ABS filament, ranked by £/kg

Strong, heat-resistant, and awkward

ABS is genuinely tough and holds its shape to around 100 °C, which is why it is still used for functional parts that see heat — enclosure components, car interior fittings, tool handles. It also sands, glues and acetone-smooths beautifully, which is why model makers persist with it.

The problem is warping. ABS shrinks substantially as it cools, and a large flat part on an open printer will lift at the corners or split along a layer line partway through. This is not a settings problem you can tune away; it is thermodynamics.

You need an enclosure and ventilation

Both, and neither is optional.

An enclosure keeps the ambient temperature high and even, which is the only reliable fix for warping. It does not need to be elaborate — a box that stops draughts does most of the work.

Ventilation matters because ABS emits styrene and ultrafine particles while printing. The smell is the least of it. Print somewhere ventilated, ideally with the enclosure vented outside, and not in a room you sleep in.

Consider ASA instead

For most jobs where ABS is the obvious answer, ASA is the better one: near-identical mechanical properties and temperature resistance, meaningfully better UV stability, and slightly less prone to warping. Unless you specifically need acetone smoothing or ABS is materially cheaper on the day, ASA is the more sensible buy.

Settings to start from

Nozzle 230–250 °C, bed 90–110 °C, cooling fan off or nearly off, enclosure closed. Cooling is the enemy here — the fan that helps PLA is exactly what cracks ABS between layers.

A brim helps considerably on anything with a large footprint, as does slowing the first layer down and letting the enclosure come up to temperature before the print starts. A standard brass nozzle is fine — unfilled ABS is not abrasive. The guide on enclosed versus open-frame printers explains what an enclosure does and does not solve.

When to pick something else

• You have an open-frame printer and no way to box it in. Use PETG, which gets you to roughly 75 °C and most of the toughness with none of the warping.
• The part lives outdoors. ASA, every time.
• You cannot ventilate the room properly. Then neither ABS nor ASA is a sensible purchase. PETG is the honest alternative.
• It needs to survive impact as well as heat. Nylon or polycarbonate, both harder again to print.

Buying notes

ABS is one of the cheaper engineering filaments, which is much of its appeal. It is mildly hygroscopic rather than thirsty — keep it in a sealed box with desiccant and it will be fine for months; see filament storage. Note that some filaments sold as ABS are ABS blends tuned to warp less, which is usually a good thing but makes brand-to-brand results less consistent than with PLA.

How to read this table

The per-kilo column is the only number that compares listings honestly. A spool sold at 40% off can still be poor value, and a multi-spool bundle looks expensive until you divide by its total weight. We count bundles at their full weight, so a 4 × 1 kg pack and a single 1 kg spool sit on the same scale.

Where a listing does not state a usable weight we leave the per-kilo figure blank rather than guessing — a wrong ranking is worse than a missing one.