PETG Showdown: Prusament vs. Polymaker vs. eSUN!

[@logicalfundy]

Cardboard spools are generally considered to be better for the environment as they're easily recycled, so I think they're here to stay, especially for brands that want to come across as environmentally friendly (which with Polymaker is one of their big selling points). You can print plastic rings to put on them for the AMS. In my opinion - it's up to Bambu to make their AMS more friendly to cardboard spools, as I don't really like the idea that some people are passing around that filament manufacturers ought to go back to plastic just to make them better for the AMS.

[@builderdads]

Agree! I don’t see a problem with the cardboard with the Prusa printers at all, but won’t know about Bambu until I try it. I will say that I have been reusing my plastic spools from Prusa for a while now and have a collection because I like to buy the refills and save a few bucks.

[@danyoungwas]

Really wish you ran some calibrations on the two new filaments before doing this. IMO all you tested for is which filament prints best at prusament settings. Would have loved to see a real calibration... Also if you suspect the esun is still wet then note it as a potential negative that it required more drying, but then dry it till you think it's as dry as the others. It may well have been an abnormally wet spool because the bag was compromised or something.

[@builderdads]

Ya, for this test it was a simple test of which one performs the most like Prusament without making changes. Polymaker is the clear winner, but to be honest I print it a bit cooler after dialing it in. I am working on a follow up video to this where I dial in each filament and have temperature towers and other test prints to see performance. Trying out several different PETG filaments so this will be a much larger in depth test. Hopefully when that video releases you will like it.

[@samuwhatever6783]

Thanks for the honest review hard to find these days lol. I was frustrated with the esun petg filament my experience matches yours. so thanks to you i just orderd a roll of polymaker crossing my fingers for better results🤞

[@builderdads]

I am glad my review helped. I actually am waiting on two rolls of Jessie PETG filament from PrintedSolid. I have heard good things about that filament and feel like now that I have two the work really well is there a third option or will it outperform either of the other two. So far I have used my 10th roll of Polymaker since shot that video and while the results have been consistent on almost all rolls. I did have 1 roll that had a portion of the spool produce bad bridges. Since I run that machine so much and it is enclosed I am pretty sure I can isolate the issue to that roll as everything else shows normal through the whole print.

[@MDinsideZ]

Great video! Just an advice: I use to get the weight of a spool before and after drying, so I can know exactly the humidity it left. I use a food dehydrator because it has a better temperature control and I can cook 3 spools at a time: you cannot believe how many grams a brand new sealed cheap Chinese spool can lose, but prusament no. If you want you can also use a cheap food vacuum machine to seal and store your spool for a longer time. Ultimately I use a sunlu dryer only during printing. With this setup I haven't had any issues anymore. 👋👋

[@builderdads]

Thank you for the compliment. That is brilliant advice! Which dehydrator do you use?

[@Thagor95]

Really informative video. I'm in EU, so there is not really a price difference between Prusament and Polymaker for me, but it's good to know there are alternative in case of stock problems. I'm looking into getting a new printer, and I'm still really undecided between the Mk4 and a Bambulab. You have both, maybe you can give me your opinion on those questions: - What kind of problem did you have with the prusament in the Bambulab? - And is the Mk4 really autonomous? I saw a few video where the bed leveling process was putting tiny spec of plastic on the bed. I don't want to tinker that much with my printer, I just want it to work, but I like the long term support of Prusa. - Do you think PETG would be enough for cosplay parts? I know PLA might not like being in the sun, and ASA is perfect for it. But ASA fumes are a whole other thing, and you need an enclosed printer for ASA. PETG seems to be a good middle ground.

[@builderdads]

That is good to hear about Prusament in the EU. I know the part that kills me is the shipping on it which is why I am happy that Polymaker and Jessie filaments are working out for me. The call between Bambu and Prusa for me comes down to my experience with printing PETG and how it was a struggle for me to get parts to come out right without lots of tweaking to settings. Now that was months ago and I recently tried printing again after months of my Bambu sitting idle and things worked out better. I actually do use my Bambu again now, but it is because the Prusas are always busy. I know a lot of folks swear by the speed and I have seen a ton of videos where folks swear by the Bambu, but honestly the Prusa has been a great machine. I love the support and the ability to reach out and talk to someone about any problem. With Bambu your best bet is the user community which can sometimes be a rough place. I have seen a folks come down hard on simple questions because they felt the question to be dumb. I never really get that mentality because we all have to start somewhere and sometimes that one question might be the lightbulb moment that person needs to really get things going for them. As for problems with Bambu my issue was dialing in settings to find the perfect mix for Prusament PETG. It just seemed to not like it though I have had success with Bambu filament. For the Bambu I have had enough issues where it really just is not my go to machine. I'd rather schedule the job for one of the Prusas to do it because I know the quality will be great. Bambu just doesn't live up to the hype for me. My issues have all been surface imperfections. For the MK4 as long as you keep the print head clean I basically walk away. I have some WYZE OG Cams in the cases to watch, but honestly they run as many hours as I can run them with very few issues. I have had a couple things go wrong and I do not use the Input Shaper because it seemed to give me more errors than the improved speed could overcome. I had a few crashed and level shifted parts so I printer standard speed, but honestly PETG loves slow and steady or at least that my observation so why not keep it there. My vote is still Prusa and I know some will question my logic, but honestly despite being behind the curve a bit to Bambu I just think they will keep building quality machines that are reliable. I am actually about to upgrade one of my MK3S+ printers to a MK3.9 because I needed to do a few larger repairs like hotend and filament sensor so if investing the time I decided why not upgrade. This way I will have spare parts for my other MK3S+ to last for years. I am not a Cosplay person, but I print a lot of parts and jigs for woodworking and my go to is PETG. It fits all of my needs and stands up to all that I put it through in the shop. I have clamps printed, parts to machines, templates for routing, mounting brackets, and so much more. I would say you should be fine but depending on layer height and speed to print you might need to do some post processing so just make sure you understand the best way to get the results you need for the things you print. I hope this answer helps you out and would be interesting to see which way you decide to go for printer and filament. Event better would be 6 months or a year down the road are you happy with decisions you made. Thanks!

[@Thagor95]

@@builderdads Thanks for the awesome and detailed answer! I'm giving me 2 weeks to still do more research and think about it (it's partly link to the availability of the P1S combo in my region). I love that the Prusa is perfectly tuned to work with Prusament, especially knowing the quality of those filament. I'll try to remember to keep you up on my decision and a feedback months later!

[@builderdads]

@Thagor95 your welcome and good luck with your research. In the end either way you go I don’t think you will be disappointed. I have talked to several folks who bought the PS1 and they love it so if you go that direction hopefully you will to. Me personally I am just patiently waiting for a free shipping sale then pulling the trigger on 2-4 more MK4s depending on how things are going with my business. Right now I am keeping up, but want to add some more products to my woodworking parts lineup.

[@DaveEtchells]

Easy, cheap solution for cardboard spools: Get a bottle of clear nail polish and just give the rims a swipe with it before using. It dries super-fast, hardens the rims and keeps them from “shedding” on your AMS rollers. I got tired of needing slightly different plastic “tire” sizes for different brands, thought a bit and came up with this. It works great 👍😁

[@builderdads]

Great tip! Thanks for sharing.

[@grimcoyote]

Right on! Thanks for this. Polymaker on Prusa PETG settings. It's ~$10 cheaper and easy to get through Amazon. Now I just gotta get my enclosure built so it'll print dependably. Granted, with you having a business, you're going to scrutinize it a bit more, and maybe I will also at some time, but the results are good enough for me. I appreciate you putting in the work with your experience.

[@builderdads]

Your welcome! It’s funny as soon as that test was done I went to Amazon picked up 3 more rolls to arrive this morning and have 2 cooking already to go into the machines later today.

[@grimcoyote]

@builderdads when you were comparing the packaging of the Polymaker, ".... and it comes in a re-sealable bag." Hold up! What? sure enough. I completely overlooked that when I opened the first one. Now I'm headed to the store to get a sturdy cardboard box to enclose my printer until I can finish making the parts for the enclosure to enclose my printer to print more better parts. I feel like I'm headed down a visious spiral of maker enjoyment.

[@builderdads]

This is how you quickly go from one machine to many. Enjoy the spiral it is fun!

[@builderdads]

Wanted to let you know I am now printing Polymaker on all 4 Prusa machines. One of them is on its second roll and I have 2 drying. I am extremely impressed so far.

[@grimcoyote]

@builderdads Hey! That's awesome! Big money savings. I bet you're thrilled. Mine is printing way better now that enclosed it with cardboard until I get the actual enclosure built. The parts are strong and clean. I'm very happy with Polymaker so far.

[@gman9543]

Try the matte black PETG from California Filament if you don't want a glossy finish. It's been my goto filament.

[@builderdads]

That is good to know. I'll put that on my to try list.

[@fordgeher]

I also had very good results with Polymaker filaments so far, PLA (I love their stuff), PETG, ASA, TPU, PA12 CF no problems so far. PA6 CF and PA6 GF are warping on my printers, but for everything else I can recommend Polymaker. If you need some other advanced engineering filament I can also recommend BASF Ultrafuse filaments. PLA, PET (no PETG), PET CF, ASA, TPU, PAHT CF15 are printing very very good. I would always recommend drying everything before printing, EVEN PLA if you need top notch results. Great review man, thanks for that. Question about the SUNLU filament dryer: What is the lower limit of the humidity measurement? 20% or 10%?

[@builderdads]

Thanks so much for the information! Great question I know I have seen mine display results below 10% but I don’t know if the lower limit is 0. I would assume it would be 0, but my house stays around 40% and I am generally OK when the reading is in the teens after 6 hours. Though I have noticed with the cardboard spools they seem to hold moisture which skews the numbers.

[@LincolnWorld]

Unless I missed you saying it. It doesn't look like you tuned for each filament. Is it possible you tuned for Prusament, and then used the same settings for the other filaments? If so, that's not an effective test.

[@builderdads]

Well the test was to actually not spend time tuning it and to get a first impression based on use of generic settings. Who did the best job with the least amount of work. In the end Polymaker and Jessie turned out to be really good substitutes with no tweaking to switch between the MK3S+ machines and the MK4 machines. Sure I could have spent time doing temperature towers, flow, and other setting tweaks, but my goal was to not do that. I have a long thread on Reddit about tweaking Prusament to run on the Bambu X1C and after that experience my goal was to find out of the box success. I hear where you are coming from and I am sure I could have gotten any filament to work by putting work into it, but that wasn’t my goal.

[@tempacc9589]

eSun has a cardboard spool. Cardboard holds more moisture than a plastic spool. This comparison isn't great. On one hand cardboard is better for the environment as well. We just need to dry it a little longer.

[@builderdads]

True and with additional drying it may have yielded perfect results. Though in comparison for this specific test Polymaker has a cardboard spool and printed perfectly using the stock Prusament settings. Since then I have dialed in Polymaker to print cooler and the results are great. I plan on giving eSun another try in the future.

[@jazzcabbage_official]

Could you give IEMAI PETG filaments a try. I found them to be good for my prints. Also, Polymaker PETG has been the absolute worst material I've ever used. It's been entirely inconsistent, I can't seem to find/make good settings for it. It's a bit weird because every other Polymaker filament I've tried has been great.

[@builderdads]

Thanks for the suggestion I just ordered a roll of IEMAI from Amazon to give it a try. Since this video I actually started using Jessie PETG and am in the process of recording a video about that experience and my impression of it. For me my goal is to make as few setting changes as possible and get repeatable results on the Prusa MK3S+ and MK4 printers. Right now I am achieving that goal with Jessie and the only thing I do is dry the filament. What was your process for using Polymaker and what printer are you using it with?

[@jazzcabbage_official]

​@@builderdads I am trying to use the Polymaker petg on both a Bambu P1P and a Peopoly Magneto X. After wasting nearly an entire spool, I'm certain the Polymaker PETG was not meant for these machines. Especially not the Magneto. I think it would work great on an Ender 3 or similar machine. Which is probably why it works good on the Prusa. The surface quality, shiny vs matte finish, and layer bonding is entirely inconsistent unless I raise the temperature to at least 255c, preferably 265c . However at those temps the material itself starts to accumulate on the nozzle and burn, leaving burned petg blobs at random places across the print bed and parts. Maybe it just doesn't like either the hardened nozzle on the P1P or the tungsten nozzle on the Magneto. Perhaps a brass nozzle would be better for it, or maybe it's just not mean to be used as a high flow material.

[@builderdads]

@jazzcabbage_official good questions. I abandoned running Prusament on the Bambu X1C because after multiple spools and more hours than I can count of tuning, I just couldn’t get it to work. I have actually found Bambu’s brand of filament PLA and PETG to run well on it. In another comment someone mentioned that eSun was the actual manufacturer, but I did not verify on my own. Might be worth a try to see how Bambu runs? I know if I buy it on Monday in Ohio that I usually have it by Friday.

[@ArtplusHrApps]

eSun was printed with incorrect temperature. Also, stringing is unrelated to humidity...

[@builderdads]

You are absolutely correct that the temperature needed to be adjusted on that eSun. Though in regard to stringing one of the potential causes of stringing is moisture, but I am pretty sure my issue was with temperature and retraction settings. If I would have dedicated time to figuring it out I am sure I could have corrected the problem, but the test was to find a filament that could run with stock settings on the printer. I appreciate the feedback by the way and if you have any insight on setting changes for eSun please let me know. I am thinking about doing a follow up test where I dial each filament.

[@artplus5757]

@@builderdads Well... stringing is often mentioned in relation with humidity, but as a person who studied physics but was in love with chemistry most of my life, I'd say that this link is highly overrated. Though the term "unrelated" may be a bit of an exaggeration too... Anyway, the main culprit is temperature (speed and flow are in the play too, but... mostly temperature).

[@builderdads]

@artplus5757 makes sense, I actually just had a really good email exchange with Jessie filaments and they educated me on the difference is resins between them and some other brands. Sometimes you forget all that goes into what we want to be a simple string of plastic. I tell you this journey of learning is never ending and just when you think you have something figured out you realize how much more there is to learn. I also want to thank you for bringing this up and giving me a different view of the problem.

[@artplus5757]

@@builderdads Hey there! I've been thinking about the humidity effect on stringing... and I FOUND the way this actually can happen! Namely, if the filament is really "wet" and you can hear the blobs popping (water vapor is exploding when the filament is melted at high temp), this affects the filament temperature and therefore the viscosity at the point of the bubble burst, which can then result in stringing. This "mechanics" sounds plausible :) So, I stand corrected! Contrary to my earlier beliefs, humidity can affect stringing after all.

[@builderdads]

@artplus5757 yep and while it may be unlikely for most brands it may happen. I know talking to Print Solid about Jessie they stated that you don’t need to dry theirs at all if you take it right out of the bag and start using it.

[@huntingfighteroramara]

This is on par with my experience with eSUN, haven't tried PETG yet but eSUN PLA quality is absolutely garbage in my experience, the filament had super high humidity off the shelf and it couldn't be brought down far enough to actually give good print quality. Gave them two chances on different material and never gonna buy from them again as the stringing is just horrible. Both spools are used up in models I didn't care but the filament off the shelf was so wet that it literally popped water bubbles when printing without being dried beforehand. Just my experience but I can just say whatever people say stay away from eSUN, their Filament quality is just not worth the money, there are many other filaments that are cheaper and way better

[@builderdads]

Great information to have and I totally agree about the wetness. Even after 6 hours of drying it barely moved.

[@daspicsman]

I find esun’s quality to be random. Not only how it prints but color from one spool to another

[@builderdads]

Ya I wasn't happy with it at all. I was using a lot of Polymaker for a bit, but have now moved on to Jessie. So far so good the color has been pretty consistent and spool to spool good results. I am about 10 spools in with black PETG and 2 spools in with red. I am happy with the results.

[@daspicsman]

@@builderdads You should do another set of reviews. I'm sure folks would love to see your results.

[@builderdads]

That is a good idea! Right now I have Polymaker in the MK3S+ and Jessie in the MK4s so that would be a good comparison the same part too!

[@Quinnebaug]

That's so weird! My experience has been the total opposite. For me Sunlu and esun have been the best printing filaments, Polymaker and Overture have been the worst. Unusable to the point it won't even get a successful print. This is on a Bambu machine too. Never buying Polymaker PETG again

[@builderdads]

That is interesting. On my Bambu X1C I had problems with Prusament PETG which I love and as a result I stopped using that printer for a while. Now I am using Bambu filament and finding success.

[@Quinnebaug]

@@builderdads yeah Bambu filament worked great for me too

[@builderdads]

@Quinnebaug I have been impressed with their stuff printing on the X1. I need to try it on the Prusa to see if I can get good cross machine results.

[@huntingfighteroramara]

haven't tried Sunlu but eSUNs filament quality has been horrible for me and I'm never buying eSUN again. Arriving off the shelf at a humidity that makes the filament literally pop without drying and even after drying it for extended periods of time giving me very bad results. I'm currently looking into other brands but so far Polymaker and Elegoo have given me very good results on PLA, didn't try PETG yet though

[@Quinnebaug]

@@huntingfighteroramara I don't print PLA so Idk how theirs is I just know their PETG is great every time never needed to dry it ever. Also Bumbu lab filament is made by Sunlu and people rave about Bambu filament