PETG vs ABS — parameter comparison and when to choose which

The decision in one sentence: PETG has taken over most of the jobs that used to be printed in ABS, so the real question is not "which is better" but "are there any reasons left to go back to ABS" — and there are exactly two: working above 85 °C, and the acetone process.

In workshops that shift has already happened. ABS needs a chamber, extraction and patience; PETG prints on whatever is already on the bench and gives you a part that does not crack. So instead of repeating that "ABS is stronger", it is worth setting the two materials side by side row by row from the manufacturer Porima's official FDM table and seeing where ABS really has the advantage — because it has one in fewer places than its reputation suggests.

Comparison table

Parameter	PETG	ABS
Nozzle temperature	240–260 °C	250–280 °C
Bed temperature	60–80 °C	80–110 °C
Cooling	100%	0–40%
Drying	2–4 h / 30–40 °C	6–12 h / 40–60 °C
Chamber enclosure	open frame	enclosed chamber, 50 °C
Temperature resistance	85 °C	100 °C
Print difficulty	easy	difficult
Warping	none	high
Stringing	high	medium
Layer cohesion	very good	good
Impact resistance	high	high
Flexibility	high	high
Surface finishing	medium	easy
Solubility	very difficult	low, solvent: acetone
Support removal	medium	easy
Odour	very low	high
Nozzle abrasiveness	none	none
Print speed	high	high
Finish	glossy, translucent	matte, polishable
Compatible printers	any desktop FDM	enclosed only
Bambu AMS	compatible	compatible

A highlighted cell marks the material that is clearly better in that row. Where the values are equal we name no winner. Source: the official FDM technical data table from the manufacturer, Porima. Full data sets: PETG print parameters · ABS print parameters.

When to choose PETG

Enclosures for electronics, power supplies and controllers. A declared 85 °C covers the self-heating of most devices with room to spare, and you can print the whole thing on an open machine in one go.

Brackets, supports and fixings in the workshop. Layer cohesion "very good" plus flexibility "high" — the part gives under an overload instead of coming apart along a layer.

Large, flat parts: panels, lids, mounting plates. Warping "none" against "high". In practice that is the row that most often settles it, because over a large area ABS can waste twelve hours of printing in the final layer.

Translucent parts — diffusers, LED covers, sight glasses. ABS is listed in the table as "opaque" and there is no way round it.

Prints made to order in a flat or an office. Odour "very low" against "high", plus no chamber requirement. That decides whether you can take the job on at all.

When to choose ABS

Parts working above 85 °C. A part next to a heater, in an engine bay, by a light fitting. Fifteen degrees of difference in the manufacturer's declaration is the only purely material-based reason on this list.

Anything that has to go through an acetone bath. ABS has a named solvent in the table, PETG has the entry "very difficult". Vapour smoothing and welding two parts into one solid are processes available only on the ABS side.

Housings intended for sanding, filling and painting. Surface finishing "easy" against "medium". ABS's matte surface takes primer; PETG has to be prepared for it far more carefully.

Repairs to equipment where the original was ABS too. Clips, catches and bezels in household appliances and consumer electronics — the same family of plastic will behave predictably in the heat of the device.

Models with a dense forest of supports. Support removal "easy" for ABS and "medium" for PETG. With PETG the supports can weld themselves to the model and leave a mark you will not get rid of.

What the table won't tell you

Both materials read "Bambu AMS: compatible", and that pairing can mislead. The field describes only the feeder — whether the filament can be run safely through the AMS system. It says nothing about whether the machine is suitable for printing that material. ABS needs an enclosed chamber regardless of what the AMS row says. The row to use for a hardware decision is "chamber enclosure".

"Solubility very difficult" for PETG has a design consequence, not just a finishing one. If there is no solvent, there is no chemical welding either — joints in multi-part PETG assemblies have to be designed mechanically, with tongues, screws or snap fits. With ABS the same problem is solved with acetone in a minute. That is a difference in the CAD model, not in the slicer settings.

85 °C and 100 °C are the manufacturer's labels, not HDT. There is no standard or described test method behind them, and they do not mean the part will carry a load at that temperature. If your application falls exactly inside that fifteen-degree window, neither entry will answer the question for you — you have to print and heat-soak.

"High" stringing on PETG is a one-off problem; "high" warping on ABS is permanent. You set stringing once in the profile, dry the spool, and the subject goes away. Curling corners on ABS come back with every new, larger model and with every draught in the room. Those are two problems of quite different weight, even though in the table they look comparable.

The cost of getting into ABS is not the filament. It is the enclosure, the extraction and somewhere the printer can stand well away from people. The table has no field for infrastructure, and it is infrastructure that decides whether ABS is a real option in your workshop or just a curiosity in the catalogue.

Where to check this further

• Filament comparison — which material to choose for what — the hub for all ten pair comparisons plus the main table of twelve material families.
• PETG print parameters — the complete set of fields from the manufacturer's table.
• ABS print parameters — chamber, bed and drying ranges.
• Warping — the reason PETG won in the workshops.
• Stringing — the one standing complaint about PETG.
• Odour and fumes while printing — a precondition for working with ABS.
• Marks left by supports — PETG comes off worse here and it is worth knowing before you print.

Materials to buy: Porima PETG filament 1 kg and Porima ABS filament 1 kg.