Drying
Do I need to dry filament, and how?
First in this ranking: ELEGOO PLA Basic.
- Nozzle190–230 °C
- Bed35–65 °C
- Speedup to 270 mm/s
- Dry50 °C for 8 h
- Density1.2 g/cm³
Ranked filaments
| Rank | Filament | Material | Nozzle | Bed | Price / kg | Datasheet | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ELEGOO PLA BasicPLA with drying at 50 °C for 8 h on the US 10 kg page. The page states 50 ± 5 °C, inside the community PLA band. | PLA | 190–230 | 35–65 | — | — | |
| 2 | SUNLU PETG 2.0PETG with a listed drying maximum of 65 °C, at the top of the community PETG band. Nozzle on the record is 230–270 °C. Hours are not listed. | PETG | 230–270 | 70–80 | — | — | |
| 3 | Bambu Lab TPU 90AThe record lists a drying maximum of 70 °C. Community TPU advice for this question is 50–55 °C. Do not treat 70 °C as the community figure. Hours are not listed. | TPU | 200–250 | 30–35 | — | Datasheet | |
| 4 | Polymaker Polymide Copa PA6Unfilled PA6 with a datasheet and a listed nozzle of 250–290 °C. The record does not list a drying temperature. Community nylon drying is 70–80 °C. | PA6 | 250–290 | 80–100 | — | Datasheet |
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When to use which material
Dry PETG, TPU, nylon (PA6 and PA/CF), and PC before printing. PLA is the material that tolerates open air and still benefits from a drying cycle when the print looks wet. PC in this catalog includes Bambu Lab PC, whose record lists a nozzle of 260–300 °C and does not list a drying temperature. The community list names PC without a separate PC drying band.
Temperatures and settings
Use the community bands above, then check the product note. Elegoo PLA Basic lists 55 °C. SUNLU PETG 2.0 lists 65 °C. Both sit on the community bands, and neither lists hours. Bambu TPU 90A lists 70 °C, which is hotter than the community TPU band of 50–55 °C. PolyMide CoPA does not list a drying temperature, so the nylon figure of 70–80 °C stays a community number, not a cell in the table. Store the spool with desiccant after the cycle.
Failure modes
Wet PETG and nylon string, pop, and go matte. Wet TPU changes behavior mid-print. Wet PLA is less dramatic and still shows up as poor surface and weak layer bonds. If the only change was a spool that lived on a shelf, dry it before editing the slicer.
Caveats
A kitchen oven is the failure mode of the dryer, not of the filament. The consensus is that ovens overshoot and can soften the spool. Sunlu S2 and S4 are the dryers named in the recommendation, and they are not records in this filament database. There is nothing to rank under a dryer brand page.
Where this sits in the catalog
PLA print failures send wet PLA here. Nylon and TPU both depend on a dry spool. SUNLU is the filament brand in the table, not a dryer manual. PETG 2.0 is the PETG row with a listed 65 °C drying maximum.
Pros and cons
Pros
- The temperature bands are separated by material, which is the useful part of the consensus.
- Where a product record lists a drying maximum, the note says so, including when it disagrees with the community band.
Cons
- Sunlu S2 and S4 dryers are not filaments. This catalog has no dryer SKU to rank.
- No row lists drying hours. A maximum temperature without a time does not say how long to dry.
Printer considerations
- A food dehydrator or a dryer made for filament is the tool this consensus names. A kitchen oven overshoots and can soften the spool.
- Nylon and PC want an enclosure on the printer as well as a dry spool. Read the nylon guide before assuming an open printer can hold the nozzle range.
- Drying hours are not a field in this import. Do not fill 4–8 hours into a product row.
What the community says
The consensus is that PLA tolerates air but benefits from drying, and that PETG, TPU, nylon, and PC should be dried. Typical figures attached to that consensus are PLA 45–55 °C, PETG 60–65 °C, TPU 50–55 °C, nylon 70–80 °C, and 4–8 hours or longer, then storage with desiccant. The recommended tools are a Sunlu S2 or S4 or another dedicated filament dryer. The caveat is that ovens overshoot and can soften spools.
- Community source, r/3Dprinting xhbrsg
- Community source, r/3Dprinting 17tg174
- Community source, r/3Dprinting 1hunuh4
- Community source, r/3Dprinting 1v1nwgi
- Community source, r/BambuLab 1h8bgew
Sources & notes
Accessed 14 October 2026.
- PolyMide CoPA technical data sheet datasheet
- Bambu Lab TPU 90A technical data sheet datasheet
- Community source, r/3Dprinting xhbrsg reddit
- Community source, r/3Dprinting 17tg174 reddit
- Community source, r/3Dprinting 1hunuh4 reddit
- Community source, r/3Dprinting 1v1nwgi reddit
- Community source, r/BambuLab 1h8bgew reddit
Related questions
- How do I get good PLA prints?PLA
- What is the best flexible filament, and how do I print TPU?Flexible
- What filament is waterproof?Watertight
- How do I print nylon, and is it worth it?Nylon
Questions
Why does Bambu TPU 90A list 70 °C if the community says 50–55 °C?
Those are different sources. 70 °C is the drying maximum stored on that filament record. 50–55 °C is the community band for this question. Hours are missing in both cases here. Follow the spool’s own sheet when you have it, and do not average the two numbers.
Can I dry a spool in a kitchen oven?
This consensus says not to. Ovens overshoot, and the spool can soften. Use a filament dryer.