PLA or PETG? Choosing Filament for Cameroon's Heat

PLA or PETG, which to use, comes down to one question in Cameroon: will the part get hot. PLA starts to soften at roughly 60 degrees Celsius. PETG holds its shape to roughly 80. A closed vehicle parked in the sun in Douala, or a space directly under a tin roof in Bamenda in the dry season, goes past the first number and not the second. That single fact decides most jobs we print, and the rest of this post explains the trade-offs either side of it.

The short version

Indoors, shaded, dimensionally fussy, cosmetic. PLA. It is stiffer, it prints more accurately, it warps less, it takes detail better and the surface looks cleaner.
Outdoors, in a vehicle, under a roof, near a motor, or taking knocks. PETG. It survives heat and it bends before it breaks.

That covers about nine out of ten jobs. The detail below is for the tenth.

How the two materials actually differ

	PLA	PETG
Softens at about	60 C	80 C
Stiffness	Higher. Feels rigid and crisp.	Lower. Slight give under load.
Impact behaviour	Brittle. Snaps cleanly.	Tough. Bends, deforms, often survives.
Dimensional accuracy	Very good. Small features hold.	Good, but slightly softer edges and more stringing.
Surface finish	Cleanest of the two.	Glossier, more prone to fine strings that need cleanup.
UV and outdoor life	Poor. Goes brittle in sun over months.	Better, though nothing untreated lasts forever outdoors.
Moisture sensitivity	Moderate. Gets worse with time on the shelf.	High. PETG must be dry or it prints badly.
Layer bonding	Good	Very good. PETG parts rarely split along layers.
Chemical resistance	Weak against solvents and fuels	Better against water, dilute acids and many cleaners

Where PLA fails in this climate

We see the same three failures come back to the workshop.

The dashboard part. A phone mount, a vent clip, a sensor bracket. The vehicle is parked in the sun for four hours with the windows up. The part sags under its own weight and never comes back.
The roof space part. Anything mounted directly under corrugated sheet. That metal gets hot enough in the middle of a dry-season afternoon to deform PLA sitting against it.
The part next to a motor or a power supply. A fan shroud, a pump bracket, a housing wrapped around a transformer. It is fine for a week, then it slowly creeps out of shape.

None of these are printing faults. They are the wrong material chosen for the location. When you ask for a part, tell us where it will live. That sentence is worth more to us than the drawing.

Where PETG is the wrong answer

PETG is not the universal upgrade. It is slightly more awkward to print, it strings, and small sharp features come out a little rounder. If you are printing a scale model, a display piece, a threaded fit that has to be tight, or anything where the surface is the product, PLA is better. PETG is also softer, so a thin PLA bracket can be stiffer than the same bracket in PETG even though PETG is the tougher material. Stiff and tough are not the same thing.

For genuinely hot locations, exhaust areas, or anything structural under real load, neither is right. That is a metal job and we will tell you so. The boundaries of what printing can do are set out in what you can actually get 3D printed in Cameroon.

Humidity is the bigger local problem

Heat decides which filament. Humidity decides whether either one prints properly.

Both PLA and PETG absorb water straight out of the air. It is invisible. The spool looks identical. Then you print and you get a rough, hairy surface, weak layers that peel apart in your hands, popping and hissing at the nozzle, and dimensions that will not hold. PETG is worse than PLA for this, and a rainy-season week in Bamenda is more than enough to spoil an open spool.

This is why we dry filament before every serious job rather than only when a print goes wrong. It is standard practice here, not a special service.

How to store filament in Cameroon

Never leave a spool open on a shelf. Not overnight, not over a weekend.
Sealed box or bag with desiccant. Silica gel sachets are cheap and reusable. Dry them in a low oven when they change colour and use them again.
Off the floor and away from outside walls. Those are the coldest surfaces and condensation forms there first.
Label the spool with the date you opened it. You will not remember.
Dry before use if in doubt. Several hours at low heat. Drying costs an afternoon. A failed twenty-hour print costs a day and the plastic.
Keep finished PLA parts out of parked vehicles. This applies to the printed part, not just the spool.

What about recycled versions

We make both PLA and PETG filament from post-consumer plastic here in Bamenda. The heat behaviour does not change. Recycled PLA still softens around 60 degrees, recycled PETG still holds to around 80. What changes slightly is toughness and colour consistency, and we are specific about that in is recycled filament good enough. The process from waste to spool, including why drying is central to it, is in from bottle to spool.

A decision list you can actually use

Part	Choose	Reason
Phone holder for a car	PETG	Parked vehicle interiors exceed PLA softening point
Enclosure for indoor electronics	PLA	Shaded, stable, cosmetic
Water tank fitting or gutter part	PETG	Sun, rain and some flex
Prototype to show a client	PLA	Best surface and detail
Clip that snaps on and off daily	PETG	PLA fatigues and snaps
Incubator internal fitting	PETG	Warm, humid, runs continuously
Laboratory rack or holder	PLA or PETG	PLA if indoors and air conditioned, PETG if it gets washed or warmed
Part bolted near an engine	Neither	Metal. Printed plastic will not survive

Cost and turnaround

Material choice is one of four things that move the price, along with print time, machine time and how complex the part is to model and finish. We do not publish a per-gram rate because it would mislead you. Send the part or the file and you get a quote in 24 hours. On timing, long prints are scheduled around ENEO rationing windows, so we would rather give you an honest date than a hopeful one.

Finished parts go out to Douala, Yaounde, Buea and Bafoussam by transport agency with a waybill number, and payment goes through MTN MoMo or Orange Money. Past work is in the gallery.

Tell us where the part will live

Message the workshop on WhatsApp, say what the part does and where it will sit, and we will pick the filament and quote in 24 hours. The full capability list is on the services page.

Questions people ask

PLA vs PETG, which should I use?

Use PLA for indoor, shaded, cosmetic or dimensionally fussy parts. Use PETG for anything outdoors, in a vehicle, under a tin roof, near a motor, or that takes knocks. PLA softens around 60 C, PETG around 80 C.

Will a PLA part survive in a parked car?

Usually not. A closed vehicle in the sun passes the temperature where PLA begins to soften, and the part sags under its own weight and stays deformed. Ask for PETG for any vehicle part.

Why does my filament print badly after a few weeks?

It has absorbed moisture from the air. Wet filament gives rough surfaces, weak layers, popping at the nozzle and poor dimensions. Store spools sealed with desiccant and dry them before a serious print. PETG is more sensitive than PLA.

Is PETG stronger than PLA?

It is tougher, not stiffer. PETG bends and absorbs impact where PLA snaps. But PLA is more rigid, so a thin PLA bracket can feel firmer even though PETG survives abuse better.

How should I store filament in Cameroon?

Sealed box or bag with silica gel, off the floor, away from outside walls, with the opening date written on the spool. Never leave a spool open on a shelf, even overnight in the rainy season.

Does recycled filament behave differently in heat?

No. Recycled PLA still softens around 60 C and recycled PETG around 80 C. What changes slightly is toughness and colour consistency.