Pla would be fine but petg is my default these days. Petg is a bit more strong and less brittle, which will help at lower temps.
Strength is just as much about design as it is about the filament choice.
this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2025
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I've read that PLA will sag over time pretty much no matter what you do. I assume it would be terrible for the first use case. I assume you can't design around it but I'm happy to be proven wrong.
It'll only sag if it heats up and starts to deform, like if you leave it in the sun. It'd probably be just fine under a compressive load like that.
This is a fantastic doc https://blog.rahix.de/design-for-3d-printing/
Do you know what temperature range that is? Is 35 to 30C fine?
Yeah. "glass transition temperature" is the term to look up
Ohh. Good to know. Thanks!
How difficult is petg to print?
I started with it I think it's easy but I have seen horror stories about petg with glass beds for petg I would recommend g10 I ordered mine from germany because at the time the only g10 in lithuania was too small. And I got a biscuit with the g10 :D
Not at all.
After reading all of the comments and doing some research on the side it definitely looks like PETG is a great all rounder for functional prints. Guess I'm going to need a filament dryer.
PETG, ABS, ASA and TPU seem like the most common functional print materials, of course each has it's own strength. If I end up doing ABS/ASA one day I'm doing to have to figure out a good ventilation solution lol.
You don't need a dryer to start. I printed for many years and only recently bought a dryer. It definitely helps with older filament, but you don't need it to get started.
I live in a dry climate, and thought drying PETG was unnecessary. After a lot of frustration, I made a (very good) redneck dryer, and my printing life became much better. PETG really likes water, and printing humid PETG is a source of major frustration.
Also, don't dry filaments in ovens, microwaves, or other food use things. A lot of idiots on YouTube recommend that, and it's obvious that you don't want to cook foods in ovens that have been coated in unknown VOCs.
Get Rapid PETG. Regular PETG. I've printed a few rolls of regular PETG, and it can be a source of frustration. Same with PLA. Get a PLA +.
If there's any risk you might lose something you've printed while outside, it's very good if the material is biodegradable!
I've read that while PLA is biodegradable it's not compostable and require industrial composters to break down. So unless you are printing with chocolate or something weird, none of the materials are great for the environment.
I'd assumeits biodegradation takes 5 years instead of something like 10 000 years of conventional plastics
Generic PLA? That is what my makerspace uses mostly
I think the consensus from my research is that PLA sucks for practical prints. If you are going to put a constant load on it or if the location can get a bit hot then the print can fail. PLA is also very rigid which can be good but can also be a negative if you want some give. I'm probably only going to use PLA for more "show pieces" that will only be used indoors and will not take a beating. For things like plastic cases, it's probably fine.
Petg is the best all-around choice for structural applications that is easy out of the box.
I wouldn't worry about chemical compatibility with laundry detergent, but if you can find the relevant ingredients there are many compatibility charts you can look for. It's not straightforward for most common filaments though.
For the first case, if you want to push a little deeper I'd suggest carbon-filled petg. You would need to buy a hardened nozzle for it.
For outdoor applications, you could look into Asa.
I've read that PETG is susceptible to moisture. If I plan to get PETG, do I need to vacuum seal the filament after use or a filament dryer? It's not super humid here but it can hit like 70% RH on a bad day.
Every filament - literally 100% of them - will print better when dry. Brand new filament can be wet. PLA, sitting in my printer for a couple weeks, can get brittle enough from absorbed moisture to crack in a dozen places in the ptfe feed tube. So yeah I guess petg is moisture sensitive, but my take is that everything is. So I would recommend a filament dryer, and using it on new spools and spools that haven't been used in a while.
Vacuum sealing will help, but I still dry filament after storing in vacuum sealed containers.
That said, you could also just wait until you see signs of wet filament before drying (stringing, bad surface finish, etc).
I saw some debunking videos that said the opposite unless you live somewhere extremely humid. But I do remember there are certain filament types that benefit greatly from being dry and IIRC PETG was one of them.
I live in a dry climate. Trust me, dry your PETG.
Store filament in a big plastic tub with a kg of colour change silica. But yes a filament dryer is a good investment too. Just a single roll one will do.
Is that better than vacuum sealing them? Vacuum sealers are pretty cheap IIRC.
Your best hope for storage is it not getting much wetter, ziploc bags with silica are fine, a tub is easier to paw through and grab what you need quickly.
A drier will actually refresh a roll and get it printing close to new again. Look for excess stringing for the early signs, and the filament bubbling and/or popping as it comes out of the nozzle for extreme signs of wetness.
I'm in a fairly dry environment, I'll happily leave a roll on the printer for a week without adverse effects. But always store an opened roll off the printer in the tub. 
Dry and then store in sealed container with silica gel. Silica will maintain dryness, but will not dry filament by itself.
Also, containers must have a seal of some kind. Regular plastic tubs will let some moisture in. For a few days or a couple of weeks that'll be fine, but over a month they'll let moisture in. Get vacuum bags.
There are pretty cheap reusable vacuum bags that use a little pump. I use a cheap kitchen vacuum machine, and regular food storage vacuum bags.
99% of what I print is PETG. I mostly do functional parts and appreciate the improved temp tolerance, UV resistance, and lower brittleness compared to PLA.
It's only slightly harder to print than PLA, but it's still pretty easy. It's what I started with upon getting back into printing, and the main challenges are the importance of getting the flow factor (extrusion multiplier) dialed in correctly, and getting proper bed adhesion (a clean textured build sheet FTW). Be sure to use a rubber sock on your nozzle - PETG is really sticky.
You don't NEED a filament dryer, but it's highly recommended. They don't cost an arm and/or a leg either. I use a Creality dryer, which holds two spools - The one I'm currently printing from, and the next roll up. The rest of my spools sit open on a shelf.
If you have a plastic tub roughly the size of a spool, you can flip it over on top of a spool and run your bed heater underneath it. Is it perfect? No. But you can get some of that drying capability for very little in terms of money.
True. I've also heard people using the kitchen oven to dry filament spools. It's better than nothing, as long as the spool doesn't get too hot.
Oh that's a fair shout too! Yeah it'd be easy to cook your spool haha