The single most important part of 3D printing is keeping the filament dry. I don't know where you are in your journey, so I am presenting this for every one. This is what I do and what I use. Leaving your filament out of a container leads to it absorbing moisture. PLA is not too bad and I'll confess, I print very little PLA. For my every day, I just want to hold it parts, I use PTEG. PTEG is just as easy to print and won't sag when it is exposed to warn outside temps. Even PTEG will but it is more tolerant than PLA and for what we do, modeling, PETG should be consider the bare minimum material to work with. It can be printed with open frame printers. I hear a lot of feedback saying PLA works outside just fine. Ok. My experience is that eventually, it won't. I personally don't accept that risk and I have the tee shirt, it didn't. If you are just now beginning your journey, my recommendation is to just get started using PETG and forget about PLA. There is a new high temp PLA out and I know nothing about it. Yet.

Keeping your filament dry is not hard but very important. When you are having printing problem 85% of the time the filament is not dry enough.  Normally your filament comes dry but we have had experiences where it wasn't. We being me and my local fellas. I have a dedicated food dehydrator I modified for drying filament. It wasn't horribly expensive but when it come to working with filament, it is, the chit. I paid less than a Benjamin for it and I cut out the screens that usually hold whatever you'd normally process. Took me about an hour. It doesn't heat as much as some filaments specifications call for but my experience is that running a couple hours longer works. My dehydrator has a max temp of 74C / 165F and can run for a very long time like 36 hours or more. I have seen some materials take that long to dry enough to print such as PVA.

The next component every one needs is a spool holder inna box. Preferably a heated one. These are called AMS sometimes from Bambu Labs and others. They can be found on Amazon too. I've used both and am currently running two BL AMS HT in my work flow. They generally will hold support material and feed the left print head. These are handy and can be used to reduce the humidity and sometimes can be used to dry your filament. I don't really use them for drying but I have. I also have the 4 spool AMS' one of which is also equipped with heaters.

The main reason why these boxes are important is that they are sealed to the outside environment. My house in the summer is often over 50% RH. That is really bad for the filament. In a battle to keep my filament dry I followed a method people are turning to and I created some desiccant holders that fit in the middle of the spool. These will hold about 3 ounces of desiccant and really help to keep the RH down inside of the box. I have Hygrometers on my boxes and when the RH rises above 15% or so, I know it's time to remove the desiccant and replace with fresh. Normal RH with a good load of desiccant will be less than 10%.

I have made a bunch of the spool desiccant holders and leave them in the filament spool when I put the spool back in the sealed bag. This has kept my materials ready for use when I choose to switch to a material not in my normal rotation. I have purchased enough desiccant that I can have a 2 pound jug with refreshened desiccant in rotation. The one AMS sans heaters needs most of a jug between the spool holders and the holders specific to the AMS box. The photos show the spools holders and stages of desiccant goodedness.


I will attach the desiccant holder files in the next post. I use PETG for the holders and they will "hold up" to the drying temperatures, but just, so I don't make a habit of leaving them in the spool either solo or when I refresh the spool.

Here are the files for the desiccant holders. I print them using PETG and a 0.6mm nozzle. don't be tempted to make them nicer and use a 0.4 mm nozzle. The layers tend to interlock and finer layers don't lock so nicely.

BTW you need both parts.

Good info Mark. I'm in the thunder and lightning capital of the world (That's why we have the Tampa Bay Lightning). It also is humid here. I do have a filament dryer and use it when I notice print quality is poor.
I just wish I had a way to vacuum seal the filament, WHEN not in use. 

Quote from: Paul Taylor on September 20, 2026, 10:24:54 AMGood info Mark. I'm in the thunder and lightning capital of the world (That's why we have the Tampa Bay Lightning). It also is humid here. I do have a filament dryer and use it when I notice print quality is poor.
I just wish I had a way to vacuum seal the filament, WHEN not in use. 

I don't vacuum seal my bags even though I have a vacuum pump. With the extra large spool desiccant holder there isn't any need for that. The zip lock bags that the filament comes in, it has been my experience that squeezing out as much air as you can is sufficient. Here in KS our RH is recently running 55% - 60% in the house. When I pull the spool out after weeks or even months, the desiccant is still orange. The volume of air left in the bag is easily dried with the quantity of desiccant in the holder.

Quote from: Paul Taylor on September 20, 2026, 10:24:54 AMGood info Mark. I'm in the thunder and lightning capital of the world (That's why we have the Tampa Bay Lightning). It also is humid here. I do have a filament dryer and use it when I notice print quality is poor.
I just wish I had a way to vacuum seal the filament, WHEN not in use. 

You might try this. It's inexpensive and works well.

Resuable Vacuum Bags and Pump


Dennis

I decided to try these dry storage containers. seems to be working good so far.

https://www.printables.com/model/1249376-the-ultimate-cereal-container-filament-drybox/files

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