Creality Ender PLA+ 1.75mm 3D Printing Filament 1kg (Grey): problems, parts and running costs

Checked: 2026-10-17

Summary

This is Creality’s house-brand PLA+ (toughened PLA) 1.75 mm 1 kg spool, grey, item 3301010308, aimed at Ender-series printer owners. The owner-reported problems are print brittleness and z-banding, spools that print worse than the free sample filament, and moisture uptake; no independent lab test of this exact spool exists. The only running cost is the spool itself, inside the $16.99–18.99/kg band that tested budget PLA picks occupy. It is a good buy at or below about $18.99/kg, and weak above the $23.46 Creality VIP Mall price.

Common problems and fixes

Brittle, z-banding prints — two strongly negative r/3Dprinting reports describe Creality PLA as “super brittle on the Z axis” with odd z-banding; one buyer called it the worst filament they bought and printing returned to normal after switching to Overture filament. These reports target Creality PLA generally, not only this PLA+ SKU. Creality’s store offers a 14-day return window, but no filament-specific warranty document was published. [11][12][15][1]
A purchased spool prints worse than the sample filament — an r/ender3 owner who bought an Ender PLA+ spool for an Ender 3 V3 KE found it a “brighter white” and its prints “more coarse” than the sample filament shipped with the printer. No fix is reported; treat new spools as a batch you may need to tune. [10]
Moisture uptake and “bad spool” debates — an r/ender3 bad-spool thread attributes print failure to room humidity rather than spool defects. The reseller guidance is to store PLA in a dry box or vacuum bag to prevent moisture uptake. [16][7]
Best-print temperatures vary between colors of the same Creality line — an r/Creality report on the CR-PLA line (not Ender PLA+) shows best temperatures swinging from 190 °C to 245 °C between colors. Treat it as a caution for multi-color Ender PLA+ use, not a confirmed defect of this spool. [13]
PLA+ prints hotter and stays brittle next to PETG or ABS — PLA+ typically prints about 10–15 °C hotter than regular PLA and is more impact-resistant, but still brittle and low-heat compared with PETG or ABS, so it is not a substitute for those materials on functional parts. [14][21]

Parts and consumables

Ender PLA+ 1.75mm 1kg, Grey (Creality item 3301010308) — the spool is the only consumable; there are no replaceable parts. Prices as researched in October 2026: £16.99 at the Creality UK store (sale from £19.99; bulk tiers down to £12.74 each at 20 spools), €24.99 at the Creality EU store under a 50%-off promotion, CA$23.99 at the Creality Canada store (sold out), and $23.46 at the Creality VIP Mall. A third-party marketplace listing shows $16.09. The US store does not currently list the PLA+ 1 kg at all. [4][1][2][3][20][5]

Yearly running cost

The running cost is the spool itself, plus dry storage (dry box or desiccant) and occasional drying of a wet spool; there is no subscription or accessory lock-in. Tom’s Hardware’s tested 2026 PLA picks cluster at $16.99–18.99/kg for budget PLA, which is the band a single spool of this brand sits in when bought at sale prices. No owner data on how many spools a typical user burns per year was found.

When it is a good buy

At or below about $18.99/kg, matching tested budget-PLA pricing, the spool is defensible for Ender owners who want a matching-brand PLA+ and can use the 14-day Creality return window. [8][1]
Between $18.30 and $23 it is fair only when bought direct from Creality, because it then costs more than tested budget picks. [8]
Above $23.46, the VIP Mall price, it is weak: the buyer pays a premium over tested alternatives with no independent validation behind the PLA+ claims. [4][8]