Ruin a few prints by using moist filament and you’ll quickly appreciate the need for a filament cabinet. Filament storage or drying cabinets are such an integral part of 3D printing that most professional and industrial FDM printers come with them embedded or attached.
But if your printer doesn’t offer a filament storage option, or you have more filament than your printer’s storage will hold, you’ll need a dry cabinet to store and organize your filament and keep it safe from light, dust, degradation, and especially moisture.
Some cabinets will dry your filament with hot air and heating elements that can reach 60 ºC or more. After drying, the sealed chambers of the cabinet maintain a low moisture environment (less than 1% relative humidity) and continuously monitor conditions, kicking on the dryer whenever necessary.
Other cabinet options maintain a dry environment for your already-dried filament with air-tight doors and warm circulating air, but can not dry out filament that has soaked up water. These cabinets are best paired with a stand-alone filament dryer, which is also a valuable piece of equipment for shops that print with a wide variety of materials.
Although there are several single- or dual-spool drying and storage machines on the market, for larger operations where you may need 10 or 20 spools of filament ready for use at all times, you’ll want a larger capacity. Currently, the options for large-capacity, stand-alone filament storage, and drying cabinets are not wide, possibly because industrial printers themselves offer some filament storage. Fortunately, dry cabinets are used in other industries and can work great for filament, so we’ve included a few on our list.
Here we detail the current best options and what you should look for in a solution to keep all of your filament, organized and at optimal printing condition, so let’s take a look!
| Product | Dry or Store | Min. Relative Humidity (RH) | Max. Spool Capacity | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BigRep Shield Industrial Filament Dry Cabinet | Store | 0.01% | 12x 4.5-kg spools or 6x 8 to 10-kg spools | $17,400 |
| Essentium DryBox + Smartbake | Dry & Store | 0.5% | 24x 750-g spools / 8x 2.5-kg spools / 6x 15-kg spools | $11,150 |
| Smart3D Multimaterial Dryer | Dry & Store | 0% | 20x 750-g spools | $4,800 |
| Apium F300 Filament Dryer | Dry & Store | na | 2x 4.8-kg spools / 4x 500-g spools | $2,200 |
| X-Treme Series Dry Cabinets, XLC-01 | Dry & Store | 0.5% | 70x 750-g spools / 22x 2.5-kg spools / 16x 15-kg spools | na |
| Filaments.ca PolyDry | Store | 3% | 150x 1-kg spools | $2,900 |
| Totech SuperDry HSD 1104-52 | Dry & Store | 0.5 % | 70x 750-g spools / 22x 2.5-kg spools / 16x 15-kg spools | na |
| Mancorp Ultra-Dry 1490H | Dry & Store | 5% | 50x 750-g spools / 16x 2.5-kg spools / 10x 15-kg spools | na |
Why You Need a Filament Cabinet
Moist and damaged filament doesn’t just ruin your printed parts, it can damage your printer, usually by clogging your extruder.
Because filament is hygroscopic (it absorbs moisture from the air), it’s essential to keep it dry, but that’s not the only threat to the filament. Dust, light, heat, and cold are also damaging, and every type of filament – from PLA to PEI – has a different sensitivity.
The moment you unseal a spool of filament, you should have a storage plan in mind. Cabinets can not only keep your filament in optimal condition, but many can also return your filament to like-new once it’s been exposed to moisture. Cabinets with drying features are an ideal solution for busy 3D printing operations where filament can be left out.
Drying cabinets typically run the thousands of dollars but compared to the time and money lost in failed prints and ruined materials, it’s an investment that’s sure to pay off quickly.
If you typically only have a few opened spools of filament, a DIY or dry box filled with silicone gel or desiccant packs, would be a more economical solution. However, if you have a team that 3D prints with several different materials a day that all need to be in top shape, a cabinet makes sense.
Ideal Filament Environment Conditions
- Drying temperature: 35 – 70 ºC (see filament technical specs for precise drying temperatures)
- Drying time: 2-48 hours (see filament technical specs for precise drying times)
- Drying method: Hot circulating air
- Optimal storage cabinet moisture: >5% RH (relative humidity)
- Optimal moisture within filament: 10 – 13 %
BigRep Shield Industrial Filament Dry Cabinet
The BigRep Shield by large-scale 3D printer manufacturer BigRep provides ample space for long-term storage of highly sensitive additive manufacturing materials to maintain their ideal condition.
The cabinet prevents filament moisture absorption without heat by operating in a sealed environment with air circulation. By looping air through a controlled desiccant chamber the Shield eliminates 99.99% of airborne moisture, maintaining an impressive 0.01% relative humidity without risking over-drying from long-term heat exposure.
The industrial-sized dry box holds up to 60 kg of filament, enough material for one month of continuous 24/7 printing, BigRep estimates.
The BigRep Shield features a Siemens control system that uses intermittent cycles to separate desiccants through a quality-assured moisture threshold that’s designed to ensure optimal conditions at all times.
Essentium DryBox + Smartbake
3D printer manufacturer Essentium partnered with industry-leading dry cabinet maker Electronic Controls Design Inc. to offer a version of their SmartDry Dry Cabinet outfitted for 3D printing filament.
The company’s DB90 cabinet can maintain relative humidity values under 1% for long-term storage of filament. The cabinet’s “self-regulating drying technology” takes less than three minutes to return the chamber to optimal humidity once being opened, so workers in a busy 3D printing shop can open the cabinet as many as 10 to 12 times an hour and not damage the filament.
The DB90-SB version includes what the company calls Smartbake, which is a heating feature (40-60 °C) that can dry “many” 3D printing materials, the company says. The flexible bake cycle programming lets you manually set your desired temperature, humidity, and baking time.
The larger version of the DB90 is the DB270, which has the same features, but more than twice the storage capacity: 72x 750 g spools or 24x 2.5 kg spools or 18x 15 kg spools. The large DB270 does not come with Smartbake.
An optional Light Alarm Tower (a green, yellow, or red light on top of the cabinet) indicates whether the filament is ready for use. The unit is also network-ready so you can track filament conditions remotely.
Smart3D Multimaterial Dryer
Smart3D Multimaterial Dryer from US-based 3D printer manufacturer Smart3D dries your filament and preserves its properties, ensuring that your material is in its best condition to be printed. The controlled ambient chamber keeps the moisture out, so after drying your materials, you can keep them inside until use.
The most common filament dryers only dry one or two spools at a time because PEEK needs to be dried longer and at a higher temperature than polyamides, for example. But the “multi” in this multimaterial dryer, refers to its patent-pending alternating vacuum cycles with moderate heat cycles to dry different kinds of filament at the same time without over-drying or damaging any, the company says.
Multimaterial Dryer features a 7-inch touch screen to control the drying process according to the number and type of filaments stored. The screen also provides various information on temperature, humidity, and current drying cycles The Multimaterial Dryer’s cycle times are typically between 2 and 3 hours.
The Multimaterial Dryer is compatible with 300 mm diameter spools and offers a USB or Ethernet connection. Currently available in Europe and North America.
Apium F300 Filament Dryer
The Apium F300 Filament Dryer from German 3D printer and material manufacturer Apium is designed for optimizing technical polymers like PEEK and polycarbonates and features pre-set drying profiles for the most common filament types. You can also customize the drying cycle according to the recommendations of your filament maker.
The fully insulated wills of the unit reduce heat loss inside the drying chamber, which saves on electricity costs. Drying temperatures can reach up to 150 ºC.
Unlike many other drying and storage solutions, the Apium features an automatic filament feeding system via teflon tube when printing so your filament is protected from exposure even while printing. The unit features three filament outlets.
X-Treme Series Dry Cabinets, XLC-01
Turkish company X-Treme Series has been manufacturing dry cabinets since 1987 and features a line of sub 1% humidity units ideal for filament storage. The company has exhibited at the Formnext, the additive manufacturing trade show, so 3D printing is one of their target markets.
The company’s desiccant dry cabinets feature specially designed air ducts and a circulation system that directs the humid air homogeneously to the drying units. Desiccant units absorb the humid air and provide a moisture-free air flow back into the cabinet. Even when the desiccant units are saturated with moisture, they can regenerate themselves without you having to change the desiccant material.
An optional dryer unit (available in 60 ºC or 100 ºC) provides a fast drying process. Dehumidification can be adjusted and monitored on the touch screen control panel.
Specifically for additive manufacturing, X-Treme Series offers a new storage solution for metal powders and filament that delivers a high volume of nitrogen into the cabinet as soon as the doors are closed to remove moisture from the air quickly. This enables the unit to go from 50% RH to less than 1% RH in less than seven minutes.
X-Treme Series units also offer network connectivity so you can monitor filament conditions remotely.
Filaments.ca PolyDry
Filaments.ca has developed PolyDry, an industrial-grade, fully automatic storage solution suitable for short, medium, and long-term material storage with a massive interior capacity to store dozens of spools in various sizes.
The PolyDry unit is capable of continuously and automatically maintaining a precise relative humidity level down to 3%. The built-in digital control panel enables you to set the relative humidity level and set a high humidity-level alarm and open-door alarm.
Since the PolyDry unit is airtight and dust-free, open filament spools can simply be placed inside as-is without any type of resealable bag or container. The PolyDry unit is a completely maintenance-free system with a self-rejuvenating drying unit. It features an ESD safe steel construction, magnetically sealed lockable doors, large casters for easy maneuverability and adjustable steel shelves to accommodate various spool sizes.
All-Purpose Dry Cabinets
Other industries have a need to keep products and materials dry, so dry cabinets have been around for a long time. Professional photographers have long stored their cameras in dry cabinets while units in a wide range of sizes are used for printed circuit boards, laboratory samples, and electronics. It turns out that many of these are also ideal for 3D printing filament.
Of course, they lack the bells and whistles of dedicated filament storage units and there’s no way to feed filament directly from these cabinets to your printer, but for general or longer-term storage, these can be a good choice as long as they can maintain a relative humidity of 10% or less. Note that typical camera dry cabinets have a minimum RH of only 35% so be sure to find one that can achieve 10% RH.
Totech SuperDry HSD 1104-52
German cabinet maker Totech Europe offers a wide range of products in their SuperDry series dry storage cabinets that are ideal for 3D printing filaments.
The SuperDry HSD Series dries (with an optional drying unit) and stores filament. The humidity, temperature, and alarm functions can be adjusted on a digital display. The unit boasts a quick, 15 min recovery time after door opening to below 1% RH.
Available in six sizes, all of the SD+ series units can maintain an internal humidity of less than 2% and a heater capable of reaching 40°C. The smaller version, the SuperDry SD-302-21 does a little bit better with moisture, ensuring a humidity of around 1%. It also features a sensor display that provides the exact internal temperature and humidity. The cabinet is equipped with seven shelves, each with a load capacity of 30 kg. The patented drying unit on each machine circulates warm dry air to guarantee constant relative humidity.
The large 1104-21 unity has six individual doors that can be locked with a key (for those colleagues who keep borrowing your filament and not replacing it) and the individual shelves can withstand a load capacity of 50 kg per shelf.
Mancorp Ultra-Dry 1490H
American manufacturer Mancorp offers a wide range of dry cabinets for a variety of moisture-sensitive materials. Their air-tight UltraDry line in several sizes can maintain an internal humidity of less than 5%, which is the moistest on our list but may still have applications with some filaments. Each unit features turbo-dry modules for fast drying without compressed air.
The Ultra-Dry “V” series can return to a <5% RH within 30 minutes after the door is opened and closed.
Manncorp also offers cabinets with a 40 ºC baking option, the temperature is not adjustable and may be too high or too low for some filaments.
Lead image source: Pictured: BigRep Shield Industrial Filament Dry Cabinet, Essentium DryBox + Smartbake, & X-Treme Series Dry Cabinets XLC-01
License: The text of "The Best Filament Drying & Storage Cabinets for Professionals" by All3DP Pro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.