Battle of champions: Eibos Polyphemus vs Cyclopes - which one is better filament dryer?

[@jamescollard9724]

Great quality and comprehensive analysis. Thank you for taking the time and making the effort to develop the metrics and provide a level of comparative analysis on this topic that for the most part is completely missing from most KZbin content.

[@floridasaltlife]

Thank you for your hard work in doing a nice job comparing

[@MitchM240]

thank you, I really appreciate this video. I am new to 3D printing and have been lost looking for a dryer as frankly most of them look like crap that do nothing. I am going to be buying this one. Thanks!

[@ChannelRejss]

Great, I received my Polyphemus 2 days ago and it's already been fantastic so far. Looking forward to your results!

[@astrolemonade349]

Did it come with a spare motor?

[@helixxharpell]

@@astrolemonade349 That's a great question! I saw where the motor craps out after about a year of solid drying.

[@all4seasons]

​ @ChannelRejss do you have problems with the fan too? Mine works great, excellent results, but my fan housing bent due to the heat and got hit by my fan.

[@baddan]

Thanks to you that I got my Eibos Cyclopes!

[@AAE-cg1il]

I don’t have either of these but I recently bought the single spool Eibos. It’s so easy to use and is quiet. I dried a bunch of filament spools that were very brittle and unusable. Paid for itself already……I also use it as the holder while I am printing. Very good design……..

[@klave8511]

Great review and the examples in the beginning are very convincing. I don't understand how anyone able to design these dryers doesn't add a fan to distribute the warm air, that's such a basic thing. Maybe they think convection is enough. And thanks for pointing out that layer problem you identified from uneven drying of a filament spool. Having made my own dryer using a plastic bucket, small heater, a temperature controller and a fan (and a Christmas lights timer to set the drying time) I quickly realised that the heat loss through the walls is really messing up the heat distribution and was limiting the upper temperature I could reach. It also wasted energy because the heater was on for longer. Wrapping some thermal insulation (closed cell packing foam sheets) around the bucket solved the problem. I see all these dryers have no thermal insulation, even a double wall will help and still be transparent. The other thing that worries me is the safety of running a heater unattended, I hope these are all safety approved by a recognised agency, this will be marked on the device, a requirement for approval. Without this approval, the design could be very unsafe, using the wrong gauge wire, thin insulation, bad routing of electrical conductors, spacing between parts, fire retardant materials are examples of things that a safety agency would investigate. I would rather buy a food dehydrator because these are sold in big box stores that won't be allowed to sell unsafe things. Please show us the product sticker/label which would have the approval certification if it has any. Another consideration is where the water goes. In a sealed container the water all goes into the air which is able to hold more vapour at higher temperatures. It doesn't leave the chamber except perhaps out of the vents and leaks. It is actually good to let some warmed air out so that the warm wet air can be replaced by cooler ambient air which has less water (by volume) and when heated will have lower RH. Air at 60°C can hold 4 times as much water as air at 20°C so to swap in some outside air will allow the RH inside to reduce.

[@MyTechFun]

Yes, good points. Earlier versions of Sunlu dryers had thermal insulation, now somehow everybody forgots about it. Cutting the price. I plan to test a food dehydrator too in near future.

[@WhereNerdyisCool]

@@MyTechFundon’t forget about the FixDry unit. No temp sensor. It runs on an algorithm! I let it run for an hour and it melted the filament at the bottom of the spool. Junk.

[@fns58]

Another awesome dryer review. I got this on preorder and I am very happy with it, especially compared with the FixDry crap I had to return. Might mod it in the future with even more silent fans and a more silent spin motor.

[@MyTechFun]

After this video FixDry contacted me, they are sending me their dryer too. We will see how it performs. What is your main problem with it?

[@fns58]

@@MyTechFun hahaha awesome then. This is the list of things I did not like from their latest double spool dryer: 1. I read somewhere that the system powers up the heater based on an algorithm programmed at a 21C room temp. It does not take into account the temp measured with the probe (I have not tested this) 2. Sketchy electronics. 240V enters a main board which is itself a bit sketchy. The screen flickers on and off constantly and the instructions say to never leave the dryer on without supervision. Inspired me zero trust. 3. Very noisy fan. Discovered that the main issue here was the plastic grill from the case in front of the fan. Cutting the grill to leave the hole exposed reduced noise quite a lot. That mod paired with a good Sunon fan it was worlds better. 4. Noisy heater relay 5. Inside temperature I believe I measured a max of 50°C As soon as I saw the Polyphemus preorder at less price than the FixDry, I did not hesistate to return it and buy the Eibos. It's on another league.

[@uberwootage]

@@MyTechFun ​ @MyTechFun Fixdry uses a DTH11 with a nice offset to skew the measurements to make it look better. Destroys the eibos in build quality and materials and is actually safe and uses the right materials. My cyclopes started to melt. My second one has some deforming because they used cheap ABS but the Fixdry dual dryer is just crap and honestly not even good for pla. Average chamber temp when set to 70c was 45.2c. When i checked it i froze the sensor and it would no go lower then 20c. So i used a ThermoStream ECO-810-M as a source on the DTH11 and found out they used that to make a offset. In reality its a 50c unit not 70c. Cyclops i found to be accurate to 50c then its a little off at 70c i was hitting 62c. These are chamber temps. Eibos was measured at the stock hydrometer location Fixdry was measured at the same location. Eibos has ok performance still not in my 5% spec but a few mods can get it to whiten 1.5% but its built like trash and like i said. 1 melted the other after one use i could see heat damage its trash. The Fixdry is built nice. It does not feel like a $10 dryer off wish like the Eibos but its a 50c heater at most that they make people think is better then what it is because of the offset. Neither one is worth the price. Measurements were taken with NIST traceable equipment. If you like we can compare notes and what not on dryers. I got a bunch i have tested to try and fine one that delivers on its claims whiten 5%

[@uberwootage]

@@fns58 Its not an Algorithm its an offset. They had to use a DTH11 for it to try and scam people because if they used something like TH-44006-40-T it would be very obvious. After using the calibrated temp source on it and taking measurements i seen the curve they had set. I measured 45.2c what is 10.61% of 50c what is inline with what the non scam dryers are running. 10-15% of advertised. Fixdry dual was 54.8% off and is the absolute worst performing dryer i have tested i base that on what they claim. And the worst part because of that offset you can not mod it or insulate it to even get it close to the industry average unless you pull the DTH11 out and force the temp on it with a source. The thing is a scam.

[@RealShebang]

I think the more even drying is the right feature here too. I've got a Polyphemus on order -- I got a quite good early bird price on it too, but I have to wait before I get mine! It ended up being a bit cheaper to get the Polyphemus in my case. Both of these are very expensive for a warm box, but well, it's the kind of thing you just need.

[@Hangs4Fun]

I have several Cyclopes driers, and I just put the desiccant pouches inside the center of the spool (which also puts them more central to the cavity) I love your use of an Arduino, I use them and modules all the time too :-)

[@Hangs4Fun]

Highly recommend finding a handle on printables or thingiverse and print out a handle for your Cyclopes. If you have both filaments in there feeding printer/s, you are going to have a challenge balancing the Cyclopes lid without a handle. On my 3D Printer farm, I use a small cable attached through the top center hole and just pull the cable that is loosely on the rack above it, then I have a 3D printed hook on the other side that I hook to part of the rack system. This completely holds the top lid of the Cyclopes for me while I swap filaments. But if you aren't using these in a farm, I use 3D printed handles for my single printer setups.

[@Hangs4Fun]

well, I just remembered another thing. If you have one of the original Cyclopes like I did and they eventually go dim on the display or stop working all together. You can reach out to EIBOS3D support and get them to send you the upgraded version of the "mother board", heater/fan, display/controls. Cost is $10 including shipping (I believe this is low because they treat it like a support replacement. They are still the typical LOUD Cyclopes fan as always, but they do work great. I would be curious to see "My Tech Fun" redo his tests, to see if these new electronics make the Cyclopes perform better, worse, or the same.

[@BennyTygohome]

Thank you for making this comparison video. Very good analysis. I'm a first time 3D printer owner. I will be printing mostly with PLA, but then I expect to move up to PETG. I understand that PETG absorbs moisture alot, so I will be getting a Dryer for it. Thanks to your video I believe I will go with the Polyphemus because of the rotating motor and I also like that we can remove the shell without having to also unthread the filament.

[@kimmotoivanen]

I can see rotating of the spool to work only - if the spool is used by the printer (rotating naturally) or - if the filament is not fed through the holes/tubes. When the filament goes out of the box but is not being printed, the spool cannot rotate. I would think most uniform result in all use-cases would be by having the hot air circulate inside the chamber around the spool. Then it wouldn't matter what the spool does. Also maybe adjust both heating power and input of fresh air / output of the moist air (separate fans for circulation and input/extraction) based on relative humidity for better efficiency, when not in a hurry ;) (But having 30C temperature difference between outside and inside, and printing just PLA, humidity is not current issue for me - well for my skin yes, but for my printing not 😎)

[@MyTechFun]

Of course, during printing, it will be rotated by printer. But some sensitive filaments, I like to pre-dry before use. You will see in my next Extrudr TPU video (test in progress, but printing is finished) I dried it 4-5 hours before use, huge difference in print quality.

[@drmvh]

Thanks for your useful reviews :)

[@Beakerzor]

when is the Polyphemus going to be available for sale? I don't want to buy the Cyclopes if the Polyphemus is about to be released

[@RealShebang]

It's for pre-order now from their webpage. Apparently if you order now you'll get it around mid-January.

[@KarlL-nk1ek]

Would it be possible to also compare their power consumption? I'd assume they are similar but it would still be interesting. I'm using a repurposed food dehydrator for filament drying and it uses around 300W. So the power consumption can get quite significant when you run it for hours.

[@DannyMartin3z]

Does this printer have tangential exit for filament? It sounds like that was the big weakness on the Grakit. This is more expensive but if it’s less loud than other dryers with fan, performs well and addresses the 90 degree exit on most dryers might be worth it.

[@stevenwinegar9355]

Hello, thanks for this excellent video! Will the Polyphemus get hot enough to dry Nylon properly?

[@Charun1982]

In my mind the rotating function to achieve constant drying through the whole spool is a must, hence i got the Poly on pre-order since before Christmas. So far i've only used the X1 Carbons filament drying function, and while it works, it's slow, i can't use the printer while it's going, and it has got some of my PETG to stick to itself, so it's very much a "in case of emergency" type solution. To better test the rotating functions effectivity, maybe you could wrap some sponge around an empty roll, and repeat your test..? No clue if that would make any difference in the results, but that way it would be more real world relatable test. 🙂

[@WhereNerdyisCool]

Is those compartments to dry the desiccant for use in storing filament? Or for pulling moisture out of the heated chamber? I like my Cyclopes and that clunk sound turning off and on can be annoying.

[@NickBR57]

Thanks as always Igor. Very interesting to see the trade-offs made between these two but I agree the more even drying isxa big plus. What happens if you feed some wires through the exit holes and suspend a 15mm fan in the Cyclops I wonder?

[@ricklohr3023]

Thanks for taking the time to give us such great comparison metrics on the driers. I recently got the Polyphemus and love it so far with the exception that my incoming filament, when printing from the drier, sometimes jams. My bigger question though transcends all the driers and it's simply have you done anything to prove the inside coils of filament, that are effectively shielded by the outer coils, are dried too? I understand that a sponge gets thoroughly dried, but what about the inner coils? Is that one of the reasons we need to print from the drier for the more hydroscopic materials so that they dry as the outer coils get removed and expose them?

[@helixxharpell]

Theoretically the water molecules will excite up through the filament, transferring their energy THROUGH the filament coils! This of course is dependent on the type of filament, constant heat and thorough movement of the air. My concern is pushing too much hot air DIRECTLY onto the filament that is directly above the heat source. I've read where a user built an alum displacer piece to move the air away from the filament and around the outer edges of the roll.

[@ricklohr3023]

The design of this dryer should alleviate some of your concern. The heated air is actually directed out the front and back of the center rather than directly above the heat source. In addition, the spool rotating function will also help distribute the heat evenly. I was hoping that someone had gone the next step in testing beyond the sponge and did something that is even more representative of the real use case and verify these driers actually do dry the inner coils.

[@olafmarzocchi6194]

I think all these dryers would benefit from an all-around and top layer of cork (even the one for desktop by IKEA), which would reduce losses and make the temperature measured by the internal sensor much closer to the one of the air.

[@lokom18]

Thank you

[@olafmarzocchi6194]

The easdry X still seems the best choice, since it dries just as well (more or less), costs much less, it's uniform around the spool.

[@Electester]

Is there any another dryer on the market with spool rotation feature ❔❓ Thanks for the video!

[@MyTechFun]

So far, no. But I hope we will see that more in the near future

[@windmill10]

In a review video by Modbot I heard that the rotation motor only has a predicted life span of 1500 hours, which he calculated to be 2 months non stop operation. Hence the spare motor. Eibos claims it has machines running much longer on a motor. But if you print a lot of nylon and have this machine running all the time you'll be buying a new motor let's say every 6 months. I consider this to be quite a serious design flaw. Modbot was not very enthousiastic about the rotation function. He thought that it added nothing to the effectiveness of the dryer. I think the rotation is a great addition. You showed why. Also I saw a video by Woodbutcher and the Mighty Termite (what a name 😄) in which he explaines how he fixed a design flaw in the Cyclopes. This flaw would be that the fan in the bottom of the machine blows the hot air straight onto the filament. If this is the max temperature and you do not rotate the filament by hand every half hour or so (easy to forget!), not only does the filament not dry equally like you showed but the high temperature on the bottom of the spool may also damage the filament and/or may cause it to stick together So I think I will go for the Polyphemus. Despite the motor issue. Although I have to watch some more Sunlu Filadryer S4 video's, because that may also be an attractive option. Thanks for the great review.

[@mrloofer72]

It’s actually more like a year (drying time) since the motor only operates every 4 seconds or so and turns the spool for a second. Don’t know why I was compelled to answer that 2 months later lol.

[@rmtvrmtv1135]

On ne peut pas commander le polyphemus toujours en précommande depuis des mois

[@Trevellian]

Are either of these safety listed with CE or UL? Not a fan of resistive heaters that aren't safety listed, as some models of filament dryers have melted themselves. Many food dehydrators are safety listed, are cheaper than bespoke filament dryers, and can achieve higher temperatures.

[@marguskevinsunter]

Both Eibos ones are using PTC heater, the hotter it gets, the more power it needs to be heated up, meaning it won't catch fire and burn down. That's achived by physical materials in use (barium titanate ceramic stones), don't have to rely on software. PTC heaters are designed to run at certain temperature, if it goes over that temperature energy required to keep heating up scales to infinity exponentially. I assume Eibos designed their heaters optimal temperature around 70-80C Many other dryers use traditional metal wire mesh for heating. Which works the opposite. It will start to heat up exponentially the hotter it gets, which leads to burning down device, unless there's some software protection, which hopefully doesn't have any bugs in it... They are cheaper to produce and heat up faster tho Same traditional heater is used in many 3D printer chamber heater elements too. Especially in DIY segment, since it's cheaper

[@Trevellian]

If they are that safe, then it shouldn't be an issue to have them listed by UL or CE... yet they are not. In this case, believe the best drying tool is not a bespoke filament dryer, but a commodity food dehydrator. And because they are commodity products, they are cheaper, can achieve higher temperatures, have more powerful fans to remove moisture more quickly, and yes, are safety listed. Cannot see any good reason to recommend the purchase of a bespoke filament dryer. @@marguskevinsunter

[@christophec.482]

How about the humidity mode ? The one where it only turn on if the humidity raise above a certain value (for medium to long term storage). Do you have some thoughts on this functionality ?

[@MyTechFun]

That would be great if I would have 5-10 dryers, but since I always have at least one printer in work, I almost continuosly need this dryer, not for storing.

[@LivingTheDream77]

Can you review Sunlu S4 ?

[@MyTechFun]

Next week will be "filament dryer testing", I have 4 in boxes.

[@olafmarzocchi6194]

When you take thermal video you should first lock the scale, then you film, so that the scale is constant and we get a better idea

[@shogga690]

what thermal camera spec is he using?

[@Babyfasty]

Received mine

[@npntube6847]

Wow. The only thing this test demonstrates is the effect of temperature to the relative humidity. Furthermore, the difference and corrections during the test makes it impossible to do a reliable compare. In Germany, we say: Wer mist, mist Mist. Best example can be seen here.

[@vim55k]

Oven wouldn't work?

[@MyTechFun]

Oven is not accurate, it can easily overshoot the temp by 20-30°C for short time, you can melt the filament or spool. Other: My wife don't let me drying filaments in oven (and maybe she is right, drying ABS or ASA in same place where you prepare food - maybe don't go together)

[@vim55k]

@@MyTechFun 😅 Thanks. Good to know such a large overshoot is possible. I have to test before using it. Probably for pet-cf and pc it is easier not to melt because of the high melting temperature...

[@vim55k]

@@MyTechFun I am trying to use xplus3 as a dryer with it's heated chamber. I setting it on display. The problem now is that it has some timeout and turns off the heat after some time.

[@A_Tempest]

I used the oven to dry some filament, unfortunately my partner turned the oven up for cooking without checking inside first!

[@vim55k]

@@A_Tempest wow that was something 😅

[@uberwootage]

Gotta watch out. Eibos makes some pretty unsafe products and they go out of there way to cover up units melting.

[@iliyanjivraj841]

meh i’ve had 6 cyclopes running none stop for 2 years now and they’ve been fine

[@chunkstar121]

WAYYYYYY TO EXPENSIVE LOL LIKE REALLY!