Any reason to try PLA and PETG other than Prusament?  

RE: Any reason to try PLA and PETG other than Prusament?

I print almost exclusively in PETG and being in the States, everything from European manufacturers are pretty expensive to me once you include shipping; even Prusament. So I tend to focus on brands that are available domestically at reasonable prices (around $25 USD/spool). As such I've had a lot of luck with Overture and Hatchbox PETG filaments. Both perform very well and I've no issues over many spools with their products.

Prusament remains my gold standard though. So if the price is right and availability is good, I'd see no reason to change outside of wanting a specific color they don't make.

RE:

No experience with the brands that you mention, except Sunlu, 

I’ve tried PLA from European brands (Prusa and Fillamentum) and several Chinese (Geetech, Sunlu, Esun).

QC on the majority of Chinese brands seems to be, lets say,  ‘elastic’, as you probably suspect. You buy a spool of PLA of a certain brand and it comes perfectly winded, A month later, you purchase another spool of the same brand and color and you get a badly entangled spool with a color visibly different from the first one. It happened to me with Sunlu and Esun. On the other part, tolerances tend to be 'optimistic'. In spite of claiming +-0.03mm of diameter tolerance, finished prints often show uneven extrusion along the Z axis, Some brands of PLA have also noticeable stringing. One would expect that maybe on PETg but for PLA is too much,  Those issues are unpredictable with Chinese filament. As I said, sometimes you get a perfect spool in every aspect.

Prusa and Fillamentum are much more reliable concerning these matters. Nasty surprises are rare.

One possible reason to risk non Prusa brands is that some manufacturers offer PLA+, a filament a bit more flexible and less brittle than regular PLA. This feature comes useful for small parts prone to breaking, if stressed.

RE: Any reason to try PLA and PETG other than Prusament?

Just my opinion/experience... I don't print a lot, so price isn't "that" important (did I just say that?) -what I'm after, is reliable and repeatable quality. Ok, because I live in Europe, Prusament is still affordable for me and so I think Prusament PLA & PETG is very hard to beat.
I tried another brand (from my country) which is quite cheaper and it prints ok, but... Is hard to explain, but Prusament is better. And I can't even explain what exactly is better... maybe I just don't trust PETG that prints at 230°C.
Anyway, I don't plan to experiment with filaments, unless there's a color I need to have and Prusa doesn't have it.

Just sharing my thoughts...

RE: Any reason to try PLA and PETG other than Prusament?

I'm also in Europe and shipping from Prague is very affordable (around 10 euro for 5 spools of 1 Kg). It's a pity that lately several colors of Prusament PLA or PETg are out of stock most of the time, Maybe it isn't a bad idea to search alternative brands, provided quality is good enough and prices reasonable. I can get the usual Chinese brands at Amazon with free shipping, but quality is far from consistent between batches.

RE: Any reason to try PLA and PETG other than Prusament?

I've had good luck with most major brands of filament, and actually most off-brands, on the Prusa.

I very seldom have to tweak anything away from the defaults on the generic profiles to get quality prints.

The only filament I've been disappointed with was Solutech, and that printed fine, except it was obvious that they used less pigment and their white was not totally opaque.

Hatchbox is my go-to brand when I can get it, but it's often spotty in supply.  Overture, Paramount, and RepRappers are others I like.  One recent brand I've had good luck with is IEMAI.  Amazon Basics also has worked well for me.

FilamentPM sells some of the non-Prusament filaments that Prusa also sells, including the silver-gray that comes as a sample with the machines.

RE: Any reason to try PLA and PETG other than Prusament?

Ok, so after reading the replies it seems the common sentiment is that price would be the main reason to look for something else than Prusament.

In the meantime, I've done some more research, and much to my surprise, found out that many companies producing filament are in my country (Poland). I have no idea what the reasons are, but I now have the following list:

• Fiberlogy
• Spectrum Filaments
• Devil Design
• Rosa3D
• PRI-MAT3D
• Plast-Spaw
• Noctuo
• Zortrax
• 3dUniversal
• Print-Me

I think I will try some filaments from at least Fiberlogy and Spectrum Filaments — they claim pretty good specs (such as ±0.02mm thickness) and have some good reviews. And at $19/kg (16.5€/kg) for their PLA it's definitely worth a try.

RE: Any reason to try PLA and PETG other than Prusament?

Posted by: @jsw

I've had good luck with most major brands of filament, and actually most off-brands, on the Prusa.

I very seldom have to tweak anything away from the defaults on the generic profiles to get quality prints.

The only filament I've been disappointed with was Solutech, and that printed fine, except it was obvious that they used less pigment and their white was not totally opaque.

Hatchbox is my go-to brand when I can get it, but it's often spotty in supply.  Overture, Paramount, and RepRappers are others I like.  One recent brand I've had good luck with is IEMAI.  Amazon Basics also has worked well for me.

FilamentPM sells some of the non-Prusament filaments that Prusa also sells, including the silver-gray that comes as a sample with the machines.

My go-to is Prusament. However, I have good luck with Overture, Hatchbox and Amazon Basic, especially when they are on sale. Mazon had PETG on sale for $18/spool last week, which is a great deal!

RE: Any reason to try PLA and PETG other than Prusament?

I use the cheapest PLA and PETG from either Filaments.ca or 3DPrinting Canada (I live in Canada). Yes, prusament does print nicer but I used that filament I would only print a little at a time. I'm printing mandalorian armour for my daughter and I. Going through the stuff like water. No issues to date.

RE: Any reason to try PLA and PETG other than Prusament?

I think color choice is a big driver for me.   Prusament does print nicely but there are some really nice colors out there from other manufacturers.   I just printed for the first time with a MatterHackers PLA that has two silk PLA colors fused into the same strand and it's pretty cool.   Not something you could get in prusament necessarily.   

RE: Any reason to try PLA and PETG other than Prusament?

I print mostly PETG and a little PLA. Found Atomic PETG and never looked back. I do mostly technical prints and it seems to be the best strength wise. The PLA and PETG also print very well. Free shipping in the states over $50 and that gets it half way to me. They often ship the day I order if I order early. Even if I spend a few dollars more the part quality and strength are my first considerations. When something is working well I pretty much stay with it.

RE: Any reason to try PLA and PETG other than Prusament?

Cost and colors.  I also like PLA+ because it give features of PETG with the ease of print of PLA.  

RE:

I mostly print with PLA+.   I mostly use Hatchbox, ESun and Joyo.  Sometimes Amazon Basics when they go on sale.

However, recently there was a re-release of a board game called HeroQuest.  I wanted to 3D Print the game board, which takes around 5 rolls of filament.  So, I went ahead and bought 10 rolls (minimum order) of PLA+ from GST3d https://gst3d.us/

$8.99 a roll, so I tried it.  Seems fine.  No issues, yet anyway.  Used 2 rolls of black and have printed a few things in the silver and the brown colors.  I'm almost half way through building the board with it and the prints are great.  

Here is a silver GST3D print.  .2 Layer height.  Close-up.

RE: Any reason to try PLA and PETG other than Prusament?

@jwr have you tried Rosa3D? They have a nice color selection i would like to try, especially glow-in-dark i'm interested in.