How dry can I have on filament without "degrade(?)" it?
I'm working on making filament dry container with Indicator Silica Gel and I saw a message saying "Ideal humidity level for PLA is 10%." And I was wondering what is ideal humidity level for PETG or ASA. But I'm getting mixed message on how dry filament I can get. I've read somewhere saying that if I over-dry a filament, the filament will degraded. Some says 20% is better.
What's ideal humidity level for each filament type (PLA, PETG, ASA, etc...)? Is there any list anywhere? Do over-dry filament really degrade the quality?
RE: How dry can I have on filament without "degrade(?)" it?
I'm a big fan of the indicator blue silica gel. That is my 'Dry standard'. I also picked up a cheap temp/humidity device that I put into my dryer (Matterhacker 'Fruit drier"), but I haven't had it long enough to get meaningful data out of it.
I know some people that work in plastics compounding and they talk about even Nylon needing a little moisture, but I think they are talking about REALLY low levels obtained with commercial scale drying equipment. I think that the commercial systems, especially with pellets or powder resin, can control the level of moisture- but with the hobby systems it is more dry/not-dried.
I think it would be hard to over temp with one of the dryers built on the fruit air movers, versus a small toaster oven. The heating elements can almost burn the closest filament.
I mentioned in another thread that after heating and drying I put the filament in a plastic bag with some desiccant so that as it returns to room temp, the amount of moisture that can condensate is reduced. Don't know if that works or not.
https://www.printables.com/model/155359-filament-desiccant-holder-for-spool
RE: How dry can I have on filament without "degrade(?)" it?
I'm working on this filament dry box that I found at Thingiverse.com - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4976052
The original designer also recommended indicator silica gel which I'm planning to use. I really like the idea of reusable of silica gel by putting them in microwave and then use it again. I bought Sunlu's filament dryer and I'm not sure if it really worked well. I was wondering about how dry that would degrade the filament quality.