So I have 2 filament driers, one holds 1 spool, and one holds 2.
It’s 22% RH in the house, because I fixed the furnace humidifier. (Was 12% before)
So I’ve gone years without a drier, and I had a roll of PLA that lasted for several years (I didn’t really like the colour, but I’d use it for small things, or for colour accents.)It gets more humid in the summer, but in the wintertime, I think my filaments probably dry themselves.
Still, I have a roll of TPU that printed OK straight from the box, but didn’t work so well a couple of weeks later. So… Dryboxes. Haven’t tried the TPU again, but I’ll put it in the drier for a few hours and then I’ll try again. So far the only successful TPU print has been the feet for the MP3DPv4
A filament dryer is definitely on the list of things to get, but the design of them seems moderately unconvincing. It looks like people are getting good results with them so I guess it’s just a simpler thing to solve than I would have expected.
I know I might have mentioned this in passing before once or twice, but drying does help.
I truly don’t know how dry stuff has to be - while printing my dryer says it’s around 15% RH in there, and I’ve often weighed filament before and after, sometimes with huge weight loss, sometimes with almost none after drying. I can say that drying does help stringing a lot with some brands of filament, but I have a theory that with PLA it’s somehow “conditioning” the outer layer of the filament rather than drying it - after a few sessions in the dryer it’s noticeably more brittle.
The absurdity of generalisation of “you must dry” can be highlighted by comparing @jeffeb3 's ambient humidity, with that inside my dryboxes!!
