Prusa printers are my personal second choice, the new Prusa Mini for under $400 is a great performance hobby printer. I typically recommend Lulzbot for high-demanding classroom settings, and advanced or aspiring DIY makers. Lulzbot printers work with any 3mm filament, so getting cost effective filament is easy to do. Cost - Lulzbots aren't the cheapest printers, but when you take the professional-grade reliability and versatility into account, I believe they are a bargain.They out perform cheaper printers like DaVinci or Flashforge and are comparable to more expensive printers like Makerbot, Ultimaker, or even Stratasys. Print Quality - As far as FDM printers go, Lulzbots are up there in quality.I've never had an application that wasn't achievable by one of my Lulzbot printers.
![hemera esteps hemera esteps](https://forum.duet3d.com/assets/uploads/files/1584792087060-g29-error.png)
Newer Lulzbots can print over 30 different materials and 6 different layer heights with the stock head.
![hemera esteps hemera esteps](https://i.redd.it/kcb1g5u2rn971.jpg)
This is something that is really only available on more expensive printers and makes dependability and ease of use way better than most. Calibration - This is sort of part of reliability, but it is needed to say that from the TAZ6 and newer, all Lulzbot printers auto-calibrate, level the bed, and clean the nozzle before each print.I've worked with Lulzbot, Ultimaker, Makerbot, Stratasys, DaVinci, Prusa, and Flashforge machines in this type of environment and Lulzbots have broke down the least, and were the easiest to get going again for me. On average we rack up about 3,000 hours on each machine every year. We have 18 3D printers and 5000 students that use them each year. Reliability - I am a 6-8 teacher and K-12 coordinator for engineering education in a school district in NJ.
![hemera esteps hemera esteps](https://i.imgur.com/YQod1KU.jpg)
Personally, I prefer Lulzbot printers, and here's why: There are tons of 3D printer brands out there, as well as many different types of 3D printing technology (FDM, SLA, Polyjet, etc). Though the maintenance and calibration tips and tricks may be applicable on many FDM printers out there. This instructable focuses on working with, maintaining, and modifying Lulzbot printers.