Your 8-hour print is finally finished, your expectations are high, and then the battle with the supports begins. They are stuck fast, won't break away cleanly, ruin the surface finish, and in the worst-case scenario, even tear chunks out of your actual model.

What should have been a minor post-processing step suddenly becomes a test of patience. Unfortunately, this is a typical problem with PETG prints using supports.

PETG as support?

Whether you are a beginner or an experienced maker, almost everyone has struggled at least once with getting supports off when 3D printing with PETG. These support issues occur frequently during PETG printing and affect almost everyone sooner or later.

In most cases, it is due to a simple mistake: using PETG as the support material for PETG - in a classic single-material print without a multi-material setup and without additional settings. However, it is precisely this practical approach that is often the reason why PETG supports are so difficult to remove and why messy undersides or damaged print surfaces occur.

The very thing that makes PETG great - its ability to bond well with itself - is exactly what makes supports a nightmare. Because the layers bond so strongly, the support and the model practically fuse together. Instead of a clean break, you’re left hacking away with pliers to separate them. It’s the classic PETG problem "PETG supports that won't come off".

Thankfully, there is a simple but extremely effective solution to this problem:

Use PLA as support material for PETG!

Why this trick works is easy to explain. PLA works so well as a support for PETG because the two materials bond much more poorly with each other than PETG does with PETG. This means the support structure serves its purpose during the print but can be separated from the model much more easily afterwards. Instead of stuck-on remnants, you get clean contact surfaces and supports that can often be removed with little pressure or even by hand. This is what makes PLA the best choice for supports for PETG prints if you want to avoid tedious post-processing.

To make this work, you don't have to overhaul your entire setup. The only important factor to keep in mind is that you leave your PETG set as the main material in the slicer as usual and switch just the support material to PLA. If you work with a multi-material system - such as an AMS - you can also use what is known as a "support interface." In this case, PLA is only used in the final layers that sit directly against the model. This way, you combine stable supports with an optimally separable surface and achieve much easier-to-remove supports with PETG.

With PLA for supports, printing with PETG is easy as pie!

If you have always struggled with PETG supports until now, you will notice the difference immediately. The PLA supports break away cleanly, the underside of your model remains significantly smoother, and you save yourself a great deal of post-processing work. This allows you to remove supports from PETG much more easily while achieving better print results.

Ultimately, it isn't about complicated fiddling with settings, but simply the right combination of materials. PETG is a strong material, but for that very reason, it is not a good support for itself. PLA, on the other hand, provides exactly the property you have been missing: controlled adhesion.

► Tip: In the video below, we show you how to solve the PETG support problem directly in the slicer!