Updated October 2026. Most 3D printing problems are not printer problems; they are material problems. Pick the right filament for the job and the right line for your printer and the rest gets a lot easier. This guide walks through the five materials that cover 95% of what people print, what each one is good at, and which Filaments.ca line to buy. Every roll below is 1.75 mm, 1 kg, made in our own Ontario warehouse and shipped within 24 hours.
Start with the job, not the material
- Display pieces, figures, cosplay, classroom projects, prototypes that just need to look right: PLA.
- Parts that get used, dropped, screwed together or left in a car: PETG.
- Parts that get hot (over 80°C), need to be sanded or vapour-smoothed, or will be machined: ABS.
- Anything that lives outside in sun and rain: ASA.
- Anything that has to bend, grip, seal or absorb a hit: TPU.
PLA: the default
Polylactic acid prints at low temperatures (190 to 220°C) on any printer, needs no enclosure, has almost no smell and gives the sharpest detail of any common material. It is stiff and strong in compression but brittle in a snap, and it softens around 60°C, so keep it out of hot cars and dishwashers. We make three PLA lines:
- EconoFil PLA from $12.49: the everyday roll, 25+ colours, cardboard spool. The best price per kilo in Canada.
- Select Matte and Silk PLA at $16.99: premium finishes on a rigid plastic spool that drops straight into a Bambu Lab AMS.
- Hyper PLA from $14.99: formulated for high-speed printers (Bambu Lab, Creality K1, Flashforge 5M) that push 300 mm/s and up.
Settings: nozzle 190 to 210°C (Hyper 200 to 230°C), bed 45 to 60°C, part fan on full. The PLA page compares all three in one table.
PETG: the workhorse
PETG is the material to reach for when a part has a job. It is tougher than PLA, bends a little before it breaks, takes about 80°C before it softens, and shrugs off water and most household chemicals. It needs a heated bed (75 to 85°C) and a hotter nozzle (220 to 260°C) but no enclosure, so it works on an open-frame printer. The trade-offs: it strings if it is wet or printed too hot, and it bonds so well to bare PEI that a glue-stick release layer is a good idea.
EconoFil PETG is $15.99 in 25+ colours including translucents; Select PETG is $14.99 on an AMS-ready spool; Carbon Fiber PETG adds stiffness for brackets and jigs. The PETG guide has the full comparison and FAQ.
ABS: heat and post-processing
ABS is the classic engineering plastic: tough, heat resistant to about 105°C, easy to sand, drill and tap, and it dissolves in acetone so you can weld parts and vapour-smooth them to a glossy, injection-moulded look. The price is a demanding print: it shrinks as it cools, so it needs an enclosed printer, a 100°C bed and no drafts, and it gives off styrene fumes, so ventilate. If you do not have an enclosure, use PETG instead. EconoFil ABS is $18.39; the ABS and ASA guide covers warping, fumes and smoothing.
ASA: ABS for outdoors
ASA prints like ABS and has the same strength, but it is UV stable and weather resistant, so it does not yellow and go brittle in sunlight the way ABS does. Garden fittings, signage, mounts on a car or a boat, enclosures on a wall: ASA. Same enclosure and bed requirements as ABS. EconoFil ASA is $19.99 in Black, White and Grey.
TPU: the flexible one
Thermoplastic polyurethane is rubbery: phone cases, gaskets, bumpers, wheels, wearable parts, anything that needs to flex or grip. It prints best on a direct-drive extruder at modest speed (20 to 40 mm/s on a Bowden setup, faster on direct drive) with retraction turned down. It does not need an enclosure and sticks to a plain PEI bed. Filaments.ca TPU (Shore 91A, $24.99 per kg, eight colours) is the everyday flexible; NinjaTek Cheetah (95A) is the firmer, high-speed option. The TPU guide explains hardness ratings and settings.
Quick comparison
| PLA | PETG | ABS | ASA | TPU | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ease of printing | Easiest | Easy | Hard (enclosure) | Hard (enclosure) | Medium (slow) |
| Nozzle | 190 to 210°C | 220 to 260°C | 230 to 250°C | 235 to 255°C | 210 to 230°C |
| Bed | 45 to 60°C | 75 to 85°C | 80 to 110°C | 90 to 110°C | 40 to 60°C |
| Heat resistance | ~60°C | ~80°C | ~105°C | ~100°C | ~80°C |
| Toughness | Stiff, brittle | Tough, a little flex | Tough, rigid | Tough, rigid | Rubbery |
| Outdoors | No | OK | No (UV) | Yes | OK |
| Our price per kg | from $12.49 | from $14.99 | $18.39 | $19.99 | $24.99 |
Three things that matter more than the material
- Dry filament. PETG, TPU and ASA absorb moisture within days of opening; even PLA goes brittle after a few months in a damp room. Stringing, popping and rough surfaces are usually water, not settings. A filament dryer pays for itself quickly. Our guide to wet filament covers how to spot it and fix it.
- Diameter consistency. A roll that wanders from 1.70 to 1.80 mm will under- and over-extrude no matter how good the profile is. All three of our lines are laser-measured to plus or minus 0.05 mm.
- The spool. On a plain holder, cardboard is fine and cheaper. In a Bambu Lab AMS or similar unit, a rigid plastic spool (Select, or the plastic-spool variants of EconoFil) avoids rings and roller dust.
Still not sure?
Tell us what you are printing and on what machine and we will point you at a roll: hello@filaments.ca or 1-844-465-7684. Schools and boards, see our education page; print farms and businesses, the business page; buying your first printer, the first printer guide. Buy 20 or more rolls, mix and match, and save $0.50 a roll automatically, with free shipping across Canada over $100.