Humidity No More — FilaPartner E1 Filament Dryer Review

Within the hobby of 3D printing, there are numerous elements that require constant care, cleaning, and replacement, resulting in more time and effort spent on preparation than on the actual printing itself. Every 3d print setup is different, and not everyone has access to a temperature-controlled room – in fact probably a fair amount of us printers are relegated to having our toys in the garage. When you don’t get the even climate control of a household room, a notoriously common challenge for FDM printing is moisture-ridden filament. Nozzle clogs, poor layer adhesion, warping, bubbles, popping, the list goes on and on when you introduce water into a device that melts plastic. If you have found yourself suffering from these symptoms, you can cease the discussion about bringing the printer into the house and maintain your domain with a filament dryer. 

Gaming Trend recently posted a review video for the device if you’d like to check that out. Below is an overview of the video and the review itself for your reading pleasure. 

OVERVIEW

The Chitu Systems FilaPartner E1 Filament Dryer is designed to properly control and maintain dryness for your stored FDM filament. The unit has two chambers, which can each store two rolls of filament and be used either for storage or for use while printing. Its compact shape and design allows it to be stored easily within any print space. The user interface is user-friendly, and the unit is very much ‘plug and play.’

SETUP

Unboxing, plugging in, and system setup takes less than 10 minutes. The chambers are magnetic and sit right onto the heating/dryer base. You’ll want to have a little space for airflow, and on the boxes themselves, you’ll want to ensure the metal plates are not covering the airflow vents. 

The chambers are shipped with the power cables and humidity slips, so remove those before loading in your filament. There are small tubes that are inserted into the ports of the chambers to prevent the filament from rubbing and breaking.

LANGUAGE NOTE: My system was default to Chinese. Chitu has released a notice that there are some units sold in US markets that are defaulted to the language setting. If that happens, you can follow this video guide to change it to English. 

Plug it in and turn it on!

FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS

Storage

Each chamber holds up to two 1000g filament spools. You don’t need to have two spools in each chamber, as it will function normally with just a single spool. 

Temperature Control

There are four presets available for temperature control, and this can be applied separately to each chamber. There are some default settings for the different filament types you may be using (PLA, ABs, PETG, etc.), so there is a large amount of flexibility for both the temperature of the chamber and the humidity control.

NOTE: It is recommended that chambers contain the same type of filament – the presets do not apply to each roll within the chamber. 

Intelligent Control

There are three really cool features of this system. The ‘Automatic Drying’ feature automatically dries the filament if the humidity is above 50% and then stops drying when it drops below 25%. ‘Silent Mode’ is a great feature to reduce the fan noise, which is especially nice if you’re in a house or filming and don’t want the whirring in the background. By default, the ‘Filament Box Automatic Identification’ feature is automatically turned on, which makes sure that the box is properly situated and the airflow is not blocked.

Modular Boxes

The boxes themselves can be removed and stored (by covering the base with the metal plates) so you don’t have to keep exchanging out the filament, especially if you work with different materials. Additionally, the boxes stack on each other, so you don’t have to worry about creating a storage system for your storage. Since you can get up to four different spools within the dryer, this is a perfect design for multi-color filament printers. 

SUMMARY

If you need a filament dryer for your hobby space and have debated picking something up, I would recommend this system. The shape and modularity alone is worth it, especially if you’re strapped for space. It’s solid, it’s simple, and it gets the job done. Let this worry about humidity control while you focus on getting your prints done!

You can purchase your Chitu Systems FilaPartner E1 Filament Dryer on Amazon or directly through the Chitu website. 

Don’t forget to follow Gaming Trend for more 3D printer and accessory reviews!

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