How Bad is Wet 3d Printer Filament Really? (Is it any good once dried?)

[@NigelPeart1]

I definitely need to start drying my filament more! Thanks Ricky 👍

[@anotherledfreak8649]

Having bought my printer (just yesterday... ) I'd heard about the issues of wet pla from guys at work, but now I see while I need to be concerned it's not a killer issue (yet!). Very useful video and I'm slowly going through a lot of yours and learning a lot. Nice work and thanks!

[@nazarjuna]

Coming from an island nation with 70% humidity most days. My PLA needs to be dehydrated every time I want to use it.

[@paulw4259]

I'm completely new to 3D printing so I have been a subscriber since before I bought a printer. I keep my (first) open roll of filament on the printer with the plastic vacuum wrap it came in sat on top of it. Obviously I cut of one edge of that plastic bag so it just slips over the reel. I sticky taped a bag of silica gel inside the bag. No problems yet.

[@ryanclarke2161]

Good video, no messing around.

[@BreakingMechs]

It’s crazy how humid in Florida, 3 different brand new filaments started popping like popcorn in 2 days after taking out of box.

[@RickyImpey]

Same here in the UK at some points of the year.

[@MonkeFlip2000]

Recently I bought my first 3D printer, I set everything up and started to print. The results were great, no stringing no bubbles, almost a perfect print every time. The issue was that the pla that came with the 3D printer was really short so I ordered some filament on the internet. When they finnaly came the prints were terrible with stringing bubbles and other werid issues. I didn't change any settings so after some research I figured out that they can have moisture out of factory and I should have guessed that earleir because on the filament there were specs of dust and other kinds of "dirt" even though it was "vaccum" sealed. So now I'm drying my filaments in the oven and want to create a similar box for storing the filaments. Thank you for this great video.

[@What3v3a]

Did you order the same brand of filament?

[@barrytomkinson9408]

Thanks Ricky your a great resource for anything 3d printers, especially the Ender 3 v2 and filament. Keep up the great work you do.

[@RickyImpey]

Thanks Barry 👍

[@johnslugger]

*Wet filament hysteria is often caused by not running weekly calibrations and regular bed leveling. If I ever see any stinging with old mis-stored filaments I just turn down the nozzle temperature until it goes away. There is enough to worry about in life without adding "wet-filament" to your growing list of hobgoblins. At worst pop old filaments into the oven once a year at 180F. for 6 hours.*

[@catherinemccarney4580]

Hey John, when you say "turn down the nozzle temp", what kind of reduction do you find works well without impacting the print? Hope you can help x

[@floatypiet]

I appreciate the work you put into that video. Thank you a lot! ❤

[@armani007E55]

Excellent! Keep the great content coming. 👌

[@aaronrichards3837]

So, I have over $100 worth of filament that is probably over a year old or more. I recently tried to print using a PLA Silk, and a TPU 95/A. My printer is a dual spool GeeeTech A10M. I was transitioning from the silk, which my last print used, probably 2 + months ago (and printed fairly well at that time), to the TPU. As the silk came out during the transition, it was sizzling, which I understand is a good indicator that it is overloaded with moisture. Then the TPU came through. It was not adhering to the bed well, there was a bit of under-extrusion, and the filament that came out was blobby, stringy, and of poor print quality, which I also attributed to moisture in the filament. I am hoping that I can resuscitate my filament, instead of having to buy new. It didn't occur to me until I watched your video that the filament might just be "old." As I am on a tight budget, I saw an interesting method of drying the filament. Put the filament roll on the build plate, cover it with a colander, set the temperature of the build plate to the drying temperature (around 40-45 deg C) and let it sit for 5-6 hours. I hope that this method takes care of the print issues and "renews" the filament if the problems it has is due to being old. I would hate to have to scrap all of the filament that I have because it is old as I have a substantial investment in my stock of filament. I appreciate any suggestions you all might have regarding refreshing my filament. Thanks and good day!

[@MarioEspada-eb5lx]

Amazing video, thanks!

[@snakethereaper6435]

I'm having problems with bed adhesion which I thought was the machine so I tried glue then changing settings and non of that worked but my filament has been out on top of it for months 😅 thank you for this helpful video I had no idea you had to store filament 😊

[@Spartacusse]

I spent almost a month trying to dry my ABS in an EIBOS Easdry, despite it being one of the ones that gets hotter as per My Tech Fun's tests, and me being from a tropical country, it just wouldn't dry, my guess is that in order to include as many potencial customers as possible, they used a 230v heating element (I checked) and sell it as a 220v machine, it just doesn't get hot enough. I ended up putting the whole thing inside a storage bin in order to preserve the heat, and finally the internal temperature reached 88c and the filament itself 84c in the hottest areas, still took 2 to 3 days and I still see the ocasional bubble if I extrude a line in mid-air. My very limited electronics knowledge does not allow me to hack the board and increase the voltage, specially when dealing with AC, so I ordered a 100w small desk heater and will stick it inside the storage bin along with the dryer, this time the filament is either gonna get dry or it's gonna melt and be ruined, either is fine at this point.

[@twindenis]

While moisture wont enter the filament, it can still be sitting around it and even that can cause mini bubbles and other defects. Also I discovered it depends on the current atmospheric conditions and less likely about how long it was left out, I had PLA+ Elegoo lasting for a good month outside, printing fine and then after 2 days it started showing moisture issues. That was certainly odd but it seems like it caught it over a day apparently. Also airconditioning with the wetness symbol may make the room dry as they say but the days I used it, those days the filament actually became more moist.

[@VisibleProjects]

This is really helpful- thank you for the great video

[@AndreGuerra01]

Excellent content Ricky! Did you get to test if forcing the chimney would break it? I notice that with my old, wet filaments, they tend to have weak adhesion between layers. Thanks to your videos, I'm building a homemade dryer with an old printer heated bed. Here in Brazil, these dryers, even if Chinese, are expensive. As soon as I have significant results, I will post the ideas I had on how to replicate.

[@RickyImpey]

Hey Andre, I didn't try to break the chimney no. Testing the strength of prints from wet filament is a good idea though, I'll add it to the list👍 Did you see my 'Ghetto dryer' video? kzbin.info/www/bejne/jXSWm6mrppKop5o I used the printer heat bed to dry filament and it worked, so you're not wasting your time. Let me know how you get on.

[@yeroca]

It might be interesting to see if the aging that's resulting in brittleness is caused by oxidation. Maybe you could accelerate the oxidation by putting it in a chamber with 100% oxygen replacing the air.

[@RickyImpey]

I'll need to do a little research as I'd also like to know what we need to do to avoid brittle filament. Unfortunately I don't have the resources to try the 100% oxygen test just yet. 🤔

[@Dasky14]

While I like the test of what effect moisture has on the filament, I feel like submerging a spool isn't quite the same as maybe storing filament in a slightly more than average air humidity room. Like 40-50% relative humidity or something (22C room) for the few months it takes to use up a roll, instead of literally storing it in a bucket of water.

[@kamilagisicka2176]

I have that filament which stayed 1 month and I use it now, its that same stringing and it have bubbles.

[@raymondyu18ify]

Food dehydrator seems to work well for me.

[@RickyImpey]

Yes, great, whatever works. I just wished more people were drying their filament and keeping it dry. Its something that I find makes a big difference with some filament and is often overlooked.

[@slickpuller8801]

My printer YEA 4TH. OF JULY

[@DavidMulligan]

Alex Kenis researched this and found that PLA doesn't become brittle due to moisture, it's due to UV exposure. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pHnHeYaBac2pkKc and kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5jcpqedbq1sarM

[@RickyImpey]

Thanks for the links, we would all like a bit more information from the experts. I like Alex's approach to his tests.

[@Simon-ys4vx]

Your video is very nice!!! You need to research P R O M O S M!

[@t3chninja_official]

I also believe that every brand and batch of filament can behave differently depending on the moisture content percentage. I've had some pop when the moisture was high enough and another roll of the same have no issues if I left it out for a few days. My new house is in a different part of town and we've notice way less humidity in our house according to our smart thermostat. So now I don't have to worry about PLA as much as I use to but PETG is still an issue. I just left it out on our 6 day vacation and now it prints crappy. So into the homemade heated box drying method it goes and a few hours later it's good to go again.