Wet filament symptoms vs. wrong temperature — how do you tell them apart?

Question

Every troubleshooting thread ends with "dry your filament", but I'd like a reliable way to distinguish moisture from other causes before I spend 8 hours drying.

Current symptoms on PA-CF: slight popping sound, matte rough surface, weak layer bonds. Nozzle 280 °C. What's your test?

Lukas Novak · Accepted Answer

Reliable field test in 2 minutes: extrude 100 mm in the air at printing temperature and watch the strand.

Bubbles, steam, popping, or a fuzzy strand → moisture, full stop.
Smooth strand but drooping/thin → too hot.
Smooth strand, dull surface, poor bonding, no popping → too cold or too fast.

PA-CF with popping at 280 °C is wet — nylon absorbs 3–4% by weight in a few days. Dry at 80–90 °C for 12 h, and print straight from a heated dry box. Anything less is a temporary fix.

Selin Demir · Answer

+1. Also weigh the spool before and after drying. A 1 kg nylon spool that loses 20–30 g was seriously wet, which explains weak layer bonds.

Wet filament symptoms vs. wrong temperature — how do you tell them apart?

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