What is PRUSA doing ?! pricing the XL at 4000 USD ?!

1

i have 4 chinese 3d printers , i am not thrilled with any of them;
to me the chinese companies just have no real QA programs;
that would of course be us;
the printers i have bought are all the ‘hot-recent-ones’;
so i was looking to prusa to break all this;
and look what Prusa did, they priced themselves out of the niche in the market they had;
astonishingly bad business decision;
i can buy a decent chinese printer for a fraction of prusa prices, expect it to last 4 months and throw it away;
commoditizing even flagship printers…

(( btw, in my mind i think flsun and bamboo lab are the only chinese companies i would deal with ( as i have one of each) l think their software and UI interfaces are respective of their overall superiority; a nod to flsun for ( designing for and) offerring effector replacements, rather than just saying ‘buy our newest model instead’))

2

I do agree that the XL will be facing some stiff competition, what with the elephant in the room that is Bambu Labs.

I’m not sure why they put the top tier model at such a high price. However, I suspect that the 2 printhead model will be by far the most popular model, and that can be had for $3,000, or $2,500 if you’re willing to do some assembly. It’s a pretty safe bet that the instructions Prusa will include will be considerably better than the average Chinese budget printer(you get what you pay for, and all that).

$2,500 is still a good jump above the X1, and with a bit more assembly, but personally, for multi material use, I think it is a better system than the Bambu Lab system of cut/purge/waste. That would of course be with the qualifier that Prusa has made the printhead swap reliable with no loss of printing accuracy.

With all that said, all of my operational printers were sub $350 printers before their myriad modifications after they came into my possession. I would love to buy a high end CoreXY printer someday, but I already have more printer capacity than I can keep productively busy, and total capacity is ultimately more important for what I do than the time between the start and finish of a print.

3

i bought and used the creality k1 max corexy;
i love it as it is an ideal shelf holder, see photo;
firstly it broke down with bad thermistor;
thanks to the integrated design i had to replace the hot-end;
did so, worked for a bit, broke down again (not a nozzle issue) , this time i couldnt fix it;
creality and other chinese 3d printers, absent bamboo, have perfected the art of making the necessary screws and bolts impossible to see and impossible to reach;
great planned obsolescence;
dont waste you money nor entertain high expectation;
these days i buy printers and just hope i can get 3-4 months out of them;
absolutely sick of trying to do heart surgery on these things;
so far my ender 3 v3 ke is performing well and my bamboo a1 is on the table being assembled;
i think the 1000 $USD ish printers are generally a waste, no QA by the OEMs

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as an aside, those small-frame bed-slingers generate a LOT of vibration at their top speeds ( i print generally at 300 on the KE which is rated 500), and even after adding a few vibration dampening techniques of my own, there is still quite a bit there; i would never print that printer at 500;
looking at the frame and the design and weight of the A1 that seems sure to hold there as well ( it’s a pretty light printer…); imo the delta design has the most promise, my flsun v400 prints fast and little noise nor vibration

4

I dunno what you’re complaining about.

When I look at the website:

The price seems in line for what you’re getting; a five toolhead printer that has its parts sourced and it is designed for commercial operation.

When I was designing a moulded part that was going to be in TPU, I purchased a Zortrax Inventure to prototype the parts. The printer had two nozzles allowing for the primary filament as well as support material and was perfect for my needs. It was a $4k CAD printer and I’d still be using it except Zortrax stopped supporting it (I’m sure they did that because the printer was a mess in terms of complexity but when it worked, it was good).

I have a Zortrax M200 that’s still going after 10+ years. It was $2,500 USD and definitely worth the money.

So, if you are basing a business off a printer and need multiple materials/colours in your prints, $4k USD doesn’t seem unreasonable.

In regards to the $400 Chinese printers - why don’t you take some time and look through AliExpress, 3D Printing Canada, MatterHackers, etc. and try to source decent (not great or “name” brand) and see if you can get the same features/parts for $400 CAD.

I wanted to put together a simple printer for my Dad from basic parts and found that getting under $300 CAD is a challenge. If you’re willing to cheap out on the power supply and the main controller board, you can save $50 (I am looking at a Mean Well LRS-200-24 and a BTT Manta M4P because I want to put Klipper on it and I don’t want the power supply to explode) you’re going to be hard pressed to get in the $150 CAD range that would allow you to sell the printer at a profit.

$4k USD for the Prusa XL seems to be a perfectly cromulent price for what you’re getting.

1 Like
5

I own currently an XL, MK3S+, Bambu, Flsun, monoprice and Artillery. (not counting the Tiko which never really worked) The XL is a considerably larger machine than the Bambu. Basically 3 times the cubic volume. (16777 vs 46656 ish) its not a very fair comparison. The Bambu has in 5 weeks needed a nozzle, a mod to correct the filament pull back issue, and a silly thing ring to resolve the not using bambu filament. That is a pain, for sure.

The XL has needed nothing. Like my MK3s+ it is an absolute beast, it just works. The print quality is comparable on both. I find the Bambu a bit fiddly. I think the XL is slightly rushed to market. The demand outstripped the supply nothing wrong with a business model that sells all you can make.

They are very different machines IMO. One is a production type printer, the XL sits at the beginning of the pro market. It is easily set up for a print farm. It has multi colour and minimal waste.

The bambu is not really there. The waste is really extreme, I have a garbage bag full of bambu poop. It is very wasteful. I am still a bit uneasy about the rate of change and discontinued products. one a year give or take. Prusa has the exact opposite track record they have always provided up grade kits for every printer. It is simply a different method. What will happen when Bmbu kills a design and no longer makes the parts?

To me it is just different. The bambu is a great machine I don’t feel it has longevity. My Prusa’s have the feeling they will be around for a long time. Reliable and rock solid. It really depends on what you want. I don’t think you can go wrong with either, it depends on what you want/need.

6

I also currently own a single tool XL. I ordered it a long time ago as a kit, but it became clear if I wanted it any time soon (this was last summer), I needed to switch to a “fully assembled” version for $500 more.

Well, not fully assembled. I had some work to do to get it set up. The large container of giant gummy bears was all over the place inside, and it took all my attention to unpack and remove them. I did not pay attention to other things, such as -did anything else break loose?

Leter, I discovered the bed was not as flat as I assumed it would be. It was lower on one side. Could this be from shipping damage? I went around and around with Prusa on this, and it took 4 months or more to get anywhere. Depending on how you were using the printer, it was a non-problem or a big problem. In my case, it added to slight warping, and when printing parts that were attached in opposing directions, and thus multiplying the error times two, it was a no-go.

The printer does print well most of the time, and certainly is large. I bought a Creality K1 MAX to tide me over, and it seems to work well, and faster. There is another whole story there.

I finally got agreement to refund my $. Because the alternative was to receive a new bed, take the printer apart, remove the original bed, install the new bed, and reassemble the printer. Based on the time it took to “merely” install the head and connections when receiving the “factory assembled” version (that is to say, finishing the assembly), I figured at least a day or more of time I don’t have to spend, so $ to pay someone to do it.

So, I opted for the refund rather than warranty repair. I had a high regard for Prusa, this has tainted the waters somewhat for me. I have an MK3S+ down for calibration as well. Something is wrong with it and I have not figured out what it is. Prior to that, it was flawless and reliable.

I think the Chinese are pushing the envelope faster than Prusa is at this point, and I think they are going to have trouble keeping up. Well, time will tell.

7

Both mine were partially assembled. Personally I would not buy an assembled one. I have worked on small very delicate things for 30 years I trust my ability to assemble more than most. I took a couple of days for the Mk3 but the XL took an afternoon. Super easy. It sucks you had issues. mine was immaculately packed and everything in order. It has been free of issues and prints well and reliably. My Bambu, I just started the same print 3 times bigger and bigger brims. Just for curiosity I sent it to the XL and it is almost finished with no brim.

The Bambu gold plates are ok but I am not in love with them. I wish I could merge the two, XL an P1S. I really wonder about supply with the Bambu. I hope it will not be a paperweight if they change something.