Is what I have used for 10+ years. Dry them out in the oven in the middle of summer and the end of fall. I am convinced they have saved me from some damage.
Agreed, we have the reusable silica canisters that we keep in our gun safe where we also keep important documents. We also have a rechargeable mini dehumidifier in there as well. The canisters get recharged in the oven and the mini dehumidifier plugs into the wall to recharge. Our basement is pretty moist and these things keep our gun safe super crispy dry inside.
Dry-Packs 750 Gram DP750CAN Silica Gel Canister Dehumidifier - Moisture Indicating https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B003QZ6PZ0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_T0H4J2WMCZJAYHKK4T5P
You can get desiccants for your Dry-Packs 750 Gram Silica Gel Canister Dehumidifier - Moisture Indicating https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003QZ6PZ0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_AWKMABHX8NVDKPHH3MNQ
Something like that, you can bake them to recharge them so they last awhile
Do you live near a lake or the ocean or something? That may explain extra humidity near you
I picked up one of these for my cabinet. It can be recharged in the oven and changes colour as it absorbs moisture, however that apparently isn't a reliable indicator so I just recharge it every now and then regardless. I've yet to see rust spots on any of my firearms.
I know nothing about filament and humidity, I don't even own a 3d printer. Anyone have any definitive guide on the subject?
I wonder if just storing filament in a box with some well dried silica gel would do the job of drying it out pretty well and keeping it that way. You can 'reactivate' (dry out) by putting silica gel in the oven. I imagine just keeping a bunch of filament in a plastic storage box with some silica gel would probably eliminate the need for the fancy setups, maybe use a clear sealed box with a humidity meter in the box.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003QZ6PZ0 Silica gel.
A desiccant like this one will do wonders for moisture inside your car. My seals are not great and I used to have serious foggy window troubles but with that product I don't fog up even if I jump in the car after walking my dog through the rain.
If it's on the outside you can use your wipers until blasting air clears it.
There are a couple different ways to do it depending on how often you want to do maintenance. I have used Dry-Packs dehumidifiers before but in such a wet environment it gets used up quickly and needs recharging every week or so. That specific one has nice mass for the price but even after baking to remove moisture the color changing beads didn't properly work so I had no idea if they could be re-charged.
The way I do it now is just using a box fan (but I am in a dry place). I vacate any bottles to the main fridge and pull the kegs out (not needed if you have your hoses setup perfect). Turn off the power to the kegerator/freezer and just blast air into it on highest setting with the fan. For kegerators or mini-fridges I just leave the door open and set the fan in front. For the chest freezer I can just set it flat on the top with the lid off. It doesn't take up any extra space like the canisters do and doesn't take much time. Put stuff back and let it chill back down and your usually back to normal in less than 8 hours. I do this once a month and I don't find any mold or other issues. Though it doesn't hurt to use a spritz of starsan water in a spray bottle once in a while.
If you get the kind for safes you can recharge it in the oven. I do for my gun safe all the time.
this one is what I have but the only gel colored is the one in the lid. When baking, the steam rises and the gel in the cap never actually dries properly if you keep it vertical. Need to test it more with drying horizontal or even upside down to see if the colors reset properly.
I had to break this into another comment due to per comment character limits.
The following previously belonged to the above comment, but was moved here due to the above mentioned limts.
> Something you can do now: Build a filament drybox. Seriously, some filaments such as certain Nylons can go bad in just a few hours, depending on ambient humidity levels. All filaments are susceptible to moisture absorption, and ideally should be kept in something like a Spannerhands holder, even while printing, but at worst you should store them in a big plastic tub with silica gel beads to keep them dry.
> If I had to give one last tip, don't stock up on too much filament yet! Seriously! I thought I would be printing mostly in PLA but now that I've had a few weeks to work with it, I've learned I prefer PETG more, and now I have so much extra PLA! I'm sure I'll find something to do with it, but for my final tip I would add "And get a good variety!". Services like MakerBox (referral) let you try a bunch of different filaments on the cheap. It's not a ton of each filament (about 50g), but I love the variety of materials and colors.
Original second level comment begins:
Final Tips: Bonus Round!
There are tons of other accessories you can get ahead of time. None of these are necessary, but are small things you might end up using (or wanting to try :P), and should help get you started getting a wishlist together. Besides the ones mentioned in this comment (and the one that precedes it) already:
Edit: Upon rereading my comment I realized I have a problem.. I own every product I just listed..
^^Except ^^for ^^the ^^nozzles ^^kit ^^so ^^it's ^^not ^^that ^^big ^^of ^^a ^^problem, ^^right?... ^^Right?!
Dry-Packs 750 Gram DP750CAN Silica Gel Canister Dehumidifier - Moisture Indicating https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003QZ6PZ0/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_i_00V2FW7QHXBT0ZJEVGBQ
everyone is saying silica, but there are these rechargeable ones that I use for my safe and camper. You can dry them out in the oven after they absorb too much!
https://www.amazon.com/Dry-Packs-Gram-Silica-Canister-Dehumidifier/dp/B003QZ6PZ0
I use one of these silica gel-filled canisters and store it with all of my filament in a large container bin like this. This keeps all of my filament dry for less than the cost of a single dry box.
I have had success with this in my filament storage boxes:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003QZ6PZ0/
When the top turns green, pop it in the oven for a few hours to dry it back out. I do it a couple of times a year.
It won't do much for a couple reasons. First, none of those cabinets are "air tight", so a lot of the drier air is just leaking back out. It will help a little bit but you'll never drop the humidity very low (depending on how dry your air normally is, looks to be 33% rH on the accurite - toss that up in the top for a bit and see how much it drops, but I'd be really surprised if you're even at 25%). Second and more importantly, the ratings on those things is ridiculous. I looked up the "Eva-Dry" on Amazon and I see similar models to the one you have are rated at 333 sq. ft, which is just insane. Get something like this canister which can actually keep an area that sized dry for a while. You'll see the Eva-Dry is is probably spent within a few days if you actually use a humidity monitor up there. A little harder to recharge, but you can always use something like this to refill it, then it will last you forever, and you'll have as close to dry filament as you can without gaskets to seal the upper compartment. Optimally you would add a latch to the top door, put gaskets around the seams so the door is close to air tight when closed, and place a small fan in the upper compartment to keep the air circulating. This would get your air very very dry, which would be great for Nylon and PETG and other moisture sensitive filaments.
Alternatively, pick up a food dehydrator and modify it so you can just dry your filaments before printing. That's a lot easier and is fine for most filaments, but can take a few hours to actually dry the filament out to a reasonable level, depending on how much moisture is absorbed (Nylon and PETG tend to be the worst offenders, but all filaments will absorb SOME moisture).
There are special reusable colour-changing silica gel packs that you can buy.
They start out one colour - like red, but once they become saturated with water and no longer work, they turn blue. Then you dry them out and use them all over again.
I would recommend picking up some of these to keep with your art materials.
If they never turn colour, you know your supplies are safe.
If they turn very slowly, you'll know you don't have too much to worry about.
If they turn right away, you know you need to redesign your art storage ASAP.
more info: https://www.protoparadigm.com/news-updates/recharging-reusable-indicating-silica-desiccants/
non-affiliate amazon link: https://www.amazon.ca/Dry-Packs-Silica-Canister-Dehumidifier-Moisture-Indicating/dp/B003QZ6PZ0
I got this from amazon, which I have seen somewhere here in /r/3dprinting recomended
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003QZ6PZ0/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Enough of these, and any reasonably tight cabinet becomes a dessicator.
I have used a bigger metal containers more desiccant for the money and a good container http://www.amazon.com/Dry-Packs-Gram-Silica-Canister-Dehumidifier/dp/B003QZ6PZ0/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1464254806&sr=8-12&keywords=dessicant
Someone mentioned putting Mimi litter in a sock: http://www.amazon.com/Mimi-Litter-Crystals-Absorbent-Lightweight/dp/B00I6N5WCE/