PLA or PETG: which plastic to choose when you order a printed part
PLA or PETG for a part someone prints for you: heat, sun, strength, flex and price, with the parts each one suits and the ones neither should be used for.
When you order a print from SpeakCAD's print service, the form asks one technical question: PLA or PETG. The short answer: PLA indoors, PETG wherever it gets warm, wet or bumped. The longer answer is below.
PLA: rigid, crisp, indoors
- Stiff and precise. Sharp edges, clean text, holes close to size. The default of most print farms.
- Softens around 50 to 60 °C. A PLA phone holder on a car dashboard in summer will sag. So will a part next to a heater or a light bulb.
- Brittle under impact. It snaps rather than bends: a thin clip that must flex will crack after a few uses.
- Good for: desk organisers, enclosures that stay indoors, wall plates, cable clips, models, tool holders, knobs.
PETG: tougher, warmer, outdoors
- Takes heat to about 70 to 80 °C. Fine in a car, near a radiator, in a garden shed in summer.
- Tougher and slightly flexible. It bends before it breaks: better for snap fits, clips and anything that gets dropped.
- Handles water and sun better. Planter parts, hose guides, bike accessories.
- Slightly less crisp. Fine text and sharp corners come out a little softer.
- Costs a little more: about 15 % on the printing part of the price.
Quick choices
| The part | Choose |
|---|---|
| Drawer organiser, desk stand, label holder | PLA |
| Electronics enclosure that stays indoors | PLA, or PETG near a hot regulator |
| Car mount, dashboard clip, anything in a car | PETG |
| Garden, bike, outdoor bracket | PETG |
| Snap-fit lid, clip that flexes, a hook that takes a knock | PETG |
| Cosplay detail, display model, sharp text | PLA |
What neither is for
- Food contact. Neither printed PLA nor printed PETG is food-safe as it comes off a printer: layer lines hold bacteria, and the colour pigment and the printer's nozzle are not certified. Use a printed part for a cookie cutter you wash once, not for a cup.
- Real heat. Nothing near an oven, an engine or a soldering iron stand.
- Structural loads people depend on. A shelf bracket for books, yes; a part that holds a person, never.
Colours
The order form offers black, white, grey, red, orange, yellow, green, blue in one tap, or any colour from the picker, printed in the filament closest to it that the print farm stocks.
Made to order, so it can't be returned; if we can't deliver it, or it arrives broken, the full price comes back as SpeakCAD credits.
Questions
PETG. PLA softens around 50 to 60 °C, which a car interior reaches in summer; PETG holds to about 70 to 80 °C.
Not as it comes off the printer, in PLA or PETG: layer lines hold bacteria and neither the pigment nor the nozzle is certified. Keep printed parts away from food that sits in them.