3D Printing: PETG vs PLA

I bought my first spool of PETG filament the other day. And, coming from PLA, yes it takes some time to get used to. But, I've discovered that a lot of that stems from the fact that I was making a lot of mistakes even with my PLA. It was just a lot more forgiving.

But, after struggling with that I reached the point I'm at now. I don't much understand the value of PLA any more.

PLA may be more forgiving. However, PETG isn't particularly hard to work with either. And if machines and software came better tuned with PETG in mind then most benefits of PLA would disappear. And, what would primarily remain would be material variety. Though, that may simply be a function of the popularity of PLA.

Why even bother with this argument? Because PLA, in my opinion, has been unfairly chosen as the default filament.

PETG is as cheap or cheaper than PLA. It is more recyclable. It is safer. It is stronger. It is more temperature tolerant. And it isn't substantially more difficult to work with when compared to PLA.

The two advantages PLA has going for it are material varieties. So, you can find more colors and more blends. And it prints at a lower temperature, which means that there are less concerns about hot end components.

And, as I said, I suspect there is more variety of PLA simply because there is more demand. As for the lower printing temperature, I think that this is ALSO a function of the popularity of PLA. Realistically speaking, the temperatures required of PET are not THAT much higher than those required by PLA. But, they DO push the temperatures close to the melting point of the PTFE tubes used to line the hot ends on cheaper, non-all metal devices.

Which begs the question then; is there really no PTFE alternative? Or are all-metal hot ends THAT much more expensive to build? As far as I can tell, the answer to at least the second question is no.

Basically, as far as I can tell, PET is harder to print with because the industry MAKES it harder to print with. Albeit passively. In short, they are making no attempt to push printing more upstream.

And PLA in my opinion is crap. It definitely produces functional prints. But, it ends there. They are quite brittle comparatively. And even a brief stint in a warm can destroy them.