Various PETG brands compared

First off, Kudos for an excellent and thorough analysis and for sharing your finding.

I have broken my own promise to myself in keeping up to date a spreadsheet I’ve been trying to build on this very topic. My spreadsheet however, is based on qualitative metrics and price, I do not have the instrumentation nor time to evaluate strength.

While on the subject of PETG though. My experience with Bambu PETG is that is exhibits properties I’d more expect from PLA than true PETG. And of course, since I am a price-buyer, it is way overpriced for what you get. My observation have been that it produces a very “pretty” buttery smooth looking print. Considering that Bambu’s primary audience is the ease-of-use buyer, that makes sense.

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You asked for suggestions to test. For me it is the following that have consistently hit the sweet spot of price and performance.

CC3D and HZST3D are clearly the same company or at the very least, they are made in the identical factory. The outer carton is the same except the print but the interior product is packaged using the same spool and winding methods. Test show that when I tune the filament after drying it first, the profiles yield identical performance.

HZST3D at $15/spool
https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B0BHLJWK6S
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BHLJWK6S/
CC3D at $14/spool
https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B082WR3G2L
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09B4XFJQ9/

I would welcome another viewpoint on either one of these producers.

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A newcomer on the block is Firos at $13/Spool. It performed identically after drying to the CC3d and HZST3D product.

Firos is an outlier with not much history but I will reorder from them if they hold their $13/spool price. So I don’t see it as a good candidate for testing efforts given that their longevity has yet to be proven. Plus, I have a strong bias against paper spools since the paper itself is prone to moisture retention which provide s challenge when drying and more importantly storage.

In addition, I don’t relish the idea of having to over dry a paper spool which presents a potential fire hazard while in storage. Back in my Boy Scout days we had a technical name for dehydrated cardboard: “Tinder”. :rofl:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV2J697S/

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There are others I’ve purchased, of course, but I won’t pollute the thread with all of the brands I’ve purchased unless there is interest. Since you tested Sunlu I will say this: Sunlu was one of the brands I found to be disappointing. It did not perform well, and at $16 during a lightning deal last October, I found its value to be truly subpar. Consider it’s base price at the time of $20 I bought it solely for evaluation purposes and have since crossed it off my list as a subpar brand.

My recent experience with Sunlu filament dryer and their shoddy tech support only reinforced that perception that they are yet another Chinese company looking to make a quick buck and are more about perception than true quality. As of today, for PETG they are at $22/spool. They are permanently off my list for all these reasons especially when I can get great PETG from between $12-$15/spool.

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