The QIDI Q2 is a fine 3D printer that performed exceptionally well on high temperature filaments. However, the long awaited multimaterial box was a disappointment that failed repeatedly.
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The QIDI Q2 is a great, mid-sized 3D printer that really shines when printing high-temperature filaments. If you’re looking for a single-color printer for engineering filaments with a smaller footprint than the previous QIDI Plus4 , then this is what you’re looking for.
Sadly, the QIDI Q2 also comes as a combo with a color multimaterial “QIDI Box” that I simply could not get to work correctly. With all the attention to detail, it is inexplicable that QIDI missed the fact that there was an insurmountable amount of friction in the filament path between the QIDI Box and the printer’s extruder.
After horrible initial prints, I pulled a Bowden tube out of the back of the QIDI Box and tried to push filament to the extruder by hand. The amount of drag on the filament was preposterous. The filament hub was way too tight, and the 90-degree bend in the Bowden tube into the extruder was another choke point. I printed a riser (suggested by QIDI itself) to lift the lid and give the Bowden tube a more gentle bend into the extruder, and printed a guide to straighten the filament path into the hub. This allowed the Box to feed ONE filament into the machine, but not four.
Color swaps are too inconsistent to count on at this point. I did reach out to QIDI and was told that the Box I received was an early unit, and they are working on these issues. At the time of this review, the QIDI Box is a great filament dryer, but not much else.
The QIDI Q2 retails at $499 for the standalone machine and $649 for a combo, though I’m not sure if the combo is worth the risk. We were sent a 2nd color box, which had the same issues.
On a positive note, the printer itself is very good when limited to one color. The nozzle can hit 370°C, the bed goes to 120°C, and the chamber has active heating that can hit 65°C. The QIDI Q2 can handle PPS, PAHT, PA 6, PA 11, and PA 12, as well as PC. It won’t break a sweat printing ABS or ASA, and the lid slides back to keep things cool enough for PLA and PETG.
The QIDI Q2 falls short of making our Best 3D Printers list, but it's still worth considering if you want to do single-color projects using high-temp materials.
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