3D printer filament needs to stay dry. Most people recommend it needs to be kept at a humidity somewhere between 30 and 50% relative, with a goal to be as low as possible. You can dry filament, but it's much easier to just keep it dry in the first place.
I keep my 3D Printer (a Prusa Mini+) in my garage, because I'm terrified of flooding my house with the fumes. My garage has a mini-split in it (I should do a whole blog post about that...), but I don't run it all the time. That means my garage fluctuates in humidity.
I've seen a whole host of suggestions for how to store your 3D printer filament, from popular dry boxes to filament vacuum bags. I've kind of found that all unnecessarily expensive. I've found that the perfect solution for me is to use:
- A 5 gallon bucket (I get mine from the hardware store)
- Some 5 gallon bucket food storage lids
- Some rechargeable silica desiccant bags
I just pop a couple of rechargeable silica desiccant bags into the bottom of the bucket, and put the filament in. I've found that 5 gallon buckets are the perfect diameter for 3D Printer filament, and I can fit about 4 rolls of filament in each 5 gallon bucket. In all the time I've been using this system, I haven't had to recharge my desiccant bags once!
