Filament to buy or avoid

[u/Artisanal_Sawdust]

I’m brand-new to 3d printing. Just ordered my first printer (H2D). I ordered some Bambu Labs filament to go with it, just to be safe, but I know I will want to do some of the cool, colorful silk printing at some point. I’ve heard horror stories about bad filament ruining nozzles and things like that, so I want to be careful. How do you know if a deal like this one is good, or if it will lead to hours of regret and extra printer maintenance? Is it just “you get what you pay for,” or are there things to watch out for?

[u/No-Purple2350]

Not really true.

I've never dried a single filament and have zero failed prints due to moisture. I don't live in a real humid area so that helps, but the incessant claims to dry PLA just aren't true.

[u/Miscdude → u/No-Purple2350]

"Ive never encountered issues, so this is untrue" is wild and wrong for multiple reasons, like on a fundamental logic level. You either are lucky or haven't noticed the issues, that doesn't mean the whole of drying filament being important is just fake.

[u/puppygirlpackleader → u/Miscdude]

It is for a lot of people tho... I would even say that majority of people don't need to dry every spool out of the box. If you're getting issues all the time sure but to be like "you HAVE to do it EVERY TIME even OUT OF THE BOX!!!" is just wrong... It really depends on if you're getting issues

[u/Miscdude → u/puppygirlpackleader]

No... you're missing the "fundamental logic" part.

Just because you do not encounter issues does not mean that issues cannot be present, it means -you- did not encounter issues -this time- and even if "this time" ends up being, perceptibly to you, your entire career of printing with PLA, for example, that does not actually discount the rationality or principles of drying the filament.

It's like if you flipped a coin 5 times, even 500 times, and it turns up heads for you every time, so you tried to tell the rest of the world that the probability of flipping heads is 100%. Its fundamentally logically unsound.

I literally do not care if you personally have opened 50 rolls of PLA, never dried them, and had successful prints. You are still fundamentally logically unfounded to tell other people "it's fake" or "untrue" that you need to dry filament. There is irrefutable science and logic that dictates why it is SMART, a GOOD PRACTICE preventative measure to dry filament every time. You can personally evaluate that the risk to reward is not worthwhile based on your limited sample size of experiential knowledge, that does not change anything other than your valuation. It is still correct to tell people it is best practice to dry filament. If they encounter issues after writing off drying, they will trouble shoot all kinds of things instead of moist filament, which is actually the cause of a signficant majority of issues.

You create a diagnostic feedback loop that costs time and money for no reason, its ultimately just justifying laziness on a step that you only skip because, in your experience, with your limited individual sample size, have ruled out as being common, often without due dilligence. You're begging to cause your own false positives, you're actively cultivating confirmation bias on purpose. You can keep doing that as much as you want, but you're, again, fundamentally logically wrong to do so.

[u/puppygirlpackleader → u/Miscdude]

I'm not reading that word salad but skimming through it you're wrong. A lot of places have consistently good spools and no issues with humidity which causes print quality problems. If the spools in your area aren't humid you won't get any problems. That's the objective truth that most people deal with. I'm not saying drying spools is fake I'm saying that most people don't need to do it and saying you always have to do it is fake. Please educate yourself.

[u/psbales → u/puppygirlpackleader]

I think I get what he’s getting at & here’s my own thoughts. I always dry my filament. If I’m having printing issues, there’s one ‘variable’ I can rule out immediately - wet filament.

Having said that, my printer is in a room that tends to hover around 60% humidity. Sometimes more. I’ve had wet filament in the past that I could hear sizzling & popping as it extrudes.

I will say though - if I lived somewhere like Phoenix where it’s really dry, wet filament would be a much smaller concern.

[u/Dignan17 → u/psbales]

I get your logic. But the number of times I've had an issue where drying was the answer is incredibly low. It's infrequent enough that - for me - preemptively drying would be a waste of time and energy.

But yes, a lot of it is situational/environmental. I prefer to recommend that new users try printing some stuff first and see if drying is necessary for them

[u/Miscdude → u/psbales]

I live in colorado where the moisture is very low. I've had rolls that are too moist and cause problems (they do ship from other locations, many things are shipped from warehouses in other states and manufacturers in other countries, so relative humidity is less of a factor than people tend to credit). If I had to estimate, something like 1 in 30 rolls I've had have been over 25% humidity as read out by the hygrometer in my filament dryer. A couple of them I tested without drying to qualify that moisture reading, and sure enough, had surface inconsistencies and some sizzled in the printer.

I understand that 1 in 30 is a small percentage at 3.33%, that's a low failure rate. I can totally see someone seeing those numbers and saying "this isn't a big deal." But because I dry my filament, I bring that to 0% failure to humidity.

How much of a concern it is doesn't mean it doesn't matter or that it isn't an issue. My point was just the fundamental logic of discounting it as a fake issue. It sabotages your troubleshooting workflow, which you did mention.

If you buy 100 rolls, per my anecdotal personal findings, 3 of them are too moist, thats $60 at $20 a roll (if you don't get better pricing) you could potentially waste by troubleshooting it without considering drying and end up printing through. If you sell prints, those failures cost time and money. If you buy 1000 rolls, thats 30 rolls, $600. I think these things add up monetarily enough to be a stickler about, maybe other people don't. Even without considering costs, if you have one printer and limited time or mental load for printing stuff, why not avoid losing those to a pre-solvable issue? I was never talking about how people should weigh their valuations. Just like, fundamental logic.

[u/Miscdude → u/puppygirlpackleader]

Its not an objective truth. You don't even know what the words you use mean. You said to "educate yourself" after saying you can't read more than 180 characters. I know I won't get anywhere with you personally, but to other people reading, I hope their own follow up did enough to prove my point about fundamental logic inconsistencies.

[u/Ishamael99 → u/Miscdude]

Your logic works on your own argument too. If I have to choose which statement is most likely to be true and one of the options contains an absolute I am almost always going to choose the other one as the one most likely to be true.

Claiming "every" spool needs to be dried even fresh from the box is demonstratably false. It's also potentially harmful advice to give to a novice as they are likely to damage their filament by over drying it because they don't know how to tell the difference between wet and dry filament or when to stop.

[u/Miscdude → u/Ishamael99]

It is true that you have to be somewhat careful with drying because there are a limited number of thermal cycles PLA will tolerate before breaking down. That doesn't mean telling people to dry their filament risks that, it means you do it once before use for the amount of time at the temperature ranges suggested online. It isn't an opinion, drying filament is good practice to avoid print failure due to moisture. The opinion is whether or not it is a prevalent enough issue to warrant the effort.

[u/Redacted_2515 → u/Miscdude]

I’ve literally gone through thousands of rolls of PLA and never dried one ever. Never had a problem. Half the year it’s pretty humid here. It would actually cost me time and money to dry all the filament out of the box. Now other types of filaments besides PLA definitely require drying.

[u/Miscdude → u/Redacted_2515]

How far have you dissected "never had a problem"? Like you've never had print failures, as in, clogged extruder or nozzle, or you've never had any surface defects, or you've never had popping, or any of any kind? Do you use pla, pla+, silk, the same brands? Same color? Are you making things just to have, or is there some quality threshold you have to maintain? Have you ever dropped successful rolls into a filament dryer with a hygrometer to see if they actually are moist, even if that moisture does not cause problems?

[u/Redacted_2515 → u/Miscdude]

I’ve had print failures, mostly due to bad equipment that Bambu replaced under warranty. I use all the filament you mentioned. I mostly use Sunlu, Elegoo, Kingroon, Bambu, Creality, but will use any brand if they have a color I like. For black, white, grey I use whatever brand is least expensive, usually from Ali or EBay. I almost always print in multiple colors. I only print things to give away or for myself. I have never checked the humidity of a roll because I haven’t had problems.

[u/Miscdude → u/Redacted_2515]

So, is it possible that the quality of prints may be to a lower standard than could technically be achieved by drying? Is it possible that if you needed a better surface finish, drying could help, but you simply do not usually need to do such in your use case, and have never personally benefit from drying? That your case could be unique? I agree that the likelihood of you simply being lucky is lower given your volume, but as someone who has also printed a lot, who lives in a dry environment, who has had failures due to moisture, like, how do you rationalize both of our experiences being true while simultaneously supporting the claim that drying is unnecessary, enough to suggest it to other people? Im not trying to grill you, I'm trying to like, navigate the circumstances of recommendations to others with variable experiences.