If you are a 3D printing fanatic, one way to quickly speed up the printing process is to melt the filament beforehand.
This is why we shared some of the best food dehydrators for PLA filament to help you make an unbiased decision on which one is the best.
We do this by scoping out the internet for vast reviews and sharing both the positives and negatives when using each product (if there is one)
Things to look for in a Filament Dehydrator:
1. What’s the purpose of a food dehydrator?
If you are looking for a way to remove moisture and dry spool filaments without extra stress, then a food dehydrator is one good option that fulfills that need.
They do this by blowing the air throughout the machine for long periods.
This helps in bringing down the humidity level of your filament.
An average price of a food dehydrator usually costs between $60 – $200, depending on the size you are planning to use.
Image 1.1 A large spool size
“Bigger PLA filaments require more expensive dehydrators!”
Usually, the bigger the measurements of your PLA filament, the more expensive the dehydrator is to fit that capacity.
But at the same time, this allows you to heat multiple filaments all in bulk instead of having to do it one by one painstakingly.
However, there are alternatives to this that are time-consuming to set up but allow the filament to flow directly in the 3D printers.
These are 3D printed mods that will require you to switch the functionality of your food dehydrator to become its dedicated filament dryer — what this means is you can’t heat food anymore with it.
Doing this method comes with its own unique set of advantages and disadvantages. You don’t have to manually remove all the trays every time since this will require you to make permanent DIY cuts and place the filament roll right in the middle.
We included a YouTube video down below showing you how below.
2. How to dehydrate your PLA filament (Step-by-Step)
After making the necessary significant circular cuts in the trays of your food dehydrator, you can now begin the moisture-removal process.
For PLA filaments, the recommended drying temperature is 45°C (or 113°F) for more than 4 hours.
In cases where you have a wet filament, simply double the required time to eliminate the moisture. In this case, a wet PLA filament would take 8 hours of drying time to be ready for printing.
We decided to include a vital resource below filled on the different drying timeline guides from PrintDry. All credits & thanks are credited to them. (You can take a screenshot or bookmark this page to save the table.)
| Material | Drying Temperature | Drying Time |
| PLA | 45C/113F | >4h |
| ABS | 60C/140F | >2h |
| PETG | 65C/149F | >2h |
| Nylon | 70C/158F | >12h |
| Desiccant | 65C/149F | >3h |
| PVA | 45C/113F | >10h |
| TPU/ TPE | 50C/122F | >4h |
| ASA | 60C/140F | >4h |
| PP | 55C/131F | >6h |
3. What size should a food dehydrator for filament be?
When scoping around for different PLA drying machines, one main thing to consider is the size of your tape.
A larger food dehydrator is beneficial for accommodating huge tabes such as the IC3D PLA or Nylon X. You can stack 4 – 6 large tapes in one box-shaped dehydrator.
We’ll share some of the large-capacity food dehydrators later in this article.
Related Article: Impact of Food Dehydrator in Agriculture (And it’s Effects)
4. What should I look out for in a filament dehydrator?
The most important thing to consider has an even cooking temperature. You don’t want a dehydrator that jumps up and down between coldness and hotness.
Even machines out there that inaccurately advertise that they have the highest temperature setting in the market.
In simple terms, some lied about it, causing some customers to be more upset and request a refund.
We’ve seen those deceptive types of food dehydrators and show you how to avoid them.
Luckily, the recommended temperature for dehydrating PLA filaments is 45°C/113°F. This is a good sign since it eliminates all the overly priced food dehydrators from our list.
That’s one reason most dehydrator machines are priced over the $200 mark. The higher the temperature you need, the more expensive the food dehydrators are. Yes, they are essential if you plan to cook beef jerky, but in our case, it’s a piece of 3D printing material.
Beginner Tips: Avoid this when using a food dehydrator for filaments.
Before you even plug the socket of the food dehydrator, it is essential to plan out how many PLA filament pieces you want to dehydrate and where they should be located.
This might seem an obvious tip, but in a little while, you will be wearing gloves to avoid the hot pipping walls of the food dehydrator.
This is why we advise you to plan. You can do this by placing the filaments inside the dehydrator without turning on any switches. This allows you to see what it would look like to put the filament spools later.
We included a video of Joel showing how he prepares the placement of his filament spools.
Sometimes, you would place the spools upright to maximize the space. This is important if you plan to do things in bulk and not have to wait for another 4 hours of dehydrating time.
Next, once the planning process is finished, you can set the preheating at 40°C (or 104°F for American measurements)—this temperature proceeds for the next 30 minutes.
Once half an hour has already passed, place the spool filaments rolls inside, close the door, then set it higher to 45°C/113°F before you start putting the filaments inside.
Safety Tip: To protect your hands from any risk of 1st-degree burn, wear gloves and place the filaments inside.
Image 1.2 Color variations of PLA filament
One mistake that most beginners make when it comes to using a filament dehydrator is the constant opening and closing of doors.
Yes, we understand how it can be worrisome doing something like this for the first time, but if you want to monitor the progress, people can check it through the transparent covering that most food dehydrators have.
Avoiding this mistake would prevent unnecessary temperature changes that could affect the quality of your PLA filament.
This advice is not only applicable during the dehydration process but also during the preheating stage. So, we’re serious when we say that you should avoid unfastening the door every time.
Important: Why your food dehydrator won’t be the same anymore.
While you could still try to cook food after using it to dehydrate PLA filament, we recommend that you don’t.
This is because the air circulating the machine seeps in and comes into contact with the plastic material.
The next time that you decide to dehydrate food, the same scent might be mixed in with your beef jerky or dried fruit. We don’t want that to happen.
“But, it’s not 100% true!”
While there are no studies yet and this fact is not 100% scientifically proven, the last thing we would advise is to risk your health for the sake of gaining multiple uses of the machine.
This is why we suggest using either an old or unused food dehydrator to remove moisture in PLA filaments.
But if you don’t have one, buy a separate food dehydrator dedicated to drying fruits, herbs, vegetables, or beef jerky.
However, this doesn’t mean that you wasted your money.
The filament dehydrator is not a one-use option. You can still continue to keep on utilizing it, provided that it’s for PLA filaments only.
Best Food Dehydrator for Filaments
1. Chefman Food Dehydrator
| Advantages (Pros) | Disadvantages (Cons) |
| *Designed for a permanent setup
*Fits most filament spools |
*Not the highest temperature degree. |
If you are looking for a more permanent setup for drying filament, then Chefman is the one to use.
Simply cut up the tray to match the total size of your filament spool, and it’s now ready to use.
However, there have been numerous concerns about temperatures not reaching the promised 185 degrees.
Instead, it peaks at 158 degrees. Many customers concluded that this might be a typographical error made by the company.
This isn’t a huge problem unless you plan to use it for dehydrating food.
For PLA filaments, we only need to reach 45°C (or 113°F) temperature and run it for more than 4 hours.
What Makes Them Stand Out: Made for permanent long-term use.
2. Elite Gourmet Food Dehydrator EFD313B
| Advantages (Pros) | Disadvantages (Cons) |
| *Allows you to stack multiple small filament spools | *Not the most significant size available |
Elite Gourmet’s food dehydrator might fit your filament needs if you don’t want to mess up any trays and be forced to make any permanent changes.
You can stack multiple sizes of PLA filament spools all in one batch.
This prevents wasting precious time when compared to doing it individually.
However, it’s not the most considerable size available in the market. You can still fully maximize the capacity of the square box to prevent misusing space.
What Makes Them Stand Out: Made for small spools (Cook in one batch)
3. Cabela’s Food Dehydrator
| Advantages (Pros) | Disadvantages (Cons) |
| *Biggest size on the list
*People usually buy this as a Christmas gift |
*Most expensive item |
This is made for 3D printer fans who want to use the largest size available on the market. It is an understatement to say that you could fit more than 35+ small filament spools inside of it (when stacked up to the brim)
It has a total capacity of 80L, allowing you to have more than enough room to utilize.
To put things into the pictures, that large capacity can cook enough beef jerky to last a family for more than 10+ days.
However, it has the same problem encountered by other food dehydrators on our list.
They also indirectly state their highest temperature capability.
They promised that temperatures could go reach 160F. But most customers shared that this isn’t the case.
Instead, the highest temperature flows between 145° to 150° mark. Again, this isn’t a massive deal for us since the heating requirement for PLA filament is 45°C (or 113°F).
What Makes Them Stand Out: Biggest Model (80L Capacity)
4. Cosori Food Dehydrator
| Advantages (Pros) | Disadvantages (Cons) |
| *Unpar customer support
*People recommend this dehydrator for beef jerky & dog treat. |
*Slightly more expensive than the average price. |
If there is one thing that checks all the boxes, it will be the food dehydrator from Cosori.
From our research, we found that they have some phenomenal customer service.
If you have a complaint, they will immediately reach out to you instead of leaving you “read.”
But if there is one disadvantage, it is that their high functionality looks average when used for filament drying.
In other words, the features might be overkill. People who are into 3D printing might not appreciate it since the standard for dehydrating a filament is not too demanding.
Most of their competitors also meet the minimum temperature requirement of 45°C (or 113°F).
Unless you plan to dehydrate beef jerky, they are the only ones who do what they promised.
They can meet the highest temperature setting and stay there for long periods without breaking down. But we understand that most of our readers here might not be planning to use it for cooking meals.
What Makes Them Stand Out: People might not appreciate it at first glance.
Bottom Line: Our Top Picks
If there is one thing that we could pick from this list, it would be Cabela’s food dehydrator.
Its big dimensions allow anyone to dehydrate spool filaments in bulk instead of doing them one by one. But it also comes with an expensive price tag due to its large size.
So as an alternative for people on a strict tight budget (if this is not you, skip this part), we would recommend Cosori’s food dehydrator since the chances of you getting ripped off is slim.
If you did get a defective product from them, send them an email, and they’ll usually ship out a new one for free.
