Anyone know why HobbyKing seem to be abandoning eSun filament?

I've been buying eSun filament from HobbyKing, firstly because it's cheap and also because I could buy it from HobbyKing's UK warehouse, which is only 20 minutes drive from where I live. Went to order some today - and every size, type and colour is sold out in the UK, there's very little left in the EU warehouse, and I'm not waiting ages for stuff from the HongKong warehouse. It doesn't look like the USA has much either.

Their listings seem to be replacing eSun with stuff from CoLiDo, who I've never heard of. It's at a barely competative price (especially when you add postage) and only available from HK. When you add the delivery time of several weeks then it's now totally useless to me.

As you may guess - I'm not amused... the eSun stuff has been working very well for me up until now!

I visited the esun booth at the formnext 3D printing fair two weeks ago. They were showing new ABS+ and PLA+ materials. I took a sample of the ABS+ and to my surprise it was actually warping a lot less then my current favourite material.
Maybe they are swapping out their products? So far i have only seen the new ABS+ and PLA+ offered in large quantities on Alibaba. Noone seems to stock it yet.

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The HK USA East warehouse still has stock.

Except I'm in the UK...

Maybe because is bad?
I couldn't get any decent prints with it, super brittle and really inconsistent diameter.

Ended up only using when doing tests pars, for the final one I use another filament.

Quote
Nandox7
Maybe because is bad?
I couldn't get any decent prints with it, super brittle and really inconsistent diameter.

Ended up only using when doing tests pars, for the final one I use another filament.

I have had the complete opposite experience with it. I have switched from mainly using Hatchbox to eSun PLA. Not had any problems with it that I didn't have with every other PLA brand I have used.

Same for me - I've found it to be very reliable. That's why I'm so annoyed that HK seem to be abandoning it!

Just out of curiosity what colors did you guys used?

I had Red (that is actually orange...) and Purple. The Purple was the worst... spent lots of filament until I had a decent print settings
and later when printing it kept clogging the nozzle and parts would get too brittle. Even going up as much as 225deg.
Plus it was really brittle in some spots, I'd find parts with 1mt or more where it would break apart like spaghetti.
I had cases where the filament was simply loaded in the printer I would hear a crack noise and when I looked it had snapped.
This all right after taking out of the sealed bag, not after months or so. (I may still have some videos I made showing it)

The orange (Red... if you trust what the spool says) is much better. But still has a bit of inconsistency. But I get much better prints
and I've kept it and still using it for final parts.

I have a spool of just about every color they produce in PLA. The only time I have had problems with breakage from brittle filament is when I have left the spool loaded for a day or so and then the brittle area was just where the filament was bending to go into the machine. Once that section was removed, it was fine.

I store open filament in air tight containers with desiccant packages.

My experience is the same as ElmoC's. If there is a tight bend in the feed, and I let it set a couple days it will snap. Other than that, its been great.

As for the red - look up the colour called "Chinese red" and you'll see it's exactly right!



(it is rather orange to western tastes though)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/2015 02:44PM by David J.

Price point might be similar, but I am assuming HK is getting a better profit margin off of the CoLiDo. Though in the US, unless I am buying in bulk, I have found buying through Amazon Prime to be my best source for eSun.

Perhaps as eSun is maturing, they are increasing costs to resellers?

I was wondering whether HK aren't prepared to pay eSun's prices, or eSun aren't prepared to cut prices to suit HK's profit margin.

I've found that HK's UK warehouse still has some 3mm filament left, so I've ordered some of that (but not a lot remaining). The only 1.75mm filament remaining seems to be pink ABS, and I have some standards...

Minor update: when I visited the UK warehouse today to pick up my 3mm filament I asked about 1.75 stuff - apparently they will be stocking the CoLiDo brand soon, and they're just waiting for the stock to come in. Phew!
Apparently they'd had some complaints about the eSun stuff, but I've not had any problems.