What’s everyone’s thoughts on filament dryer boxes? I was doing a print tonight and it looks like the filament must’ve broke in extruder. There’s a piece stuck in the bowden tube and rest pushed out the side of the extruder in a coil. Printing with PLA on an Ender 3V2. Would a Sunlu dryer prevent this kind of thing from happening if I dried the filament for several hours before printing with it?
I use a sunlu dryer. the answer is maybe. Petg sometimes arrives wet, some manufacturers (like Prusa) make the filament from scratch and then when it is packaged it was dry when sealed and dry when the seal is broken. I am careful with filament so it tends to stay dry.
Some places buy filament on huge rolls and all they are doing is re rolling it and selling it this way. The ‘mother’ roll often sits out for long periods of time and becomes wet. This filament needs to be dried.
PlA isn’t particularly hydroscopic but on occasion needs drying. It also is sustainable to heat and on occasion especially in shipping get subjected to high temps. This leads to brittle filament. no amount of drying will fix it. 50/50 with PLA.
Petg, ASA, ABS, Nylons all do well from drying before use. I don’t bother drying PLA it rarely makes a difference.
I mostly use Petg, and before I built a printer stand with racks and an old food dehydrator, I used to throw them in my oven for an hour @ “Warm” which claims to be 170f but is in fact a bit lower.
Once I made the mistake of throwing a roll of PLA in there and it came out brittle as dry spaghetti. Instant landfill!
I just use a food dehydrator when i suspect i need to dry my filament. I think ive had success with pla, but also just kinda did things and was able to use a roll that was a bit brittle.
Id just go with whats in your budget. Its worth having but nowhere near nessisary. IMO.
The only limiting factor to think about is if you were to get some odd sized rolls like 2-5 kg rolls, they may not be as compatable with 3d printer dryers, but there can be ways to make the food dehydrator work with them.