It heavily depends on the material if it will print fine at higher humidity, but having around 20-35 seems good afaik. I printed PLA successfully at around 55% for a long period before switching rooms and never had problems, but I wouldnt store PETG/TPU there without a sealed box
this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2025
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Yeah, it's -11F/-24C right now and the humidistat is saying it's 22% right now. Usually, in the summer time humidity ranges from 50% to 75%. But I have stored filaments like PLA and even PETG open on a shelf without care for over a year. Even now, the boxes they are stored in are not air tight.
I have never need to dry PLA and I do dry PETG occasionally if I really need that super clean print. Otherwise I just either manually remove the slight stringing of the PETG or I totally ignore it. I do keep a spool of TPU around and I do dry that before use. But it seems to holds up well for several weeks just hanging on the printer.
Stuff that's in use I try to keep inside the enclosure, no humidity control in my garage so at the whims of humid continental climate, gets nasty in the summer. I keep things vac sealed with silca gel for long periods and print from dry boxes or enclosure mounts to take advantage of the lower humidity while printing.
Working on a powered dry box using solid state dehumidifiers like used in this, hope that'll help with humidity issues.
Some filament isn't super sensitive, my experience pa6>petg>abs=pla.
I store all my filament in ziplock bags with some 3a molecular sieve - even after 2 years in 45-65% humidity at 21C room I don't have to dry PETG.
I do about the same. Usually I'll throw the silica packets that come with the roll in my filament dryer and then in the bag.
Check silica packet effectiveness below 50% humidity... It's not great. Molecular sieve on the other hand has no problem getting humidity below 5%. I managed to buy a 10kg bucket of 3A sieve for about $120 and it's going to be enough for many years.
My printer and filament live in my basement. We have a dehumidifier down there set to 55%. Some filament spools take a year plus for me to go through and I've never dried any of them. I have not noticed a meaningful change in print quality, but I also rarely go from an old to a new spool of the same material back to back.
I printed mostly PETG and ASA with some PLA thrown in.