<p>It's wet.</p>
<p>This artifact (I love your name for it, stalagmites, and will have to remember/adopt that!) is always caused by wet filament. You may be able to get it to go away by using excessively long retractions, slowing down or speeding up retraction, speeding up travel moves, reducing temperature, or any number of other hacks, but the root cause is that your filament is wet, and many of these other attempts at mitigating the problem will harm the strength and other quality aspects of your prints.</p>
<p>Dry your filament. If it's PETG, it needs to be dried at 70°C or higher (probably up to 85 or 90 is okay) for at least 6 hours if you don't have active air circulation moving the moisture off. With a good dryer that does circulate air, 3-4 hours probably suffices. After that, it needs to be kept dry, in sealed dryboxes (not plastic bags) with generous amounts of desiccant, or re-dried every time you want to print with it.</p>
<p>Being newly opened from the sealed plastic bag the vendor sold it in does not mean it's already dry. It means it's 100% guaranteed to be wet. The tiny desiccant pack that was sealed in the package with it does not mean it's dry. You'd need 10-100x that much desiccant to keep it dry from the time of manufacture until the customer opens it. It just means the vendor is doing what customers expect to make themselves look like a decent-quality brand.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-09-22T15:20:26.503Z
drying temperature depends on the spool - a PLA spool would limit it to 80, an ABS spool at 90.
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-09-23T13:35:27.667Z
@Trish: Indeed that's true, but I would say a PLA spool limits it to about 50 unless it was annealed. I've had to respool filament that was undryable because the manufacturer shipped it on PLA spools - a huge pain.
R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-09-23T13:39:37.150Z
That's why I have s stock of ABS spools from other filament - though I do look into Paper spools in the future for they are easier to get rid off
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-23T13:36:47.563Z
2023-08-23T13:36:47.563Z
R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
<p>I have had this issue with both Sunlu PETG (red) and TechnologyOutlet PETG (blue), both are translucent PETG filaments.</p>
<p>This is printed with a bowden setup, 5 mm retraction, 85 °C bed and 245 °C nozzle. I am convinced it is a retraction issue but it does not show up on my temperature towers.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/dpzDf.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/dpzDf.jpg" alt="Stalagmites form" /></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-25T21:14:37.513Z
Are you printing this with the same speed settings as your temperature towers?
Davo
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-25T22:12:34.770Z
How fast are you printing? This looks like an overpressure issue; there is too much pressure left causing filament to leak or ooze filament. Maybe you should print other tests then a temperature tower to tune this. Usually 3 or 4 cubes printed or a row an sort this out. You are also under extruding if you look closely to the flat surface.
0scar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-26T18:28:16.257Z
Speed is probably the issue then, I copied the MK3 profiles from PrusaSlicer for my Ender6 as a baseline (I did hear the speeds were high but worked well for PLA), and the temp towers were made with teachingtech's generator so not via sliced settings. This is with a 0.8mm nozzle but issue persists at 0.4mm. I will try lower speeds when my current pla print is done! Thank you
hun
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-26T18:50:49.210Z
I interrogated my filament settings to add a reduced speed override, and discovered that it was overriding the retracting length to DDE levels , which I have now undone- I will test this first then lower the speed.
hun
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-23T08:32:19.010Z
The stalagmites are the result of your stringing.
Trish
<petg>
How to stop stalagmite formation with translucent PETGs
hun
# How to stop stalagmite formation with translucent PETGs

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-01-25)

I have had this issue with both Sunlu PETG (red) and TechnologyOutlet PETG (blue), both are translucent PETG filaments.

This is printed with a bowden setup, 5 mm retraction, 85 °C bed and 245 °C nozzle. I am convinced it is a retraction issue but it does not show up on my temperature towers.

[![Stalagmites form](https://i.sstatic.net/dpzDf.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/dpzDf.jpg)

**Tags:** petg

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Are you printing this with the same speed settings as your temperature towers?  
> **username_2**: How fast are you printing? This looks like an overpressure issue; there is too much pressure left causing filament to leak or ooze filament. Maybe you should print other tests then a temperature tower to tune this. Usually 3 or 4 cubes printed or a row an sort this out. You are also under extruding if you look closely to the flat surface.  
> **username_0**: Speed is probably the issue then, I copied the MK3 profiles from PrusaSlicer for my Ender6 as a baseline (I did hear the speeds were high but worked well for PLA), and the temp towers were made with teachingtech's generator so not via sliced settings. This is with a 0.8mm nozzle but issue persists at 0.4mm. I will try lower speeds when my current pla print is done! Thank you  
> **username_0**: I interrogated my filament settings to add a reduced speed override, and discovered that it was overriding the retracting length to DDE levels , which I have now undone- I will test this first then lower the speed.  
> **username_3**: The stalagmites are the result of your stringing.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2023-08-23. Score: 1

It's wet.

This artifact (I love your name for it, stalagmites, and will have to remember/adopt that!) is always caused by wet filament. You may be able to get it to go away by using excessively long retractions, slowing down or speeding up retraction, speeding up travel moves, reducing temperature, or any number of other hacks, but the root cause is that your filament is wet, and many of these other attempts at mitigating the problem will harm the strength and other quality aspects of your prints.

Dry your filament. If it's PETG, it needs to be dried at 70°C or higher (probably up to 85 or 90 is okay) for at least 6 hours if you don't have active air circulation moving the moisture off. With a good dryer that does circulate air, 3-4 hours probably suffices. After that, it needs to be kept dry, in sealed dryboxes (not plastic bags) with generous amounts of desiccant, or re-dried every time you want to print with it.

Being newly opened from the sealed plastic bag the vendor sold it in does not mean it's already dry. It means it's 100% guaranteed to be wet. The tiny desiccant pack that was sealed in the package with it does not mean it's dry. You'd need 10-100x that much desiccant to keep it dry from the time of manufacture until the customer opens it. It just means the vendor is doing what customers expect to make themselves look like a decent-quality brand.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: drying temperature depends on the spool - a PLA spool would limit it to 80, an ABS spool at 90.  
> **username_4**: @username_3: Indeed that's true, but I would say a PLA spool limits it to about 50 unless it was annealed. I've had to respool filament that was undryable because the manufacturer shipped it on PLA spools - a huge pain.  
> **username_3**: That's why I have s stock of ABS spools from other filament - though I do look into Paper spools in the future for they are easier to get rid off  

---

