. If you print with Nylon and leave your spool out for several days, even indoors, you'll find yourself with very quickly degrading prints. Even TPU or PETG can start to lose its luster after sitting out on the roll after prints for extended periods of time. I would guess that the cumulative time needs to be in the order of many days or weeks for anything but the most hygroscopic filaments though. Drying can bring that luster back.
Interesting video, at 9:00 minutes you talk about the exitof the filament, I have watched a video on the review of the comgrow unit (looks exactly the same) from "doublebits workshop" and he took the white plastic exit tube off and fitted a Bowden tube end and a piece of Capricorn tubing to protect the filament from dust up to the printer....😃
Great Video i never dies my Filament and Gas good Resultat sorry for german Autokorrektur
I think I understand you, you must use a filament that's less hydroscopic or live in a less humid area. Anyway cheers!
PLA gets brital - but only after 1 year. PETG is more sensitive to moisture. Everyone already owns a dryer: your 3D printer with heatbed. Just add a cardboard box around the bed.
the moist is super harmful with the nylon. I must to coock it in the oven for 8 hours at 70c every time i need to print with it.
JB on a livestream: It’s just a box with the heater, what do you want to hear?
JB in regular videos: Here’s a box with the heater!😂
Great video as always!😎
DIY dry bins work great too, and can hold more spools for quite a bit cheaper than these active dryers. The DIY approach takes longer though because it's not actively drying with heat, but once it's dry it stays dry. Good for long term storage.
EDIT: I should watch the entire video before commenting next time 😊
Diy dry boxes using silica have been shown to not work. Heat allows molecular motion to drive water out. It isn't the same process as ambient dry air
I wish I had filament issues. I can leave a roll on the printer for months on end and no problems. I guess I’m just lucky.
I don’t have an opinion on the Sovol or Esun dry boxes but I know they would be useful for my nylon and TPU. I like these dry boxes better than putting plastic in my oven. I print parts for R/C cars instead of drones and need special filaments for certain applications.
The esun doesnt heat up to 80c, that is how hot the heating element gets.
If you measure it, it basically gets as hot as this. Another guy did a test on it and another heater and he soldered some sensors to the machines.
Air fryer at 160 for a few hours works for me and as a bonus your prints come out smelling like tater tots.😂
I just dry my filament in the airing cupboard - I know not everybody has a cupboard like this due to the different types of heating systems, but if you have one use it!
Regarding the oven issue, I'm guessing your little toaster oven didn't have a fan? I bet that was the issue.
Use a food dehdrator to dry and one of these boxes to maintain the 'dryness'. These boxes just dont create sufficient airflow/heat to create a uniform temperature throughout the box.
Got a cheap IDEX so it was the cheapest option to dry 2 spools. Could have dried them in the oven or in a cardboard box on top of the print bed but those are a lot of bother, more electricity and an accident waiting to happen not worth arguing over less than 50 bucks, shame it only goes to 50C and only runs for 12 hours max though
In the heat gun look at those capillaries and vaine ✌️✌️✌️🤣🤣🤣
I bought this for nylon, I didn't realize that it wouldn't get hot enough to dry it out. I guess I'll go back to using the food dehydrator. Oh well!
Moisture Eliminator from Dollar Tree for $1 each and a huge storage tub (might find these at Goodwill, Craiglist, Facebook Marketplace, etc or pay full price at HD or Lowes)...will never have wet filament again.
Dehydrator and cereal dry box are key for tpu. Look on thingniverse for cereal dry box. You’re welcome
Here's another thought for you people who want to keep your filament dry.
Get an insulated cover for your 3d printer. When the printer is running, it's naturally heating up it's environment inside the tent. It gets blasted hot in there in fact. If your filament is inside the insulated tent/cover, it's getting heated too. So it dries out naturally during operation.
If it's getting to a temperature decent enough to dry the filament, it's almost certainly not a healthy temp for your electronics (eg stepper motors)
Some spools are bigger than others because they use a larger inside diameter of the spool. Sometimes to prevent excessive bends about a small radius, but I imagine it's also a facade to make it seem like more filament.
Eh that was just big spool. Looked like a 2kg from here. Holding such reels side by side right now indeed does seem to confirm this.
@@twobob yeah I thought he said it was 1kg
Just store your filament in a box with some desiccant then you dont need to dry it. unless you have long nylon prints.
i got a food dehydrator to dry my filament but after getting a propper box for with desiccant i never use it anymore :)
ABS and PLA aren't particularly hygroscopic though PLA is more than ABS. PETG, nylon and TPU are the ones you want to look out for and out of those nylon is the only one you really need a box for. Tupperware bins with gaskets in the lids and a bunch of dessicant packs are all you need.
There are designs like Thingiverse 2172384 to hold capricorn bowden tubing in the side of your dry box, enabling printing without needing to take the filament out, which avoids it absorbing moisture during printing.
I created a similar one for my cheap temperature controlled food dehydrator to print whilst the filament is kept warm.
the moisture filament accumulates over those few minutes is completely neglegible and the "wet" filament is purged when printing a priming strip and skirt. using a bowden tube on these looks cool but does not have much of a real benefit.
@@drkastenbrot When printing from a dry box the need of a bowden tube and how long it has to be depends on where the box & printer are in relation to each other.
Keep my filament in a plano box and i throw all the silica gel packs in it👍
Have to come to FPV channel to hear "Printed out of TPU, which is the most common filament I use".
Thanks for the review. The fan on mine has died. Do you know what a good replacement would be? I cannot find any info on the OEM fan CFM or RPM rating. Any help appreciated!
Does the box have a silicone seal around the top and bottom like others do? Can you use it for storage? The Sovol 2 roll box has a seal, locking clips, and plugs for the openings. Does this one?
Hi Josh Great video and review of the Sovol SH01 dry box. I know one thing, it will not be for me. As much as I want one , I just would never be able to get it working. I still don't know how to use everything in my computer. And after the discussion on the livestream. I'm glad I chose not to buy one. I would think if you lived where there is a lot of humidity, You might want one. Thanks again for the information about this product.
I store my filament in a plastic bag with the desiccants that shipped with them, otherwise whatever is on the printer sees room air, which run ~35% RH year round. I’m happy with my prints so for Ninjatek cheetah tpu, armadillo tpu, sunlu petg, & Amazon petg for me, I don’t bother with drying my filament
I Injection mold with medical grade ABS and polycarbonate that are pre dried and only the polycarbonate is the one that gives me issues with splay when not dried properly the ABS seems like it would be just fine if not dried though
Choose any metal/heat safe box in required size. Put a hair dryer inside it. You got a drybox.
So have the heater always and forever running... no thanks. Rather buy a sterlite sealed tote and just make a makeshift shelf out of PVC pipe, add desiccant that can be oven renewed that's in a pillow sheet or oven bag.
Most of those heated dry box will only run for 12-18 hours at a time and then shut off...when you really do need it to run day and night....i wont use em either, my convection oven is far more effective to remove water and tupperware to keep the filament from getting more moisture
I bought an eSun dryer that fits one roll because my tpu was affected badly in a short time, but I live in Australia so humidity might be different. My prints went from perfect to terrible and went back to perfect after drying. My PLA doesn’t seem to be affected by leaving it out.
Yes some 3D print info I was hungry for! I been watching all the jb ender 3 videos recently. I’m about to buy one !
THE STRAIGHT DOPE
I would imagine that the surface moisture evaporates as the filament enters the hot end
Moisture gets into the filament over time. PLA gets very brital this way.
lick for the esun ebox lite dryer box for 3d printer filament? I dont find it with 80 dergress as you show
My PLA prints very good after drying.
dry filament is a must, but.... As long as your filament is stored in a house / place that's air conditioned you should be ok. but if your like me and live in Florida and have your printer on the screened in porch like a IDIOT, you need a dryer LOL
I'm in Bama in a farm house. I have to dry often. The humidity works in from the ground since the house is up on block.
The best thing to use is a food dehydrator. A couple years ago there was a purpose built filament dryer called "PrintDry" and my mind couldn't get away from the fact that it looked just like a food dehydrator my family had as a kid. So I did some searching around Amazon and low and behold, it was a food dehydrator, just marked way up in price! I ended up buying the food dehydrator and a clear rubbermaid container to make the "top" and it works amazing well. It fits 3+ standard rolls of filament and I haven't had an issue with it in almost 3 years.
Here is the food processor: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0797CVXKN/
and here is the rubbermaid to make the top: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00237S2IU/
Apparently they don't have the exact one in stock but if you look around, it is one of those products where 10 different companies just rebrand something made at one factory for all of them.
But, the best tip overall is to store your filament properly so that you don't need to dry it, unless it is nylon because even stored properly nylon is so hydrophilic it will suck up water from a mile away in a vaccuum sealed bag. I would recommend getting large vaccuum seal bags for clothes (the ones you see on infomercials, they actually DO have a purpose) and then get some desiccant packs that can be recharged by plugging them into an outlet. They are so simple to use, just toss them in the bag when you seal it, and then you can monitor how much water it has absorbed without opening the bag. Then the recharge phase takes a few hours in any standard outlet. Here is what I mean: www.amazon.com/Improved-Eva-dry-333-Renewable-Dehumidifier/dp/B000H0XFCS/
Crap... I bought one. Hey... I hear that the creality Ender 3 pro is open source. I wonder if that means it can print most of its parts to rebuild one by oneself? Have you heard of anyone doing this? I just bought an SVo3 Sovol as well for the bigger build volume. I need multiple printers because some projects take up lots of bed time. I wonder if you can print more than one piece on one be? I have never looked into that. So much to learn. I got the sovol svo3 with a filament dryer and An Ender 3 pro for printing statuary and characters.
Whats up josh so im getting another printer direct drive only should i go with the soval or the artillery sidewinder ?
TPU absorbs moisture really fast. Even a day exposed it's starting to get worse. Depends on humidity level. When moist, you get terrible "foamy" prints from steam at the hot end during printing. I dry all my TPU with a dedicated filament roll dryer and store with double bagged rolls with lots of silca gel and small humidity monitor in each bagged roll. PLA barely absorbs moisture, even long term
This
Hey Josh
Question about my rssi. I have the xmplus receiver. It’s not working properly so I’m running with one antenna so it’s like an xm. My rssi shows normally 10 but when I thrust it goes up. The more I thrust the higher my rssi goes up. Why is that? Thanks in advance.
Question: is the set/displayed temperature that of the heater or the air inside the dry box?
For most one spool dryers is is the heater element ....
which can be as much as 20 degrees lower than the air.
That's correct. I'm sure it's the heater element.
@@JoshuaBardwell I suspect that is going to be a deal breaker for many people then. Pretty much limits it to be used for PLA, PVA and TPU. Even PETG is very hygroscopic and needs higher temperatures for effective drying.
I've only ever had to dry my carbon/nylon filament.
Hmmm. I been 3d printing since 2009. I have boxes full of old filament and it’s fine.
I found my TPU & PETG prints have come out noticeably better (both the visual and mechanical properties) since drying the filaments and storing them in airtight tubs with silica gel beads in.
Printing since 2009 probably means abs and pla which don't have much issue with moisture. Nylon TPU and PETG will absorb much more.
PLA I've never had a problem with but TPU seems a lot more sensitive.
@@jakeh3144 ahh yes. I have been using TPU and back in the day there was NinjaFlex which is similar of not the same but yeah maybe that would be a different story. I just haven’t had any issues. I used to keep them all bagged with silica packets but I’m not as concerned about it anymore.
Where's the moisture supposed to go if the box is sealed???
The air becomes more humid as it absorbs moisture from the filament?
@@JoshuaBardwell Yes, the air inside the box gets more humid, which puts more pressure on the filament to absorb some of it, so you reach equilibrium sooner. And when you cut the heat the moisture will go back into the filament, so at least let it out before you put it away, if you store your filament in the box.
wooooahhhhhh hang on JB 3d printing toooo? not just an FPV wizard eh?
Are those flies having a race in the background :) ? Left those woop gates lit?
I think that for *most* filaments, as long as you are in a climate controlled environment moisture in filament is not an appreciable issue.
*there are certain filaments that are more sensitive to moisture (I'm looking at you, nylon)
You need to open your oven door a bit. I got away with 170F with the door cracked (1inch or so). I folded 2 rags and sandwiched the spool, then layer it on a pan. Just gotta insulate it from the radiative heat of the coils and let the heat/moisture out. You can make cheap DiY JERKY 🍖 like this 😁
Fantastic review, Joshua! 😃
I... Still didn't have a 3d printer... 🙄
BUT I'm thinking about making a big cabinet for filaments from a huge plastic box and use desiccants(?)... But, well... We'll see.
I hope I can get my first 3d printer until the end of the year.
Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
No clue how you avoided moisture with TPU. I have to be VERY vigilant with drying/keeping dry TPU. Nylon, PC, and TPU are the only ones I have had moisture issues with so far. Never had any issues with ABS.
one perk of living in Tucson az haha 🤘😲🤘
So, it's just a box? With a heater in it?
I heard it's just a box, with a heater in it
and a timer. and a display with a display driver chip (maaaybe), a sensor - probably combined, an additional temp probe for fail-over one would hope, power chip, LC & R and some glue logics. Some kind of microprocessor - likely a one shot if they are really keen on bringing down BOM cost. I suspect you could run most of the logic with a 1cent chip from lcsc (seems like a PID /INT loop) and perhaps some flash ram/rom for kicks. So it's a box with couple of dollar in electro-BOM and some heating elements. Could you make one for less: Most certainly. Would it be white plastic with an injection moulded fit for the gaskets. Unlikely :)
No no no, its a heater with a box around it.
Well I guess I'll look for a food dehydrator at Goodwill. If I have to mod one I'd rather use an old one than brand new.
Maybe the petg cannot be wound as tightly as pla?
So you need a larger diameter hub for your petg
PETG can be wound on the same spools as PLA, but annoyingly, as Joshua found out, there's no set standards regarding spool dimensions for manufacturers to comply with. The diameters of most are fairly consistent, center diameter generally ranges between 50-60mm and the outer diameter 190-200mm, but the wideness varies a lot.
My guess is because filaments are sold by their weight not their physical volume.
I just keep my filament in a sealed box with desiccant.