Page 1 of 1

Desiccant Cartridges: A Heads Up

Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2017 9:09 pm
by Gwhite
I've been working on my filament storage system. Because I've used them for many years for tools & such, I settled on using 40 gram desiccant cartridges like these:

https://www.amazon.com/OSG-40-Silica-De ... TBKAA?th=1

This is the same brand I had on hand, but I needed a bunch more & figured I'd hit eBay for a cheaper alternative. There are a ton of options, but the ones I settled on were these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322404260614

In quantities of 5, they are less than $4 each, vs ~ $6.20 from Amazon. Well, I received them, and the indicator showed green, so I popped them in a 250F oven for 3 hours to dry them out. When I took them out, the windows had turned opaque! I contacted the seller, who immediately issued a refund, so that was nice. He's contacting his supplier, who apparently substituted plastic for the mica windows used on the good ones.

I was going to pitch the bad ones, but I also noticed the holes were tiny, IF they were actually punched through at all. I decided to check them against a good one under a microscope. Here what the good ones look like:
Hydrosorbant Desiccant Cartridge.jpg
You can clearly see that the holes are punch through, and the clear window showing the indicator color. Here's what the cheapos look like:
Lockdown Desiccant Cartridge.jpg
You can see that the vent holes are much smaller, and many don't appear to be open at all. You can also see the opaque "window." So much for trying to save a few bucks....

In any event, if someone is looking for filament drying solutions, I thought I should pass this along.

Re: Desiccant Cartridges: A Heads Up

Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 3:54 pm
by zemlin
Thanks for sharing.
FWIW, to save a buck I buy desiccant pellets bulk.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014VM1LBE

Muslin tea bags
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A4GRZNK

and humidity indicator cards
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KISZT32

I throw a couple bags of desiccant and an indicator card into a zip-lock bag with a filament spool.
I elected not to get desiccant with indicator as I saw a lot of reports of the orange/green going bad after just a few drying cycles - and I guess the old pink/blue has been deemed hazardous. I dry the desiccant in the bags in a microwave on fairly low power for a few minutes. Been doing this for years and it works well.

Re: Desiccant Cartridges: A Heads Up

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2017 5:20 am
by iteration1
Great tip Zemlin! The bags you linked is just what I've been looking for.

thx