ASA

MizuMakes may earn a commission from links in this post. Outdoor parts fail in three ways: they soften in the sun, they crack from UV and moisture over months, or they creep under a steady load until they sag. PLA, PETG, and ASA each handle those three differently. The data sheets let you rank them, even though no data sheet gives you a service life. All the numbers below are manufacturer TDS values from ideal test specimens. Printed parts land lower, and the layer-to-layer (Z) direction lands lowest. ...

Short answer: a 1kg spool of decent PLA or PETG costs somewhere between $14 and $26 at the brand’s own store, and ASA runs a few dollars more. Right now the cheapest PLA I track is ELEGOO PLA at $13.99/kg, and the cheapest PETG is ELEGOO Rapid PETG at $13.99/kg. That number moves, though. Filament goes on sale constantly, and the same spool can swing 20–30% in a month. So instead of writing numbers that are stale in two weeks, every price on this page is pulled from my filament price tracker, which checks each brand’s store every morning. ...

If you’ve been printing in PETG and it’s working great, you might wonder why anyone would bother switching. The answer is simple: put a PETG part in direct sunlight for a few months and see what happens. PETG doesn’t handle UV exposure well. It yellows, gets brittle, and eventually fails. For anything that lives outside — a garden fixture, a car mount, a mailbox bracket — you need something built for it. That’s ASA. ...