This is my very first project shared on Creality Cloud, and I decided to publish it because it became extremely useful for me in daily printing.

The idea is very simple: use the heated bed of the Ender 3 V3 KE as the heat source and add a low-cost airflow system to create an efficient filament dryer.

The dryer is basically a box placed over the spool on top of the heated bed, combined with an 80x80mm fan powered directly from the printer USB port.
Even with this simple setup, it can quickly reduce the humidity inside the box to around 10% while maintaining temperatures close to 50°C.

Important details:
- The fan must blow the air upward
- The spool cannot sit directly on the heated bed
- Spacers are required under the spool to allow airflow circulation

For the spacers, I currently recommend using:
- Thick metal nuts
- Large screw spacers
- Or heat-resistant plastic supports

This creates an air gap between the spool and the heated bed, allowing warm air to circulate properly around the filament.

The design uses:
- Lower air intake
- Upper air exhaust
- Adjustable airflow using tape (for now)

When the filament is very humid, both the lower intake and upper exhaust stay open to remove moisture faster.
As humidity drops, the intake can be closed to retain more heat while still allowing moisture to escape from the exaust.

The upper air exhaust is especially important and must be adjusted carefully with tape.
The goal is to keep enough hot air inside the box to raise the internal temperature, while still allowing humid hot air to slowly escape from the top.

The current version also includes space for a temperature and humidity meter on the top of the box, which helps monitor drying performance in real time.
An additional advantage is that the printer camera can be used to remotely monitor the temperature and humidity display during the drying process.

In my tests, I used the heated bed at 75°C, which is close to the temperature limit of the PETG used to print the box.
Higher temperatures may deform the PETG parts over time, so increase temperatures carefully and keep in mind that the dryer may run continuously for around 4 hours or more.

At the moment, airflow control is done manually with adhesive tape, but future versions may include:
- Adjustable top exhaust vent
- Better airflow
- Improved thermal insulation
- Better spool support

The whole setup operates very close to the size limits of the Ender 3 V3 KE build area, but it works surprisingly well.

This is Version 1 and still has a lot of room for improvements, but for a very small budget, it already performs like a really useful filament dryer.

I hope this project helps other makers who need an affordable way to dry filament and improve print quality.

Simple, cheap, but surprisingly effective.

Ultra Budget Filament Dryer for Ender 3 V3 KE Using the Heat

Default printer settings for petg