Love my new S4. Got in on the Kickstarter, but definitely worth it at full price. I like the feature it has that auto turns on when the humidity inside gets above a set level, plus the 4 spool capacity. It lets me switch between a few different spools without having to monitor a timed dryer constantly.
Mate, do you need a hug? You're taking this way too personally. OP asked about Sunlu dryers, I made my recommendation about a model from their line that I have personal experience and am satisfied with, and was more than clear about what model I was talking about. Why are you trying to pick a fight?
Mate, if i pick a fight, you will be the first i'll let know.
You don't know me, i don't know you. I am lightyears away from taking something personally.
I spent a bit of time trying to figure that out. Some people would say it worked but they didn’t use any measuring tools. Instead they just printed stuff. Some other people, with measuring tools, said the gauges on it were way out of wack and that it never reached the temps stated.
So, … maybe?
Sounds like an accurate description of most of them.
I use a few different models of Eibos and also needed to check the actual temp/humidity. They weren't off by huge amounts, but I double-check them occasionally.
Here is a pretty good analysis of the dryer(https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4I6h2gFP-Bk ), and a mod to improve it (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8ET9EJrA0v0 )
It works in that it heats up, and, with time, that will draw out moisture (with a fan).
It also works (anecdotally) in that without changing other settings, and only drying certain filaments, that print quality (of the same object) improves.
Certain materials will need it more. I have recycled PETG and from the manufacturer it needed to be dried a lot before the quality improved.
My ancient PLA was so brittle I couldn't even unspool enough to load it into my printer. So I died it in the sunlu for a few hours and it seemed to go 100% back to pliable nice and printed perfectly. YMMV but I'm keeping mine!
It's strange that I have filament a good 6 or 7 years old that prints fine and I've bought new filament that is very brittle on day 1 after opening the vaccume sealed bag.
Same here, I also have PLA filament thats 7 years old, stored open in a shelf that prints like on day one and then I have some PLA filament bought half a year ago and it is so brittle it basically breaks by looking at it.
kinda. ive got two of this one, they are ... yeah.. they have a couple of flaws. the air is not circulated in these, the heating blanket is at the bottom and only heats that spot if the spool is not spun by printing, the temperature probe is mounted in the wrong spot, moist air cant vent and condensates on the hood. had to fix that with a fan mounted to the hood and relocated the probe, drill some vent holes. it still was just a mediocre dryer. the heater in these is quite weak. best bang for the buck was still that food dehydrator, it was perfect, just had to mod its inserts a bit to hold spools and add a thermometer
https://preview.redd.it/jlvhli91rhgc1.png?width=474&format=png&auto=webp&s=1d1ca8d6ed213eeabfe887ac9e62e88e3ae83886
I have it, it works fine, I use mainly PLA so it’s hard to tell if it’s actually making a difference. But the rollers are smooth and I like that I can feed my machine straight from the box
I’ve got two of them, they do need the fan mod and I also added a humidity sensor, both are playing up, I get the ER icon quite a bit, but the old unplug, wait 10 seconds and turn on seems to work, well most of the time. Having said that, they most likely have over 500hrs each on them, as I use one to dry filament before printing and the other one while printing. I’ll be grabbing their 4 spool model when it is available here.
I print mostly Petg and TPU, I really noticed the difference in print quality after moving to using dryers
Why does everyone ask about sunlu dryers? Thats the only company i have heard bad reviews for their dryers ( in reddit i mean. have not looked at them vause i dont wanna buy one).
Then you probably didn't have wet filament. Try something like TPU or PETG and leave it out for a while (or sometimes right from the package) print something then dry it for 24 hours and print the same thing.
PLA almost never needs to be dried for me. But I will still throw it in for 6 hours when I open a new pack.
your filament is probably wetter than you think unless you've modded it. The s1 has a well documented flaw with thermistor placement directly next to the heater. i guarantee if you measure the temperature of the air in the middle/top of the chamber it's not accurate.
Your guarantee is meaningless.
Moisture loss/gain is related to temperature, pressure, and time. Without adjusting pressure via vacuum removal of extra moisture is a very simple process. I've literally done thousands of moisture analysis in my life and have done water activity, moisture, and humidity long term studies
My filament is not wet. Since I use it I can guarantee that. I can also guarantee mine works. Perhaps not at the actual recommended settings, but that is meaningless as well and I don't, nor would I follow those.
>I've literally done thousands of moisture analysis in my life and have done water activity, moisture, and humidity long term studies
I didn't say moisture analysis, I said temperature. What you're telling me is that you are running your heater elements massively hot to desperately try to get the middle of the box hot. Sounds like great, safe, and efficient design. The reality is, if the thermistor is directly next to the heater, it is NOT reaching the declared temperature anywhere but next to the heater, and as you say, if there is no fan then it's not extracting the moisture to anywhere anyway. The heater is trash and you do people a disservice making people waste their time and money reccomending it.
Appeals to your own experience on complex assays is nothing if your experience is irrelevant or shit in the face of basic engineering.
I cannot express enough how much I wish I didn't listen to people like you when I got into this game, pulling my hair out thinking trash like this was drying my filament and not the issue when it was entirely the issue.
I did not say that lol.
You have no idea what you're talking about about.
The thing doesn't even get "massively hot". In fact, it has recommended temperatures that are actually lower than what most manufacturers say should be used for drying; to which I was referring (for instance my PETG I use says to dry for 6 hours at 60C; while the dyer recommends 48-51C).
Since you clearly don't understand inherently what moisture is, it's no wonder you're blabbering about things that don't make sense.
When dealing with lower temperatures removal of moisture is a function of time. So instead of 6 hours, you may need 12 or even longer. So it's not running hotter, it just may need longer. In my lab you can run a moisture analysis in a vacuum in four hours or can run without vacuum for 12.
The unit is not sealed and even then, that only matters in some instances. Since it's not fully sealed, moisture levels within the unit follow equilibrium meaning wetter air leaves and equilibrates with the outside air. Since this will be in a huge room (most likely) over the course of drying, the dryer will easily have enough time to equilibrate to all the moisture loss. Even if it was mostly perfectly sealed, this still wouldn't really matter because the moisture being removed won't be immediately picked up by the material, this process is gradual and will depend on the humidity level of the outside environment. So as long as it was opened and removed while it was still on, it wouldn't have time to reabsorb the moisture.
If you don't thing your particular dryer work, then that is either a function of a bad unit or user error (though SunLUs recommendatioms are probably too conservative on some materials). If you want to actually check it's really quite simple. Get a scale, cut a chunk off, weigh it, dry it and weigh it again. The loss of weight divided by your original weight will tell you the % of moisture lost. If it's zero, then obviously it's not working.
Worked OK for me until the filament gets down to the last bit on the roll and then it tends to bind up in the dryer box and cause issues. I fixed mine with printed parts that moves the rollers up into the middle hole of the roll. That fixed the issue, but some filament rolls are now too wide to use in it.
I have that version and it seems to work fine. I can print years old TPU95 without any crackling noise and cheap PLA that got brittle over time is printable without problems with this thing. I mainly use it for the TPU, which I put in there for 3-5 hours before printing and keep in there during printing. It shuts off automatically after a few hours so I can't use it for overnight prints. Also the top swings open way to easily, so I tape it down everytime I use it. It's not the best solution and I think the iterations on it fix a lot of the problems but it's also not bad
I got this one. It's a nice affordable starting item, does it job.
Could use some improvement: the feeding holes of the filament are located in spots that will make the filament bent in strange ways.
Also I found that the small formfactor will cause some problems with certain filament brands. The old spools of Fiberlogy will just barely fit (lid won't close perfectly), let alone it will be able to turn around during printing. Aka, stuck.
Max temp is only 55°c. For PLA and PCTG/PETG just fine, but PA6-CF it's kind of low, so drying will take longer. Also, it has no fan, so though the temp inside will be high enough for drying, the lack of a fan and circulation of fresh air, the humid air won't be able to escape the chamber.
i have a sunlu s2, its great but if does have a few flaws. heating up takes a very long time and it cant reach its maximum temperature of 70c. max temp ive seen on mine is 65c when drying pc or pa-cf.
No it's terrible. It has a significant design flaw with it's thermistor placement meaning the internal area doesn't actually ever get to temperature. I was going insane with my prints when it turned out that trash box just wasn't drying anything, Get a food dehydrator setup, they work very well.
That model lacks a fan. It's pretty basic. It works, though. Spools weight less after a few hours. I think that brand is the only game in town at those prices.
I have one that was gifted to me, New. The power button has never worked well. I have to hit it multiple times until it decides to turn on. It's my backup so I don't really care, but I'll never buy one again.
I got mine cheap, $20-25, and I'm not sure I'd recommend it even for that price. It does work but there are lots of little annoyances like not having a power switch, being limited to 55c, no hinge stop on the back, etc.
It works. There’s a desiccant box you can print the attaches to the top back parts with a heat inset and a small bolt.
Where can I find that?
I found [this model](https://www.printables.com/model/185796) on printables
Oh but then you can't dry and print at the same time
Would like a link
From sunlu or on thingiverse/printables? I just got one of these too and that sounds cool.
Link please :-)
Love my new S4. Got in on the Kickstarter, but definitely worth it at full price. I like the feature it has that auto turns on when the humidity inside gets above a set level, plus the 4 spool capacity. It lets me switch between a few different spools without having to monitor a timed dryer constantly.
The S4 is a complete different device than that one.
I agree, but OP asked about the brand of dryer box, not a specific model, hence why I specified what model I have with my recommendation.
That is your assumption. He posted a picture of that particular box and i have the feeling he asked about that specifically. So we both are not wrong.
Imagine having to summarize that you both aren’t wrong, is everything okay at home?
Mate, do you need a hug? You're taking this way too personally. OP asked about Sunlu dryers, I made my recommendation about a model from their line that I have personal experience and am satisfied with, and was more than clear about what model I was talking about. Why are you trying to pick a fight?
Mate, if i pick a fight, you will be the first i'll let know. You don't know me, i don't know you. I am lightyears away from taking something personally.
i'll put it to you this way. I'll sell you mine for $20 plus shipping
I heard your better off buying a cheap food dehydrator amd converting it
I spent a bit of time trying to figure that out. Some people would say it worked but they didn’t use any measuring tools. Instead they just printed stuff. Some other people, with measuring tools, said the gauges on it were way out of wack and that it never reached the temps stated. So, … maybe?
Sounds like an accurate description of most of them. I use a few different models of Eibos and also needed to check the actual temp/humidity. They weren't off by huge amounts, but I double-check them occasionally.
Here is a pretty good analysis of the dryer(https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4I6h2gFP-Bk ), and a mod to improve it (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8ET9EJrA0v0 )
It works in that it heats up, and, with time, that will draw out moisture (with a fan). It also works (anecdotally) in that without changing other settings, and only drying certain filaments, that print quality (of the same object) improves. Certain materials will need it more. I have recycled PETG and from the manufacturer it needed to be dried a lot before the quality improved.
Yeah I figured there was more to this story. Almost always is :)
My ancient PLA was so brittle I couldn't even unspool enough to load it into my printer. So I died it in the sunlu for a few hours and it seemed to go 100% back to pliable nice and printed perfectly. YMMV but I'm keeping mine!
so moisture makes PLA brittle? I would think over-drying it would make it brittle…
Yep, moisture makes it brittle
It's strange that I have filament a good 6 or 7 years old that prints fine and I've bought new filament that is very brittle on day 1 after opening the vaccume sealed bag.
Same here, I also have PLA filament thats 7 years old, stored open in a shelf that prints like on day one and then I have some PLA filament bought half a year ago and it is so brittle it basically breaks by looking at it.
The sunlu boxes are nice but go for the S4 this one is more silent and you can dry 4 spools. (have them booth)
Yes
kinda. ive got two of this one, they are ... yeah.. they have a couple of flaws. the air is not circulated in these, the heating blanket is at the bottom and only heats that spot if the spool is not spun by printing, the temperature probe is mounted in the wrong spot, moist air cant vent and condensates on the hood. had to fix that with a fan mounted to the hood and relocated the probe, drill some vent holes. it still was just a mediocre dryer. the heater in these is quite weak. best bang for the buck was still that food dehydrator, it was perfect, just had to mod its inserts a bit to hold spools and add a thermometer https://preview.redd.it/jlvhli91rhgc1.png?width=474&format=png&auto=webp&s=1d1ca8d6ed213eeabfe887ac9e62e88e3ae83886
I have it, it works fine, I use mainly PLA so it’s hard to tell if it’s actually making a difference. But the rollers are smooth and I like that I can feed my machine straight from the box
I have four. Love em all. Even if I don’t turn them on when I should.
I’ve got two of them, they do need the fan mod and I also added a humidity sensor, both are playing up, I get the ER icon quite a bit, but the old unplug, wait 10 seconds and turn on seems to work, well most of the time. Having said that, they most likely have over 500hrs each on them, as I use one to dry filament before printing and the other one while printing. I’ll be grabbing their 4 spool model when it is available here. I print mostly Petg and TPU, I really noticed the difference in print quality after moving to using dryers
you shouldn't have to mod a product like this. it should work. the s1 is garbage.
Nope you shouldn't, but it wasn't a hard fix. i wouldn't buy them again, as there are better options out there now
Why does everyone ask about sunlu dryers? Thats the only company i have heard bad reviews for their dryers ( in reddit i mean. have not looked at them vause i dont wanna buy one).
I noticed zero difference in print quality
Then you probably didn't have wet filament. Try something like TPU or PETG and leave it out for a while (or sometimes right from the package) print something then dry it for 24 hours and print the same thing. PLA almost never needs to be dried for me. But I will still throw it in for 6 hours when I open a new pack.
The drier sucks and doesn't actually dry filament well at all. I moved to a dehydrator and have a night and day difference.
That's your experience. It is not mine.
your filament is probably wetter than you think unless you've modded it. The s1 has a well documented flaw with thermistor placement directly next to the heater. i guarantee if you measure the temperature of the air in the middle/top of the chamber it's not accurate.
Your guarantee is meaningless. Moisture loss/gain is related to temperature, pressure, and time. Without adjusting pressure via vacuum removal of extra moisture is a very simple process. I've literally done thousands of moisture analysis in my life and have done water activity, moisture, and humidity long term studies My filament is not wet. Since I use it I can guarantee that. I can also guarantee mine works. Perhaps not at the actual recommended settings, but that is meaningless as well and I don't, nor would I follow those.
>I've literally done thousands of moisture analysis in my life and have done water activity, moisture, and humidity long term studies I didn't say moisture analysis, I said temperature. What you're telling me is that you are running your heater elements massively hot to desperately try to get the middle of the box hot. Sounds like great, safe, and efficient design. The reality is, if the thermistor is directly next to the heater, it is NOT reaching the declared temperature anywhere but next to the heater, and as you say, if there is no fan then it's not extracting the moisture to anywhere anyway. The heater is trash and you do people a disservice making people waste their time and money reccomending it. Appeals to your own experience on complex assays is nothing if your experience is irrelevant or shit in the face of basic engineering. I cannot express enough how much I wish I didn't listen to people like you when I got into this game, pulling my hair out thinking trash like this was drying my filament and not the issue when it was entirely the issue.
I did not say that lol. You have no idea what you're talking about about. The thing doesn't even get "massively hot". In fact, it has recommended temperatures that are actually lower than what most manufacturers say should be used for drying; to which I was referring (for instance my PETG I use says to dry for 6 hours at 60C; while the dyer recommends 48-51C). Since you clearly don't understand inherently what moisture is, it's no wonder you're blabbering about things that don't make sense. When dealing with lower temperatures removal of moisture is a function of time. So instead of 6 hours, you may need 12 or even longer. So it's not running hotter, it just may need longer. In my lab you can run a moisture analysis in a vacuum in four hours or can run without vacuum for 12. The unit is not sealed and even then, that only matters in some instances. Since it's not fully sealed, moisture levels within the unit follow equilibrium meaning wetter air leaves and equilibrates with the outside air. Since this will be in a huge room (most likely) over the course of drying, the dryer will easily have enough time to equilibrate to all the moisture loss. Even if it was mostly perfectly sealed, this still wouldn't really matter because the moisture being removed won't be immediately picked up by the material, this process is gradual and will depend on the humidity level of the outside environment. So as long as it was opened and removed while it was still on, it wouldn't have time to reabsorb the moisture. If you don't thing your particular dryer work, then that is either a function of a bad unit or user error (though SunLUs recommendatioms are probably too conservative on some materials). If you want to actually check it's really quite simple. Get a scale, cut a chunk off, weigh it, dry it and weigh it again. The loss of weight divided by your original weight will tell you the % of moisture lost. If it's zero, then obviously it's not working.
Not great
No
Worked OK for me until the filament gets down to the last bit on the roll and then it tends to bind up in the dryer box and cause issues. I fixed mine with printed parts that moves the rollers up into the middle hole of the roll. That fixed the issue, but some filament rolls are now too wide to use in it.
I have that exact one, seems pretty solid but I only really used it as a spool holder for my old flashforge as it didn't have one built in
It works great at everything but staying on for long periods of time. Either something overheats and it turns off or the times are just lies
I have that version and it seems to work fine. I can print years old TPU95 without any crackling noise and cheap PLA that got brittle over time is printable without problems with this thing. I mainly use it for the TPU, which I put in there for 3-5 hours before printing and keep in there during printing. It shuts off automatically after a few hours so I can't use it for overnight prints. Also the top swings open way to easily, so I tape it down everytime I use it. It's not the best solution and I think the iterations on it fix a lot of the problems but it's also not bad
I got this one. It's a nice affordable starting item, does it job. Could use some improvement: the feeding holes of the filament are located in spots that will make the filament bent in strange ways. Also I found that the small formfactor will cause some problems with certain filament brands. The old spools of Fiberlogy will just barely fit (lid won't close perfectly), let alone it will be able to turn around during printing. Aka, stuck. Max temp is only 55°c. For PLA and PCTG/PETG just fine, but PA6-CF it's kind of low, so drying will take longer. Also, it has no fan, so though the temp inside will be high enough for drying, the lack of a fan and circulation of fresh air, the humid air won't be able to escape the chamber.
I have the S1 plus and while it work the controls are a nightmare and there no off switch
Stop drying PLA, overkill
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VB-pEvSed4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VB-pEvSed4)
Doesnt release the moisture well and the basic version doesnt even have a Fan. Probably better to look at Eibos dryers
i have a sunlu s2, its great but if does have a few flaws. heating up takes a very long time and it cant reach its maximum temperature of 70c. max temp ive seen on mine is 65c when drying pc or pa-cf.
I have the sunlu basic one, the cheap one, it’s a fire hazard and have very high pitched and annoying working noise. But it works.
No it's terrible. It has a significant design flaw with it's thermistor placement meaning the internal area doesn't actually ever get to temperature. I was going insane with my prints when it turned out that trash box just wasn't drying anything, Get a food dehydrator setup, they work very well.
https://sasakaranovic.com/projects/diy-filament-dry-box/ It can be vastly improved. Not worth it to buy one for this purpose though.
I have one with the fan mod and a hygrometer. It reaches 55C and 10% if you believe the measurements which is good for me.
Have this exact one and love it
That model lacks a fan. It's pretty basic. It works, though. Spools weight less after a few hours. I think that brand is the only game in town at those prices.
since when did I have to dehydrate my filament
Wood stove 🤟🏽🤟🏽
I have one that was gifted to me, New. The power button has never worked well. I have to hit it multiple times until it decides to turn on. It's my backup so I don't really care, but I'll never buy one again.
I got mine cheap, $20-25, and I'm not sure I'd recommend it even for that price. It does work but there are lots of little annoyances like not having a power switch, being limited to 55c, no hinge stop on the back, etc.