Hi, all. So I’m pretty new to this hobby, and this might seem like a short-sighted question. But I was wondering, how important is the brand name when buying filament? I live in South Korea, which means AliExpress orders arrive here pretty quickly and are generally a viable option. The thing is that I see filament on Ali for half the price of the reputable brand name stuff I can get in Korea. Do any of you have any experience with the cheaper, no-name stuff? Is plastic just plastic, and the brand is just jacking up the price because they can? Or is there an important difference between the filament produced by the big brands and filament made in China that I can get for much cheaper? Any and all advice would be much appreciated.
What makes the quality is the exact composition of the plastic (additives, color pigments), the consistency and accuracy of the diameter along the filament and how dry it comes out of the bag.
Bad composition could be very bad for bed adhesion and make the filament unusable.
Bad diameter will cause mostly visual quality defects
Humidifier will cause bubbles and strings, can be fixed by drying the filament.
Back when I started I ended up with some very poop quality filament that I paid way over priced ! Nowadays I have the feeling the cheep stuff is pretty good after some drying. At least as far as PLA goes.