Sunlu Filadryer S4 - Most Efficient Filament Dryer Is Nearly Here!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2023
- The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare skl.sh/rickyimpey09231
The Sunlu Filadryer S4 is Sunlu's latest filament dryer.
I didn't rate Sunlu's S1 or S2 models and believed they had some pretty major deficiencies. Have Sunlu learned lessons from their previous models or is this just a bigger version of their less than perfect predecessors? In this video, I'm going to find out.
Other Videos Mentioned:
How bad is wet filament? • How Bad is Wet 3d Prin...
Affiliate links (If you purchase something after clicking any of the below links I may earn a small commission at no cost to you. This is a great way to support the channel)
Sunlu Filadryer S4 rebrand.ly/x8p33g8
Meross Smart Plugs
amzn.to/3q97gjm
UK Plug amzn.to/3Y9aP5u
..............................................................................................................................................................
BUY ME A COFFEE
If you're enjoying my content, why not consider supporting the channel by buying me a coffee?
Even very small amounts are greatly appreciated and re-invested into bringing you better content.
www.buymeacoffee.com/rickyimpey
You can also use the TH-cam 'Thanks' button above if you prefer.
...............................................................................................................................................................
My wife has an epoxy dryer and that has worked pretty well for me
I recently purchased an Eibos Polyphemus and have been pretty happy with it - the motorized spool rotation feature ensures that the filament is evenly dried. I did some temperature checks and found the measured temps were within 3' of the displayed temperature. It also offers the humidity storage feature which can be set to 10% and triggers at 20% - this works great but I wish that they provided a way to enable this feature immediately after a drying cycle has ended. Still, Eibos seems to be the more innovative company at the moment. I just wish their prices were a bit more affordable.
I love your comprehensive reviews! It's always nice when the claims are actually tested, and the results are shown side-by-side.
Have the S1, intending to modify but haven't got around to it. Bought the S4 on the kickstarter on a whim, as I often need multiple filaments, with multiple printers. They are already making improvements in pre-prod based on user feedback, which is great to see.
Ricky mate.... I appreciate the raw honesty and no BS format of your reviews! Knowledgeable and thorough as always, cheers for that!😊
Very interesting review. I was a bit skeptical that those little filament openings would provide enough of a vent for the moisture, but they seem to be enough, at least when they are completely open.
A couple of corrections:
6:06 - should be "three kilowatt-hours of electricity." 6: 15 - should be "125 watts" not "125 watts per hour". Watts per hour makes no sense. Watts is rate of usage of electrical energy versus time (Joules / sec), not an amount of electricity.
Great detailed review, many thanks!
My Kickstarter unit came today in the UK.
It arrived. I was losing hope just on Christmas but they made it!
It doesn't look bad at side of the Bambu.
Great review as always, unbiased and well tested. I already built my own DIY 2 roll dryer from an inexpensive food dehydrator and the results are brilliant. Each time something starts to look funny with my prints, my first step is to chuck the roll into the dryer overnight to rule out moisture before trying other things.
Thanks to your step by step videos I now have a Sonic Pad runnin Klipper on my old Biqu B1, pushing speeds I never knew it could do. Thank you for your continued commitment to the community.
Great review. Seems I will not regret getting me one of those.
Great review. I am a believer in filament dryers. Got lucky and scored an S4 on the earliest early bird for $80 USD shipped. I use a cheap fruit dryer that I bought from Aldi to dry the large and small dessicant packs that I place in my favorite filament storage boxes - RepBoxes from Repkord. I like the maintenance mode of the S4 as I can have a set of "goto" filaments that I know will always be ready for printing. Any boxes with dessicant have to be monitored and the dessicant recharged from time to time.
great review and testing thank you. This is a great solution to most printing needs. Sadly, it is not quite there for my needs. I barely print PLA any more, and 90% of my prints are ABS/PETG/Filled Nylon. My current solution: I have an S2 that I use for Drying PETG / ABS, Nylons I have to dry in the kitchen oven at 80-85c. I would be willing to pay good money for a system this big, if I could have at least dual temperatures. I also would expect that at this price range to have a dryer that spins the spools while drying.
I guess I will have to build my own.
Once you print filled nylon, you don't want to print anything else.
Thanks again for your review.
Cool video. I've already backed the campaign. I do plan to try to revive 2 (year + open in the uk) filaments with it.
Thanks for the 30 day free trial!
Surprises me this doesn't come with a motor that rotates the reels while drying. Surely a heat spot in one segment of a reel could be damaging in the long run if you dont have the time to be regularly turning the reels?
That adds unnecessy complexity. I'm surprised that it's blasting straight onto the filament instead of spreading it more evenly throughout the chamber.
Eibos Polyphemus has a motor holds 2 reels and it’s about the same price.
@RCshowmen thanks!
Just 3DP a heatshield that difuses and helps spread the heat out of the vent
The un used filaments need a motor mod to keep them running because it is going to blast and cook one of the sides, and also I think this active dryers need some kind of condensation tool too catch and remove the water content.
Edit:
Also, I don't think that dry speed is as important, I think that the system should be capable of keeping the moisture outside the filament and to reach very low humidity levels to allow the filament to exchange it's internal humidity. So, keeping a vent open won't help that much after a while, what would help is to finally close the vent after a while and maintain the dry air inside. That is why I want to build a condensation unit out of a Peltier block.
Nice idea, but there's some work to be done before it could really be called "efficient".
Here's what I'm seeing:
- current draw is way too much. There are ways to get a small environment that to heat up, without over 325 Watts of power. INSULATION is one way and a lower energy, high efficiency element would be necessary. While it would add a bit more weight and size to the unit, creating a double-wall with some insulation between the walls, would create enough insulation to help retain the heat. This is the method that we use for our green houses. Double walls, with 3-layers of insulation between them. In our case, the "insulation" is bubble wrap. LOL IT WORKS! One of the GHs is 11x11x11 feet and we heat it with only 750 Watts! We use a fan to move the air around. This works well even in sub-zero temps. When it's stupid cold, we do have to up the wattage to 1,500.
- the rollers should be motorized to automatically turn the spools without manual intervention. Since this can run for many hours, a person may not be home in order to manually spin the spools.
- That 50% thing is a problem but that can be easily taken care of in the software. I'm not sure which controller they are using, but possibly Arduino or ESP32. If ESP32, they could add some WiFi connectivity so things can be monitored and controlled via smart phone. Actually easy to do in software.
- and actual vent is necessary. Honestly, the fact that SunLu says that the filament ports are the vents, is both ridiculous and an indication of them not being so honest. It would be easy enough to put in a vent and if they want to create a "deluxe" version, the vent could have a small, very inexpensive servo motor to open/close it. As the humidity builds, at a certain (selectable option) reached, it could open the vent, just enough to let the humidity out, then close it again to retain the heat. Cycling this way would highly increase efficiency.
I got the 30% earlybird, had just missed the 38% one..
I use a food dehydrator. With a slight modification, snipping a circle out of the inner trays, I can put two rolls in it too dry.
Where can I purchase the lid extension for larger spools Thank you !
I like my S4 for its 4 roll capacity. I don't like that it doesn't have a vent other than the 8 small filament openings. I usually keep those plugged and prop open the lids by not latching them down while drying. Too bad they didn't think the venting through very well. Another problem is that it's blowing heated air directly on the filament, causing hot spots. I'm sure someone will design a deflector to address fix this.
Automatic maintaining sounds great on paper, but I already can imagine that thing decided to turn on buzzing in 3 am)
I think the best theoretical solution would be to run active drying with heaters and ventilation, and than automatically seal all the vents air-tight when the filament is dry
nice .
Should work for recharging desiccant?
Will be interesting if you can test sunlu newer s2, it come with fan now.
Yeah, great deal on the Kickstarter... too bad my country won't be shipped to though :(
Wish the S4 had a WiFi module for monitoring temperature/humidity and power consumption from remote.
I wonder if this module could electronically be connected to the printer and be controlled by the printers firmware.
Anything that can reduce manual intervention is welcome.
I would probably add a shroud over the fan to prevent it blowing directly to the filaments
So this dryer does not rotate the filament spool? Also would there not be a moisture gradient from filament being closer to the outside surface vs the filament internally on the reel?
I have two dryers, one is the first sunlu which is modded with the fan, the other is ebos3d series x, the ebos3d has damaged 2 rolls of filament as it’s fused the filament in the middle
@highroyds I have an Eibos (the black one for one filament) and it happened to me too. I contacted the support and they shows me a way to decrease the heater a bit turning down the potenciometer in the board. Which filament you demage? Mine was Petg. Support is slow but they already sended a new board to put in (spare), after a month of conversarion 😅
@@Flagazz PETG, two rolls of it. I did message them about it but they ignored the message
shouldnt it be shorter if theres filament inside? less air to heat up ?
You should throw an empty cardboard spool in with your filament which is on the same cardboard spool. Weighing both before and after, you would have a good idea how much moisture was in the cardboard spool vs the filament.
What would you recommend if i only need to dry one roll every so often? Should i get an s1 or s2 and mod it? Or are there any other better easier options?
Anyone know if this heater had or will be integrated into any 3D printer? And why doesn’t the nozzle heat evaporate the moisture?
Has anyone had issues with their S4 jamming? I'm not sure if its the long PTFE tube getting pinched in the printer's filament inlet hole, or the stiff rollers causing too much friction.
A result from car engraving plz ? 😉
You should do a video on how they are burning all.their Kickstarters. They are selling pre-orders before kickstarter orders are filled and lying about the shipments.
Hi, I contacted Sunlu about your comment as I didn't know there were any problems. I don't know if you have tried contacting them yourself but it sounds like they are working hard to try and resolve a couple of issues they have faced. They were keen to say that they don't want to make excuses but they had a customs issue with some stock and then Christmas has caused further delays but they are just about there now. They said that that have made mistakes and are doing everything they can to get orders out to backers and were very apologetic. I don't work for Sunlu but obviously did make this review so felt that I wanted to try and get you some information. They were very quick to reply and wanted to know order numbers etc. To try to give more information. Try contacting them if you haven't already.
Absolutely disappointing that nobody makes a good universal dryer.... one that can handle low temps as well as nylons, etc. Seems like it should be easy to achieve.
Very tempted to get together with some engineering buddies and develop one, but have no idea how to judge market potential or actuall go into production...maybe thats why they dont exist yet??
Is this really necessary? I thought we just load a filament in the tube and print.
Yea, but how accurate are YOUR temp sensors? Are they calibrated, or are you taking them at face value? Could be that both your thermometers AND the S4 are off. Just saying, coming from a calibration background.
the short snipped of the noise in this video really doesnt do it justice.
this thing is LOUD, i got mine sitting next to my prusa XL and i cant hear the printer running over the fan noise of that dryer.
the drying performance is great but you really need to account for another 50 bucks worth of Noctua fans if you want this to be a usable machine.
Incorrect. The PrintDry Pro can do four rolls at a time. And it’s a much better value since you can also do a 3kg spool (or bigger) inside.
For a premium dryer the display is a bit shit. I also dont see why they didnt have the spools rotate every 15 minutes or so.
WOOW.. 10C higher in the middle of the filament? That can destroy a filament going up to his glass transition temperature! That’s bad!
Unfortunately they didn't change the type of touchscreen display .. it is the worst part of the S2 for me.
Watts per hour is not a real unit. watts are power usage Kw/h is a unit of energy so the avrage energy usage was 125 watts
That's kWh, not kW/h.