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I will be honest here and state that I have had some terrible experiences with PETG in the past. After using PLA, I became spoiled by the ease of printing with it. I skipped the ABS bus entirely and went right to PETG, after mastering PLA. I swore off ever using PETG again, because I was continually frustrated from ‘stringy boogers’ messing up my print.
Finally, I was convinced by William Donald, here at Inov3D, to try out some Sunlu PETG. I was blown away! How could PETG be THAT easy to use? Well, this 3D Hero Red PETG is JUST as easy to use as the Sunlu!
More 3D Hero!
After fully testing out the 3D Hero Wood filament, I really wanted to try some of 3D Hero’s PETG. 3D Hero is a sub company of Sunlu, so I expected their quality to be on par with Sunlu. Most importantly, I was not disappointed with 3D Hero Red PETG!
Unboxing
From the start, my spool of 3D Hero Red PETG arrived in a tightly vacuum sealed bag with a desiccant pouch. The box was white with very little frills. I’ve mentioned this before, but there’s point in putting trash products in nice packaging. Personally, I would rather save the money on the fancy packing material that I will throw away. I would rather that the manufacturers invest in the quality of their product over their packing.
Slicer Settings:
Buy 3D Hero Red PETG!
After playing a bit with the settings with Simplify3D, I settled on the following settings for printing the 3D Hero PETG:
- Print Temp: 245c
- Bed Temp: 70C
- Print Speed: 30mm/s
- Retraction: 3mm@ 80mm/s
- Extrusion Multiplier: 92%
Those work really well on my Tornado with a Micro Swiss All-Metal hotend. Check out this retraction test! There’s just a small amount of ‘hair’ from the movement. I will continue to adjust my S3D PETG profile for the Tornado and see if I can get it any better, but for now I am happy with it.
How Did the 3D Hero Red PETG Print?
Printing the 3D Hero Red PETG was a great experience. After adjusting my intial Z gap bY Baby-stepping my Z axis, my first layers stuck well to the glass bed of my Tornado. Extrusion was smooth and clean.
Even when printing with a layer height of 0.25mm, the layers just melted into one another. Check out this Skully! SMOOTH! I had to adjust my cooling as well. Typically, I don’t print PETG with very much parts cooling. You can see on the top of the Aztec Chief what happens when you don’t let the layers cool properly. I have since amended this in my profile.
PETG in Vase Mode!
Next, I tested the layer adhesion by printing a large Spiral Vase in the 3D Hero Red PETG. It came out great with just a little deformation on the sides. I am not sure what caused this. It could be due to too hot of a nozzle temperature.
I could also have set the initial Z gap too tight, causing the nozzle to push into the lower layers. Never the less, the layers bonded together tightly. I love printing vases in PETG, the material is perfect for vases. PETG feels great, the exterior is almost soft. Most importantly, it flexes well in single width thicknesses.
Time for Some Functional Prints
The best quality of PETG is that it’s a great material for functional prints. This time, I decided to try something new and printed this Grocery Bag Carrier. 3D Hero Red PETG came out looking really good for this print. In addition, the layer lines are clean and smooth with just some tiny wisps in the handle cutout. After that, I printed my Recorder Holder.
The Great Duck Project
I also printed part 208 from the Great Duck Project in 3D Hero Red PETG. If you aren’t familiar with the project, you should check out the official website for information. Ultimately, it’s a crowd sourced art project involving a 6 foot tall 3D printed duck! The duck model was scaled up and chopped into 476 parts using LuBan!
The Wrap Up!
In conclusion, I really REALLY enjoyed printing with 3D Hero RED PETG. I am always impressed with HIGH QUALITY PETG prints.. There’s something magical about the shimmer and semi transparency that PETG offers.
The shimmer from this PETG is very nice. It reminds me of the Hobby King Transparent Red PLA that I reviewed last year. I highly recommend 3D Hero’s Red PETG. You would be hard pressed to find a better deal for the quality. Go check it out on Amazon! Remember to store your PETG in air-tight containers. It’s a hygroscopic filament, and will require drying if it gets wet. If your 3D Hero Red PETG gets wet, you can follow our filament dryer tutorial to save the day!
Don’t forget to check out our 3D printing filament deals to see if you can save any money on your next purchase!
