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What's the best way (outside of silica beads) to store filament sensitive to moisture? I feel like filament buried under a couple pounds of rice will stay pretty dry. I understand that frequently exposing the rice to humid air will cause the rice to less effective but I would only plan on opening the container to put a new spool in and replace the old one.

Chris Manning
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  • What kind of filament? PLA is pretty much unaffected by moisture, ABS endures reasonably outside, Nylons need a drybox and are best printed from the box through a bowden tube into a bowden extruder with little to no exposure to air... Storage is filament dependant. – Trish Sep 24 '18 at 11:11
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    Rice isn't actually a very good desiccant. See also Gazelle’s Guide to Water Damage: The Truth About Rice, the Galaxy and Everything. – Tom van der Zanden Sep 24 '18 at 11:39
  • @TomvanderZanden - While rice would not be optimal (compared to silica beads), it's a lot better than nothing (even by the links you've given) and is a lot cheaper/easier to obtain. I'd agree, though, silica beads as a descant isn't all that expensive and most of the factory sealed filament packages come with a packet in them already. – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Sep 24 '18 at 15:04
  • Have you guys ever had a cellphone in a bag of rice? The filament would be completely covered and dusty in a container that's hardly opened. I'll have to try it out. – Chris Manning Sep 24 '18 at 15:08
  • @ChrisManning Nothing personal, but there are much better desiccants out there. If you are hard-strapped, even Sodium Chloride (aka "salt") is better than rice. The benefit is, that salt dust - unlike rice shavings - don't contain sugar and burn in the hotend but are instead are pretty inert. look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_desiccants for other alternatives. – Trish Sep 24 '18 at 16:08
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    You might make this a proper question if you'd put the scope on "What kind of cheap, household available desiccant could be used to keep my filament dry"? – Trish Sep 24 '18 at 16:11
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    @Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Actually, it could be worse than nothing if the filament is more hygroscopic than the rice. The filament could end up pulling water out of the rice. – Tom van der Zanden Sep 24 '18 at 18:07
  • Anyone have any suggestions for vacuum bags? I feel like the most efficient solution is to go ahead and use the desicants with a good vacuum bag. I'm assuming it will last the longest vs a tub. – Chris Manning Sep 25 '18 at 04:15
  • I like this question, and there isn't a specific question like this, as such, although (as Carl suggests) this answer to Any fix for PLA prints getting more brittle over time? does appear to address the issue. However, that answer addresses PLA. Is this the filament type that you are asking about? – Greenonline Sep 25 '18 at 16:23

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If you don't want to use silica beads, or can't get any (it seems to be a very American thing, you can't buy any here in France except if you go through a specialized reseller), you can put them in a sealable plastic box with one of those big desiccants for rooms.

That's what I use for my Nylon and PVA from Ultimaker and it works like a charm. It keeps humidity at about 25% inside the plastic box, and I even managed to save a roll of PVA by letting rest in a box with one of these for a couple weeks.

Sava
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