ESUN filament snapping over night - too old?

I’m very satisfied with my 2 Esun rolls except one thing: Every morning, the filament is broken on multiple points. Usualy at least to points: Between the roll and the entry to the filament guide tube, and somewhere inside the tube. Thats anoing… This happens to both collors (white and blue).
Is it possible that my filament is too old? The batch number says “2014-10-31”, so it’s 1 year, which sounds quite long to me! It was (originaly?) sealed until 2 weeks ago.

Whats your experiance, is old filament more brittle then new one?

eSun is just brittle. All of it I have used has snapped like that. I have a few brand new rolls out of sealed bags. They all snap when left in the printer after a print. The stuff prints very nicely for the price so, I just deal with the snapping.

I will check the dates on mine.

Hmm… My eSUN ABS hasn’t snapped on its own. Actually I don’t think it’s ever snapped after bending a few times either. I use Black and White primarily… and store a few other colors in a box with dessicant. Not sure the humidity level in my basement…

I forgot to mention I’m using PLA. ABS is more flexible, so there should be no problem with that.
I will try another brand when I need new rols, so I can compare them.

It may be caused by the bend/curve coming off the spool is not being followed in the feed tube from the roll to the top of the hob bolt. The closer you are to the end/inside of the spool the more curved the filament is. So if you feed against the curve it will start cracking it over time.

The spools of PLA I just purchased on Amazon are about a year old according to the date on the spool. They print great but snap overnight after the print finishes.

Never experienced any issues with leaving spools of HIPS (eSun, Jet, whatever) on my Mini for weeks at a time. The room is conditioned to around 70F and is dry (50% +/- RH).

I have the two translucent PLA filaments (green and blue) snapping over night, but the white and black do not. They were all produced this year, so it’s not an age issue.

I retract the filament or snap it off at the extruder and put the roll back in the bag over night.

there are 4 things that are known to contribute to brittle PLA

  1. Crappy source filliment - If its a bad mix or too many fillers (chinese melamine powder for example) the fillament snaps and won’t bind right
  2. Humidity - PLA is sugar based, and will absorb humidity. In large amounts this shows up as steam bubble blowout blobs on prints, but in small quantities it can just lead to overly brittle fillament as the chemical bonds weaken. The resulting part is usually strong since the remaining water vapor is cooked off.
  3. UV light exposure - If your fillament is in a window or under certain types of lighting, the outer edges of the fillament can crack easier. This will usually show up as a diagonal crack starting from the outermost layer in, as the exposed surface is the only part that becomes brittle. Usually takes quite some time before this becomes a factor
  4. Heat de-tempering. If you have your PLA in an enclosure it can get heated and cooled enough that it will start to fracture.

In the case of esun PLA, I think it is just lower quality polymer. It prints extremely well, however. I haven’t found anything better for the money.

I was just going to ask about this as my esun PLA just snapped beside me while I was watching TV… scared the heck out of me, thought it was an electrical spark that went off. Nope, was just the filament snapping near the print head.

Should I be removing the filament from the printer if I’m not printing for a couple days?

That’s what i am doing now every evening after my last print. In fact, it just takes 1min if you are used to it. I had a look at the German Reprap filament we are using at work (pla): you can put it around you small finger and even than it will not break, only gets some stress marks. But it’s more than 50% more expensive then esun,and it prints exactly the same. I will keep the esun therefore!

I’m having the same issue with eSUN PLA. Was good for a couple of prints after unwrapping but snapped in the bowden tube in a couple of spots after the print finished.

The printer is not in an enclosure and I’m in CO (a pretty dry climate). Maybe I’ll switch back to village plastics?

I guess that won’t help. We are using high-priced PLA at work, also this ones are snapping over night when a spool is getting to it’s end (diameter of spool decreases). It seems also to depend on room temperature…

I’ve had a similar issue with several different brands, it seems like the cooler overnight temps cause it to get brittle and snap off, usually right above the extruder.

I’m thinking the two things to do would be to go to an overhead reel, instead of the stock side holder (TAZ 6 in my case) and use a space heater to raise the temps (which might be a dumb thing to do depending on where it is and if you’re monitoring it).

Just had a print fail twice in a row because of this, getting annoying.

I had a similar issue of “filament breaking”. I finally concluded the room was too cold and thus the spool of filament was too cold.

To test my theory, I made a temporary makeshift enclosure that contained the entire printer and the filament spool. Then I set the bed to 25C and left it over night. No broken filament. I then started a print And it was fine. I repeated the test a couple times.

I am now planning an enclosure which will contain the printer and filament but not the electronics. I’ll probably use something simple as a “warmer” for when the room is cool.

I am currently experiencing this problem with Verbatim PLA, which is otherwise great. The thing is, it is only brittle in some spots, still pliable in others. I think that in my case if it were temperature and/or humidity, it would affect the entire roll uniformly.

I suspected UV light exposure, it is fairly close to a window. However, I took a “good” sample off of the “bad” roll and set it in direct sunlight for several weeks, and it did not become brittle at all. I’m kinda perplexed, and thinking maybe the filament was just bad in spots from the factory.