Know what you're doing
I want to start by saying that this printer is very capable in many ways. I’m not trying to put Qidi down—I’m aiming to give a realistic picture. I've deducted one star because of the behaviours of my printer that I talk about and another because of what I have to say about Qidi support. I purchased the Plus 4 along with the Qidi Box. It is capable of printing a wide range of engineering filaments, and the Qidi implementation of Klipper makes it more usable than many comparable machines. Combine that with the Qidi Studio software, a branch of Orcaslicer, and you have a lot of capability. However, my experience suggests the product and its ecosystem are still immature. My overall impression is that it hasn’t had enough real-world user testing yet, which is why I would summarise this printer as: “Know what you’re doing.” I already had experience stripping down, rebuilding, and modifying 3D printers, as well as working with firmware and slicers. Without that background, I would have struggled to get consistent results. A significant number of print attempts fail, for a variety of reasons: intermittent connectivity issues, false filament detection errors, communication problems with MCU boards, and the Qidi Box occasionally appearing disconnected. Resolving these issues often involves power cycling or manual troubleshooting. If you are not comfortable with 3D printer mechanics, electronics, and slicer tuning, this can become frustrating very quickly. If you do have that experience, you can usually work through the issues—but it takes time and patience. Support has been a particular challenge in my experience, and this is worth understanding in more detail. Responses have often focused on only part of the query rather than the full context. For example, I contacted support to confirm whether a replacement toolhead board was correct. They confirmed that it was, but did not address the additional information I provided—that the board revision differed from the original, and that when installed it caused the hotend to power on continuously and heat uncontrollably. I followed up with that information, and the guidance I received was to disconnect the hotend. Doing so caused an error, and when I reported that, I was then advised to reconnect it. This resulted in a loop of contradictory instructions without resolving the underlying issue. Experiences like this made troubleshooting slower and more difficult than it needed to be, as it was often necessary to rely on independent investigation rather than support guidance. That said, it’s important to consider price and positioning. Comparable printers with similar capabilities are significantly more expensive. In that context, the Plus 4 offers strong hardware for the cost. In summary: when it works, it’s an excellent machine. However, you should expect to rely heavily on your own technical ability rather than support. If you are experienced and willing to troubleshoot, it can be a very capable tool. If not, it may prove challenging.