[MrGilbert]

I think the market for this one will be difficult, just because you can get a 3D printer (read: Ender) for basically half the price...

...with this being said, though - I'm happy to see a "entry-level" Prusa. One thing that lags the cheap printers are security measurements. I guess no one is keen on burning down their house, just because this giant hotglue on rails went rogue.

On their website, they state that they are:

- monitoring FAN RPM

- Have self diagnostic

- Have a high quality PSU

- and, even more important, use thermistors.

Taking all this into account, this might justify the price bump, if you aren't able to add all this to, let's say, your Ender or any other printer by yourself.

[ericb]

The Ender is a great printer if you're cool with it catching fire. In several of the 3d printing groups I'm in, the most common question is "what's the best printer around $300" I can get. The most common answer is something like "try not to scrimp and get the Prusa instead." That's a fairly tone deaf answer to someone truly budget constrained, though if the price is double their budget. But for an extra fifty bucks--that's a no brainer.

Print jobs can easily go 24 hours and fires are fairly catastrophic. I think Prusa just hit the ball out of the park with this pricepoint and approach assuming they are using their usual reliable, vetted components. I have never seen a report of a fire with a Prusa.

[sitkack]

The monoprice maker select mini 2 is an excellent printer, this is basically the Prusa version of that printer with upgrades.

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=33012

I own the model before this as well as Prusa Mk3. They are both wonderful. Now that Prusa Mini is out, it will probably be the printer of recommendation due to it being open source over the MP Mini.

[MrGilbert]

> I have never seen a report of a fire with a Prusa.

Tbf, that really depends on the market share. In the interwebs, I've read a total of 3 - 5 reports of printers catching fire. Now, if 20% of the 3D printers are Prusas, then the rest are chinese ones, which come all with the same bad components. There is not much surprise here, at least for me.

Despite from that, the groups I know usually go like "Yeah, get a CoreXY printer instead. Moving the printbed constantly in XY direction isn't a good idea."

[WillPostForFood]

I agree it is hard to judge based on anecdotes, but we know Enders have had specific issues that increase fire risk. E.g. thermal runaway protection disabled by default, XT60 connectors with bad connections, defective MOSFETs.

[ericb]

I think, but cannot prove, that Prusa's got a fairly high percent of this broader segment of the market.

[m0xte]

I saw someone burn their house down with a high quality Weller soldering iron. Anything with a thermal control loop of some sort is potentially dangerous and should not be left unattended. Lest you get home to a pile of ash one day.

[BoorishBears]

I'm legitimately regretting my Ender 3 purchase after seeing this printer. It should decimate the Ender 3 if there's a real future to FDM...

My Ender 3 Pro cost 230$ and came with a magnetic bed.

Added about 30$ for Automatic Bed Leveling.

Adding a 32-bit board would cost at least what? 50$? ( The stock Ender 3 board has so little memory I had to remove LCD support to get Unified Bed Leveling working)

Max quoted hotend temp is 280 °C so unless Prusa is condoning heating up PTFE to life threatening temperatures it has an all-metal hotend, so another 30$ for a middle of the road one?

Adding steppers... I think we've hit what the Prusa costs, except you hacked together this kit so now it's on you to support it, and also the prices I listed are not for high quality parts.

Then there's just the fact, Prusa will make a 3d printer that just works, and if it doesn't just work, they'll make it right. Good luck if that 50$ Aliexpress-sourced 32 bit board conks out, and have fun tearing it down and returning it to stock if Creality wants to help you out.

This printer represents careful design and good support, I'm going to try and get rid of my Ender 3 immediately and get one of these.

I wanted a Prusa originally but didn't feel like sinking the money into a proper printer when I didn't know I was going to use it. Instead I ended up with something I'm not using because it never works correctly and has actively damned my enthusiasm for FDM...