I am so done with this roll of filament!

3D Printing Materials
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A month or so ago, I purchased a roll of Spectrum ecoPET 9021 filament from our hosts here. It’s black PETG.

[Edit]
I just want to make clear that I’m not complaining about our hosts here, just the brand itself. In the same order, I got two rolls of their house PLA, which is great. Just wanted to clear up any misunderstanding that my words may have created.

In my 10 years of 3D printing, I have never encountered a roll of filament like this. It’s my first ever roll of Spectrum filament, and will certainly be my last.

In my Ender 3 Pro with standard microSwiss hot end, it causes an instant clog. When I load the filament, and extrude 40 or 50mm, the filament comes out, but it looks weird. It has voids along it, like bubbles have popped.

After extruding a bit, I start a job. Not a single millimeter comes out after that. Clogged solid.

After the first time, I disassembled, cleared the clog, and tried again. Same result. I have tried drying the filament, different temps, nozzles from 0.4-0.8mm, run cleaning filament, all same result. When I cleaned it and loaded a roll of PETG (different manufacturer) that I’ve had for a while, no problem. I loaded black PLA, and printed for 20+ hours, no problem. After it cooled, I ran another job with the PLA, no problem.

After that, I tried one last time with the Spectrum filament. You guessed it, instant clog.

As I said in the subject, I’m so done with this filament, and it’s going in the garbage so that I’m not tempted to try it again. But I thought I’d ask around here if anyone has encountered anything like this before? I certainly haven’t.

Sorry for the rant, but I thought I’d ask you guys. :slight_smile:

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did you make sure that the bowden tube is in all the way?
i had a problem similar with petg

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Yup. Changed it a couple of times and measured so I knew it was hitting the right spot.

The weird part is that a roll of petg that I’ve had for a while worked fine. Very weird,

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hey Andy - that is weird!
just curious at what temps you are printing at?
did you have any pictures you could share of the filament extruded?

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Andy,

It is odd. I really hate when something appears like that. I have IIIDMax that jams like crazy.

I have a roll of black spectrum PetG it printed really well for me.

Sometimes it seems like a particular filament printer combo just doesn’t like each other or something.

Frustration is expensive. More that a roll of filament. Get rid of it or give it away!

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I started with 250, the temp on the box. The hottest I can get, though is 255, because of the 260 max.
I tried a little lower too.
I don’t have pictures, and I’m not loading it again :slightly_smiling_face:
But picture the strand of filament coming out with “pits” all along it, like bubbles popped all along it.

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I’m curious about the “eco” part of the label. If it’s a “green” alternative, maybe that has something to do with it. :man_shrugging:

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That is wet. Try drying it. Not too hot!

ECO Green… it is hard to know if they are real things something substantial or just weasel words, marketing silliness.

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I tried drying it a couple times, same issue. I think I mentioned it in my first post.

Just for information, I ordered a different roll of black PETG from a different manufacturer. It arrived yesterday.

It’s currently one hour into a print, working just fine.

(shrug) I got nothin’ on this one. As was mentioned upthread, maybe the Spectrum PETG just doesn’t get along with my printer.

But I’m not loading it in my machine to try again. I’ll just chalk it up to experience.

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C3V3SE here. I haven’t used PETG (from any company), but have used four different samples of Spectrum PLA with no issues (just set it up and it printed). I’ve bought most of my filament from 3D, but I bought one spool of yellow PLA from C_______ F________ and it was garbage (literally; every print was just a spew).

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