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Do you have to purchase AmazonBasics filament to your 3D Printer?

Should you buy AmazonBasics filament for your 3D Printer?

With 3D printing becoming more mainstream and the cost of filaments falling like a rock, Amazon had to join in at some point, and they have with their AmazonBasics filament line. The AmazonBasics brand usually offers great value for money with serviceable but not necessarily high quality products, and the AmazonBasics filament seems no different. Personally, I have only used the PLA so far, although PETg and ABS are available for purchase. Once I’ve used them, I’ll update this article with more information.

The filament itself is very even across the board. With a new filament, it’s always a good idea to check the diameter with a micrometer to see if it’s really 1.75mm +/- 0.05mm, and the Amazon Basics filament will appear on both reels, that i have to be consistent. The filament came in a sealed pouch with a desiccant pouch to keep it dry, and there was no evidence of moisture during printing or in the final model. As a nice surprise, on the side of the roll you can see how much filament you have left over for printing. I can’t tell you how many times this would have been useful with other prints. Knowing roughly how much is left on a roll will greatly reduce waste.

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When printing with the Amazon Basics PLA, the print was pretty even throughout and the final vase feels solid with good layer adhesion. I printed the vase in vase mode, a continuous line of filament with a fairly high thickness, so it’s difficult to tell how smooth the details are, but friends on Twitter managed to get great results even at high resolutions.

https://twitter.com/MoeJike/status/1029468511288999936

Cons of pricing

There were really only two downsides that I saw. The first is in the transparent PLA that I tried. The pressure seems to increase a bit as it cools down irregularly. This was fixed by editing some settings in my slicer. As you can see in the picture above, this pucker did not occur with the black PLA. Now, light colors in PLA are notorious for being sensitive – frankly, white PLA is such a pain I rarely print with it anymore -. So if you persevere, you can likely fix this problem, but it’s worth mentioning as a bug.

The other problem, surprisingly, is the pricing structure. At $ 19.99 for a single reel, Amazon puts it in competition with Matterhackers and Hatchbox, which make a very good filament instead of the lower market it should be on. For just $ 12.99, you can purchase 1kg of domestic PLA, which has no noticeable difference to the Amazon Basics material. The only perk of Amazon Basics is the volume discount – if you buy the five-roll package it’s only $ 79.99, which is $ 16 per roll – and the fact that PLA, ABS, and PETg all have the same price.

Should you buy it?

As a filament, it’s not bad, in fact, it’s pretty good, but only buy it if you buy in bulk. Now most of us 3D printers buy filaments in bulk, after all, a large cosplay helmet can use a 1kg reel on its own. However, if you only buy one roll at a time, you will need to consider other options. Nothing about the Amazon Basics filament knocks me out, but maybe that’s why it’s just called.

Don’t you agree with me here? What do you think of Amazon getting into the filament business? Let me know in the comments.

See on Amazon

Disclaimer: All of our filament reviews are printed on the same Qidi Tech 1 with the same settings for PLA that were cut in Simplify 3D. This is to remove as many variables as possible from the printing process so that only the quality of the filament shows through. The model is this wavy vase from Thingiverse that is 50% printed.

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