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What's the best way (outside of silica beads) to store filament sensitive to moisture? I feel like filament buried under a couple pounds of rice will stay pretty dry. I understand that frequently exposing the rice to humid air will cause the rice to less effective but I would only plan on opening the container to put a new spool in and replace the old one.

Chris Manning
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  • What kind of filament? PLA is pretty much unaffected by moisture, ABS endures reasonably outside, Nylons need a drybox and are best printed from the box through a bowden tube into a bowden extruder with little to no exposure to air... Storage is filament dependant. – Trish Sep 24 '18 at 11:11
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    [Rice isn't actually a very good desiccant.](http://www.lsl.usu.edu/files/Angela-Hayden-poster.pdf) See also [Gazelle’s Guide to Water Damage: The Truth About Rice, the Galaxy and Everything](https://www.gazelle.com/thehorn/2014/05/06/gazelles-guide-water-damage-truth-rice-galaxy-everything/). – Tom van der Zanden Sep 24 '18 at 11:39
  • @TomvanderZanden - While rice would not be optimal (compared to silica beads), it's a lot better than nothing (even by the links you've given) and is a lot cheaper/easier to obtain. I'd agree, though, silica beads as a descant isn't all that expensive and most of the factory sealed filament packages come with a packet in them already. – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Sep 24 '18 at 15:04
  • Have you guys ever had a cellphone in a bag of rice? The filament would be completely covered and dusty in a container that's hardly opened. I'll have to try it out. – Chris Manning Sep 24 '18 at 15:08
  • @ChrisManning Nothing personal, but there are much better desiccants out there. If you are hard-strapped, even Sodium Chloride (aka "salt") is better than rice. The benefit is, that salt dust - unlike rice shavings - don't contain sugar and burn in the hotend but are instead are pretty inert. look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_desiccants for other alternatives. – Trish Sep 24 '18 at 16:08
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    You might make this a proper question if you'd put the scope on "What kind of cheap, household available desiccant could be used to keep my filament dry"? – Trish Sep 24 '18 at 16:11
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    @Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Actually, it *could* be worse than nothing if the filament is more hygroscopic than the rice. The filament could end up pulling water out of the rice. – Tom van der Zanden Sep 24 '18 at 18:07
  • Anyone have any suggestions for vacuum bags? I feel like the most efficient solution is to go ahead and use the desicants with a good vacuum bag. I'm assuming it will last the longest vs a tub. – Chris Manning Sep 25 '18 at 04:15
  • I like this question, and there isn't a specific question like this, as such, although (as Carl suggests) this [answer](https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/1399/any-fix-for-pla-prints-getting-more-brittle-over-time#answer-1400) to [Any fix for PLA prints getting more brittle over time?](https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/1399/any-fix-for-pla-prints-getting-more-brittle-over-time) does appear to address the issue. However, that answer addresses PLA. Is this the filament type that you are asking about? – Greenonline Sep 25 '18 at 16:23

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If you don't want to use silica beads, or can't get any (it seems to be a very American thing, you can't buy any here in France except if you go through a specialized reseller), you can put them in a sealable plastic box with one of those big desiccants for rooms.

That's what I use for my Nylon and PVA from Ultimaker and it works like a charm. It keeps humidity at about 25% inside the plastic box, and I even managed to save a roll of PVA by letting rest in a box with one of these for a couple weeks.

Sava
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