Amazon Basic PETG Review
Quick and dirty. I jumped on the band wagon and purchased a set of PETG rolls from Amazon, branded as “Amazon Basic”. I have tried several other brands before this and struggled to find a good consistent supplier that was also affordable. My default has been Inland filament from Microcenter, simply because it was acceptable and could be had (w/ shipping) for under $20. Then came Amazon. I was already a Prime member so I didn’t have to worry about shipping and the base price was in the same ~$20 range. When I bought mine for testing I was able to get a five pack that had black, white, red, blue and grey. I am no longer able to find that deal, but that wont stop me from ordering more. There also seems to be a changing color selection, possibly as they figure out what colors are selling this has been shifting. Right now (Feb 2019) you can get their PETG in:
Black (Also in 3 Pack), Blue, Grey, Orange, Purple, Red, Translucent, White and Yellow:
I’ve also seen at times Pink, but currently can’t find it.
Packaging
I think you would expect well packaged items from Amazon, and that is exactly what you get. Each roll was individually sealed in a vacuum bag with desiccant. What a relief it was to receive every single roll, still well sealed! This has not been the case with some of my other suppliers.
The Spool
Not really an area I would have expected to see innovation, but I was wrong. First, the spooling / coiling of the spool was fantastic. After going through 4 rolls, I have had no twists or jams or any other spool related issue. Next, check out the gauge on the side:
Each spool comes with two viewing windows from which you can estimate the length and mass remaining on the spool. Above you will see the unopened orange roll still has the original 1kg while the blue roll on the right has probably about 250g remaining. I can’t emphasize just how awesome this one little feature is, it has already helped in planning out my prints and kept me from having to guess weather I’ll have enough.
Print Quality
I have to start with caveats. I used my cheap Ender 3 to provide a realistic test of what could be done. I performed the tests at my medium quality, running at 4600mm/min.
The results were great! I deliberately am showing you my average prints. These are the setting I use for my general purpose prints. Remember also, this is PETG, a notoriously stringy material. The bridging and overhangs are some of the best I’ve seen with this material (As seen in the above). Finally, just to see what I could do on a high quality setting (0.1mm Layer Height):
Verdict
No surprises here, at this price point, with free shipping, Amazon Basic PETG is a great find and it wont cost you much to give it a try before shelling out for another spool at twice the price. Is this “Pro” grade, probably not, but for my engineering prototypes and replicas, it has proven both strong and accurate. A joy to work with. Give it a try, you have almost nothing to loose at their prices.