Desiccant Cartridges: A Heads Up
Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2017 9:09 pm
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:
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:
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.
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:
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:
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.