PVPLA175BK PrimaValue PLA Filament, 1.75 mm OD, 1 kg Spool, Black

I am new to 3D printing and this is the first spool of filament that I have bought. I found that I needed to change the default temperatures that worked with the sample supplied with my printer and I am currently using a hot end temperature to 210°C and the hotbed to 65°C on my Wanhao i3 printer. Initially I found that the filament would crackle when printing but this has got less frequent as I have gone down the spool. I have had no issues with the filament itself. For my purpose of learning about 3D printing this filament is perfect.

My first printer filament. Initially gave very poor prints but this was due more to my inexperience of the hardware and software setups of my Geeetech Prusa i3 Acrylic printer. I notice that several users have given poor reviews as the filament can come off the reel and tangle during printing. I get the same thing happening with my garden hose and mains cable extension reel. Not the fault of the filament, hose or cable in my opinion, just the way it's unwound. I made up a guide using a wire coat hanger, tarpaulin eyelets and some gardening wire to ensure it always feeds from the middle of the reel. No tangle problems! The weird reel holder came with the printer. Very happy so far.

I've tried the blue and black filaments, both of which work well on my Wanhao i3 plus duplicator. The head does have to be close to the bed (slightly closer than specified in the printer instructions) and the filament can be a little stringy when starting on the print (in my case usually in the platform adhesion area so not a problem). Once printing it works well. A good price and the colours are good and consistent. It's just a shame there isn't a bigger range of colours in the PrimaValue range. The PrimaSelect range adds more colours, but is quite a bit more expensive (note the PrimaSelect are often in 750g spools rather than the 1kg of the PrimaValue). One thing that could be improved is the large open area on the box, which makes it less suitable for long term storage. I haven't had mine long but for best results the PLA needs to be kept dry. Whilst the PLA is film wrapped when shipped, once opened there is a large cutout in the box which would allow moisture into the box. Some other filament suppliers provide a more enclosed box and/or a bag to help keep moisture away from the filament.

OK quality for such cheap price. Takes a long time to cool so many fans needed if warping upwards is to be avoided. Also high temps required for faster printing otherwise it jams. Around 225c at 70mm/s. Stringing is decent but due to slow cooling, bridging is awful.

This spool of pla was recommended with the wanhao i3 v2 3D printer. When the printer 1st arrived it came with wanhao filament which printed great but a terrible colour (it was free as part of a deal so could not complain). I then wanted to try the black pla and I must admit, the 1st few prints did not work at all. after tweaking the temp settings within the cura software I have now perfected the print. The pla that came with the printer liked the setting 190 deg for the extruder and 50deg for the hot bed (it's default setting) but with this I find 210 deg for the extruder and 60deg for the bed works a treat. Other than the trail and error, I get great prints and will be getting more of this filament.

This filament has possibly the worst bed adhesion I've ever seen for PLA. I've had a few cheap filaments but this one barely sticks to anything and when it does it's short lived as it's curled off the bed in seconds. Sure you could use a heated bed but PLA should not require a heated bed. Anything other than a smooth surface is enough for PLA (usually) but not for this roll. This stuff curls terribly too, I've had to babysit every print with this stuff and push down any curls to prevent head crashes and even then it manages to snag. I've used the white PLA and that seemed to work fine so I'm not sure if it's just a bad roll but this stuff behaves like ABS but without the pros of ABS, only the cons. Some have stated they believe they've received ABS, I have tested mine and am sure it is PLA but seems to be a blend with something else or just really poorly made due to it's printing characteristics. Only good thing is the actual surface quality is actually really good so it gets a star for that, unfortunately because it's such a pain to actually print with I'll stick with other brands that don't curl or barely stick.

I've had a few different brands of cheap PLA filaments through my printer and this is pretty much the worst I've tried. It's so inconsistent it's unusable even on a simple first layer you get holes where it's not extruded properly. I swapped to another, similar, spool of PLA from a different supplier and with the same code it printed the first layer just fine, swap back and rubbish prints again. I suspect it's full of impurities as that's the only thing that could explain the inconsistent results and holes in the first layer. Update... I'm pretty sure I've got ABS and not PLA despite it saying PLA on the box and the label on the spool label, I put one of the failed prints in acetone overnight and this morning it's completely dissolved... PLA shouldn't do that ! So, I increased the nozzle temperature to 240, coated the bed with ABS sludge and it printed a test print just fine so I'm pretty certain now that, despite what it says, it's actually ABS which might be a lottery as to which one you get !

Absolutely no problems printing this, great finish, and I printed the challenging "Digital Sundial" (google it) with zero issues. It's also a nice dark blue rather than the very, very, very dark grey of some other filaments. For those complaining about tangles, you see this complaint for every brand, and it's because people let go of the free end and it dives under other loops.