Has anybody used one of these mini “dehumidifiers” to dry out filament as a substitute for buying a bunch of the desiccant beads? My filament seems OK, but I could do better to keep it dry.
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I’ve used these in a drybox to keep filament dry, and they work really well for that, but to actually dry filament I use what amounts to a modified food dehydrator. You really need heat and airflow to get moisture out of already wet filament. If you don’t have a food dehydrator you can use, you can also try an oven, but be careful of temperature fluctuations which could cause it to get too hot and melt your filament.
I’ve used up my filament fast enough to not have to dry it, but if you’re storing it in a decently sealed box with this thing or desiccant, what happens that the filament would need to be dried in a dehydrator?
Edit: fixed formatting error
Desiccants aren’t magic, they can’t get 100% of the water out of the air, however they prolong the life of the filament SUBSTANTIALLY.
FYI AFAIK desiccants don’t actually dry out the filament, they just prevent it from getting any wetter. To truly dry it, you could get a filament dehydrator or use a modified food dehydrator (among other options).
With that said, you might be able to use those, personally I’d just recommend collecting those “do not eat” packets that come with things and throwing those into your drybox.
They’re usually just little cloth packages of desiccant beads.
Personally, I store my filament in ziplock bags with a couple of those packets and it seems to work well for the most part. I also have a dehydrator (modified food dehydrator) though, which I use on filaments that were left out.
On a related question, is “desiccant refresher” a thing, as in a reasonably small device that will heat a small quantity of those beads to something like 120ºC while keeping a slow air flow?
The one in OP’s picture is one such device. You plug it directly into the wall and it heats up. No fan though, just passive convection
Oh, so the OP’s question is about using recyclable beads instead of single-use ones?
I though it was a machine that forced air into the beads.
I didn’t realize that the desiccant beads were able to be dried out. I thought they were single use. I have a bunch in the bottom of a Rubbermaid tote with a rubber foam sealed lid along with my filament. I don’t know how to tell when the beads are “full” and started thinking about a more recyclable approach. After thinking about it a bit, I should probably get a humidity meter.
The ones that are sold for single-use tend to break into pieces when they absorb too much water.
The ones intended to be reused normally have some mechanism to tell you they are “full”, like changing colors.
I had good results with microwaving a bunch of beads in a microwave safe non-plastic bowl on mid-low.
It drives out the moisture, and you can see the bead colour indicators change.
But be careful, they’re hot!
Also if you’re using blue indicating silica gel, NPS recommends that you wear gloves, lab coat, safety goggles and respirator with HEPA when handling it. I’m guessing they’e talking about larger quantities, but you probably want to minimise any amount of cobalt chloride you inhale or get in contact with your skin.
That looks like it should work very well. I will certainly try.
you can dry them back out in an oven, or in a food dehydrator. I dry my desiccant out when I put filament through the dehydrator (the dehydrator takes out most of the moisture- especially on things like TPU or PETG- the desiccant takes the rest out- and keeps it out)
I just put them either in my filament dryer box, or on my heat bed in a corner that won’t be used when printing.
I use them in my safe, they work well for that but would probably do fine for filament. I like that you can just plug them in to dry them out, pretty convenient!
Putting one in a safe is a great idea!
They work really great for keeping dry filament dry, and seem to help drying out wet filament to a degree. I use a food dehydrator to dry wet filament, then store my dry filament in a plastic tub with one of these. They recharge decently quick, and I don’t need to recharge them very often. I put one in a bin with 4 spools of filament and recharge every few months or so.
Yup, it’s fantastic.
I have one. Works fine. I’ve had to plug it in once so far.
Just a bucket full of silica gel will do👍
