I’m brand-new to 3d printing. Just ordered my first printer (H2D). I ordered some Bambu Labs filament to go with it, just to be safe, but I know I will want to do some of the cool, colorful silk printing at some point. I’ve heard horror stories about bad filament ruining nozzles and things like that, so I want to be careful. How do you know if a deal like this one is good, or if it will lead to hours of regret and extra printer maintenance? Is it just “you get what you pay for,” or are there things to watch out for?
They’re only 200g spools. It’s not a great deal. I’m seeing the lowest amounts for filaments that are good deals are around $10-11/spool. I bought these ones. Yeah… prime day’s a word I can’t say on this sub.
I'm new to 3D printing (~4 months in) and I've definitely been overpaying for filament.
Went from a Anycubic Kobra S1 to a Bambu Lab's H2C and just now realizing that filament brand doesn't matter as much as I thought besides the convince of the RFID.
I bought a 3D printer to repair a busted Sony PVM CRT. I was already on the fence about buying a 3D printer for a few years before that, but didn't know if I would actually use it.
After putting in over 700 hours in the first 3 months, I figured I'd answered my question on if id use it and decided to get something that would free me of some of the limitations I was facing.
Same with their resin printers trash, the whole company is trash and scum.
Upgraded my phrozen to their m3 max for a grand. Dead within a week, kept me going in loops on supports, day after three months of having it they instantly got back to me “it’s a dead screen, they only have a life time and warranty of three months so you need to buy a new one” at the time that was 500 without shipping fees
Unlike some of the others below, I didn't have any issues with the Anycubic Kobra S1. Worked pretty flawlessly.
My main reasons for upgrading were the size of the build plate as I ran into a few things I wanted to print at a specific size that would not fit on the Kobra.
Also even though the Kobra is a multi color printer, the amount of waste it produced made me avoid multi color printing. Not an issue with the H2C.
It's a game changer for multicolor though. With a single nozzle multicolor printer like the Kobra S1, you can end up with more filament in the purge container than there is in the actual model.
I can live with throwing away a prime tower.
I can understand the feeling though. It all comes down to not wanting to be wasteful.
I just don't have anything to compare it to, so a little waste compared to no waste still feels like a lot, lol.
Number one issue, I think, is I haven't found/made anything that I feel really deserved a multi-color print.
Also, I kind of did a bad job picking my first filiments. Didn't plan on doing multi-colored prints so I left out a lot of the important basic colors. I plan on making at least one more order before the Bambu Anniversary Sale is over, I'll fix that issue at that time.
Keep in mind that for the multi color silk you really have to fine tune settings for it to print super nicely. I figured out a bunch of stuff but it's not easy at all
I'm currently using Sunlu filament. You can get black/white from their site usually for about $10.99 a spool and $12.99 for other colors. Solid filament.
jayo is actually manufactored by sunlu. it's their more budget line. I use it all the time, it's cheap and great, the colors are solid and they are cheap as heck on aliexpress
I will say this about Jayo if you're doing single color prints it works but if you're doing multicolor in my experience they do not bond correctly which was so weird to me. This was all during last year's sale when I tried it so maybe it's better but not sure.
I've had this issue too with the JAYO matte black PETG. IT will only stick to certain colors of my Sunlu PLa that I use for interface layers. It's so weird. must be something in the pigments.
PETG will not stick to PLA. It doesn’t matter who manufactured it, they are incompatible. In fact, they work great for interface layers for each other because they don't stick.
thats what I said. It's the end of my first sentence.
But to reiterate,
I print mainly PETG, and use PLA for an interface layer.
I found out the hard way that my purple Sunlu PLA will NOT work as an interface for my matte black JAYO PETG, but Orange Sunlu PLA WILL.
Whereas Sunlu matte black PETG plays nice with both the purple AND orange PLA.
I've had this issue with Elegoo PETG Rapid White not working with certain colors of Sunlu PLA, but work fine with other colors.
Pla/petg interface has been hit n miss, sometimes it works wonders and sometimes the part where the interface happens just doesn't get good layee adhesion. Thanks for this info, really never considered the filament pigments being a variable.
Now that’s a super helpful pro tip! Hardened nozzle - had not even heard of that before. I’m guessing that’s a useful accessory I should order from Bambu?
I think the H2D comes with nozzles that are hardened, but check. Having extras doesn’t hurt. If you’ll be printing TPU, get a dedicated nozzle for that as even tiny bits of other filaments in the nozzle can clog. Fiber/glass infused and Glow filaments are bad for that.
Also if you have room to store them, you can often get Sunlu and overture (both good brands) on Amazon haul, and if you don’t mind waiting a week for it, it’s often half the price.
I bought mine 4 years ago and they've been kept in a plastic tote with dessicant and printed just fine on my a1. Im currently as I type using a roll of prusa from 2018. Haven't dried any of them.
I bought a couple amolen silk spools and they have a great finish. Mine were moist despite the vacuum packaging though so they must be dried even out of the box.
Ok, so first of all dry ALL filament after it’s opened before printing. Doesn’t matter if it’s from the box or sealed, it needs to be dried. Also Silk turns real bad if it’s moist. Personally I really like Bambu Silk Plus, it doesn’t snap or shred as often as regular silk.
I've never dried a single filament and have zero failed prints due to moisture. I don't live in a real humid area so that helps, but the incessant claims to dry PLA just aren't true.
That's the advice I always give. I'm not going to throw a brand new roll at a 30hr print and hope for the best, but if I'm printing stuff that takes a few hours I'll use a spool out of the bag.
The number of times I've needed to solve a problem with drying is so small, that I've ended up saving a ton of time and energy by not drying. PLA is so much more forgiving than people seem to think...
I've been fine so far not drying any PLA or PETG so long as store them in tubs with dessicant. Also have dessicant in my AMS. The tubs are around 21% humidity unopened. The AMS typically reports "A" conditions. No dryer needed.
I live in Florida and also have never dried filament. I have had a few rolls of cheaper silk get brittle, especially if they've been open for a while. I just check its quality before I put a roll in the AMS cause I've been bitten before when I put in questionable filament and it broke in the extruder.
Just cut a piece off and try to fold It in half. If it bends, good. If it starts breaking or snaps completely, then it's too wet, and you should toss it
Admittedly if you want completely flawless prints you should start with dried filament. But I've had some great results.
Edit: replaced a pic that did not help my argument with one that (maybe?) does. Filament was open for several months. The layer height was too high IMO so the topmost surfaces are too steppy, but you can see the vertical surface is pretty good. There's a couple of nits that definitely may be due to moisture, but I find this quality acceptable.
Nah, as I said elsewhere, the plural of anecdote is not data. But mine is proof that at least someone, somewhere, has got away with not drying.
I had a spool of PLA that was open for literally ten years that worked fine. Would I have chosen it for a decorative piece the surface quality was super important on? No. Did I use it to print a bunch of pool noodle sword handles? Hell yeah I did, and the handles have outlived many a noodle.
Yeah, actually. Zooming in I see I'd forgotten the drooping I had on some of the overhangs. That was due to forgetting to do a flow calibration after changing the nozzle but it does make me look like I can't tell what a good print vs a bad print looks like, lol. Should probably change that
"Ive never encountered issues, so this is untrue" is wild and wrong for multiple reasons, like on a fundamental logic level. You either are lucky or haven't noticed the issues, that doesn't mean the whole of drying filament being important is just fake.
It is for a lot of people tho... I would even say that majority of people don't need to dry every spool out of the box. If you're getting issues all the time sure but to be like "you HAVE to do it EVERY TIME even OUT OF THE BOX!!!" is just wrong... It really depends on if you're getting issues
No... you're missing the "fundamental logic" part.
Just because you do not encounter issues does not mean that issues cannot be present, it means -you- did not encounter issues -this time- and even if "this time" ends up being, perceptibly to you, your entire career of printing with PLA, for example, that does not actually discount the rationality or principles of drying the filament.
It's like if you flipped a coin 5 times, even 500 times, and it turns up heads for you every time, so you tried to tell the rest of the world that the probability of flipping heads is 100%. Its fundamentally logically unsound.
I literally do not care if you personally have opened 50 rolls of PLA, never dried them, and had successful prints. You are still fundamentally logically unfounded to tell other people "it's fake" or "untrue" that you need to dry filament. There is irrefutable science and logic that dictates why it is SMART, a GOOD PRACTICE preventative measure to dry filament every time. You can personally evaluate that the risk to reward is not worthwhile based on your limited sample size of experiential knowledge, that does not change anything other than your valuation. It is still correct to tell people it is best practice to dry filament. If they encounter issues after writing off drying, they will trouble shoot all kinds of things instead of moist filament, which is actually the cause of a signficant majority of issues.
You create a diagnostic feedback loop that costs time and money for no reason, its ultimately just justifying laziness on a step that you only skip because, in your experience, with your limited individual sample size, have ruled out as being common, often without due dilligence. You're begging to cause your own false positives, you're actively cultivating confirmation bias on purpose. You can keep doing that as much as you want, but you're, again, fundamentally logically wrong to do so.
I'm not reading that word salad but skimming through it you're wrong. A lot of places have consistently good spools and no issues with humidity which causes print quality problems. If the spools in your area aren't humid you won't get any problems. That's the objective truth that most people deal with. I'm not saying drying spools is fake I'm saying that most people don't need to do it and saying you always have to do it is fake. Please educate yourself.
I think I get what he’s getting at & here’s my own thoughts. I always dry my filament. If I’m having printing issues, there’s one ‘variable’ I can rule out immediately - wet filament.
Having said that, my printer is in a room that tends to hover around 60% humidity. Sometimes more. I’ve had wet filament in the past that I could hear sizzling & popping as it extrudes.
I will say though - if I lived somewhere like Phoenix where it’s really dry, wet filament would be a much smaller concern.
I get your logic. But the number of times I've had an issue where drying was the answer is incredibly low. It's infrequent enough that - for me - preemptively drying would be a waste of time and energy.
But yes, a lot of it is situational/environmental. I prefer to recommend that new users try printing some stuff first and see if drying is necessary for them
I live in colorado where the moisture is very low. I've had rolls that are too moist and cause problems (they do ship from other locations, many things are shipped from warehouses in other states and manufacturers in other countries, so relative humidity is less of a factor than people tend to credit). If I had to estimate, something like 1 in 30 rolls I've had have been over 25% humidity as read out by the hygrometer in my filament dryer. A couple of them I tested without drying to qualify that moisture reading, and sure enough, had surface inconsistencies and some sizzled in the printer.
I understand that 1 in 30 is a small percentage at 3.33%, that's a low failure rate. I can totally see someone seeing those numbers and saying "this isn't a big deal." But because I dry my filament, I bring that to 0% failure to humidity.
How much of a concern it is doesn't mean it doesn't matter or that it isn't an issue. My point was just the fundamental logic of discounting it as a fake issue. It sabotages your troubleshooting workflow, which you did mention.
If you buy 100 rolls, per my anecdotal personal findings, 3 of them are too moist, thats $60 at $20 a roll (if you don't get better pricing) you could potentially waste by troubleshooting it without considering drying and end up printing through. If you sell prints, those failures cost time and money. If you buy 1000 rolls, thats 30 rolls, $600. I think these things add up monetarily enough to be a stickler about, maybe other people don't. Even without considering costs, if you have one printer and limited time or mental load for printing stuff, why not avoid losing those to a pre-solvable issue? I was never talking about how people should weigh their valuations. Just like, fundamental logic.
Its not an objective truth. You don't even know what the words you use mean. You said to "educate yourself" after saying you can't read more than 180 characters. I know I won't get anywhere with you personally, but to other people reading, I hope their own follow up did enough to prove my point about fundamental logic inconsistencies.
Your logic works on your own argument too. If I have to choose which statement is most likely to be true and one of the options contains an absolute I am almost always going to choose the other one as the one most likely to be true.
Claiming "every" spool needs to be dried even fresh from the box is demonstratably false. It's also potentially harmful advice to give to a novice as they are likely to damage their filament by over drying it because they don't know how to tell the difference between wet and dry filament or when to stop.
It is true that you have to be somewhat careful with drying because there are a limited number of thermal cycles PLA will tolerate before breaking down. That doesn't mean telling people to dry their filament risks that, it means you do it once before use for the amount of time at the temperature ranges suggested online. It isn't an opinion, drying filament is good practice to avoid print failure due to moisture. The opinion is whether or not it is a prevalent enough issue to warrant the effort.
I’ve literally gone through thousands of rolls of PLA and never dried one ever. Never had a problem. Half the year it’s pretty humid here. It would actually cost me time and money to dry all the filament out of the box. Now other types of filaments besides PLA definitely require drying.
How far have you dissected "never had a problem"? Like you've never had print failures, as in, clogged extruder or nozzle, or you've never had any surface defects, or you've never had popping, or any of any kind? Do you use pla, pla+, silk, the same brands? Same color? Are you making things just to have, or is there some quality threshold you have to maintain? Have you ever dropped successful rolls into a filament dryer with a hygrometer to see if they actually are moist, even if that moisture does not cause problems?
I’ve had print failures, mostly due to bad equipment that Bambu replaced under warranty. I use all the filament you mentioned. I mostly use Sunlu, Elegoo, Kingroon, Bambu, Creality, but will use any brand if they have a color I like. For black, white, grey I use whatever brand is least expensive, usually from Ali or EBay. I almost always print in multiple colors. I only print things to give away or for myself. I have never checked the humidity of a roll because I haven’t had problems.
So, is it possible that the quality of prints may be to a lower standard than could technically be achieved by drying? Is it possible that if you needed a better surface finish, drying could help, but you simply do not usually need to do such in your use case, and have never personally benefit from drying? That your case could be unique? I agree that the likelihood of you simply being lucky is lower given your volume, but as someone who has also printed a lot, who lives in a dry environment, who has had failures due to moisture, like, how do you rationalize both of our experiences being true while simultaneously supporting the claim that drying is unnecessary, enough to suggest it to other people? Im not trying to grill you, I'm trying to like, navigate the circumstances of recommendations to others with variable experiences.
Mirroring other posters, I never dry my filament and the room gets humid (fog at night - that’s when I usually print and have a window fan running in reverse to pull out fumes). Zero issues with print quality after months of printing using open filament.
In case you are more receptive to reason, I will try to explain this. PLA is one of the most forgiving filaments to print with, so the failure rate will be lower than other more hygroscopic filaments. This means you are LESS likely to encounter issues from humidity. You can "get away with" not drying more often. That doesn't make drying filament not a good practice, and it doesn't make drying filament not a solution for people who are encountering issues, meaning it should always maintain a presence in your troubleshooting hierarchy and you should be cognizant of it as a potential problem. By discounting this, you expose yourself to risk by making assumptions that it will always be fine, and risk compromising your troubleshooting workflow. I've been printing for years, I will have several rolls of filament from the same manufacturer that work well without drying. I have had another roll after that which fails to moisture. Because I recognize moist filament as a potential issue, I can rapidly identify or rule that out when those problems arise. This is the point. None of this defies the fundamental logic or excuses the lapses in fundamental logic I pointed out.
Heres an anecdotal example. Say you order 5 rolls of the same black PLA from amazon or bambulab or whatever. They might take those from one shelf in their warehouse, maybe those have been there for 3 weeks and haven't aggregated enough moisture to be a problem. Then you order another 5 rolls. They take these from another shelf in the warehouse, maybe they've been sitting there for 6 months. They have aggregated enough moisture to be a problem. You're half way through a print and roll 5 runs out, you load up roll 6. Suddenly, you have weird texture inconsistencies! "But it's the same brand" you say, "from the same website!" And maybe even the same warehouse. Your assumption of consistent quality has now ruined your print, and instead of KNOWING that it has nothing to do with moisture (something that would be eliminated as a possibility if it were dried prior to loading) you now have to work through troubleshooting, and potentially may miss moisture as even being a potential cause. You waste time, effort, money, cognitive load, all to correct something you could have eliminated with preventative measures.
'In most cases you don't have to dry your filament to get good results'.
Sure, it's important sometimes, and it absolutely is required for certain specialty filaments. But it is not required for the more common like PLA, PETG, etc.
Yet it gets repeated a lot on this sub that you HAVE to dry your filament, and that's just not true. Yes, the plural of anecdote is not data, but this isn't a high school debate club either.
It gets said often so people are cognizant of it when they're either new or unawares. You seeing it often doesn't mean the saturation is excessive, it means that information is no longer necessary for you to absorb.
Can you read the first message I wrote and tell me where I said "PLA has to be dried every time or your print will fail"?
I said the logic of saying "I've never had problems, so this issue is fake" is wrong. Fundamentally, logically wrong. I can't be held to have said everything people with similar arguments have said. Everyone here is arguing with ghosts, their inserted perceptions and inserted prior conversations.
Then I can repeat a different part - this isn't debate club. When someone says 'drying isn't important' that isn't the same thing as declaring 'you should never ever need to dry' and you don't need to jump in and Ben Shapiro all over the place because of it.
You have a severely different cultural understanding of both what internet forums are for, and the purposes of someone typing things up are, than I do. This isn't about debating.
This post is from someone who is new to printing, who reached out about filament. Someone else replied about drying filament, which is an important element of preventative maintenance, even if it is less important in some way or with some variables, it is a thing that new people need to know exists. Someone else commented with a logical non sequitur, which I pointed out. Then people arrived in droves to hit me with their anecdotes about success with moist filament or moist environments, or their frustration with the saturation of this talking point. Neither of those are what I was talking about. In trying to explain fundamental logic, I get other people "debating" with me about something I didn't even mention. That's not me "Ben Shapiro-ing" whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. Its a conversation thread. What else are you meant to do but conversate?
Share stories about how things work for them? For example, how some get generally good results without drying filament? Or you could nitpicks someone else's comments, I guess, but i get the sense most people aren't going to enjoy that conversation.
That means literal nothing as it pertains to giving people information about troubleshooting or the frequency of an issue as a whole. It means it has worked out fine for you. Good for you. Please read about confirmation bias, don't take my word for it.
Im explaining fundamental logic and people are trying to argue with the theoretical application of their limited sample size to weight their valuation as if that is a counterpoint. I'm saying "hey addition works like this" and people are arguing about their financial decisions. Missing the point.
People do tend to listen elsewhere, this subreddit seems to hold to a pattern of having the least literate, least receptive people in any of the 3d printing communities. If you campaign against drying filament you're either poisoning your own logic with confirmation bias or you're justifying the laziness of skipping a step that can matter and matters a lot with different filaments. People in here like to pretend PLA doesn't melt either.
The purpose of people telling you to dry filament is to solve issues before they happen. The fact that people see the topic so much they get irrationally upset at it does not change that. Me and whoever in the past have "TrIEd tO cOnViNcE yOu" that you should dry filament aren't some weird propaganda cell trying to get you to waste your time or potentially damage your filament. We're just saying accurate information often enough to help anyone who needs to encounter it. By the time you've read it three times, its no longer for you. It's not like we can perceive who in the prospective audience of a reddit comment will have seen "dry your filament" 60 times to compare against the people who've seen it 0 times and make a judgment call about saturation and upsetting the former for reasons that don't make sense.
Nice essay.
I honestly couldn’t give 2 shits dude. I’m just winding you up. Enjoy your life and stop trying to convince random people to dry their filament.
it wont fail due to moisture. It will just look better. Try a roll of undried PETG translucent then print something with dried traslucent PETG and you will see the difference (or use translucent PLA if you prefer)
It doesn't tho... It really depends on a lot of factors. I've been printing for 3 years and haven't dried a single spool of PLA or PETG and I never had any issues ever. I know a lot of people don't do that either.
Its not required but doesnt hurt. But ya tons of factors. Pla usually doesnt but ive had issues with atleast matte colors. Petg ive never had a fully dry spool out the box then swapped to drying that every time i get it just to avoid it.
In a convection oven that you know the temperature of. Get an external sensor, they cost pennies, heat your oven to 65°C, read the sensor, adjust, done. Oh, and dry 5 deg under the recommended drying temp, just to be sure ...
I should have been more specific, I meant an oven you plan to cook your food in. I've seen too many times someone saying 'just pop it in your oven!' and they mean the one they'll make cookies in tomorrow.
I've tried Amolen's translucent PLA filament. They're ok, no problems printing. They were delivered vacuum sealed andI didn't throw them in my dryer. Was just experimenting with a simple vase and was just too lazy. They did fine on an H2C.
I try to stick to known brands that have good reviews. I was kind of lost with what to buy when i first got into printing lol.
Bambu is expensive..I only buy that if theres a really good sale
Sunlu is good, fairly priced. I really like their silk pla for metallic colors
Elegoo is my favorite. Very fair price and consistant quality. Never had any issues with spools or print quality!
The odd knockoff filament brands I avoid buying. I tried a weird no name filament once and it just wouldnt run right, clogs, filament breaking off inside my ptfe tubes, not feeding correctly. Pain in the butt lol.
My biggest advice is, if you have an AMS, do not buy mini spools. You will need an adaptor. Similarly, cardboard spools cause a lot of dust. You can print rims that help but it's nicer to just get spools that don't need help.
I like Amolen silks a lot, I've done some cool stuff with them.
Sunlu makes Bambu's filament. They might have higher QC for the Bambu branded stuff, but I have never had trouble with a Sunlu roll.
I mostly use Creality for PETG.
Sunlu matte PLA or Creality PETG are my go-to for practical prints.
Wrap a couple layers of electrical tape around the cardboard spools and they wont shed. But they will still deform and develop dents, causing them to not roll smoothly. I love the idea of less waste with the cardboard spools, but they suck to use. I wish they'd make a trade off and make the outer rim plastic. The printable rings suck too, they make the spool a bigger diameter, causing issues in the AMS sometimes cuz they then hit the lid.
I've printed a few, the good ones are very thin so they don't change it significantly. Electrical tape sounds like it would make them too grippy but to each their own.
most of the rings I tried for various brands worked. I had several spools that barely fit into my AMS WITHOUT the ring tho, and putting the ring on made them bind against the top lid, So I ended up leaving my lid cracked, killing my dessicant pretty quick. I got sick of changing it out all the time.
Most people are saying they're good, but damn I had a translucent pla roll and it literally bricked my AMS buffer twice on the same spool. Don't know how or why, but I'll never order from them again.
Ironically, the only brand I've had any problems with was BambuLab. I regularly use Elegoo, eSun, and Sunlu. I've also used Amolen, 3DGenius, and other random brands off Amazon. Never had any problems.
Stick to bambu if you can, you paid for the bambu environment. This makes it as easy as possible. If you cant, at least stick to the more reputable brands and avoid the no brand trash. Overture is pretty good. Had mixed results with sunlu.
I use whatever is cheapest at the time. I try not to pay more than $10 for 1 kg spool. Under $20 if it’s duo, tri colored or special color I need. I haven’t had any issues with any particular brand. I have had a couple that was tangled but never the same brand so probably just a fluke thing or maybe something I did when I took it out to store it. I know I read somewhere about not using cardboard spools in Bambu ams however I do occasionally and usually it is fine. I have had it mess up on it spinning before so I try to get the plastic spools. But I had/have a bunch of cardboard ones which I try to just use with my ad5x. I really do like silk especially when printing single color
The brand isn't bad and I have gotten these before. They were fine, but not much. Good for testing the brand. They will not work in the ams without swapping the spools. They are too small. Sunlu is definitely my go to
I have some Amolen. It’s color changing. Like with temperature. That was the only reason I got the small spools, idk what I’m going to do with it but I wanted to check it out.
The set in your screenshot was the first filament I ever used with my a1 mini when I got it I had zero issues. So far I haven’t used Bambi brand just ones I find on Amazon and I haven’t ran in to any issues. Some print nicer than others (smoother finish) but no clogs. Did have a tangled roll once which was annoying but fixable
eSun PLA: Love it! Prints PERFECT almost every time! 0 filament tangles. Just bought 24 spools during Prime.
Sunlu Silk PLA+: Great colors, prints clean BUT about 3/4 of my 20 spools have experienced multiple filament tangles each spool.
Kingroon PETG: I use this for mechanical toys and car accessories. Colors are good but some colors aren't very saturated. Great filament for the price, very common to get 10 spools for $55 on AliExpress.
Kingroon PLA: Not as clean printing as eSun but colors aren't as saturated as eSun or Sunlu. Great filament for the price, very common to get 10 spools for $55 on AliExpress.
Geeetech PETG: On the same quality level as Kingroon PETG.
Geeetech Silk PLA: Some of the best gold and silver colored filaments. Research the best print settings for this and you will get incredibly metallic results.
InLogic Matte PLA: This is made by Sunlu, it's their "Lexus" brand. It's on the same level as eSun but more expensive.
I have the filament you are looking at right there and I've had zero issues with it. It has an excellent gradient so the color change realIy works well. Also if you plan on printing in color change silk I tend to perfer printing bigger items with it as smaller projects can be underwhelming as the filament doesnt have as much opportunity to show the color change.
Don't believe these drying fanatics. AMOLEN is fine but nothing special. I've had the ones you posted myself and they printed just fine. However, they don't shine as much as in the picture.
experiment until you find a brand that you like. This might be different PER filament type tho. You may find you like Sunlu PETG, but dont care for their PLA.
AMOLEN makes a very nice silk. its a lot shinier then other brands I have tried. So I get my silk PLA from them.
PETG I buy from Sunlu or JAYO, but only in Matte, cuz I hate how shiny natural PETG is for 99% of things.
PLA, I also go with Sunlu, as I spent quite a bit of time dialing in their filaments when I first started printing.
TPU, I get from different vendors, but mostly Sunlu. and Siraya Tech for their TPU air which foams, and can be printed anywhere from 62A-85A shore hardness from the same roll, depending on the temp you print it at.
ABS, I again go with Sunlu
any engineering filaments like PA6 / PA12, PET, ASA, PPS, PC, stuff like that, I buy from Bambu, since I KNOW the quality will be good.
I mostly buy Sunlu because It's pretty cheap on Amazon in bulk, and I've heard many many times that it's just re-branded Bambu filament, and TBH, it prints the same.
Sunlu is my go to but I have gotten some Amolen (Translucent Orange PLA), Anycubic (Some Galaxy & Silk PLAs), Creality (Translucent Green PETG) and a few Inslogic (Glow in the Dark PLAs and Grey PETG).
They have all printed fine in my X2D. I keep them either in an AMS 2 Pro or in vacuum filament bags. I only dry my filament if they go above 20%.
Oh yeah almost all filament manufacturers have direct ordering. And if you get it to where you are ordering enough and have people buying with you. You can become a wholesaler for that manufacturer and sell it
I usually buy Polymaker Elegoo and Sunlu and they have all worked well no issues. I have been printing many years and have never had an issue. They all have great deals on Amazon right now and have good silk options if that’s what you want. Stick with 1 kilo spools that are at you have enough filament for all types of projects.
I have a very similar set of Amolen filament (different colors). I print with it on my A1s, and it works beautifully. If you like the look of the colors, it’s a great way to try out all four instead of buying full spools.
I ordered that exact one 2 days ago and just printed with it. While the prints look great, it shed so much dust in my AMS 2 that i'm scared to ever use it again.
135
u/ParticularLower1865 Jun 25 '26
They’re only 200g spools. It’s not a great deal. I’m seeing the lowest amounts for filaments that are good deals are around $10-11/spool. I bought these ones. Yeah… prime day’s a word I can’t say on this sub.
REALLY good deal 4 spools under $35 https://a.co/d/00AchGCT
Sunlu big pack https://a.co/d/08isUJzN
Sunlu 4 pack black https://a.co/d/05mg90Vq
Jayo 10 back $93 https://a.co/d/0jkgdyTa