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I have some nylon that appears to have soaked up some moisture, the prints have the texture of rice bubbles. So I'm wondering what people suggest for drying.

My priorities are:

  • cheap
  • low energy use
  • safe
  • effective

I know you can put it in the oven for four hours, but that's going to chew up a lot of electricity.

I have been leaving the spool in front of a fan heater, since the heater is on anyway, it probably only gets to 40°-50°, but since my kids spend all day sitting in front of the heater I can leave it there for an extended amount of time. Anyone have success with this method?

I had considered putting it in my car. I know even on cool days it gets pretty warm in there, but I'm not sure whether that would translate to low humidity.

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  • $\begingroup$ a freezer has a lot lower humidity than warm room air... $\endgroup$
    – dandavis
    Jun 14, 2018 at 18:50
  • $\begingroup$ Good point. I know ice cubes disappear in my freezer, I might give it a try. The better half is going to love it when I start filling the fridge with spools of plastic. $\endgroup$
    – stib
    Jun 14, 2018 at 23:17
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    $\begingroup$ word. just be sure to put an empty ziptop bag in there with it (not bagged), then bag it in-freezer before removing to prevent condensation from defeating the purpose... $\endgroup$
    – dandavis
    Jun 15, 2018 at 7:22

1 Answer 1

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If we think about drying as a process, then we need to consider some factors:

  1. we need to get same humidity level on the spool
  2. that will require a good stable temperature and an air rotation (fan)
  3. then we need to store spool in a dry area (a bag and silicone sachets will do the work)

As energy consumption by owen could be the case, if we will run it for 4h full steam, then considering that we shall have about 60 degC, will turn down the usage by at least 70%, so we could assume that 2kW heater will be on only 30% of the time (so it will be 2kw*0.3 = 0.6kW, multiply by 4h -> we have 2.4kWh, so that is about 50 cents).

If you consider the price of wasted filament - then adding 50 cents to the drying process is something that is cheap enough to save precious nylon.

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    $\begingroup$ So long as you have a kitchen oven which does not expose contents to direct flame or electric heating elements, setting the oven to 50 C or so will work as well. Presumably it'll use less total energy than a heating fan. $\endgroup$
    – Carl Witthoft
    Jun 12, 2018 at 14:24
  • $\begingroup$ that is true, but the fan runs anyway as OP states :) $\endgroup$
    – profesor79
    Jun 12, 2018 at 14:32

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