Creality CR-Silk PLA 1kg (Blue): problems, parts and running costs

Checked: 2026-10-17

Summary

Blue CR-Silk is a glossy, decorative silk PLA: owners repeatedly report prints that look fine but break during support removal or handling, weak layer bonding from the gloss additives, and clogging or stringing when the profile is left at standard PLA settings. Keeping it running costs only the filament itself plus an optional dryer, and the sources carry no printing-volume data, so a yearly total is Not enough data. At $19.99 at the Creality US store (October 2026) it is a fair buy for figurines and display pieces and a poor one for anything load-bearing.

Common problems and fixes

Brittle prints that break in handling — a K1 Max owner printing Creality silk PLA with default profiles had removing tree supports break all three models, and another r/Creality thread describes silk prints “breaking off all over the place” while the same owner had zero problems with Hyper PLA; the fix is a silk-tuned profile, not standard PLA settings. [11][12]
Clogging and stringing — the PLA and elastomer mixture clogs nozzles and strings or oozes more than standard PLA; wet filament adds popping and dull patches, and the class guidance is to dry PLA at roughly 40–45 °C for several hours. [21][22][20]
Dull finish when printed too cold — the gloss fades and layer lines show if the nozzle is too cold; print hotter, commonly 205–220 °C and up to 230 °C, slow the outer wall for gloss, and a lower layer height gives a more uniform shine. [20][22]
Listings disagree on settings — SpoolScout gives 40–80 mm/s while a European reseller writes 40–100 mm/s, and the bed appears both as 50–60 °C and as “no heating to 60 °C”; use the conservative 40–80 mm/s and treat the heated bed as optional. [6][5]
Unclear warranty term — Creality’s store banners advertise up to a 12-month warranty on the US live page and up to 24 months on the EU page for materials, but the CR-Silk product page itself spells out no explicit filament warranty term. [1][3]

Parts and consumables

CR-Silk 1 kg spool (item 3301120006) — the only consumable; $19.99 at the Creality US store (October 2026), with bulk ladders of roughly 15% off at 5 rolls and up to 25% off at 20 on the EU store pages. A spool is consumed as you print; there is no fixed replacement interval. [1][3]

Yearly running cost

The only recurring consumable is the filament itself — $19.99 per 1 kg spool at the Creality US store (October 2026) — and there is no proprietary spool lock-in. A dryer is a useful extra in humid conditions but is not required; the sources carry no printing-volume data, so a typical yearly total is Not enough data. [1][21][22]

When it is a good buy

$19.99 at Creality US store (October 2026) — against a $28.99 list price; good value at or below about $20 per kg for a glossy PLA from a major brand. [1]
$21.85 at Creality VIP Mall (October 2026) — the international listing, in the fair-value band. [4]
£19.99 at Creality UK store (October 2026) — against a £22.99 list. [31]
€25.99 at Creality EU store (October 2026) — against a €36.99 list. [3]
$26–30 — weak unless a specific color or effect is wanted, and above $30 poor for a single-color silk PLA.
eSUN PLA-Silk — the better choice when you want a published mechanical data sheet: Creality publishes none for CR-Silk, while eSUN’s silk data sheet shows in-plane tensile around 32 MPa and across-layer tensile around 17 MPa. [24]
Hyper PLA — the better choice for functional parts: the same owners reported no trouble with standard or Hyper PLA where Creality silk broke. [11][12]