If I can run a mini fleet of ender 3's, make useful stuff and not burn my house down, I'm confident you're capable of learning to run a 3d printer. Yes to everything kb and veen said. Anecdotally I buy my PLA and PETG in bulk for approx $10-11 per roll from a guy near me who bulk imports and resells the stuff. ( I don't actually know if he's still in business anymore with the whole once in a century trade war thing) No matter the brand I chuck it in a dry box full of dessicant beads for a while before I use it, no issues. Heated filament dryers are nice, I've never found I needed one since I got 4 Ikea samla boxes and filled them with dessicant beads and rolls of filament. I'm actually going to an additive manufacturing conference here in Metro Detroit in a few days, I'll report back with anything cool. PLA and PETG filament recycling is becoming a bigger and bigger deal as people come to terms with how much waste is involved with fdm printers. I save all my waste, segregated by plastic type with the long term end goal of grinding and re extruding it, eventually.
Burning the house down has been the concern for myself and my partner when looking up safety. Your vote of confidence is much appreciated, as a result. Not planning letting that print anything out of my sight. Please do. That sounds sweet. Noted on the recycling bit. If I can run a mini fleet of ender 3's, make useful stuff and not burn my house down, I'm confident you're capable of learning to run a 3d printer.
I'm actually going to an additive manufacturing conference here in Metro Detroit in a few days, I'll report back with anything cool.
I feel I should mention that I printed about 4kg worth of filament that a buddy had stored in his garage in a rubbermaid tub for six years. I think it was all PLA. This is in maritime Washington State, no climate control, stuff wasn't even in ziplocs. As a consequence I'm skeptical that moisture matters as much as has been implied. I do keep my filament in vacuum-evacuated ziplocks with a little desipack but that's the extent of my prevention. I think that formulation can be shit, and what people think is "moisture" is actually 'shit formulation' because they don't print enough. I, on the other hand, would buy 3 1kg rolls in the same lot, print one in two days, and then the second one would be garbage while the third one would be fine. Talkin' less than a week.