Man that thing is a real unit, for the size I'd kinda expect features like auto-spool rotation like some others have, to ensure everything is evenly heated, but double-insulation is certainly a step in the right direction. Also that fan is referred to as a 'cross flow' fan. Sometimes used in stuff like older toner printer systems. The way they work is actually really weird, they look like a box with 2 slits and it doesn't make intuitive sense how they keep the air from blowing in or out of each as it spins, or just stay at a stall condition, but they basically create a stationary pressure pocket inside their hollow core and continuously roll/bend the air around it like half a vortex, in one slit, bent around the vortex, then out the other.
You either can rotate the spool, or move the air. They chose to move the air to prevent hotspots, which is more efficient vs trying to run another motor to roll 2lb new spool, and less risk that the spool manages to get a loose end and tangle, which I've seen happen in dryiners that spin the spool when people don't secure the end well enough or the warm filament simply can work loose from a clip.
@MattWeber I understand it functions very similarly to a convection oven, and that probably is good enough. Though I suppose I'd want to see some good thermal shots of the rolls surface temps at hourly marks, before dropping that kind of money on a deluxe ez bake oven.
I have a food dehydrator about 2x the size of this device but I can fit 10 spools in it, and it was under $200. Excalibur 9 rack dehydrator, buy it direct from them for a better price.
@@eaman11 I haven't seen any that go over 80C for a reasonable price. Do you have any links? I guess one idea would be taking a well made metal dehydrator and replacing the control system with an inkbird controller to get whatever temp it is physically capable of (maybe insulate a bit).
Also of note is that filament makers need to start publishing max temps for their spools as have seen some do things like this and melt the spools to their material . Great review, tons of info, wish I would have known of it before buying the s4 though.
Those A1 minis are a crazy good price, a great way to get into 3d printing. I'm not here to justify the price-point, I want to make sure that what I review is good quality and performs well over a long-period. That said... It will likely change over time as volumes increase and production rises. This unit can do what a regular filament dryer can, but it is really a solution for people that are getting more to the pro-level stuff. When compared to one spool of PPS-CF it is a pretty good price, LOL. If you're just looking for a standard filament dryer, I've found the Creality PI single and doubles to be a great price and they perform really well also. They are a little harder to load, but its a small price to pay. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts!
An AF140EU costs 120€ and WILL do 40ºC to 200ºC (basically, all the range of filament temperatures for dehydration) 350$ is just dumb on the manufacturer part.
@8:37 The Creality already has two holes in the lid without plugs. Opening one of the plugs, makes it 3 open holes. Not that it would make that much difference, but wanted to point it out.
You totally convinced me! I went to check and they still had a good amount left at Super Early Bird price so I pulled the trigger! Thanks for your great review! Subscribing to your channel. My first 3D printer (A1 Mini, no AMS) arrives at the end of the month and my 6yo boy is totally stoked (it will arrive in time for his 7th bday actually!). If we enjoy 3DP and I feel I need to upgrade, I’ll likely get the next Gen BambuLab (H2D?) next year. This dryer will then become very useful, as I’ll likely want to print more advanced materials.
Nice! I've been using ONLY this dryer since getting it, the proof is in the pudding! I think they did a good job of accounting for the main requirements for someone that wants to print more functional/engineering parts. Of course it can be used for any filament, I would have liked some way of getting an extra spool in there somehow, but I guess that'd come at a cost too. Considering the price-point of the Eibos units, this one is so much more capable and way heavier duty. If you have the ability to do some design work, you'll love the freedom that 3DP gives you and your son, and it's definitely something good to get started in early, it will be the future of basically every part that can't come from sheet stock. Hopefully I'll be able to buy the new H2D as well when it comes out, I'm not in a huge hurry for it, but it should have some nice features that put the pressure on the competition to do better as well. I hope you have a great day and let me know how it goes with your journey into 3D printing with you son!
The screen placement is a major design flaw. If Sunlu changed that in an update and added active filament rollers, and a feature to keep filament below a set humidity value, that would be the ultimate filament dryer.
Opening the lid will not let out all the heat. All the mass of the unit itself that has heated up will remain largely the same temperature. Its mass relative to the mass of the air is humongous. It should not take much time at all for the air to heat back up after opening and closing it. The same thing is involved when talking about opening the door of a refrigerator. The cool air escaping and being replaced with warmer air from the room isn’t a big deal because the mass of all the food inside is so much larger, and it takes next to no time at all for that air to cool back down after you close the door. The food itself remains fairly stable.
Empty freezer will use more energy than a full one if opened a lot and the freezer compartments help a bunch as well. To the point of where its worth it to just put in some filler water bottles(not full) to help. Will help in keeping it cool for longer in case of an electricity outage as well.
Has Sunlu fixed the firmware bug I found earlier in the year yet? On my S4 there is a bug pertaining to waking the display backlighting back up by pressing one of the “buttons” on the display. You can press any of those buttons to get the backlight to come on again, but if you happen to do so with the power button then the unit will not shut off when the timer runs out. Instead, when the timer runs out it will reset and continue running on another cycle. If you use the Set button or one of the arrow buttons to wake the backlight then the timer is unaffected and the unit shuts off when the timer runs out, just as it should. It only resets and continues running if you wake the backlight with the power button. The fact that you can’t set the timer for less than one hour made this a huge pain to troubleshoot. Took quite a while for me to figure out precisely what was going on and why the unit would never shut off for me. Just dumb luck that I happened to have been using the power button to wake the backlight when I wanted to check on the time remaining, and that’s what triggers the bug. Heh.
There are definitely still power bugs in the S4. Won't shut off at the set time unless you have messed with the settings right before running it a second time. Bought mine in November 2024.
After nothing but disappointment with other Sunlu dryers, I'm half expecting the "E" in the name mentioned at 1:08 to represent the error state this dryer will go into about the 3rd or 4th time you try to use it. 😆
Returning my space pi I got a week ago hope this doesn’t cost a fortune Wish it had a rotisserie filament function Also these driers need an exhaust function. Once the humidity goes past 30% it should open and vent the moist air outside until it’s at 20%~ or 15% and then close again (just needs a one way valve) I wish you did test a 12h filament dry tho. With the test you mentioned , it mostly tests initial heat up speed I think?
Hopefully they have solved the electronics problems on this model. I am on my 3rd S4 model already (all warranty at least) due to electronics failure after a few months of use. It is a great dryer when it works though.
I have their v1 dryer. They should have gotten it right the first time. Had to put 2 little fans in mine. It will dry cf nylon at it's 55c maximum. it just takes a few days..... The new 4 cell one and this one looks to be much better than their v1. Glad they are improving.
The biggest problem I have with this drier is the size, particularly if I were to place it with the screen pointed out. Loading the Creality drier is no real problem. I just open the top, set the spool in the lid, load the filament path, set the spool in position and close the lid. And being in my basement, I have no issues with the drier getting warm on the outside.
Why did you test the temps so low? Bambu PA6-GF requires 80C for drying. Others are even hotter. Is 65C the max this thing can do? That would be no different than their S4. Just as an FYI, Sunlu, the price is way too high. I will wait for an Amazon sale. You could buy a whole regular oven for $350. I wouldn't even pay the presale price for this thing. Maybe $199.
Run the same tests with a food dehydrator. It would be really interesting to see. Also a food dehydrator with some desiccant as well. What mesh are you using to wrap your desiccant in?
They need to make dryers that can go to 90-130C for the engineering filaments. 70 for nylons is not ideal even if you just run them longer. Most data sheets for nylons start at 80 and often recommend 90.
Would be really awesome if this had a sense to know if the fan was not spinning and if it had a dedicated vent port so as to not build up moisture while drying.
Interesting. I would not have pegged warming up gloves to do woodworking in the cold. I was thinking it'd be great for small batch jerky. You might think beef, but give fish a try.
Those skinny rollers are useless and cause a lot of resistance especially on damaged cardboard spools or imperfect plastic spools. When printing a soft tpe, the spool will stop spinning and the tpe stretches quite a way before the spool starts to spin causing jams when the filament unrolls. Nice improvements but "Still" not there yet.
This unit definitely has some cool features, but the very large size and unintuitive screen placement are a bit of a deal breaker for me in my limited maker corner. I've been using a Sunlu S2 for a while and my only complaint is the lack of circulation inside (early model) and ventilation of moist air.
In a closed system, no. But vent that hot air out of the dryer and you indeed are removing that humidity from the space. Same reason a condenser works, as it shifts the location of that water vapor from the humid environment to an external location to prevent it being reintroduced. Why you see most print farms also run a dehumidifier in the room as well as sill have filament dryers to evaporate trapped moisture from the filament itself, as just dehumidifying the air wont pull the moisture from the filament.
Would be nice to see automatic air purging on these filament dryers so you don't have to remember to go back to it hours later to plug the box up. In the last few years I've learned to crack open my filament dryer while running to actively dry filament while printing slightly moist filament or engineering filament.. nice to see that this dryer has the feature build in by accident 😅Seriously nice piece of kit
What I would like to know is the high temps neccesary? if one was to dry a filament like PPA-CF at 70c for a long time in a household dehydrater then weight, then dry at lets say 100c would it get dryer?
I cannot imagine anyone would recommend using anything that is also used in food preparation for anything to do with 3D printing. The risks are far too high, I think.
Man that thing is a real unit, for the size I'd kinda expect features like auto-spool rotation like some others have, to ensure everything is evenly heated, but double-insulation is certainly a step in the right direction.
Also that fan is referred to as a 'cross flow' fan. Sometimes used in stuff like older toner printer systems. The way they work is actually really weird, they look like a box with 2 slits and it doesn't make intuitive sense how they keep the air from blowing in or out of each as it spins, or just stay at a stall condition, but they basically create a stationary pressure pocket inside their hollow core and continuously roll/bend the air around it like half a vortex, in one slit, bent around the vortex, then out the other.
You either can rotate the spool, or move the air. They chose to move the air to prevent hotspots, which is more efficient vs trying to run another motor to roll 2lb new spool, and less risk that the spool manages to get a loose end and tangle, which I've seen happen in dryiners that spin the spool when people don't secure the end well enough or the warm filament simply can work loose from a clip.
@MattWeber I understand it functions very similarly to a convection oven, and that probably is good enough. Though I suppose I'd want to see some good thermal shots of the rolls surface temps at hourly marks, before dropping that kind of money on a deluxe ez bake oven.
I have a food dehydrator about 2x the size of this device but I can fit 10 spools in it, and it was under $200. Excalibur 9 rack dehydrator, buy it direct from them for a better price.
The real gen is always in the comments
Do you take out all of the trays to fit in spools? From the images on the company's website it doesn't look like spools will fit.
The max temp of that dehydrator is 75C and is not adequate for the use cases where you would want something like the S2.
@@kswaid1 There are dehydrators that go up to 110c for ~100-200e.
@@eaman11 I haven't seen any that go over 80C for a reasonable price. Do you have any links?
I guess one idea would be taking a well made metal dehydrator and replacing the control system with an inkbird controller to get whatever temp it is physically capable of (maybe insulate a bit).
Also of note is that filament makers need to start publishing max temps for their spools as have seen some do things like this and melt the spools to their material .
Great review, tons of info, wish I would have known of it before buying the s4 though.
This filament dryer when it actually launches will cost more than a Bambu A1 does now.
That's quite the ask.
Those A1 minis are a crazy good price, a great way to get into 3d printing. I'm not here to justify the price-point, I want to make sure that what I review is good quality and performs well over a long-period. That said... It will likely change over time as volumes increase and production rises. This unit can do what a regular filament dryer can, but it is really a solution for people that are getting more to the pro-level stuff. When compared to one spool of PPS-CF it is a pretty good price, LOL. If you're just looking for a standard filament dryer, I've found the Creality PI single and doubles to be a great price and they perform really well also. They are a little harder to load, but its a small price to pay. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts!
Great improvement in driers for Sunlu. I still like the one that rotates the filament to avoid hotspots , the Eibos.
Just add airflow and make sure the heater isn't near the filament.
$350 is a hard sell. I'd pay $250 tops for this, and that's only if it reviews extremely well and doesn't have filament hot spots like the S4 does.
An AF140EU costs 120€ and WILL do 40ºC to 200ºC (basically, all the range of filament temperatures for dehydration) 350$ is just dumb on the manufacturer part.
@8:37 The Creality already has two holes in the lid without plugs. Opening one of the plugs, makes it 3 open holes. Not that it would make that much difference, but wanted to point it out.
You totally convinced me! I went to check and they still had a good amount left at Super Early Bird price so I pulled the trigger! Thanks for your great review! Subscribing to your channel. My first 3D printer (A1 Mini, no AMS) arrives at the end of the month and my 6yo boy is totally stoked (it will arrive in time for his 7th bday actually!). If we enjoy 3DP and I feel I need to upgrade, I’ll likely get the next Gen BambuLab (H2D?) next year. This dryer will then become very useful, as I’ll likely want to print more advanced materials.
Nice! I've been using ONLY this dryer since getting it, the proof is in the pudding! I think they did a good job of accounting for the main requirements for someone that wants to print more functional/engineering parts. Of course it can be used for any filament, I would have liked some way of getting an extra spool in there somehow, but I guess that'd come at a cost too. Considering the price-point of the Eibos units, this one is so much more capable and way heavier duty. If you have the ability to do some design work, you'll love the freedom that 3DP gives you and your son, and it's definitely something good to get started in early, it will be the future of basically every part that can't come from sheet stock. Hopefully I'll be able to buy the new H2D as well when it comes out, I'm not in a huge hurry for it, but it should have some nice features that put the pressure on the competition to do better as well. I hope you have a great day and let me know how it goes with your journey into 3D printing with you son!
Why no sponsored tag?
The screen placement is a major design flaw. If Sunlu changed that in an update and added active filament rollers, and a feature to keep filament below a set humidity value, that would be the ultimate filament dryer.
My S4 lets you set a humidity level to maintain.
Opening the lid will not let out all the heat. All the mass of the unit itself that has heated up will remain largely the same temperature. Its mass relative to the mass of the air is humongous. It should not take much time at all for the air to heat back up after opening and closing it. The same thing is involved when talking about opening the door of a refrigerator. The cool air escaping and being replaced with warmer air from the room isn’t a big deal because the mass of all the food inside is so much larger, and it takes next to no time at all for that air to cool back down after you close the door. The food itself remains fairly stable.
Empty freezer will use more energy than a full one if opened a lot and the freezer compartments help a bunch as well.
To the point of where its worth it to just put in some filler water bottles(not full) to help. Will help in keeping it cool for longer in case of an electricity outage as well.
Has Sunlu fixed the firmware bug I found earlier in the year yet? On my S4 there is a bug pertaining to waking the display backlighting back up by pressing one of the “buttons” on the display. You can press any of those buttons to get the backlight to come on again, but if you happen to do so with the power button then the unit will not shut off when the timer runs out. Instead, when the timer runs out it will reset and continue running on another cycle. If you use the Set button or one of the arrow buttons to wake the backlight then the timer is unaffected and the unit shuts off when the timer runs out, just as it should. It only resets and continues running if you wake the backlight with the power button. The fact that you can’t set the timer for less than one hour made this a huge pain to troubleshoot. Took quite a while for me to figure out precisely what was going on and why the unit would never shut off for me. Just dumb luck that I happened to have been using the power button to wake the backlight when I wanted to check on the time remaining, and that’s what triggers the bug. Heh.
There are definitely still power bugs in the S4. Won't shut off at the set time unless you have messed with the settings right before running it a second time. Bought mine in November 2024.
After nothing but disappointment with other Sunlu dryers, I'm half expecting the "E" in the name mentioned at 1:08 to represent the error state this dryer will go into about the 3rd or 4th time you try to use it. 😆
Returning my space pi I got a week ago hope this doesn’t cost a fortune
Wish it had a rotisserie filament function
Also these driers need an exhaust function. Once the humidity goes past 30% it should open and vent the moist air outside until it’s at 20%~ or 15% and then close again (just needs a one way valve)
I wish you did test a 12h filament dry tho. With the test you mentioned , it mostly tests initial heat up speed I think?
Hopefully they have solved the electronics problems on this model. I am on my 3rd S4 model already (all warranty at least) due to electronics failure after a few months of use. It is a great dryer when it works though.
I have their v1 dryer. They should have gotten it right the first time. Had to put 2 little fans in mine. It will dry cf nylon at it's 55c maximum. it just takes a few days..... The new 4 cell one and this one looks to be much better than their v1. Glad they are improving.
The biggest problem I have with this drier is the size, particularly if I were to place it with the screen pointed out. Loading the Creality drier is no real problem. I just open the top, set the spool in the lid, load the filament path, set the spool in position and close the lid. And being in my basement, I have no issues with the drier getting warm on the outside.
Why did you test the temps so low? Bambu PA6-GF requires 80C for drying. Others are even hotter. Is 65C the max this thing can do? That would be no different than their S4. Just as an FYI, Sunlu, the price is way too high. I will wait for an Amazon sale. You could buy a whole regular oven for $350. I wouldn't even pay the presale price for this thing. Maybe $199.
Run the same tests with a food dehydrator. It would be really interesting to see. Also a food dehydrator with some desiccant as well. What mesh are you using to wrap your desiccant in?
What is it's physical size? Trying to see if it will fit in a spot.
They need to make dryers that can go to 90-130C for the engineering filaments. 70 for nylons is not ideal even if you just run them longer. Most data sheets for nylons start at 80 and often recommend 90.
you really should measure the actual temperature inside fillament dryers since some under orver report the temperature
For drying desiccant I prefer my microwave oven (at its lower settings) - much faster than the filement dryer.
Great! Except for the $350 price tag... yeahhhhhh...
I can't believe you can't put 4 spools in this thing. That's a deal killer right there.
It's way too big for 2 spools, for sure.
@@Skopper1 And it's $380.
What the… why is it so big? Air circulation?
Would be really awesome if this had a sense to know if the fan was not spinning and if it had a dedicated vent port so as to not build up moisture while drying.
Doesn't the polymaker dryer already do that job for way less space?
how u get thermal on the phone ?
Interesting. I would not have pegged warming up gloves to do woodworking in the cold. I was thinking it'd be great for small batch jerky. You might think beef, but give fish a try.
5:07 yeah you probably shouldn't use a filament dryer to dry parmesan cheese...
Very cool, but for now I will continue to use the modified stove for $30
Always informative but a little too pricy for my taste. Keep doing what you are doing and Joyeux Nöel et Bonne Année.
Those skinny rollers are useless and cause a lot of resistance especially on damaged cardboard spools or imperfect plastic spools. When printing a soft tpe, the spool will stop spinning and the tpe stretches quite a way before the spool starts to spin causing jams when the filament unrolls. Nice improvements but "Still" not there yet.
Still can't beat a dehydrator for the money and performance.
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
This unit definitely has some cool features, but the very large size and unintuitive screen placement are a bit of a deal breaker for me in my limited maker corner. I've been using a Sunlu S2 for a while and my only complaint is the lack of circulation inside (early model) and ventilation of moist air.
I agree. The screen needs to be on the end, not the wide front. My S4 is a pain with it on the wide side.
To do a best case synerio, filament dryers need a humidity condenser. Changing the relative humidity (heating) is not removing humidity.
In a closed system, no. But vent that hot air out of the dryer and you indeed are removing that humidity from the space. Same reason a condenser works, as it shifts the location of that water vapor from the humid environment to an external location to prevent it being reintroduced. Why you see most print farms also run a dehumidifier in the room as well as sill have filament dryers to evaporate trapped moisture from the filament itself, as just dehumidifying the air wont pull the moisture from the filament.
bro acted like we've never seen this technology before. Welcome to Earth.
Would be nice to see automatic air purging on these filament dryers so you don't have to remember to go back to it hours later to plug the box up. In the last few years I've learned to crack open my filament dryer while running to actively dry filament while printing slightly moist filament or engineering filament.. nice to see that this dryer has the feature build in by accident 😅Seriously nice piece of kit
What I would like to know is the high temps neccesary? if one was to dry a filament like PPA-CF at 70c for a long time in a household dehydrater then weight, then dry at lets say 100c would it get dryer?
Way to expensive compared to an ordinary food dehydrator ,but
thank you for a very nice produced video and testing it really well
The flopped backwards. It's almost like they don't actually FDM.
Head up, it's sold out already!
It's not. You can get it on their website.
@@Skopper1 2 weeks ago it was sold out not even 30 min after you you place your video up for $279.99. I'll check it out now , it's now $289.99.
I cannot imagine anyone would recommend using anything that is also used in food preparation for anything to do with 3D printing. The risks are far too high, I think.
you could buy a dedicated one for filament
Yep. I got an air fryer but I ONLY use it for drying filaments. Never touches food.
@@whatusernameis5295 that's what I did.
I use the oven in our MIL suite. (Don't worry, she doesn't live there)