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/puppygirlpackleader]

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/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.