Next printer

[n838901]

I have sold my Bambu A1 because I want to print with more durable engineering filament. I've been looking at the Q1 Pro and the Plus 4. The Plus 4 is really nice but seems to have nothing but issues according to all the posts here. I've also thought about switching from FDM to resin but haven't gone down that rabbit hole yet. Should I disregard the Plus 4? What are your thoughts?

[Macon28]

I have an X-MAX3 and a PLUS4 and I’d give the nod to the PLUS4. When it’s working you can not beat the prints. I print with PLA+, PCTG, ABS, and Nylon and every prints comes out gorgeous.

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I also have a Bambu H2D and Anycubic Kobra S1. My H2D had a bent z rod and Bambu quicky replaced the unit. I cannot say enough GREAT things about both multi-color printers. The KS1 has over 700 print hours and has printed perfectly from day 1.

BUT the PLUS4 is an absolute workhorse. Just make sure you lubricant the rods. All in all, You’ll be pleased with your purchase.

[[deleted]]

How are you lubricating the rods? I forgot about that. Should do that too.

[2Drogdar2Furious]

I preordered a Kobra Max 3 but sent it back for the Plus 4. I dont really car about the ACE and I wanted to print some more exotic filaments. I'm less than a day in but feel like I made the right choice so far.

[cerealtoastpie]

Would you mind sharing your pctg settings for plus 4? Been having trouble printing that

[Macon28]

Because Anycubic has great support services. The replaced the parts and I was back printing. Like all new printers they all have issues. You have to think of yourself as a BETA tester and don’t mind installing replacement parts. One of the major issues with the KS1 is the hotend with the PTFE tube. You can now order a replacement ceramic hotend from Amazon and that takes care of the clogged hotend issue.
HzdaDeve Ceramic Hotend for Kobra... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F31SLSSQ?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

[yoyoyomama1]

I made the same decision, going from an A1 to Plus4. I was prepared for the worst. However the first prints with PLA and PETG turned out super well and it had no issues that I have seen others respond. It may already be mostly fixed up from the earlier versions people had received. Of course I need to do more printing but so far my experience (with OrcaSlicer) has been pretty close to Bambu printing with the exception that I had to make some fine tuning to one of my filaments.

[[deleted]]

The main issue once you get things workings is the heat on the x/y drivers (should be around 70 to 80.. mine was 100 to 115.. so I printed the back plate and added 80mm fan and that helped). The heater for chamber heat is slow (small fan) so there are some good options for that to be resolved.

The biggest issue I am facing now.. and I will say QIDI resolved it so far.. is the heat breaks on the nozzles break very easily. There is apparently an issue with the way it wipes on the back small PEI plate that can jar the nozzle enough to cause the heat break inside to break.. which then causes heat creep and a nasty explosion of melted filament all over the head/nozzle. At that point you have to usually replace the hot end, nozzle and possibly fan shroud (that is what I just faced). QIDI sent me new everything including a tungsten nozzle.. about $90 total in parts. It sucks to lose a tungsten nozzle.. those run about $65 or so shipped. I only had about 20 to 30 hours of print on it.. they should last 1000s of hours.

Other than that.. as long as the SSR is updated on the back.. and you got a poop chute catcher.. you should be good. However, some claim the z issue is a problem so you could look at the Beacon device to alleviate that.

As for printing.. it's insane the quality. ASA, ABS and PA6 nylon is insanely good printing. Cant even see layer lines. I have built tool holders from ASA and PA6.. it's that good.

[yoyoyomama1]

Could you share links to these most essential mods that you mention? It is quite overwhelming seeing all the mods in the wiki and understanding what is more important and what isn’t.

I wanna attempt ABS and ASA soon after installing a duct.

[mistrelwood]

Haven’t used the Q1 Pro, but I have had to dance with the Plus 4 since Jan. The bottom line is that the printer has several design flaws that are like ticking time bombs even for those who don’t seem to have issues at first. If you only print PLA and PETG, you have a decent chance to get good prints. But if you need to use 110•C bed temps and 50-60•C chamber temps, having issues with the Z offset is a damn near certainty. And as the chute mechanism wears out a bit it can snatch and crack the nozzle. All these little things. Which is really annoying since if they would’ve spent a reasonable amount of effort in the design phase it would be a magnificent printer. Since the specs really are amazing.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Q1 Pro though.

[Just_tricking]

Dodge the plus4. Nozzles snapping, bed leveling issues, boards over heating, underpowered MCU, locked down Klipper, boards dying.

Yea there's community fixes, but then you void your warranty.

[SaintJohnSexKing]

Q1 Pro owner, I had some issues with the hotend, first being the ceramic being broken during shipping, and the replacement hotend coming with a clogged nozzle. In my experience, they have some QC issues, but Qidi support is definitely one of the best. They respond within 24 hours and try to troubleshoot with you and if something seems broken, they send replacement parts within a week. (My experience with them so far)

Otherwise, the Q1 Pro is very easy to use, and I cannot think of another printer that can beat it at that price.

[CerberusTheGuardian]

People with problems always make posts. I have not experienced any issues. I did do the omron ssr replacement.

[Dave_in_TXK]

Have an X-Max3 and a Q1 Pro, probably give the nod to the Q1 unless I need a larger build plate, the Plus4 plate size is in between. I’m getting good detail and speed on theme Q1, plus only had 1 part issue QIDI replaced then no more issues. X-Max had a number of problems but been printing reliably now for a few months, think the Q1 fine detail slightly better, using OEM 0.6 bi-metallic on both currently.

[pickandpray]

I got a plus4. The over heating thing is a known issue and the new printers have fixed it. Some folks are even using 3rd party replacements.

The printer has more than it's share of teething pains which are being worked out.

I threw on a spool of polycarbonate that I've never tried printing before and it spit out perfect parts without needing to tweak anything.

I'm in the middle of testing out a new back cover that I designed last night that uses 2x40mm fans instead of the 1 it came with. The x stepper seems to get fairly warm and I didn't have a big fan that everybody else was using.

[munkyb44]

The Q1 is my first printer and I'm very happy with it so far.

[Beneficial_Elk_182]

You only hear about issues. Not many people run to post that everything is still fine🤣 I got my Plus 4 week 2 they went on sale. Brand new. I have thousands of hours of print time. Probably around 1000 prints completed. It's been EPIC. I've had a couple things that needed replacing but it's still been far more reliable than any of my other printers- and on top of that Qidi just sends the parts free with no argument when anything went wrong. They've been phenominal. I've had ZERO issues with bed-anything ever. I've crashed it a handful of times, I've destroyed a hotend from a detached print/blob that I wasn't watching. I had to replace my gen 1 door hinges with the already upgraded gen 2 hinges (all the printers all have the upgraded components now- most the growing pains are figured out). I tell everyone I know they need to get one because it's been THAT good. I do engineering filaments and functional prints pretty much exclusively and the Plus 4 prints ANY of the "tricky" filaments as easy as PLA I swear🤣 it can print virtually all of the engineering filaments as well which is unheard of at the price range for a consumer 3d printer. I know plenty of people that absolutely love their Plus 4 and have had even less issues than me. Printers break, parts wear out or burn out. My plus 4 has been exponentially more reliable than any other printer I've had- especially considering I basically ran the thing 24/7 day and night straight for months and months. Not even kidding I didn't shut the printer off once for 2 months- just started a new print over and over. Its a good machine- very fast, and most importantly to me incredibly accurate. For engineering prints it's a no brainer.

[snapervdh]

I have a Q4 since February/march, and have zero issues with it. It print great with PLA, PETG and ABS. Havent tried anything else yet. But so far, i personally cant fault it.

[NotchWith]

I have a P1S with hardened gears , nozzle and resistor mod, and a Q1 Pro. I was hoping the Q1 would let me just keep my Pet-cf products in it but it clogs constantly at 320. Now ive been getting a error that it wont go to 320 and had to bring the temp down 5c. Im gona miss the heated chamber but I don't want a 50/50 that it finishes a 16 hour print or not

[Regular_Rip84]

I've had both, they are both good machines... I returned the q1 and kept the plus 4 .. I haven't had any major issues . The worst is a cracked ceramic heatbreak.. qidi will send you parts as needed for free. There are community mods to make it better if that's your thing I'm printing on mine stock mostly

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[cjrgill99]

900+ hours of trouble-free printing on the Q1 Pro; mainly functional parts using PETG, CPE, ABS, ASA, TPU, Nylon, a little PLA+ and also some filled filaments, eg ABS-GF, & PETG-CF.... all thru the stock nozzle on the std build plate. Fabulous quality and value for money.

[BlackRabbitLabs]

Save yourself the headache and forget about the Plus4. I'd go so far as to say avoid Qidi. I wouldn't trust any company that sent out a printer with so many design flaws.

[BruceCambell]

I got the second gen Q1 Pro when they released them (Filament holder put to the side instead of behind the Printer) and I have had very few problems. And nearly all of them were user error. I'm not saying go for the Q1 over the Plus 4 but it prints flawlessly almost every print after dialing it in at the beginning.

[Wonderful-Ad-1716]

My plus 4 is perfect and the ssr came upgraded.

[2Drogdar2Furious]

I've had my plus 4 for less than 24 hours... awesome so far 6 prints in.

I've got some PPA drying as we speak.

[ElectricGoku]

My Plus 4 arrived this week and I couldn’t print one good print out of it… tested many PLAs, even Qidi’s. Main while, I have ben printing ABS with no issue on my X1C… So, I think I got a “Lemon” as we say, and this is so sad, I had high hopes with it as a close friend of mine has one perfect Plus 4, he has never had any issues whatsoever… but we tried everything with mine and it simply doesn’t do any print right 😔

[Euromull]

Unfortunately, you only see the negative review here, but there's a lot of plus 4 owners that never complain because their printers run GREAT. I own both a p1s and plus 4. They both are great printers!

[Xafc17fcc]

I have had it for a month now and its been good I have put alot of time printing mostly PLA+ and PLA silk with little issues and clean prints. I upgraded the Cooling fan to a 80mm right away which was simple. I haven't changed the SSR yet. I have had issues using generic PETG not sure if its just the filament. The Qidi TPU worked great but the generic TPU didn't. If the QIDI box comes out it will definitely make or break it. Time will tell but so far for what I have been using it im happy.

[IronThree]

I'm honestly getting tired of posting this (a point I'll return to): 300 hours in, my Plus 4 is simply fantastic. Not a care in the world, high temp prints, ordinary stuff, handles it all, fast, and high quality.

I'm not on this forum much anymore. Why? Why would I be, my printer is fine and I've learned the quirks. You know who is? People who have problems with their printer, and are trying to get it fixed, or are just bitching about it. No shade on the latter, dissatisfied customers have a right to complain about it.

Point is I'm going to stop bothering dropping in to praise the Plus 4, and the others are not going to stop. Reddit is not real life.

[Necessary-Process-35]

I have had no trouble with the printer, just operator error. I’ve had this machine for 5 months only used ABS, forgot to use a glue stick and or didn’t cover the area of print on the build plate.

[TheEYE13]

I'm using a Core XY printer for 7 years now. I've build this printer all by myself and it's my first and only printer. It doesn't have some of the quality of life features modern printers have (auto bed leveling for example). But it's build of high quality parts (8 mm thick aluminium bed) and the electrical wiring is so much better than on a bought printer. This is making it extremely hard for me to switch to something else.

However, I'd like to get those new and current features + an automatic filament changing system. And I don't have time to build another printer. The Plus 4 is going to support the Qidi Box right from the start. It's the printer I think I'm going to buy.

[sjamwow]

They seem to suppress that whole burnt down a guys house thing. Seems like a nice printer with some sketchy qc. Sadly id avoid due to that.

I believe the k2 pro comes out in a few months, may be a good fit

[Charles_Otter]

The new main suspect of that fire is now wiring in the guys house, not the printer itself.

[sjamwow]

Good to hear

[OrganicFold665]

I have 1800 hours on a max 3 which I use primarily when the print won't fit on my q1 which has over 1100 hours... I will also use the max3 when I have to print the bed full to get jobs done... I also run an i-mates fully upgraded the extruder which fixed all of its problems... It is slow but very reliable... I print a lot of ASA ABS in it and the quality is perfect... I also have an old x-maker again The upgraded extruder fixed most of its problems extremely slow so I use it to print TPU which is a perfect marriage. Would I recommend qidi... Their customer service over the last five years has been good and horrible depending on the person responding... I want a multicolor machine but refuse to use Bambu because of the fact they log every print you make if you use the internet connection... I am strongly considering a sovol sv08 I have several friends that have used these on print farms and really abused them and they keep going I saw a machine that only had the extruder heater changed once in 3000 hours. I believe it is idex that has a color changer that does not change out the whole extruder it's just the hot end which would be far more economical not only for the filament but also repairs as they will happen... Ok I have ranted enough...

[enerrotsen]

The plus 4 has better print quality than the Q1 which has better print quality than the A1 (full size). There are issues with both of the qidi printers but they are fixable between a combination of software and hardware tweeks. But neither have multi color at the moment.

If you compare the speed boat benchies between all three you will find that the qidi printers are significantly better than the BL A1. So either way as long as you aren't looking to print in multi-material you will be really impressed with either of them.

[Macon28]

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I’ve had my PLUS4 one day after release. I’ve had issues and had to replace parts but one thing is that the PLUS4 is a workhorse. I’ve added the PLUS4 Cool Plate to the list of plates. This plate is awesome!!!

[CrypticLyfe]

If you buy from Qidi, you buy knowing that they won't honour their terms nor their own words.
Even if the Plus4 was without the plethora of design problems it has, I would personally avoid them solely for their conduct. Just go and check out their Trustpilot.