Why buy a MK4 in 2024? A1 Owner looking for a replacement  

RE: Why buy a MK4 in 2024? A1 Owner looking for a replacement

Select MK4. It's made in Europe after all! There is support, there are parts, there are consumables, and last but not least, you will be able to repair everything on the printer yourself!

RE: Why buy a MK4 in 2024? A1 Owner looking for a replacement

Posted by: @scottm-2

I too am looking at Bambu Lab P1S-AMS vs the MK4. I currently have the MK3S. My son bought the Bambu on a Black Friday deal and loves it. I'm a Prusa guy, but I've had so many PLA prints that start out great, print several layers and then let go. I check hours later and I have a huge blob of PLA engulfing the printhead. I'll post a separate question about what non-Prusament filament people are using. I'm in Canada, so it's too expensive to buy Prusa filament.

I am using a lot of Jessie filament from Printed Solid (now owned by Prusa). Ships from USA but might be an option for Canada?

RE: Why buy a MK4 in 2024? A1 Owner looking for a replacement

Choose Prusa! I have a Mk3s+ and was looking at the upgrade to a Mk4 and ended up deciding on a P1S and I have severe buyers remorse. There are bed adhesion issues and printing in PETG with stock settings provided poor quality prints. And it squeaks straight out of the box. I have watched more videos and read more articles about the P1S than I ever had to with my 3s+. Bambu labs pricing models are obviously designed to hook you then screw you over (hindsight).. The P1S impressive because of its speed but honestly who cares when it doesn’t work right. I don’t run a printer farm and don’t need it to produce more parts per hour, I want it to work. The P1S is not designed to be worked on, fixed, or upgraded. When I finally got to see it in person I saw how much is glued, welded, riveted, and crimped together… not cool. I feel like I was tricked into buying the P1S. Finally, Bambu labs documentation and instructions are awful.

RE: Why buy a MK4 in 2024? A1 Owner looking for a replacement

I was also through decision process recently. My friend bought BL X1 Carbon with AMS. Its nice and its fast. And some things are easier to do.

But! I am one of those people, who tries to decide what to buy based on origin of goods. Also I saw brief history of BL and also history of Prusa and that was what made my final decision for MK4 Kit.  Simply Prusa company while a little behind is very sympathic and has more transparent ownership of good community people.

Its just feeling, that this is company I want to support, not some chinese super business one. Its same reason I would never buy anything from Temu or Shein or similar ones. Of course we all have something from China. But it isnt reason to buy everything from them. Just because everything is cheaper from China.

In the end I very enjoyed whole construction process of my new MK4. Now I know my 3D printer to last screw.

But with respect to everyone I understand if someone decides other way.

RE: Why buy a MK4 in 2024? A1 Owner looking for a replacement

Choosing the MK4 seems like a smart decision, especially if you're prioritizing local support, accessibility to parts, and ease of maintenance planet clicker

RE: Why buy a MK4 in 2024? A1 Owner looking for a replacement

Same reasons I got mine.  It's more expensive but I've had no regrets, the printer does what it needs to do every time with no need to tease the hardware.  I recently added an MMU3, and that too has been performing pretty well so far. 

RE: Why buy a MK4 in 2024? A1 Owner looking for a replacement

I gave my MK3S to my son, who is enjoying it immensely, and I purchased the MK4 for me. Last week, I ordered the MK4S upgrade kit. I also purchased a satin sheet and it is really nice. So far, no prints have popped off the plate while printing. My enclosure is a modified IKEA kitchen cabinet with LED lighting.

RE: Why buy a MK4 in 2024? A1 Owner looking for a replacement

Shameless plug - if anyone wants to use my referral code you'll get 100 Prusa points to put towards filaments!!

https://www.prusa3d.com/product/original-prusa-mk4s-3d-printer-5/?p2p=%40iftibashir_468393

Back to topic though - I'm currently working on a video build guide for the MK4s, but the more I look at the A1, and the price of the A1 Combo - I'm tempted to get that just to use for multicolor prints. The AMS lite seems to be a lot more refined then then MMU......

RE: Why buy a MK4 in 2024? A1 Owner looking for a replacement

I saw tons of videos comparing MMU3 and AMS (Lite). If I try to summarize them:

AMS is easier to use, its reliable, but you get a few cough ups (especially piciking up filament), you get relatively lot of waste

MMU is more clumsy in terms of use, its super reliable, you get relatively little of waste (if I remember correctly, MMU should be also faster, but take it with lot of grains of salt 🙂 )

So in the end, in terms of user experience it is more about if you are more DIY person or you want most friendly product out of the box. IMHO 🙂

I personally now am working on MMU without buffer. Still, I will have to manually feed MMU. AMS is really more user friendly in this.