Why I hate the Zortrax M200 (and what I'm going to do about it..) 

I have an M200, might be newer than yours, a few little glitches but it prints great, extreme high quality prints.

I have been working on this printer for 3 years. It was my first and last printer. Reading the great reviews and confronting them with my dramatic experiences, I thought that I just have an anti-talent for 3d printing. Regularly clogging print head, which I replaced 3 times, because cleaning it is almost a miracle. Putting silverware on the table top to close the electric circuit, very frequent unscrewing the table top and cleaning it with acetone. I think that just one in 10 prints was fine. The print quality is really great, but exactly as you put it: when the printer is working. Thank you for this video. It is a great feeling to find out that I was not alone in these disastrous experiences.

I've had my M200 for 3 years now with no problems. And any errors that would occur it would be my fault or negligence.

You can pause the print by pressing 3-4sec at the button

I've had my M200 for almost 3 years... and I haven't had any significant problems nor one single miss print. The only issue I've ever had was a bad wiring contact with the heat bed that was solved with a a fine brush and some rubbing alcohol. I always keep the nozzle clean with a quick wipe when hot with alcohol soaked pad... and regularly wipe down the heat table with alcohol as well. I never have to "hack" my prints off... the heat table in the vid looks horrible. TIP: I've found that spraying the bed lightly with some silicone based spray to get in the holes, and then thoroughly wiping down the top surface of the bed to remove spray residue results in a much easier print removal. This video presenter's experience certainly hasn't been mine... I absolutely LOVE this printer!!

I had a very similar case. Bought a Rockit 3dison PRO. A Corean premium clone of a Makerbot(yes). Good mechanics, and electronics, terrible slicer. After years struggling, I removed the board, replaced with a MKS SBase-Marlin 2, added SSR heated BED, water cooled extruder and Trinamic drivers. Now I'm happy :)

Don't print straight on the perf bed. Tape it over with painters tape (blue tape, like masking tape). Manual level the bed. good to go. (Use the Zsense, and the Ztemp if you have them). Use good file management between STL/Zsuite and SDHC card. Keep the nozzle clean. If your printer is running often, then maintain it, often.

Wow this is like watching myself and the problems i have with this machine. I have 3 and yes its often only one in service. Print is great as you said but when it gets hormonal it really does spit the dummy. Have to agree strongly with every statement you made an all the headaches you have suffered.

This is out of date - the latest Zortrax machines are brilliant - I have 4 of them! :)

Almost got a Zortrax 2 years ago. I then saw the Wanhao 6 and almost got that, but the supplier had delivery issues and we canceled the order. I wanted to make trebuchets with students. I needed a printer that could handle 16 inches, or the students would have to make the arms out of 2 pieces. I found a local company that has re-branded the old RigidBot printer and gave it better components. They call it Reliabuild3D now. I have 4 of them in my classroom (all still working great). If you have good mechanical, electrical, and programming skills, and the ability to problem solve, you can make almost any printer work. Or, even build one from scratch. Good luck with the transplant.

I'm glad someone actually pointed out things that matter on a 3D printer - so many reviews gloss over these issues, they just concentrate on the print quality. Hard support removal is the worse thing in the world - I found reducing the print temperature by 10-15 degress makes a MASSIVE difference and makes it a LOT easier to remove - is that possible on the new Z-Suite?

Would love to have an update on this printer in year 2024. I myself have the M200 Plus (aready 4 years of printing with it) on which I did a couple of small tweaks. Personally I haven't quite like the Z-Suite application because of the parameters that are lacking, for that I'm using PrusaSlicer (I personally prefer that slicer) and I convert gcode to zcodex2 via Zortrax supported "g2z" application to unlock the full control over parameters and to be able to fine-tune everything that Z-Suite is lacking, for example, Support gap top/bottom which is ridiculous that it's not added in Z-Suite advanced mode, that's the sole reason these supports have been a pain in the a$$ to remove, now with that extra control these supports are a charm.

This machine sounds like the Mac of 3D printers. Great build quality and intuitive software, but proprietary everything and limited functionality.

Keep in mind this is my first comment on youtube, i could not sit here and listen to the false statements being made by a products that works perfectly if you know how to use it. Im not sure if your using hammers or hands as I have 5 of these printers both M200 and M300, (just bought the new m300 plus which so far it seems that they have made many improvements on) while they have their disadvantages they have been very good to me, I dont think these deserve that much hate as you describe. Some of the points you mentioned are false in my experience, I use all 5 printers on a daily basis 7 days a week day and night, they rarely get any time off. (so please dont try say i dont know what im taking about) - They can be stopped while printing. - If you make ABS Juice and spread it on the platform before starting a print you will never get any warping. - Never cleaned the plate more than scraping it with the spatula the left over abs juice - I have bought 3-5 nozzles over the years and when they do get clogged up i soak it in acetone until I need to change it again (usually every couple of months) - The connectors let it down, as i have broke one of them, however if your using 3d printers use them and create your self a case around the connector and glue it down, you will never damage the connector again. - Yes cables are fragile however again being careful goes a long way, i have broke one of them and since then only grab it by the plastic connector and again never had an issue. - The motors have never clogged up for me and i have probably cleaned maybe 2 of them from tiny particles while I was carrying out standard maintenance, keep in mind i did not have to clean them once due to not printing properly. Yes separating the raft and support did become tricky from time to time on complicated prints, however again never really caused major issues if you have been working with 3d printers and learned the skills to remove support. No SD cards broke, No on/off switch broke, Your machine looks used and abused, I would say take care of your machine and it will take care of you. Hold tight my G, roll safe.

We've got an M200 and an M300 that have been nothing but trouble for years. Like you said, when they work, they can produce excellent results. I've been contemplating a brain transplant.

I got one a couple of years ago and it's annoying but quality makes up for it...maybe. Added the Z-temp hot end helped a bit with extruder jamming. But overall spot on in majority of your points. Great review!!

I’ve been getting a few of these machines in for repairs from the local architecture school, by far my biggest complaint is the proprietary slicer. The mechanicals are solid, I would see if it were possible to simply port marlin to the board like I did for the Einstart, which similarly requires a proprietary slicer; I can usually fix them pretty easily but if I had a donor unit it probably wouldn’t be a major effort to do a straight Marlin port rather than change it out for a RAMPs.

I really enjoy you open and frank approach to your videos. Makes them informative and down to earth. Looking forward to your build videos 👍👍

It has to be said that Z-Suite Beta is all open now, you can print all kinds of filaments, non-Zortrax PLA included. Z-Suite also slices faster now. You can print with no raft and all and all. Just the SD card walking remains a real stone ager.

I feel your pain, you should swap them out for a Creality CR-10S or the Pro version it's a lot cheaper and the build volume is a plus.

I love my m200+ Printing abs and similar nonstop

thank god i seen your video you saved me loads of money for the future .it was my no1 printer on my wish list aswell.ill get a 200 quid printer wihout them problems

Will look forward to seeing the conversion, should work out great.

5 years later, im in the middle of doing a Klipper transplant (plus new toolhead, plus normal glass bed) and so far, all is going well, im curious to see what you did (if you did it)

Looking forward so seeing what's involved withe the brain and body transplants :-)

Ya, sounds like a bit of frustration at that price. I like Frankendoodle, but this seems like an opportunity for us the viewers to come up with some alternate names?

I dont even know how to begin. You got a printer, with closed ecosystem and you moaning about lack of possibility to change reprap style parameters? Come on. ABS not warping on other machines? Good one. Connector could be secured better, it has been fixed in M200 Plus but for now, you can print cover for small connector. I see that your printer has old (2013-2014) logo yet it still printing repeatable, thats one of the thing you are paying for. Anyway, it has been around 4 years since that model started its first job, think about replacing FAN and check latest Z-SUITE, it has Support Legacy option if you complaining about support glued to print. It's Plug&Play printer for people who dont want to spent whole day to calibrate and prepare environment to get a 1 of 10 proper Marvin print. last but not least: - Try using ABS Juice, it makes wonders. - DO NOT CLEAN PERFORATED PLATE, AT ALL. It helps with adhesion. - Get yourself a Hepa cover, could be home-made, it also helps a lot with adhesion. peace.

Curious if the extruder can be replaced with the diamond nozel

What do we do with a dated Zortrax? In 2023 there is no point in keeping it around with all the issues you so accurately detailed. (Only ever purchased 1 Zortrax and will never use again)

The cause of the extruder head impact on the board is defective solder 3 pin plug on the top of the board. The solder should be improved.

Great review thanks

HI you can porse the print just push and hold the front button in

Started a new job recently. We have two of these :(

You just saved me a lot of money, cheers

Wow , had no idea the Zortrax M200 was so bad for the money. Can't wait to see the Frankendoodle !

I can’t disagree with some of the downside comments here although my experience (perhaps with lower usage) has been OK. One of the first things I did was to make myself a hot shoe cover out of pourable rubber, the stl files for the 2 part mould are available online, this decreases warm up times but not much. I’m on my 2nd bed due to the connection failing, this part really does need to be looked at. I’ve had one or two pieces warp off the bed -larger pieces, so I doubt the full bed area is usable. I’ve been happy with mine.

The system is usable with any filament, and wwithout raft. It works with any slicer if you use g2z, but its a third party program that i think zortrax should pick up. the z-code is so unecesarry. that contact problem when levling i havent noticed. maby its an older problem or it gets worse when it starts to chip away. maby you started without cleaning it? i have 2 machines. one with a couple of thousands hours on it and one with a couple of hundreds. i agree that the perforated plate should be switchable for a flat one. that would help on some prints then you want a flat surface. It looks like an older version of the m200? but i can agree on some of the stuff. it is an expansive machine, and the z-pla is ridiculos expansive. as an abs machine i find it great.

I had no idea that the printer was so bad, but then again I would NEVER buy proprietary garbage. Open source is the only way.

I'm Polish and I should not write it. The printer is from Poland and its price is from space. It's better to print Ender for $ 200

In fact I think some cons you mention are not drastic (visibility of the screen, low speed, etc.) as far as you are aware of them when you buy them. But aside the low reliability I cannot judge, ther is ONE HUGE PROBLEM: the printer is sold for an oprerating volume 200x200x180mm or, when using Z-ABS which is a godd material for small parts, the warping is such for a part 100x100x70mm that it is definately unusable. Zortrax mention in its maintenance manuel using an ABS juice and so on which is clearly a very uncomfortable and unriliable trick. Therefore I think 2000$ for just printing a few cm parts is much to expensive.

The Frankendoodle XD Way to go!

I've had an M200 for about 7 years, but at least five of those it has sat idle. Recently, I have a new use for 3D printing and have spent a lot of time getting my machine to run 'right', but it's a nightmare... still! I'm at the point of deciding if any additional time/money spent on it is really just a sunk-cost fallacy. For example, I would like a smooth bed as I hate the perforated one... I could buy the IDE smooth bed that has the same z-sensing feature, or I could add a G10 / FR4 bed and install a Z-Sense from Z-Temp, but am I just pouring good money after bad, given that it is now an old and verrrry sloooow machine?

I use Z-suite 1 and supports and raft come off easy 99% of the time. I have been using it for 3+ years and I had very little of the problems you describe. Can you share the overall time printed? Also are you using them by yourself or are more people using them?

It's hard to overstate just how amazing the quality is on the M200 when it's working. I've had mine for 5+ years now, and while I can say I've experienced almost every single one of the headaches mentioned in this video, I still haven't had anything come close to being able to replicate the quality of these prints. I would be curious to see if they addressed and fixed the issues with their newer models. Overall, yeah, I kind of have to agree, these printers are a huge pain.

...Pues yo tengo dos una M200 y otra M300 y siempre genial!

Ok, I also have Zortrax m200 and I would be happy already if you could show us how to make z-axis button stop so I can replace the bed with glass. Thank you!

I was seriously considering a Zortrax at one time. Dodged that bullet. What printer have you seen that prints that nicely without the headaches? I print mostly ABS and ASA and some PETG on two Raise3D N2s but I cannot get a print as nice as what you show in the video despite heavy mods.

I see that zortrax filaments are supposed to be used only with zortrax printers. Why is that? They are on sale now and I'm thinking about using them with my ender 3. What do you think about the quality of the filaments? Thanks

LOL, another video ran sad music in the background while I was watching this one without me knowing, IT MATCHED PERFECTLY! This is the problem with closed systems I guess. Great video! :)

It saddens me when this video comes near top of the top of the list for Zortrax videos. I have been working with M200 for 2 years and have achieved unparalleled levels of productivity and quality compared to other printers in its price point. It has saved us thousands in rapid prototyping and cannot rate the brand highly enough.

Hi, you kept talking about other more reliable printer in the same price range, care to share what those are? I have been using Zortrax M200 for the past 3 years as well and while I have not had as many issues as you, I have replaced the nozzle countless times and have 4 nozzles in acetone bath rotation and I have been forced to replaced the bed twice and are sucked with an old firmware, since the newer firmware breaks my printer and support was unable to fix it, even after we change all cables, bed, hotend, etc. So I wanted to upgrade this year and got a Prusa mk3 because everyone said how reliable it and still had good print quality. But since then I have done nothing that doing repairs, every 10-15 prints something on the Prusa fails and cable mangement and repairs are an utter nightmare compared to the Zortrax. So now i'm on the hunt again for a reliable 3D printer, with exceptional detail and are really looking for input.

The little 2 reminded me of the Terminator T-800! X)

How many of these printers do you have? If there's another, how about doing an upgrade video swapping in a new control board (DuetWiFi, for example) ? That should fix many issues.

I want to Teching Tech - if you insulate hotend then you totally mess up with PID profile of heating/cooling then do not expect more than problems. Perforated plate works better if is dirty more filled holes then better adhesion at next prints, Z endstop modification which you done only cause warps because raft layers should be flat and smooth not this noodle style which you have now, the fist layer should be pushed into perforated plate so hard that stepper motor can loosing the steps at this point. Please compare same part with same support because you speaking about support structures comparing apples to oranges if you compare two exactly same parts then it is valid point. Your printer have 3.5years this is kickstarter batch if you are owner of few then why you showing the oldest one, you can contact with technical support anytime Zortrax is not VIP only paid support company you can open the ticket and even expect firmware\software changes due of it or to get some tips and tricks for current problems but after 3.5years the best is to shipping the printer for refurbish to local reseller or if you are located in EU to Zortrax HQ. And yes you confirm this printer is worth the amount because you ordered few and after 3.5years this machines after not expensive refurbish process can working next 3 years.

can you do a refresh of this with the newer ones, m300 non dual extruder.

I was almost on my way to buy this printer until i saw this review.. Im not so sure anymore.. what would you recommend? if it should be around this price tag? and just WORK

It is possible to rebuild Prusa i3 printer to "look as" Ultimaker printer?

I have owned some of these printers a couple of M200, M300 and M300 Plus, they were decent when they first came out. But in todays world of 3D printing they are over priced trash, I will not be buying Zortrax again. The last one I purchased an M300 Plus was dead on arrival, I needed it for a project so stripped it down and re-wired it, which fixed it, during this process I found a number of poor Quality Control issues. They deserve to be sued for not delivering on WiFi in the M200.

You clearly dont know what you are talking about. This is a great printer. You are using it like a noob.

Dude your Zortrax 200 is from the stone age. There's a new hotend, plate and software. You have this for real 3,5 years ? Woooow where were you on the past years in Amish Paradise ? :-):-)

Do you know another 3D printer equally priced but faster and with no all these problems?

I cant complain as an orignal kickstarter supporter who got it for 900 USD instead of 2,000 😂

I have 3 Zortrax M200s. I have had some issues with their printers... I regret the 2k price tag but they are plug and play when new. I have had the system destroy my build plate it was the fault of the printer not mine as you indicate in the video that the extruder leave a booger of molten filament on the bed and it messes up thus gouging the bed...which ruins the build plate requiring another which is not cheap. One of my machines will not feed the filament. I have contacted Zortrax...and they tell me to make sure every thing is connected properly and that the ribbon connectors are secure. This did not fix the problem with the printer and I informed them of this via email... I now have a $2k paperweight sitting around as i cannot get it to print. Zortrax responds to my emails but the trouble shooting takes days as they are across the Atlantic... Poland I believe. When these printers work they work well. I have printed some really kewl things with high quality on them, however, as you mentioned in the video the support structure is a bear to remove... I build custom models in 3d software so I make the parts a specific way to avoid the supports if at all possible. The support structures are the worst and the bed destruction is a close second, and the gear jams/malfunctions maybe tie for second as I still have not resolved the issue. The prints are nice but as I have seen with Wanhao clones I get the same print quality for 1/3 the price. I reckon now we can get about 3 prusa or Creality 10S for the same price and they print well. Zortrax has some competition now which should force the quality to increase and price to drop...

Perhaps you should of got the other Polish printer (3DGence One) I have put 6000 metres of filament though mine without a single issue, Although no longer available in Oz

Thank you for your review, Michael. We have just sent you an e-mail. Please, check your inbox. We hope to hear from you soon! Best regards, Zortrax Team

interesting review. have had my zortrax m200 for approx 3 years and its been very reliable after making several mods such as z sense, z temp and hotend. The closed source issue is now pretty much fixed but there are some other things available such as 'Raftaway' a script written by someone i cant remember. and you can now use other materials with lots of adjustments. i was looking at replacing my m200 with an m200 plus but may have a look at others. is there anything else as reliable?

Only 2 grand. What a bargain! Lol :P

thank you! :)

I would buy your Zortrax M200/300 printer if any one wants to get rid of them. if the mainboard is in good conditions. Contact me.

Thanks for review, you just save me money for M300, which is same like this M200 only bigger.

Also if you buy this printer in America the US, be aware that Zortrax will not honor it's distributor warranty. I was told to contact a lawyer by the Zortrax representative.

Want is a good 3D Print?

Very unlucky. I can't relate at all, except for the long slicing time and heat up times. I've rarely had failures, and more than half the failures during printing it has had have been my own fault. My nozzle has never grinded into the perforated plate and I've never had a print detach from the raft. I've had mine for almost a year so maybe time will tell, but as of now its working perfectly.

why you bought 3 of them when you hate it? 😅

Thanks for sharing :-)

More than 2000 hours and never had a problem: The problem is you .

quite a few of your complaints are only reasonable to people who like messing with printers and the programs, your missing the point, the Zortrax does great with its own system and you need to be gentle with some of the parts, its a little slow, so what, find something to do, dont stare at your printer.

Wow i did know that it ducked so much this machine...

It's a bastard of a printer. So many errors and issues.

This is from country poland, post soviet country. What do you expect. People in poland like yo cheat and make crap quality for inflated prices, post soviet mentality. Prices are crazy now this was 300 eur in kickstarter

Great video really glad I watched this to stay away from that printer.

for that money you have the Lulzbots

M300 👎🏻Ender 3 👍🏻