Eibos Cyclopes filament dryer review and potentially fatal flaw!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ม.ค. 2022
- Be really careful. Possibly my error and possibly a major design flaw. The dryer fused part of a roll of filament in just one spot. 1/2 a roll in the garbage and I’m going to need to do more testing.
Be very careful when drying filament if you are not printing at the same time!!! Also reduce the temperature by 5 degrees at least especially when first starting the drying of a roll!
HI Woodbutcher and the Mighty Termite,
Thank you for your testing,
First of all, We would like to mention that you have put the sensor position at the wrong place. The temperature sensor need to be set at around 26mm area (Black PTFE partly into the bottom case, and the sensor is stable at the position) which we have tested. If the sensor is at the position you tested, then the real teamperature will much higher than the setting temperature especially at the tuyere, and that's the reason for the result.
We have already made the upgrade for the whole units around 8 month ago, rollers and bearings for example, we have changed some of supplier and improved the overall quality.
Thank you for your advice, we will consider about all of them and make improvement in the future.
KInd regard,
EIBOS Team
Thank you for the updated information. The original base that came with the unit appears to have the sensor in the lower position. The original base was damaged in shipping and was not useable. I very much appreciated you sending me a new base. This is how the replacement base came. It is made of different materials.
I will make the adjustment to the sensor position to 26mm above the bottom of the interior of the base.
I think the unit has all the right design ideas. I am glad there are some improvements in materials and hopefully quality control.
I will try the new setup and post a video of the results.
It is nice to see you responding so well to your product!
Could release a design for a printable heatshield for people to use
A good review 👌.
I have also found the same issue that you mentioned with the heat affecting the filament. I was using PLA at the recommended 50C and was also getting filament that was extremely soft in that position that the air blows onto. I dropped it down to 45C to combat this and found it was a little better (still getting soft though).
I also noticed a reduction in the ability to keep humidity down though when the temperature was dropped. Even after 7 hours of running the humidity in the box (according to the little meter) was still nearly 40% with an external humidity of around 65% and that seemed to be due to it cycling out a bit too often and only in for a short time.
With regards to what you said about possibly using a lower power heater, I too had a damaged spare unit that they sent a new one for so I tinkered with that one and found I could change the wiring easy enough so that it only used one side of the heating element. I am going to give that a test tomorrow to see what temperatures and humidity I get in the box when only running 75w instead of the full 150.
If that test doesn't yield any decent results I will be looking into making heat shield to be able to stop that hot air blowing directly onto the filament.
Thanks mate, you've saved me from owning some dodgy kit. It's hard to believe that manufacturers haven't yet hit that sweet spot when it comes to filament driers. Although, having said that the Sunlu filadrier 2 is on sale in April. It addresses the problem you highlighted by having a 360° radiant heat source and some good options in the firmware. I already own a vacuum chamber. It seems as if getting the filament up to temp, then placing it in vacuum is a highly effective way of drying filament.
I came looking for the same issue but I use the EIBOS FIlament Dryer Series X dryer with the heater blowing out to the side. I set my dryer to the recommended petg temp on the front & it’s actually warped the spool holder and fused the filament in the middle on one side. As the same as you, the filament wasn’t moving, but there’s no warning stating ‘don’t have it drying while the filament is stood still’.
I have gotten some hate saying I’m an idiot and don’t know what I’m doing….
I disagree. I might be crazy, but not an idiot….
Good idea, just poor execution with a major flaw….
@@mbwoodbutcher Very true, I've also got the SunLu which I've modded with the fan at the back. If the filament isnt moving on that one the bottle of the filament also melts together.
That was actually a UK mains power adaptor, but they do come with an Australian adaptor too. Also PTFE is actually Teflon 🤓 Triflow is awesome too, great addition to the review
Get the FixDry Dryer, it has a Shroud at the bottom that sits over the fan output which sends the hot air up and around the filament.
I just got one of these. Showed up yesterday so I haven’t ran it nearly as long as you have. I ran it on PLA for an 8 hour print and it improved the quality of my prints significantly.
However, my temperature probe is much shorter than yours, and mine does not have the multiple plug options… it had a sticker on the box for USA plug and had a standard North American plug hardwired to it.
With that said, I will definitely be keeping an eye out for this problem. Like others have said, the length of the temperature probe could make a big difference in experience.
Yes Eibos has reached out and let me know the probe needs to be lower. I did that and still have issues with the PETG I was using. I do notice that brand of PETG has a lower melting point than others I use so, I think the recommended temp should be based on the filament melting point rather than the filament type.
When I have time I will make a shield to keep the fan from blowing directly on the filament though. I have some galvanized ducting that should work nicely!!!
I just routed a 12v pc fan in to distribute the heat
FYI, less likely to have "soft" filament if you feed it out the top... the filament coming out the bottom is allowed to get closer/touch the bottom where heat is at... also, that half-moon sticker covering the top of the humidity display can be peeled off and the temp is displayed there. Likely covered up because people would be complaining about how it never gets "up to temp"
The soft filament is on the spool where it sticks together.
Filament driers should be like a convection oven where warm air circulates around the spools, not like a stationary hair drier blowing on one area.
@@mbwoodbutcher agreed... was just saying why it failed for you. its still usable, but not worth the money IMO. im unsure why they dont recirculate air either, it appears to exhaust air out the top and therefore cant get above 55degC.
I would think that feeding heated filament would cause it to stretch and thus extrude less. I would only use a heater to dry the filament, and then use simply a box with silica gel to keep it dry.
50C is well below the glass transition temp... like way below.
Hi, have you got any update on how the unit operates after moving the sensor? I found the video very informative and am looking to purchase an Eibos Cyclopes as there was a video comparison showing they seemed to perform better than alternatives, however if there is a chance of writing off kg's of filament I don't think its a risk I am willing to take.
Any update would be much appriciated, thanks again for the video.
I have not tried smaller spools yet. Right now I am using the base for giant 2.5kg spools just for it to spool off of.
I just purchased one of these. The temp sensor is at the height they were saying is correct (26mm). I had two spools of petg in it during 8hr print. The spool that wasn't being used had a spot where the filament melted apart. Lost about 8ft of filament. Both spools also showed signs of starting to stick together as the author of the video stated. Thankfully, I realized it's flaw before losing more filament. During 2nd print, I tried a low temp of 40deg just to keep moisture out. It still started to soften and melt the other spool that wasn't being used. Until I can find or make a fix for this, I'm not going to use it with the heat on. Might end up selling it and finding another solution to dry my filaments.
@@mrhouse3796 I was considering buying this one as I am looking at my SUNLU that just arrived but does not power up. DOA. Perhaps I will just pick up a food dehydrator. Did you notice that 3D EIBOS is quiet now?
@@pdwinc.1077 Update on my dryer: I made a cover using aluminum foil to block off a small part of the hot air intake so it doesn't blow on the one spool. Basically, it redirects the air towards the other side of chamber and top of dryer. I can only have one spool in it now, but so far I've used it with both pla and petg with no melting issues or even any signs of it starting to deform or stick together.
I taped it to the dryer floor, but made it so angles up to touch the bottom of the spool. (Not touching filament itself, just the edge of spool towards the middle of the dryer.) I figure that way it's not blocking too much air, so there should be no worries or overheating the element. Most of the fan duct is still unobstructed. This was a test, I planned to make a more permanent solution. But it's working so well and took 5 mins to make. So probably just keep using it.
And yeah, I did notice they didn't bother to say a word. Lol
@@pdwinc.1077 Going the food dehydrator route is something I probably would have done if I known about this issue before purchasing. That's my bad for not doing more research on it. There's even some videos out there showing how to mod it so you can print right from one. Also, there is another dryer that looks promising from Printdry, but it's even more expensive than Eibos. Although, it can be expanded to hold 4 spools. From reviews I've seen it works ok, but doesn't have as much heating power as the Cyclops.
Hi, I just got my eibos cyclopes dryer and I'm very confused, irritated, and disappointed. Tried to dry 2 spools of PLA filament at 40°c and after only 30 minutes the filament on the underside got deformed and started to hang down. WTF, no way it's possible to dry spools in this machine without spools rolling at the same time. Thought I would have a chance to dry out rolls in this before printing and so. my sensor position is above the bearings, so that's not the problem. the problem must be that hot air blows on the same spot all the time and filament cant handle that.
That is the big flaw. The heated air blows directly on the filament. Even if the spool is moving it can over heat the filament and it can stretch or become stuck and break…. Ask me how I had to unwind filament to get down to undamaged coils…. 1/2 of a roll later….
I did find a solution with a metal plate. I uploaded the video a few weeks ago. You need to know basic metal fabrication and have some tools though. Who knows if the mod will cause the dryer to overheat, melt, and burn my house down…..
Do you really need to dry it at 65 degrees C? I have looked at several other dryers and they recommend 50 or 55 degrees C.
Each filament has a different temp for optimal drying based on a number of manufacturers.
In my experience, I just run it at 50-55 degrees and it seems to work.
The biggest issue with this unit is the heat directly blowing on the filament..
@@mbwoodbutcher probably they could have used the same heater if the vent wad duct-ed to outer edges instead of directly onto the filament.
Any idea what LL means on the humidity display? It showed a % but now just LL
My understanding is that means below it’s ability to read, aka Sahara dessert dry…
Dust filter included or after a month will be full of dust ?
There is no dust filter included. So far dust has not been an issue, but I have not used it too much overall….
how the heck do you load filament out of it without it going everywhere
Yeah, that is the trick. Not that easy and you end up with a long pigtail of filament some times.
Thanks I’ll avoid this device , sending back their single version the roll doesn’t roll well inside no bearings
The first one I got had a broken base. Overall a good idea, just not a great execution.
The temperature readout on the one I received does not show what the actual temp in the unit is, it only displays what the temp is set to. You have no idea what the actual temperature is.
I wished I had seen this video about MAJOR DESIGN FLAW instead of all these YT guys who got it for free and rave about it. It's all BS, I returned the piece of junk and got a food dehydrator.
I might get a replacement for the top readout that shows humidity. I have seen some that give temp and humidity.
I have some remote thermal probes I used in different areas. Seemed to work OK and was within 3 degrees. The big issue is where the hot air comes out. It blows directly on the filament so even though the overall temp is good in the chamber the bottom of the roll of filament gets a hot spot. I have a fix in my head, but just have not had time to implement it.
@@mbwoodbutcher Look closer... the back of the sensor has a "C vs F" button, the "humidity" sticker that covers the top is actually cover the temp display. you can peel it off and see the temp... it's likely there because this thing can't really get to the temps advertised
Change printer
What would you suggest?
This company responds to no emails, posts, or messages, and doesn't ship orders. I think they are a scam
My first unit came damaged and they responded quickly and sent out a new and improved part. It seemed like this was a small team of individuals running this project.
My last communication was on this video where they indicated my temp sensor was in the wrong position (replacement came like that from the factory).
Good idea but just a bit off on the execution….
Also it appears that some of the temp recommendations are on the high side considering the blower directly putting hot air on the filament. One simple change in ducting or an air deflector would solve this.
@@mbwoodbutcher I will see if they respond as I have just sent a request for RMA -- I have issue with the fact that the unit it is marketed as a 'filament dryer' but doesn't say that it can ONLY be used while printing. I had overheated and droopy PLA filament in