Some commenters pointed out that all of my testing was done with alpha firmware and slicer, and this may not be representative due to potential bugs. That is very fair, so to be as thorough and transparent as possible, here is a quick follow up test: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bVY3S22L4EY.html
Thanks for your transparency and perseverance. I’m sure these teething problems will be sorted but there is a lot of competition out there. I wish TT and Prusa all the best.
In order to test your "second wipe" proposal, can you try printing 2 identical models together so that one becomes a fake second purge tower for the other?
Amazing work and review. Sad to see it has gone so poorly. Do you get the sense that the extruders/hotends are the problem? Because I sure do. All of the symptoms you bring up could be caused by the extrusion system. The thing I immediately wonder is how are these different from the MK4 extrusion system. Cus it works there. Not being able to tune out stringing in PLA is a giant red flag towards the extrusion system for me, and it could absolutely cause layer shifts, z banding, inconsistent extrusion, knocked over parts. Basically everything you described.
This was painful to watch, it gave me flashbacks to the craftbot flow idex and trying to get useable prints out of it - doing much the same testing and tinkering. At the price point, there is zero excuses honestly. Manufacturing delays sure - but getting improvements by reverse engineering their own unpublished codes is a really bad look. I didn't pay for the flow and I still felt ripped off, you've got a cooler take on this than I would have if I had dropped 6K ! I hope XL customers aren't abandoned as Prusa shifts focus to their newly announced professional range of printers.
I look forward to your video on this printer. I have to say I'm shocked and disappointed by the performance of this mega expensive printer made by the top company that made 3D printers more accessible to the public.
@@MakersMuse Understandable l. Maybe Prusa will ship you one for free after they address some of the issues. Doesn't it feel weird that the extruder nozzle choice is kind of a step back from the Revo design that they have in their MK4? It's like the two projects were built by entirely different teams and had zero communications about what their next gen line of printers is supposed to be like. It's like they have an identity crisis over there at Prusa HQ.
I can’t imagine paying $5000+ for any 3d printer and having to change anything, even as simple as changing gcode commands, to make the machine actually work worth a damn.
Given all of your struggles, you did a remarkable job staying professional and highlighting the positives. I too hope they can work out the issues. Condolences regarding your animals. I once lost two pets at once as well, and it was devastating. Time will heal though.
I feel like your critique is very constructive and to the point. If it was creality honestly no one would be outraged, but Prusa has set a bar for itself and others and is simply not clearing it with that performance. Hope they recover from this soon. It feels like they have overstretched themselves with the implementation of input shaping and the Mk4 along with the delayed XL.
Very disappointed in prusa with this one. Hope they do better because i really do appreciate what they have contributed to the community so far and hope to see them succeed
Printer stuff aside...as a dog lover with 2 of my own fur babies I am very sorry to hear that you lost 2 of your doggos at the same time. I cannot fathom what that must feel like. Just know that you have my deepest sympathies because I know all too well how hard it is to lose a member of your family. 😥
Just insane what you're having to deal with after spending that much cash. NGL, I howled with laughter when you printed out that beautiful replacement part on your Bambu. Put the existing parts to shame. Couldn't design a better commercial for Bambu if they tried.
Hello Michael, this is Christian @rapterron here: I am a "day one XL 5T pre orderer" from Germany and "usually" quite a pro prusa boy but I really thank you for this brutal honest video. Unfortunately I made the same experience with my XL which was delivered on the 9th of September. Even if the prusa support tried their "best", but in the end they were just answering me things you would tell a 3D printing beginner, something like "dry your filament" etc. yeah no the exact same filament works fine on another printer and I also tested with brand new spools. Even with all the shipment delays the printer hardware is fine and robust but overall it feels like rushed and in a late beta development state. Never the less after weeks of profile tweaking I think I and found a 98% solution which addresses all the issues (with PLA, haven't really tested other materials) without tweaking the firmware or custom gcodes or hardware changes and mods. My changes to the stock profile are almost entirely in the filament section (I use the Prusament PLA @XL 0.6 as base) of prusa slicer, everything else is mostly stock and adjusted by case. - reduced temperature from 215 to 200 on the first layer and 195 on every other layer - max volumetric speed to 15.5 from 16 - enable ramming for multitool setups with parameter 5 on volume and 10mm/s flow wipe tower Furthermore the default extrusion with on the first layer is set to 0.68 mm which should create bigger and more robust first layers but I found out this might create also gaps in the first layer so I would set it back to 0.6mm I also reported all my findings, feedback and even profiles to prusa support. Hope this helps and please let me know if you have any question. I can also send you my profiles If you want to test them. In general I post mostly on twitter / X including pictures of my prints. Cheers Rapterron (Christian)
Wow, and to think that at one point I was debating whether to buy a Bambu or keep waiting for the XL. I’m unbelievably glad I pulled the trigger in an X1C/AMS.
Same, I had the XL in my basket at the beginning of the year and was ready to hit buy. Instead I ended up with an X1C/AMS and couldn't be happier, even more so knowing I STILL wouldn't have the XL and even if I did it would be a complete mess. Prusas loss was Bambus gain as it enabled me to expand my print business and I've now got 6 of the things. I love my mini and MK3's but Prusas really dropped the ball, and we're now beyond the point where the weird cult following is enough to save them, they really need to step up their game.
For the amount of money they are commanding, the performance should be on par. As a newbie looking to get into 3d printing, I want the size and feature set of the Prusa XL with the no hassle results of a Bamboo X1 Carbon. I guess I will wait to see if Bamboo brings out a big brother to the X1, or Prusa reolves their quirks in the XL. Whoever gets there first will get my money. Thanks for the unbiased reporting, it does help folks like myself make informed decisions!
I'm on the waiting list still for an XL, if the Bambu had a larger print space I'd have already bought one. If Bambu makes a larger printer Prusa may lose my money at this point.
My most sincere condolences to you and your family for the loss of your dogs. What happened to them? I currently have a one year old pup sleeping next to me and I can’t imagine losing not one but two of them after only 4 years. Hugs and love from across the world in this difficult time.
Kudos for all the investigations you've done, but that's absolutely catastrophic at this price point and with this competition. In this environment, anything short of amazing speed+quality+reliability from the get-go is an absolute no. Prusa is a sympathetic company, but they've gotten complacent imo.
I think they have been complacent for years now. I first got into 3D printing back in 2020/2021 and during my initial research found that a lot of their hardware was severely out of date, such as the 8 bit boards, older stepper drivers, and small form factor, while still asking $1000 for the machine when every other competitor was charging half that with more modern hardware. Reliability and customer support was supposed to be their biggest draw, but it appears that may be going out the window with these newest releases. I hope they can turn things around because it would be a shame to lose them in the industry.
its what you get when you think ur the best printer brand out there... using stuff people released as opensource and try to make it better without extensive knowledge. This is prusa's own downfall if they do not change their strategy and hire real cad and mechanical engineers instead of hobbyists. there is nothing wrong with hobbyists because these can be great engineers. but if you watch their source files and also cad files you start crying how they design parts. and the Prusa Pro aka the delta printer brand they just bought is also a joke. It's sad to see how a company like that goes down but its their own fault. especially Josef himself.
I pre-ordered on day one and received my single-head XL in July of this year. It felt like a beta product. I too had to spend a few hours with support to get everything ironed out and even then the user experience sucked compared to the Bambu one. Having to sit and wait for the bed to preheat and soak just so I could wipe the nozzle before it probed the bed was insane to me. In the time since the pre-order, I bought two X1Cs and they've been insanely good. I sold the XL a couple weeks ago. Disappointing after having years of good experiences with the MK3Ses.
It's so disappointing because my Prusa printers are so dang reliable. I don't think my Mini has ever had a print failure. I decided on the QIDI Xmax3 because I was tired of waiting for a machine that didnt have a heated chamber. I gave up the multi toolhead feature but I've been printing large flawless models completely drama free so far. I hope Prusa gets it together soon cuz I really like their company and hope to buy from them again in the future.
Bravo! I've been following basically everyone on RU-vid with a 5-head XL and this is a terrific summary of the current state of things. This is a printer I want, but not yet...
I think people need to look at this and realize just what Bambu accomplished with their printer line and specifically the AMS. What they pulled off while not perfect is nothing short of amazing. Yes they went a little more proprietary than most tinkerer's would like and yes the AMS can be quite wasteful when not tuned. However the fact is the machines work incredibly well out of the box and that is something that isn't easily achieved even by a company as good as Prusa. As with anything, competition is good and the more manufacturers we get trying to tackle multi filament printing the quicker we get to a point where we have reliable systems that create as little waste as possible.
prusa obviously didnt do their work on this one, but i wonder how much that might have to do with EU-politics. theres huge issues in all kinds of supply chains. the sanctions effed up my own planning - i have to switch things around for a prototype - but they were right in the middle of pre-production when that madness hit.....
Very very neutral objective review! Agree that whatever may be the challenges faced during the development but at that price point it should be damn plug and play! Given the competition it no longer "I will sell what I can and when I can". I waited for months to get my mk4 after making full payment while Prusa didn't provide even a single update (compared to how Kickstarter kinds keep sending weekly updates) at least to make waiting bearable.
To fix the stringing, properly adjust the silicone flaps below the nozzles. It's clearly visible in your video that they are misaligned. The assembly manual actually even warns you that this will lead to heavy stringing, as the nozzles just sit there oozing after being parked otherwise.
Not just because you showed my GitHub post several times 😊 but I fully agree what you said. This Maschine is currently not fulfilling any expectations I have for a Prusa. Thanks for the video. I’ll try some of your recommendations as well for my stringing.
THANK YOU - this needed to be posted. I think Prusa is 100% accountable for shipping these without having them working as advertised. It is a sad thing when the Bambu mini prints perfect when this beast struggles with the most basic tasks.
Honestly I wanted it to turn out great but i expected this after seeing various print samples on different conventions. If prusa cant put out a flawless print while presenting the printer then how could anyone at home? (I saw layer shifts and low overall quality) For 5k they can be open source all they want - it does not matter if the product is not perfect and reliable. The XL costs 5k and gives you the Ender-3 Creality experience. Very disappointing and thank you for your honest review.
"bUt ItS oPeN sOuRcE" ends up being a frequent excuse for all the shortcomings of such machines. so open source is a free ticket to make a half baked machine and charge extortionate amounts?
I'm saddened to say that I think you're being unfair to the ender 3 with your comparison here. Having run an ender 3 print farm, I can attest that while they absolutely tend to have issues out off the box, with a bit of TLC they will ACTUALLY perform and produce pretty consistent and good results. So your comparison works if we were talking about a messed up MK w/e. But with the work he put in, AND their own factory test file AND printed parts being dodgy? Smells to me very much like their Nextruder is the primary culprit. I haven't used a hotend where I couldn't tune out stringing on PLA... Ever. Hell I once ran a V6 knock-off that had one of those stupid j-head style heat breaks without the PTFE liner that produced more consistent results than that (right up until heat creep would clog it lmao). Stringing, layer shifts, inconsistent extrusion. All of those are giant red flags for those extruders. The only question is why does it work on the MK4 and not here? Are they using different/smaller motors or something?
What I love about your channel is the constructive criticism of the printer. You've focused on solutions and possible changes to Prusa's product instead of just complaining about it. Keep up the great work.
Hello, thank you for your review and for sharing your honest opinion! We watched your video shortly after you published it and we took notes of the areas that needed improvement. Apologies for the delayed answer here, but we wanted to wait until the things you mentioned in your video are fixed rather than promising we’ll do it in the future. Just to summarize: - We updated the assembly guide to improve the clarity of instructions - The G-code documentation was updated with XL-specific G-codes - New PrusaSlicer 2.7.0 comes with features to tackle stringing and blobs - we shared an extensive explanation in the release notes and in our blog article. Once again, thank you for your valuable feedback, it’s what helps us to further enhance our printers and everything around them. Dominik XL Product Manager
I'm waiting over two years now. Recently I have paid this huge amount of money for 5 tools version. If this is the value I get for such price, I'm going to return it and start to learn the Babmu ecosystem :-(
Not too harsh. The market has changed with high expectations. Prusa was caught off guard and released product before it was done. They need all the feedback they can get. I appreciate hearing more fixes. Hopefully by the time my 5XL arrives sometime next year, much of this is resolved.
Shocking! I just want to make stuff and not fiddle with a machine. In beginning the challenge was necessary- I thought..then Bambu changed my world and now a third model purchase. Is it perfect, no, but the best value out there IMHO. I know Prusa was ahead of their time when they came out with original, but it is a brave new world and for the average Joe there seem to be better options at one fifth of the cost.
This feels like my experience with Creality printers. my first Ender 3 was a great reliable first printer. Purchased a total of 5 other printers from Creality and most were hot garbage. Got into the kickstarter for BambuLabs Carbon X1 and have never looked back. 4 bambu printers with very little issues. Alway get the result I want with minimal fuss. Bambu for the win
I have a 2 head XL, but my experiences mirror yours. I agree with your suggestions and hope Prusa has some serious work going into things on the back end. I have a dozen Bambulabs printers.. even though they lack a farm management tool, all the other features that work so much better are worth the hassle. First was makerbot.. then Prusa.. hopefully they're not going by the wayside, though if it means it's now the time of Bambulab I suppose that's not a bad thing.
Stringing is gone, but It still has issues here and there. Most notably it randomly decides it's going into a filament swap cycle on the latest non beta firmware. @@Shadrackc
Not on mine. None of this. Did you clean the filament sensors? I run on full RC and had for two months. Had that happen once but the filament, upon testing, wasn't consistent in diameter. @@ZVexxPlayer Mine is perfection right now. Not a thing I will change till I put in the .4 nozzles.
Micheal, thank you so much for your time and the money you have spent to help support our 3D Printing community. I am grateful I ended up purchasing an X1 Carbon in the past 3 weeks, 99% of the time it just works. Donation coming your way mate. Thanks once again.
What a bold and informative review. I, too, wish Prusa can survive but sadly with this design with its cost I just can't see Prusa making it. To you Michael, I feel your honesty is clearly shown.
I received the XL in March and am printing it. Fortunately, I am now able to obtain clean output to the point where I can say that the problems in the video have been resolved. I believe that the speed of problem solving is faster because of pioneers like you, and thank you for the video.
Mine is supposed to show up on Wed and I haven't been super optimistic about this being a flawless out of the box experience.... This video just crushed me. This is my first Prusa machine and my entire experience with Prusa thus far has been absolutely awful. I'm tempted to toss this thing for sale sealed in box and just buy 2 more Vorons for half the price. For $4000 USD I feel that having to do ANY tinkering is absolutely unacceptable. Also... for as crushing as this video is for me to see the 2 pups at the end was even more crushing. Sorry for your loss.
Very nice review! Good to see a real review, instead of the basicly false advertisment we get from other youtubers.. Good job. Won't be buying a prusa anytime soon :D
Very level-headed review for how poorly this (very expensive) printer performed. Prusa is lucky that they've built up so much goodwill that they can release products like this and still get measured opinions. Unfortunately, with Bambulab providing excellent multicolor prints and the Makertech Proforge 4 being a cheaper, faster, *fully enclosed* toolchanger, there's no reason to buy the XL.
I used a draft shield for my tool changes in place of a purge block. It swipes over the tower, knocking off the filament string, and purges into the infill. By the time it gets to the walls of even a small model, it has consistent flow. It finishes on the draft shield and moves to the next tool. The key to success seems to be that it swipes over the tower and knocks off the string, with increased success the less z raise I have. It uses a slope z raise, too, so as it leaves and returns, it wipes on the model just a bit and doesn't leave a bump or strong like you mentioned. Maybe you want to run your z hop modifier on it and turn on draft shield?
Congrats for an honest, objective, review of the Prusa XL in its current state (of development). I own a MK3S+ and like yourself and others placed a pre-order for 5-tool Prusa XL. I canceled the order recently before even looking at your video on the basis of actual users posts in the forums. It is a shame that Prusa made a) a complete mess of their pre-ordering system; b) that they don't seem to acknowledge the issues that the printer has. According to their blog is just good news all around! I wonder to whom they shipped their XLs for beta testing? because either they didn't do a proper job or Prusa didn't listen to their feedback, or both! As soon as Prusa finishes shipping the pre-orders, I wouldn't be surprised if the XL price comes down considerably, which is bound to really upset people who paid top dollar for what was supposed to be a top of the line 3D printer. Clearly Prusa faces an uphill struggle to win back the trust of its users, maybe even financial. Sad that it came down to this but they have to blame themselves for it, for +2y we stuck in there, waiting patiently for the crown jewel...that turned out to be an expensive lemon after all.
Micheal, I am sorry to hear about your pups. My condolences to you and your family. I can imagine this was a very difficult situation. Best wishes to you. 😢❤
I love that you mention that people will say it's your calibration that's the problem... Because of course they would. Nevermind the fact that you have one of- if not the most referenced and respected calibration sites on on the internet, lol. This is a great video, I had been considering a dual-tool model vs. a Bambulab or other filament changer system. Guess I'll keep waiting!
Exactly the video I needed to cancel my pre order. I really hope they can sort that out. I have been quite happy with my 6 Mk3s+ and was betting on the toolchanger... We have to wait even more then...
Thanks for the shout-out! You really did think of everything and I'm not sure why you and I are having such different experiences. With most of your criticisms (of things that can be fixed), I absolutely agree. But my print quality is much better for some reason. We'll keep working at it! I'm going to try printing some of the same models and post my results.
I've been happy with my XL 2 head so far. I think the big difference for me is I really only print functional things, so if it doesn't look great it doesn't really matter as long as it is dimensionally accurate. I definitely agree with having only one bolt is questionable for longevity for the extruder holder. One thing I recommend all XL owners to do is replace that USB stick, mine failed within 2 weeks and from the facebook group I wasn't the only one, especially if you're updating firmware, you don't want it to fail.
@@geometerfpv2804 If I would've paid the ~$5k usd that he did, sure, but my total was a little more than half that (semi-assembled 2 tool). There is nothing in the $3k price bracket that can do what the 2 tool XL can.
My Condolences for Ricciardo and Sofia... thank you for the video been debating about which direction for my next printer and was considering the XL, but not anymore. Really wish you were able to review the flashforge creator 4 or mosiac element....
Your video is truly refreshing, capturing the essence of straightforwardness. I resonated with it deeply, especially when I encountered print issues like blobs in my initial attempts. It seems like Prusa hurriedly launched this printer to the market, and it's evident that it's not entirely prepared for widespread use. It appears more suited for enthusiasts who enjoy tinkering with their purchases. Does anyone want to buy an XL?
Excellent work Michael! I too recently got my 5T XL and have been learning and working with it. I agree that it's not ready for prime-time (which is disappointing for a Prusa product) and I expect Prusa to get these issues ironed out. Fortunately most can be addressed with software. Like you I was surprised by the single-screw attachment of the tool head brackets. Time will tell if they start to shake themselves loose (I've got a bottle of thread-lock at the ready). I haven't had the stringing issues you've had but that's likely due to my near immediate switch to 0.4 nozzles.
Thank you Michael, On the strength of yours (and a few other) reviews, I cancelled my XL-5 head order. I may revisit it in the future, if/when it's a more stable product.
Prusa has just released PrusaSlicer 2.7.0-beta1 which adds a new way of doing travel moves: ramping to fight stringing and oozing deposition especially while using wider nozzles. If you enable those, layer changes will also change to a helical ("screw thread") trajectory inspired by how Bambu Studio does it.
I just bought a MK4 and have been working it hard nearly 24hrs a day on the latest alpha firm ware with few issues, it is obvious where Prusa puts all their attention and effort. I do think you were pretty lenient on the XL, but iirc you're pretty lenient in reviews anyway. One thing we have to give Bambu is that their printers just work while anything Prusa beyond the i3 is unfinished until a year after launch. The Prusa fanbase also loves to hate whenever you point that out, it's definitely the worst part of online Prusa discourse. Loved the video, thank you for taking the time to make it thorough.
Thank you for this review. The news is frustrating, especially given that my multi-material XL will ship next week, but Prusa has improved their products in the past, at no cost to the customer. I'm thinking in particular about their MMU . So, fingers crossed that they will fix these serious problems. I look forward to new videos from you about the XL
MMU and MMU2 were never fixed for the people that bought them, like me. They just came out with a "better" model that would now work. If this is any indication of how things go, plan on the XL and XL2 never working great, but.by the time the XL3 is released, in 2028, it should work reasonably.
@@A1N0 Prusa not only pushed out firmware changes for the MMU and MMU2, but they also provided MMU2 free to me after purchasing the MMU. This went far beyond what most manufacturers would have done. That said, I stopped using MMU2 because it was unreliable and I was not willing to pay the penalties in time and filament that MMU2 required. I hope that the XL will improve on both of these fronts, and I hope that Prusa fixes the print quality problems. I am still puzzled that RU-vidrs other than TT have had much better results than TT did, implying that something else is going on that we have not yet figured out.
I never said that Prusa didn't support the MMU, I only said it never worked. The AMS gets plenty of firmware updates as well, but the difference is, the AMS works. (The AMS also has over-the-air firmware updates, which even the Prusa XL hasn't figured out.)@@jonbondy
Wow...My heart honestly sunk watching this. You were about as gracious as you possibly could be. For the price of over 3 Bambu Lab Carbons and a Bambu Lab A1 Mini combined, Prusa couldn't give you one functional printer, let alone one that could hold a prayer to a Bambu Lab offering... It's rough to see because I'm a Prusa fanboy through-and-through. I've got an MK3S+ and two Mini+ models right now. I have had very few issues with any of them and especially enjoy that the Minis can print Prusament ASA so stinking well without an enclosure. I also built a Voron v2.4 and have a Bambu Lab X1C. The X1C just blows me away in every possible way. I certainly notice the closed ecosystem and the lack of ability to customize the Z-offset on an aftermarket build plate, but at least the thing just works next-to-flawlessly when you use the intended hardware! I'm really disappointed in Prusa, and in truth, I'm worried about their future in this market. On the other hand, no other company deserves more of our support to uphold them through tough times than Prusa, as evidenced by your deep-dive into the problem-solving process in this video. I really hope they pull out all of the stops in these next few months to make up for this...If they don't, I worry this could be the end of Prusa's reputation for next-level reliability and performance. Thanks again for all of the great videos and I hope they get these issues dealt with for you and the rest of the community that invested so much in the Prusa reputation! That's a huge chunk of money to invest, and you definitely deserve to have an amazing experience in 3D printing with that level of investment. I actually reserved one early on as well, but cancelled the order after 6 months due to impatience. I figured I could jump into the Bambu Lab market in the meantime and revisit things after the XL finally hit the market. I'm somewhat bummed out to realize that was such a good decision in the end.
100% captures my experience with the 5 tool XL. I’ve even reverted to printing some models with Bambu X1C despite the extra waste just to get more consistent, cleaner prints. If it were easy to return, I probably would at this point. Instead, it’ll be a low use machine for me until Prusa makes it A LOT better.
Thanks for an excellent and very fair review. It seems clear that Bambu is so far ahead of the competition that the industry is releasing catch up products which are tragically flawed. Prusa is doing great damage to their reputation by continuing to sell this printer. Prusa should stop sales, fix the printer, then rerelease. Early adopters should get new versions of the printer. I expect something like this from Creality and others….but not Prusa. Shame!
Great video. It's really disappointing that the XL is plagued by so many problems. I placed my deposit for it almost 2 years ago after having good luck with the MK3, which I bought as a kit in 2018 and later upgraded to a MK3S, and it was my most reliable printer... until I got spoiled by a couple of Bambu Lab P1Ss w/ AMS units that I got this year. I've basically stopped using my other printers. I still want a large-format multi-color printer, but I feel the $4,000 I was going to pay for a pre-assembled XL with the 5 tools could be better spent elsewhere. Bambu will do an XL eventually, and when they do I can't imagine it having anywhere near so many issues as the Prusa. I really hope Prusa gets their issues sorted out sooner rather than later, since the competition would continue to further innovation. (Ironically, while typing that I got curious and checked on my XL order status, and I finally have the option to switch it from a deposit to an actual order... It wasn't an option last week. Now I have to make a tough decision.)
I had a deposit down when it was announced. I got it refunded 6 months ago before they were shipping. Best decision ever. This printer is already outdated and barely reaching people. So much better stuff out there for the price. Especially compared to two years ago
Thanks for posting this and doing all the testing. I thought all the oozing, blobs, and debris ripping up layers could be related to my filament but it's obvious it's not. The 5.0 Alpha FW has a "cleaning routine" that literally smooshes ooze into the base of the nozzle which then gets dragged around pulling the first layer off the bed. I really hope they take time to fix a lot of these issues.
Michael, so sorry to you and your family regarding the loss of Ricciardo and Sofia. Dogs become such a huge part of our lives and no matter what, their personalities find their way into our hearts. I hope you and your family can focus on the happy memories. All the best.
I bought the single tool XL, and I think it's very poor value for money. I started with the i3, then I added a mini, but the XL is definitely a pretty poor product when compared to these. For example. It takes ages to warm up before it starts printing. It warms up, cools down, warms up again, seems to run 3 checks at every spot it probes when levelling, etc. Because it's not a complete cube, it shakes around a lot when it's printing. Yes, I did tighten everything up using the crappy "torque wrench" supplied. It's on a sturdy bench. When you change filament, you have to manually pull and then push filament about a yard down the PTFE tube. It's not properly compatible with octoprint. The USB port is in a stupid place: on the display board. I suspect this is because it's really only intended to be used to plug a USB stick into it. There ought to be another USB port at the back near the LAN port, for those of us wanting to use Octoprint or similar. The integrated WiFi takes ages to receive GCODE files. PrusaLink is a bit crap, especially compared to Octoprint. For some reason, my XL parks the print head at the back left corner of the build plate after printing. That's not a great place to check or change the nozzle, oh sorry "nextruder". Sometimes, the self levelling fails due to their being a bit of extruded filament on the nozzle. For such an expensive product, that's taken ages to arrive, it's completely underwhelming.
A fine, fair and constructive review. For a Prusa machine this doesn't seem to meet any of the quality standards we're all used to. Yet it is the only one of its kind with the toolchanger. My fear is that Prusa rushed it (not for the first time) to try and keep their promises. It would have taken much more time and research to fine tune and iterate the design of that i(n principle) awesome 3d printer. I can only hope the will learn from that and increase efforts on R&D and only announce stuff that is in the polishing phase. As much as we all love to see great new technology, we are all the more disappointed if it just _doesn't_ work. Such modifications as a "poop basket and a brush" are not so unusual as that a development team couldn't have had the idea. The single bolt per parking bay could have been supported by a printed pin in a second hole or even a hook fixing it against twisting and vibrating loose. These things don't look like oversights but rather like accepted flaws. Maybe they intended to provide fixes later, but unlike with buggy software, fixes for flawed hardware are not easy to deploy. It's even more disappointing than the hyped input shaping (without an accelerometer) which gives rater mediocre results imho. I am pretty sure, there will be a ton of fixes and improvements on that printer and I'm happy that many of those will come from the community, but for an initial release you shouldn't rely on the open source community to do the remaining 15% of development to get an acceptable product. There is no need for leaving room for improvement, since that room will always be there. That said, I know Prusa has been in a pinch lately and the market is a battlefield, but why not be true to what they act like and trust in their name and reputation. Prusa has been delivering 3d printers used as workhorses and fallback machines. If you got a new 3d printer and it failed you, you always knew there was your old Prusa in the corner in case you really needed to print something. That trust in quality and reliability goes a long way, unless you ruin it with making promises and creating a hype when all you got is some half-baked ideas not quite poured into an appropriate shape.
for the price they are asking, a working toolchanger should not be an issue. they cheaped out on the engineering/manufacturing, even if the core mechanism is very neat - its surrounded by crappy fixturing.
in my opinion the biggest test will be the Proforge 4 if it ever ships. Its a similar sized tool changer that runs klipper and is definitely marketed more towards tinkers. If that printer ends up being even marginally more complicated to get running well it’s going to be a huge competition. while yes its one less tool head it’s almost a grand cheaper, comes fully enclosed and has a calibration camera. in addition running klipper is a huge benefit because of the documentation and community especially for a tool changer which is always going to have to be tweaked.
makertech has a terrible reputation though. they seem to release unfinished products and then you're forced to buy "upgrade" parts to get it working, and then they move on to the next shiny thing without ever completely fixing the previous products, leaving the owners hanging with partially working machines.
I had a preorder out on the first day, but I cancelled about 6 months ago. I was really hoping this machine was a killer, and I even accepted the first few supplychain problems, but the delays became quite ridiculous. And now, with all the testing they said they did, the elaborate alpha and beta test programs, it's still flawed. I wonder what happened with the test results from the alpha and beta testers. I kind of lost faith at this moment. And I still haven't received my refund after all these months, so that process too is slow. I do hope that they'll get on top of the problems though. The XL is still a beast of a printer, but it has to work properly. It's performance at this moment is unacceptable.
You canceled 6 months ago and have not received the refund? That right there is reason enough for me to never do business with prusa. Thats inexcusable, i would expect their doors to close any day if they cannot provide refunds.
@@ManBearPigCreativeit's still ongoing. I had several email exchanges with them and 2 weeks ago, they asked (after I queried what the delay was) for my bank account number since putting the refund on my credit card was not possible (strange, but ok). So I expected the refund within the week, but still nothing. It's not looking good...
I bought my first 3D printer from Prusa because I wanted a printer, not a project. It's been good so far, but seeing this many issues with one of their newer models is very concerning. When I'm ready to upgrade to something more capable, I may not stick with the same brand. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
Having purchased the MMU and the MMU2 and never have them work, I can't say I am surprised by this. I had a deposit on one of these, but very luckily I cancelled it and bought an X1 Carbon. Have 2 now, and still much cheaper than one of these.
thanks for the video! I have a deposit in on an XL. Please keep us updated. hoefully this gets ironed out with time and development. Thanks for your work and honesty.
I think the problem with the XL in comparison to the i3 is, that the i3 got a lot of improvements driven by the community. This is just not possible with the XL because of the limited shipped units and the high price. That beeing said, i think the pure mechanical design of the XL still has a lot of reserves to improve the machine by a lot.
cant thank you enough for taking the enormous amount of time to put this video together man.. Our XL is still on its way (vancouver canada) so getting a "heads up" on what to expect is good. and I'll be printing the brush holders and buckets to collect for the wipers.. I personally really appreciate your efforts
Thank you for such a thorough and honest review. I think you are totally fair. For that price, and how long we've had to wait, and compared to what's on market nowadays? Yeah, the XL's out of the box performance is just not good enough. I am a preorder customer, but I didn't finalize my order yet because nothing I've seen has made me think, oh yeah, here, take $4500 (Canadian) more of my money, and maybe ship me a printer in 6 months. Oh, and you are absolutely right that their famed 24/7 CX is probably overworked. Just this last week, I tried on two occassions, and waited an hour each time to talk to a live person via their web chat about my XL preorder, and the first time it just never got to my turn before I had to go do something else. Second time, I went to do something else, and by the time I came back (before the estimated queue time), it'd lost the connection. So maybe that support isn't exactly as amazing as it use to be. Now, having been a MK3s user for many many years, I've never actually talked to their support. So this being my first time trying it is really disappointing.
Great video! I've experienced all the problems you state much like most people with the 2T and 5T versions. All I can add is the layer shift seems to be down to over sensitive crash detection and then misalignment happens after it homes to restart. You can change sensitivity (to low) or turn it off. I've turned it off for now which may come with some risk especially if I get blobs etc. Let's hope Prusa listen to you and other customers. If they don't then we know a company that will come along and make a printer which makes the XL redundant.
Oh man, I'm so sorry for the dogs. You have our sympathy. You saved me a lot of money as I am looking for a CoreXY and I'd like to have multi filament but not the Prusa after seeing what you've been through. It really sounds like you got an alpha unit but really I'm sure Prusa wouldn't do that. Dang I'll have to think a while longer before making any decisions.
I've got a 2 tool head XL and agree with most of your comments, especially returning to the wipe tower at the end of the layer. Prusa did something new with the toolchanger and I've had some great 2 color prints, including 2 color tpu. I'm happy with the performance so far, despite the bugs and room for improvement. The toolchanger hardware works great and the 12 minute alpha benchy looks pretty damn good. This is my first Prusa and I'm well aware that as an early adopter, there will be bugs. But I'm personally excited to contribute to the improvement of this machine and think it will evolve into more that what was promised through firmware updates. Also, pretty disappointed in Prusa link/connect!
Thank you for this. I am now very glad I have not yet paid for my pre-order. I will continue to wait and hope they get these issues fixed before I complete my order.
WOW! Thank you for this! I greatly (GREATLY!) appreciate all the time (and money) that you invested in this review. Honestly, I feel that using the word 'review' doesn't really do your video justice. It is clear that you really did try to find the issues and searched for a solution. You pressed ahead and persevered when others would have have just given up. Our own print farm features just one Prusa, and it has certainly won us over for its quality and reliability, but we too faced some pretty shoddy design, production and support issues with a Multi filament upgrade we purchased for it. I do worry that Prusa may be resting on its laurels somewhat lately. And there are clearly a few hmmm moments when dealing with its interface quirks at times. I have put that down to growing pains. I too feel Prusa should be supported for their open approach and because they have really helped push forward the whole 3D world for average people. But... I hope they don't take advantage of that goodwill they have built over the years. Thanks again! I hope this comment helps boost views so you can eventually recoup your money :)
just to put this out there i bought a semi assembled XL. made sure everything when well assembled by myself and never had any of these issues. loving the machine and it is incredibly convenient having multiple materials ready to go at any moment
I bought MINI 3 years ago and once properly assembled and calibrated it printed flawless models for almost 2 years. It only then failed due to particular design of connection between hotend and feeding ptfe tube. Quick fix and it still prints flawlessly.
I have always liked the idea of using a draft shield for multi color prints. If used properly you can increase print quality and protect the print from blobs.
Thanks so much for this. I just opened my semi-built 5 tool head today. I have been following TADA and she has been having the same problems. I thought that I would be getting a top of the line printer and still hope that it will be, but seems like it is 95% finished, the 5% needed is the most important.
I was really looking forward to a video like this, which actually shows how the 5 heads work. Thanks! Based on these, I'm glad I haven't ordered it yet. The cursor has already been over the buy button several times.
I was really expecting this printer to be amazing. Even thought about possibly getting one. I hope Bambulabs does a tool changer printer to show prusa how it is done.
I own a 5-head XL semi-assembled. I have most of the same issues you're having except for the layer shifts. Layer shifts on a brand new pre-assembled printer are ridiculous and I'm so sorry that you have those. I've been able to get most of the stringing to go away with 3D Print Dogs fix and using PrusaSlicer 2.7.0-alpha1 and 5.1.0-alpha2 XL firmware. I also wish the noise levels were closer to that of my MK3S+. I really hope this is sorted soon, I'm somewhat happy with my purchase but it really should be better.
My Voron 2.4 R2 350 with the Enrage Rabbit Carrot Feeder, albeit fully DIY and requires tuning works flawlessly. Prusa seems to be feeling the pressure from a specific company 🤣🐼🎍
Honsety is very important. I think you were just harsh enough to get your point across. I know Josef is listening and values your input. Very thorough review as usual. Thank you!
