Filament drying  

RE: Filament drying

For that price you can buy a PrintDry Pro and I think you'd be a lot happier with it. Well, as far as printing is concerned; you sure couldn't make fruit jerky with it.

food desiccators offer a better result

I think that's highly doubtful.

RE:

@fuchsr That's not my opinion, or a claim of fact, but I have read a number of comments that suggest the results are better because the air is circulated, whereas in some of the filament dryers the heater element is in the base and the air is not circulated.

RE: Filament drying

Which is probably true for some dryers, I'm sure. Personally, I like the PrintDry Pro a lot. You can dry 2 spools at a time in its base configuration or more with add-ons, and you can print directly from it. And no, I don't get any money from, or have a financial interest in, PrintDry, I'm just a happy customer 🙂

RE: Filament drying

There don't appear to be any official distributors of the PrintDry Pro in the UK. European costs are around €160 before adding on any taxes, shipping and the courier's Brexit bonus charge that seems to have become very popular with couriers lately.

RE: Filament drying

I print in an area where the humidity isn't going to get much higher, the coastal jungle in Central America. We run AC in the boat (yes we print on a boat) but still filament gets wet pretty fast even in sealed plastic bags. No food dehydrators here and I run two eBox dryers and one S2 with a fan mod. Guess what, they work just fine! I've taken completely soaked unworkable filament and dried it overnight for perfect prints. I even feed directly from them to the printers for long prints and it really makes a difference. So I don't agree with all the fuss about them not working.

RE: Filament drying

Fascinating under which different conditions folks are printing.... 

RE:

Posted by: @sailoreric

I run two eBox dryers.

Running a quick search for eBox, I've come across Sain Smart. Is that the actual manufacturer or a rebrand?

RE: Filament drying

I'm quite pleased with food dehydrator

RE: Filament drying

Not sure as I'm not in a place that I have much access to Sain smart!!! The eBox comes in two versions. The more expensive one has a built in scale.

I use:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HOMCOM-Dehydrator-Adjustable-Temperature-Control/dp/B01N8OWBLQ/ref=sr_1_5?crid=YLPBZLC5NVD8&keywords=dehydrator&qid=1636119085&sprefix=dehy%2Caps%2C73&sr=8-5

I didn't do much research - just picked one that used up the remaining credit on a gift-card, now I see the price has dropped...

You can either snip out the bottom of a couple of trays to make room for a filament roll or do what I did and print a tall spacer. A translucent PETG spacer has worked OK for me so far...

Attached are files for the spacer. dryerinsert should fit a Mini, print three and glue together to make a spacer. dryerinsert1 fits an i3, print two and glue together.

dryerinsert

dryerinsert1

Cheerio,

RE: Filament drying

No snipping needed with mine, the middle can be detached/attached with a bajonet system (like on DSLR or system camera's)

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Eryone just came out with one.. a single unit for 1kg spool for well under $100.. with fan.. I bought a SunLu S2 and it is not bad.. does the job I need.. no fan though.. I dry filament and then transfer to an airtight cereal-box drybox with desiccant. I have 8 of those and one electric drier. I'm on the coast.. humidity 8 months of the year is above 50%.. In July-Aug, usually above 80%. I don't print any filament "naked" anymore. (I print PLA & a lot of PETG)

RE: Filament drying

Posted by: @alidaf

I know there are filament dryers out there but I have heard that food desiccators offer a better result with the added bonus of being able to make fruit jerky or biltong. Would this one be overkill? Are there any others that have been used with success or any anecdotal experiences of them?

Horses for courses I think.

I chose a 6 shelf food dehydrator because it holds 4 spools at a time easily, has a convection fan, the temp range is good for this purpose and most important I live in a low average humidity part of the US. Of course, it works well for jerkies and veg/fruit also... which is nice. At $89USD on sale it is great. It was through Amazon.

If I lived in a high humidity area it would be nowhere near as effective as a good dedicated spool dryer that I can leave the spool inside and drying during printing. Even though a good spool dryer would be 2x the cost, overall it would be the better choice.

Think seriously about your environment you print in and then you'll guide yourself to the best decision.

RE: Filament drying

Are there any filament dryers that are capable to load a 30cm spool?

RE:

Sorry for necro-posting but I guess the food dryer I found is capable to load that large spools (such as 30cm in diameter) - I don't have such spool but measureing tape shows there is enough free space.

Look for Yoer VitaSave 450 W 

After doing custom enclosure from plexi (actually it's super udly due to hot glue, but transparent) I was able to put 3x 1kg prusament spools next to each other.

What is more interesting is that if set to 70C really reached 65C inside (probably could be a bit better but I'd say this is really good result):