Filament experiences

Brands that print beautifully, brands that are fine and the few that damaged beds, sorted by material.

Excellent buys23

ABS/ASA

For all of these I recommend chamber temps of at least 50C if not 60C if you can achieve that.

  • Prusament filamentawesome ABS/ASA; my favourite filament brand; NOTE Prusament ABS is a blend but prints nicely.
  • Fillamentum ASAlovely matte colours; prints really well; NOTE Fillamentum ABS is a blend, the ASA is (I think) raw ASA and produces lovely results.
  • Polymaker ABS/ASAAmazing colours and quality; NOTE that the ABS is a blend and the ASA is likely closer to the raw material. Caveat: polymaker says the ABS is not a blend, however I have it on fairly good authority that the base resin seems to not have the properties they claim; ymmv
  • Bambu ABS/ASAprints great but NOTE I suspect all of it is a blend.

PETG

  • Prusament PETGvery good quality
  • Fillamentum PETGvery good quality

PLA

  • Fillamentum PLAgucci stuff
  • Prusament PLAgucci stuff
  • Overture PLAI have only used 1-2 spools but I have had good experiences with it.
  • Bambu filamentlovely PLA/PLA CF/PLA Metal.
  • SUNLUperfectly fine to print with; as I understand it Bambu PLA is just rebranded SUNLU.
  • Eryone PLAI have had great experiences with their matte PLA.
  • 3dqf.co.ukEXCELLENT PLA and at a bargain price in the UK; I have loads of their PLA spools and can highly recommend it. Note, however, that the PLA comes on a cardboard spool (which is NOT suitable unless you respool it for a Bambu AMS btw); that's a matter of taste but great for recycling. Their ABS is rumoured to be average though.
  • Tinmorry PLAnice matte.

Silk PLA

  • ERYONEamazing rainbow metal silk PLA that is fast changing. Notably they have recently started selling tricolour silk PLA and it is cheaper than their competitors but just as nice.
  • ZIROgreat prints from these silk PLA colours; I have ALL the silks and ALL the glitter ones; they are all amazing and print so easily.
  • AMOLENawesome silk colours; especially the bicolour ones.
  • ICEYUNlovely silk colours that print well
  • Viking filaments(comes from Denmark - I had to arrange by email for a special postage setup to get it to the UK as they don’t deliver to the UK by default; worth it though) honestly lovely satin PLA bicolour filaments but may need drying on receipt since not vacuum packed; just cellophane sealed.
  • Tinmorry silk PLAprints well, though I have only tried 2 spools to date.
  • REDLINEI have a bunch of silk mystic filaments and they print beautifully and look awesome. Note, however, that they do not arrive vacuum packed and may need drying on receipt.
  • Hatchbox PLAprints very well.
  • YOUSUfast changing rainbow silk PLA; almost as good as ERYONE. Their tricolour extrusion filaments are outstanding.

Good to OK buys6

ABS

  • eSUNABS+ is good if you can keep your chamber temps to a reasonable level; if not it will create weaker parts.

PLA

  • eSUNmediocre PLA but does the job.
  • Mika3D for a multipack of 0.5Kg matte PLA reels; I bought a pack of 12matte reels - it’s good stuff but despite the range of colours they are rather semi-transparent which I found a little disappointing.
  • GEEETECHaverage black PLA but well priced; prints OK but nothing to write home about.
  • GIANTARMOK PLA, wouldn’t rave about it or buy again.
  • StrongHeroquite nice printing PLA and comes in multiple colour combos.

Bad buys / Terrible3

Silk PLA

  • SUNLUAvoid the rainbow silk as it’s incredibly slow changing.

PLA

  • PrimaSelectsticks too well to PEI, ripping apart on finished prints - have dried using a filament dryer and also stuck in a dry box 3 times - still terrible and I ended up throwing the spool.
  • ICEYUNLight blue matte adheres horribly to your PEI bed and damages it - chucked it after losing 3 beds I couldn’t scrape off with a Stanley knife.

Final comments

I wouldn't really recommend Amazon basics PLA… the filament is just whatever the cheapest is when they order a batch making it quite random in quality. It is quite possible that one spool is just fine, then the next one will just just clog.

As a general rule of thumb, avoid filament from printer manufacturers; with the key exception of prusament from prusa and bambu varieties that I've mentioned above.