16
votes
Accepted
Does filament have to be stored in an airtight environment?
It makes a difference where I live, and I'm not in a particularly humid climate (California). When printing with wet filament, you'll sometimes hear it popping and see steam coming out of the ...
- 688
8
votes
Accepted
How do I know when filament is getting old, and what things can I do to correct for it?
The primary issue with long-term exposure of filament to the environment is that it will absorb water moisture from the air. When a filament that has absorbed water is passing though the hot end of a ...
- 798
8
votes
Does filament have to be stored in an airtight environment?
Humidity may be the problem.
Humidity tends to degrade filament, making it weaker. If you leave a coil of filament out, over time it will be exposed to humidity. I have yet to hear of this happening ...
- 1,326
6
votes
How long can you leave filament in the extruder
Most filaments you can leave in the extruder indefinitely without any ill effects.
There are some filaments that need to be stored away from moisture, particularly Nylon, because they absorb moisture ...
- 14.7k
6
votes
Does filament have to be stored in an airtight environment?
In most cases, you should be fine with ABS or PLA out of an airtight container. If you're worried about it, throw a few desiccant packets where you store your filament.
However, some specialty ...
- 523
4
votes
Is PETG sensetive to moisture?
Here are some pics I took a while back of a test piece, single-wall cube with no infill, before (right) and after (left) drying PETG:
and again without flash:
As you can see, the undried filament ...
4
votes
Does filament have to be stored in an airtight environment?
Normally you should check and follow guidelines provided by filament manufacturer or please contact them for more details. It can vary as not all environments are the same. For example frequent ...
- 2,675
4
votes
Does filament have to be stored in an airtight environment?
I haven't had any other issues storing it in the open, but keeping it in an airtight environment (especially if you live in a humid environment) keeps it moisture free, which can effect print quality. ...
- 235
4
votes
How do I know when filament is getting old, and what things can I do to correct for it?
Moisture creeps into the filament when PLA is exposed for a long time to a humid environment. This is audible like popping bubbles when heated in the hotend and does worsen the print quality. The ...
- 33.6k
3
votes
How long can you leave filament in the extruder
If you "planing" to leave the filament there for months, then it would be a good idea to store it away, but for most filaments it is not a big deal to be stay loaded... provided that the humidity is ...
- 658
3
votes
Humidity sensor says drybox isn't that dry - are my expectations unrealistic or is something wrong?
Track humidity graph over days (one measurement every 3 hours is fine). Be careful that polling the sensor too often may warm it up and cause inaccuracies, the temperature dependence is quite strong. ...
- 3,968
2
votes
Vacuum storage bags?
I've read people are using them, makes sense, the less air you contain, the less moisture would be in the bag. Myself, I'm using IKEA ziplock bags (and moisture absorbing sachets), they come in many ...
- 33.6k
1
vote
Humidity sensor says drybox isn't that dry - are my expectations unrealistic or is something wrong?
Alright, there were some good suggestion in the comments, and I gave them a look, but I think I solved this myself.
I think, after a lot more testing, that it was some combination of stratification ...
- 141
1
vote
Accepted
What ambient humidity should one target for filament storage?
The closer to zero humidity the better. Maybe a garage or some place protected from rare precipitation outside would be better. If one room is considerably less humid than the others, you could use ...
- 2,218
1
vote
Vacuum storage bags?
I have a commercially available product known as a foodsaver (TM) which removes the air from the bag and really squeezes tightly around the spool. The width of the bags I use barely takes the typical ...
- 11.1k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible