(UPDATED 10 FEB 2018)
Finding the Best PLA Filament Brands is Hard
If you’ve been following 3D printing for any amount of time you know the industry is still in its infancy. 3D printing continues to change at a rapid pace with no sign of slowing down. It can feel chaotic. When trying to sort out the best practices, brands, materials, etc. you can easily become overwhelmed. Which filament to use can be one of the most important decisions you make. Why do we care what the best PLA filament brands are?
Worst case scenario? You can jam up your printer, cause serious problems with your extruder, spend painstaking hours cleaning it up, lose the print job, and spend more money on a new filament while most of the roll you just bought sits and collects dust.
Seem like a nightmare scenario? It happens far too often. I do quite a few reviews here on 3D Printer Power. In my research, I consistently see a number of bad reviews on 3D printers I attribute to bad filament choice. Is it the printers fault it jammed on cheap filament with poor quality control?
Do you agree the market is overwhelming and confusing? Do you agree that you need to make an informed choice to avoid hours of frustration? You’re in luck. This is exactly the reason I created 3D Printer Power in the first place.
My Gift To You
Here is my gift to you. Below you will find my research into the best PLA filament brands on Amazon. I chose to use Amazon as a platform because it’s available everywhere, and not likely to go away anytime soon. The reviews below, even the negative ones, represent the best filament brands. I did not include some of the crappier filaments because … they were crappy! I didn’t want to waste my time writing it, or your time reading it.
HATCHBOX PLA 3D Printer Filament
#1 Seller on Amazon, and #1 mention on Reddit. If the opinion of reviewers matter this is the filament for you. If the opinion of actual makers just having a discussion in a forum with no ulterior motive matters, this is the filament for you.
Perhaps the most telling statistic for Hatchbox is the sheer number of happy users blowing through large quantities of Hatchbox, and remaining happy. With the sheer quantity of Hatchbox filament that has run through 3D Printers more bad experiences should crop up, but they just don’t.
Other filament reviews are good, but Hatchbox is the first filament to really gain a massive fanboy like following, and that says something about their quality.
MELCA PLA 3D Printer Filament
MELCA is making a name for itself, but perhaps my favorite feature is the amazing customer service. Perhaps it’s because they have so few reviews that when they do get a bad review they can respond so quickly. It just goes to show, if you put out a high-quality product you can take the time to make each customer happy.
As for positive reviews, customers are quite happy with MELCA’s price and quality. This filament boasts excellent tolerances and is known to print well even in inexpensive printers where you would expect to see more problems.
Interestingly the most negative reviews stated the packaging didn’t have the label on the spool, but on the bag so you have to label your own spool to keep it organized. Label your spool correctly without relying on their sticker and you are set for a happy experience. Perhaps MELCA will set their support department to working on this since they are obviously going to be bored waiting for bad reviews to come in.
eSUN PLA 3D Printer Filament
Among the best 3D Printer filaments in this review. eSUN is a direct competitor with Hatchbox and MELCA in my opinion. eSUN comes out third due to spool winding issues.
eSUN has a decent quality control process that results in filament diameters well within spec leading to few jams for most users. You may pay a little more than other filaments on this list buying something like eSUN or Hatchbox, but you’ll save money in the long run by not having to reprint, or waste time on clearing jams.
The primary negative to eSUN could be in the packaging. Some users reported problems with how the spool is wound.
AIO ROBOTICS PLA 3D Printer Filament
Wpw, AIO Robotics filament really exceeded expectations. It deserves to be in the top 5 PLA Filament brands for sure. First, it’s price per kg is great. It comes in a .5kg spool and is very competitive at its price point. It’s nice to have this size roll so you can have more uncommon colors that you know you won’t use as much without the fear that it’ll go bad before you finish it. Of course, that fear is allayed some by the resealable bag it comes in. A feature I wish other brands would pick up more quickly.
It’s nice the print settings are listed on the spool rather than the box as well. Who wants to keep the box around. We already have far too much stuff in my house.
Some reviewer complained it wasn’t as good as their hatchbox, but others immediately counter that. When you switch filaments and you can’t get one to work, but the original works immediately make sure you consider your settings. If you run AIO Robotics PLA at around 195 degrees Celsius you should have no issues.
When the only negatives come from people that strongly prefer another filament you are on to something.
INLAND PLA 3D Printer Filament
Consistent. The best word to describe INLAND 3D Printer filament. It is very consistent. Some people have had incredibly rare problems with a single with the overlapping filament. This is extremely uncommon. The only thing common about this overlapping issue is how it affects every brand of filament manufacturer out there periodically.
The most consistent comments about INLAND are moments of pleasant surprise. At such an affordable price you don’t often expect the quality you get here. Is this high-end engineering level quality? NO. But if that’s what you want, then you’ll be paying for it. With INLAND the general feeling around the community is you get more than what you paid for.
I’m a critical person, so I’m always looking for a negative to offset the positives. Do we need symmetry? The only true negative for INLAND is the main positive. It’s consistent. This isn’t going to wow you with its brilliance. It’s going to do the job you want it to do, and that is it. For me that’s perfect.
3D MARS PLA 3D Printer Filament
3D MARS puts out a product that performs very well at a price point that is top notch. Users note prints turn out silky with high levels of smoothness. Surface adhesion is spot on. 3D Mars filament even prints well with printers that struggle with temperature control. This is a problem for printers like the Monoprice Maker Select V2 unless you upgrade the hot end, which eliminates the problem.
Most importantly 3D MARS competes very well against similarly priced filaments/
If you are looking for a negative you may find that a bad loop or two can be found on periodically toward the end of some rolls. This is an intermittent problem, and not something you should expect to see on every roll. Many brands suffer from bad winding from time to time, but people seldom talk about it.
TIANSE PLA 3D Printer Filament
TIANSE operates best at a low temperature. In a quest to achieve the best results from this filament I suggest you calibrate your printer to the lower temps and consider not using your heated bed.
People who don’t heed the temperature advice above are in for a bad time. Correct calibration of the 3D printer eliminated all bad reports including bubbling, stringing, etc.
Most reviewers happily reported TIANSE’s bright colors as an unexpected plus and were pleasantly surprised at how vibrant their prints turned out.
As an added bonus this is even less expensive than many of its direct competitors.
SUNLU 3D Printer Filament
Sometimes you just want solid quality. SUNLU doesn’t stand out as bad or good. There are no SUNLU fanboys, but there are no SUNLU haters either. It’s a cheap, quality 3D Printer filament that performs as advertised.
The only negatives I saw were a badly packaged product bought through a third party, which could have been caused by a return. Periodic bad rolls can cause problems, but this has been noted with other filaments as well.
Sometimes it’s refreshing to find a product that I don’t have to weed through initial purchase fans to find the real reviews. SUNLU = Dependable pure and simple.
3D Solutech 3D Printer Filament
If you are looking for a low price this is the filament for you, but beware, you could be in for some trouble. Many users love this filament. It has great reviews, and performs as expected, frequently.
Users report, for the most part, to be happy. If it is working well for you then you will experience little stringiness, good coloring, and a print that is slightly harder than PLA counterparts. It prints best around 215c for the first layer, and around 210c for subsequent layers.
When it doesn’t work with your printer you can expect jams, some brittleness, and warping or bending at times you wouldn’t expect it from another filament.
Many of these problems may be attributed to setup. When users switch from one filament to another getting the settings just right can be a bit frustrating.
If you are looking for an inexpensive solution try one roll of 3D Solutech. It works well for you? Then, by all means, jump on board and keep buying it, as it should consistently perform well for you. Your test roll didn’t work out? You are one of the unlucky few that may need to move to something more like the Hatchbox or XPERLAND.
AMZED 3D Printer Filament
AMZED is a Chinese manufacturer that produces tolerable filament for a good price. All reports indicate AMZED winds their spools translating into no kinks or errors while printing. It prints smooth and elicits primarily positive comments.
The only thing to fear is spool dimensions. For whatever reason, the spool hole size is small and does not fit on a number of printers. Some people rigged up a stand quick, others had materials on hand that worked. Regardless, this is a product to order 1 spool to start in order to determine if it will fit correctly on your printer.
Make your informed decision
Thank you for reading my article. I hope my gift of knowledge helps you go out and make a more informed decision when buying your filament.
As you have likely noticed I use affiliate links. If what I’ve written does help you please use my links for your purchases. It will help support 3D Printer Power. If I didn’t help you, by all means, skip the links I want to make sure I’m only profiting from good advice.
Not ready to make your purchase? That’s fine, but I have one favor to ask. Please share this page with friends that might be struggling with the same decisions. Let’s make sure everyone is making informed decisions.
Have you tried some of the filaments listed above? Let me know what kind of results you had. Individual 3D printers work differently, and the more input I have the more I can help other people.
Enjoy your 3D printing journey makers. Don’t forget to check out my other articles as well.