Most filament comparisons ask which material is easiest to print. When you sell what you print, a better question is: where will this object spend its life, and what happens to your margin if it fails there?
A warped part on your own bed costs a few grams and an hour. A part that sags on a customer's car dashboard costs a refund, a postage label, a bad review and the original print. So choose the material from the customer's side first, then check that you can print it reliably.
Step 1: Write down where the product will live
Before comparing materials, answer four questions for each product:
- Heat. Will it sit in a car, near a radiator, in direct sun, or be washed in hot water?
- Outdoors. Will it get UV and rain for months?
- Load. Will it be bent, clipped, screwed down or dropped?
- Contact. Will it touch food, skin or children's mouths?
If the answer to all four is "no, it sits on a shelf or desk", you have a lot of freedom. If any answer is "yes", the material choice is mostly made for you.
Step 2: Match the environment to the material
These are general properties; exact figures vary by brand and by how you print, so check your own filament's data sheet.
| PLA | PETG | ABS / ASA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heat resistance | Poor. Softens in a hot car or near a heater | Moderate. Fine for most indoor use | Best of the three |
| Outdoor / UV | Poor over time | Acceptable for some uses | ASA is the designed-for-outdoors choice; ABS is weaker against UV |
| Stiffness | High, but brittle | Slightly flexible, tougher | Tough, some give |
| Detail and finish | Excellent | Good, can string | Good, matte look |
| Printing difficulty | Easiest | Easy to moderate | Hardest: warping, fumes |
| Enclosure needed | No | Usually no | Yes, in practice |
PLA: decorative and desk-bound
PLA suits figurines, display pieces, desk organisers, prototypes and anything that stays indoors at room temperature. It prints sharply, in the widest range of colours, with the fewest failures.
Its weakness is heat. A PLA item left in a parked car in summer can deform, and it is the classic cause of "it arrived fine but now it's bent" complaints. If a product could plausibly end up in a car, a window sill in full sun or a kitchen, do not use PLA for it.
PETG: the sensible middle
PETG is a good default for functional items: brackets, clips, containers, covers, things that get handled. It is tougher and less brittle than PLA and handles more warmth.
Watch for stringing and blobs, which show on cosmetic surfaces. It also sticks very hard to some build plates, so follow your plate maker's advice on a release layer. Do not assume a PETG print is food safe: layer lines trap residue, and filament additives vary. Unless the filament maker states otherwise, do not market it that way.
ABS and ASA: when the environment is hostile
Choose ASA for outdoor products (garden fittings, signage, mounts) and ABS or ASA for parts that see sustained heat. The trade-off is production difficulty. You will want an enclosed printer, drafts kept off the print, good ventilation, and you should expect more warping on large flat parts.
Fumes are a real consideration for anyone working in a small room. Don't run these in the same space where people sit all day without ventilation.
Step 3: Price the failure, not just the filament
Material cost per gram is the smallest difference. What matters is the extra cost each material brings. Here is a worked example. The numbers are illustrative; replace them with your own.
Suppose a phone mount sells for €15, and you sell 100 a month.
- In PLA: cheaper filament and a 3% print failure rate. But if 6 of 100 customers use it in a car and it deforms, that is 6 replacements or refunds.
- In PETG: slightly dearer filament, 4% print failure, and say 1 in 100 comes back.
Work out the cost of a problem per unit:
cost of one return = refund or replacement + postage both ways + your time + the print you wasted
If that is about €12 all in, then 6 returns cost €72 a month, while 1 return costs €12. The extra filament cost for PETG on 100 mounts might be a few euros. The "cheaper" material is the expensive one.
Reverse it for a desk ornament nobody will heat or bend: PLA wins, because PETG buys you nothing the customer needs and adds stringing.
Step 4: Test before you list
Do a simple test on your own products before selling them:
- Heat: leave a sample in a closed car or a warm oven set well below the material's limit, and check for sagging. Keep it modest and supervised.
- Load: clip it, screw it, bend it as the customer would.
- Outdoors: if you claim outdoor use, you cannot truly test months of UV quickly, so use ASA and say what you know and don't know.
- Batch variation: the same colour from a different brand or batch can behave differently. Re-test when you change supplier.
Step 5: Say it on the listing
Put the material and the intended use in the product description: "Printed in PETG, suitable for indoor use up to normal room temperatures; not for cars or dishwashers." That one line prevents more returns than any print setting. Do not claim food safety, waterproofing or temperature ratings you have not verified.
Common mistakes
- Selling PLA for anything that might sit in a car.
- Using PETG for fine cosmetic detail, then fixing stringing by hand on every unit.
- Starting ASA production without an enclosure or ventilation.
- Mixing brands under one product listing without re-testing.
- Pricing all materials at the same markup even though failure rates differ.
How PrintSol helps
PrintSol counts each part's measured failure rate as a surcharge on its cost, and shows whether each cost line is measured or estimated. That lets you compare what a material really costs per product, including failed prints, rather than guessing from filament price alone. It does not track customer returns; for that you still need your own records.
