hi guys/gals saw a youtube a long time ago making a box to keep the humidity out (and keeping your spools in it) with a tube running to the 3d printer.
well, it has been a few years - are filaments still hydroscopic? and if some are, which ones?
the reason i ask is because a friend of mine (lives near the beach - so a lot of moisture in the air) is really into 3D printing, and he has never heard or experienced water in the filament - in other words, he takes no precautions and has had no problems.
Yes, this is still very much a problem, and will continue to be one. It’s simply a chemistry fact. PLA you can usually tell because it gets brittle. I’m drying some ABS now which I hope fixes some severe extrusion issues.
I’ll print for weeks without having to worry, then I’ll hear crackling during prints and notice the quality has degraded, and then I’ll dry the spool. Your mileage will vary of course due to the humidity where you store your filament and print.
it will also change a bit with different brands of filament. because every compony uses a different formula some will be more prone to absorbing moisture then others. its also a good idea to keep open filament in a box to stop it from accumulating dust, witch can cause clogs while printing. (especially if your going to have it in a high dust environment such as near a CNC machine )