I’m considering a new printer this winter. I’m looking to replace my trusted Prusa Mk3S. And I’ve whittled it down to 2.

First is the Qidi Q2. I’ve been eyeing Qidi printers for a couple of years now. I like the enclosure and the high temp printing ability. The heated chamber works well for engineering filaments by all accounts. And it comes with MET certified filtration system already installed. I would buy it without the Qidi box because my A1 Mini has taught me that I just don’t do a ton of color prints much beyond some signage. And I’m unsure of just how much I would be using high temp filaments beyond PETG and ABS/ASA due to the costs.

The contender is the Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2. I like the price, even with their Canvas 4 color printing, it’s still $100US cheaper than the Qidi. But it doesn’t have a dedicated chamber heater or air filer system as standard installed either. Both can be worked around as dyi add-ons though with extra effort and money required.

While things like how much and what filaments I would use that require heated chambers and fancy air filters is something only I can decide, there is the matter of reliability and repair ability.

As someone who had to design and build machines and then often needing to be the one that has to fix things when it all goes bad, I value reliability and repairability very highly.

So which printer can be relied upon to just work and is easiest to maintain and repair when needed in your opinion. How is manufacturer support? Is the Carbon 2 really as quiet as advertised?

  • sbird@retrofed.comEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    I think, especially if you’re not using any fancy filaments, the Elegoo CC/CC2 is probably a better value option. If you only want to do PLA, PETG, etc., it’ll be fine!

    Also of note, there’s the OpenCentauri project that aims to support full Klipper firmware on the original CC, it seems pretty nest!

    • Bluewing@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      Yeah, that’s what I’m starting to think about filaments. ABS/ASA are about as fancy as I really want to get. I did do some reading on the Open Centauri project. They sound like they have a good start.

      • sbird@retrofed.comEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        ABS/ASA should work with the Elegoo CC, it has an enclosure + bed temperatures should reach high enough for good prints from what I can tell online. As the other person said, start off with PLA prints since those are the easiest. Some people like PETG too (higher temp resistance, but moisture is a bigger problem. I’m from Hong Kong 🇭🇰 so humidity is a big problem for me)

        • Bluewing@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          1·
          1 day ago

          Yeah, the CC2 should work with ABS/ASA, the question is due to the immediate lack of a chamber heater, warpage on a larger piece could be an issue. Though one could edit the g-code to allow for some chamber pre-heat by soaking the bed for a time before printing. Air filtration is more of an issue for me really. And that would need to be added also. Which would quickly bring the cost up.

          The devil is in the details…

        • Bluewing@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          1·
          1 day ago

          I do still print a lot of PLA even after all these years. It’s a far better material than people who just parrot things know. When designed properly from the get go, it can provide excellent service. But you need to understand the material properties and how to create a proper design for it. And most 3D printer users can’t design their way out of a paper bag when it comes to functional parts.