[Review]QiDi PLUS 4 3D Printer In-Depth Review: 65°C Actively Heated Chamber, 370°C Nozzle, 120°C Heated Bed

The QIDI Plus 4 is a fully enclosed CoreXY FDM 3D printer with a 305 × 305 × 280 mm build volume, a 370 °C hotend, a 120 °C heated bed and a 400 W actively heated chamber that holds up to 65 °C. That chamber is the reason it prints ABS, ASA, PC, nylon and PPS-CF reliably at home, and it launched at $799.

Where the Test Data in This Review Comes From

Every measured figure on this page comes from independent hands-on testing, not from QIDI's own lab. This review consolidates two separate third-party tests of production Plus 4 units:

• Aurora Tech, a veteran technology reviewer, ran a full cycle from unboxing through calibration, benchmark models, tolerance and first-layer tests, and sound measurement. The benchmark times, tolerance results, noise levels, and pros and cons below are his findings. His full video review covers the same test cycle.
• Loyal Moses, a 3D printing reviewer, ran the machine over several weeks with high-temperature and reinforced materials, including the PPS-CF and glass-filled ABS results reported further down. His review video covers that testing.

Where the two reviewers tested the same thing, both results are reported. Manufacturer specifications are labelled as such and kept separate from measured results.

QIDI Plus 4 at a Glance

The Plus 4 sits in the middle of the QIDI 3D printer lineup: larger and hotter than the Q1 Pro, smaller in footprint than the Max4. It is the machine QIDI built around one idea — that an enclosure is not enough, and the chamber has to be heated on purpose.

Who the QIDI Plus 4 Is For, and Who It Is Not For

The Plus 4 is for people whose material list does not stop at PLA. If you print ABS, ASA, polycarbonate, nylon, or carbon-fibre and glass-filled composites, the 370 °C hotend and the actively heated chamber remove the two things that usually make those materials fail at home: nozzle temperature ceiling and uneven cooling.

It is also for small print farms and prototyping benches. The 6 mm bed, 81-point mesh and automatic Z-offset mean unattended repeat jobs start the same way every time, and the enclosure keeps dust out of long runs.

The Plus 4 is not the right choice if you only print PLA. A heated chamber is a liability for PLA — the machine itself warns you not to run fully enclosed with low-temperature filament — so most of what you are paying for stays switched off. In that case a simpler open-frame machine like the Q2C covers the same work for less money.

It is also not a machine you move around casually. At roughly 505 × 487 × 550 mm and 35 kg boxed, it is a two-person lift. QIDI built two retractable handles into the top for exactly this reason, but it still needs a permanent home on a solid bench.

What the Heated Chamber Actually Changes

A temperature-controlled chamber is not the same thing as an enclosure. An enclosure traps whatever heat the bed happens to give off. The Plus 4 has a 400 W heater and a circulation fan that push the chamber to a set temperature and hold it there — around 60 °C in about five minutes, up to a 65 °C ceiling.

The practical effect shows up in high-shrink materials. In Aurora Tech's testing, a large ABS pencil case body printed with the chamber set to 55 °C came out with zero warping and no layer cracking, on the first attempt, with the top cover fitted. That is the difference the chamber makes: ABS and ASA warping is caused by uneven contraction as the part cools, and a warm chamber removes the temperature gradient that drives it.

QIDI also lets you use the chamber and bed heaters as a filament dryer. It works, but a small dedicated dryer is more energy-efficient for a single spool, and it leaves the printer free to print.

Measured Print Results

The figures below come from an independent hands-on review of a production Plus 4 by technology reviewer Aurora Tech, whose full test cycle ran from unboxing through calibration, benchmark models, and material trials. The class-average column is his reference time for the same models on comparable Klipper CoreXY machines. These are not QIDI measurements.

Two findings stand out in the reviewer's own summary. First, he rated the first layer across the full 305 × 305 mm plate as among the best he had measured on any machine at this size — a result he attributed to the 6 mm bed and the 81-point mesh. Second, dimensional tolerance came out good but not class-leading: the Plus 4 separated parts at 0.075 mm clearance, where the best machines in his test set manage 0.05 mm. He attributed the gap to firmware pressure-advance tuning rather than mechanics.

Noise Levels

Measured by Aurora Tech with a sound meter placed in front of the machine, in three enclosure configurations:

High-Temperature Materials: What the 370 °C Hotend Unlocks

A 370 °C nozzle is not a marketing number. It is the difference between being able to run polyphenylene sulfide composites and not. PPS-CF typically needs 330 °C or more, and most consumer hotends stop at 300 °C.

The high-temperature results in this section come from Loyal Moses, the second independent reviewer, who ran the machine for several weeks specifically on reinforced and high-temperature materials.

In a temperature ladder he ran on PPS-CF between 330 °C and 370 °C, layer adhesion at 330 °C was clearly weaker than at 350 °C, with the strongest bonding at the top of the range. If you plan to work with this material, read the dedicated PPS-CF printing guide before your first spool — it is expensive filament and the settings window is narrow.

He also printed a full-size cosplay helmet in PPS-CF on the Plus 4, consuming close to two spools and about a day and a half of print time, and reported clean surface detail on the finished part. The only visible flaw was slight colour banding partway up, which he traced to two spools bought months apart rather than to the machine. Stock QIDI profiles for glass-filled ABS printed correctly in his testing with no tuning.

Composite filaments are abrasive. If you run carbon-fibre or glass-filled material regularly, plan on a hardened nozzle and stock a spare — a PET-CF spool will wear a brass nozzle quickly. QIDI's broader ABS filament range is a safer starting point if you are new to enclosed printing.

Setup and Calibration: Honest Notes

These observations are Aurora Tech's, recorded during his unboxing and first-run sequence.

The Plus 4 arrives in one box with the glass top packed above the machine and two lifting handles built into the bag. Assembly is genuinely short: fit the door handle, mount the 5-inch touchscreen on top, and bolt on the spool holder. The spool sits on top of the machine and feeds down through a short guide tube into the tangle sensor, which he found more practical than the rear-mounted holders on many enclosed printers.

The setup wizard, however, stops early. It walks you through language selection, removing the transit screws under the bed, and loading filament — then ends. You still have to open the Tool menu yourself and run two things before your first print:

• Auto bed levelling. The head homes on the inductive sensor, purges and wipes on a small PEI pad and then a silicone brush, touches the nozzle to the bed to set Z-offset, and runs a 9 × 9 mesh. See the auto bed levelling guide if you want to understand what the mesh is doing.
• Input shaper calibration. Runs for roughly seven to eight minutes with no on-screen progress or axis indication. It is working; the interface just does not tell you. Klipper's resonance measurement documentation explains what is being measured.

Ignore the "platform calibration" entry in the same menu unless something went wrong in shipping. It reverts you to manual paper-and-knob levelling, which the automatic Z-offset already makes unnecessary.

Strengths and Limitations

The assessment below is Aurora Tech's, based on his full test cycle.

What the Plus 4 Does Well

• Chamber-dependent materials become routine. ABS printed as predictably as PLA in his testing, which is the whole point of the machine.
• First-layer consistency at full plate size. The 6 mm aluminium bed stays flat as it heats, and 81 probe points cover a large surface properly.
• Retraction and surface quality. The retraction-heavy honeycomb test printed with no broken pattern, a clear improvement over the X-Max 3.
• Reliability hardware that earns its place. The tangle sensor rescued a print during testing; the runout sensor, nozzle wiper and in-head filament cutter make material changes quick.
• Storage and monitoring. 32 GB of eMMC instead of the usual 8 GB, plus a 1080p camera that keeps working at 65 °C chamber temperature.

Where It Falls Short

• Tolerance is average, not exceptional. 0.075 mm clearance versus 0.05 mm on the best machines tested, most likely a pressure-advance tuning issue.
• The panels are plastic, not metal. The frame is metal and the door and lid are glass, but the side panels are plastic and the machine looks more premium in photographs than in person.
• The setup wizard is incomplete. Calibration steps that every user needs are buried in a menu, and input shaping runs with no progress feedback.
• Touchscreen file handling is slow. Thumbnails load slowly, there is no sort option, and the low-temperature-filament warning reappears after you dismiss it.
• Slicer discovery is manual. QIDI Studio does not find the printer on the network automatically; you enter the IP address by hand.

None of these are deal breakers, and most are firmware and interface issues that updates can address. If you want a second opinion on the same machine, the All3DP review of the Plus 4 reaches broadly similar conclusions from a different test bench.

Living With It

Loyal Moses, who kept the machine in daily use for several weeks, rated the filament-change workflow as one of the better ones in this class: pause, unload, reload, resume, and the machine handles purging and wiping. He noted that the activated charcoal filter at the top rear reduces odour during ABS and ASA runs, though it is not a substitute for a ventilated room, and that the glass door and lid plus bright interior LEDs make the print visible from across a room.

The 6 mm bed rewards patience. QIDI recommends letting it heat-soak for a few minutes before starting a high-temperature print, and both reviewers found that the extra wait improves first-layer consistency on large parts.

If you outgrow the stock configuration, there is a documented upgrade path — see the guide on how to expand the Plus 4. For multi-material work, QIDI's own filament management system is covered in the QIDI Box guide.

Verdict

Both independent reviews reach the same conclusion: the QIDI Plus 4 is the most capable machine in this price band provided your reason for buying it is materials rather than speed. In Aurora Tech's test cycle every print succeeded on the first attempt except the number slider, which failed to stick at a 60 °C bed and printed correctly at 65 °C. He placed print speed in line with current-generation Klipper CoreXY machines rather than ahead of them, and surface quality at the top of the group.

Buy it if your work involves ABS, ASA, PC, nylon or high-temperature composites. Skip it if PLA and PETG cover everything you make, because the chamber that justifies the price will spend its life switched off. Current pricing and configuration are on the Plus 4 product page.

QIDI Plus 4 FAQ

What is the QIDI Plus 4 build volume?

305 × 305 × 280 mm. That is larger than the 256 mm cube common in this class and smaller than the X-Max 3 at 325 × 325 × 315 mm.

How hot does the QIDI Plus 4 chamber get?

Up to 65 °C, driven by a 400 W heater with a circulation fan. It reaches roughly 60 °C in about five minutes from cold.

Can the QIDI Plus 4 print ABS without warping?

In Aurora Tech's independent testing, a large ABS part printed with the chamber set to 55 °C showed no warping and no layer cracking. A heated chamber removes the cooling gradient that causes ABS to contract unevenly, so warping becomes far less likely — but bed cleanliness and Z-offset still matter.

Should I close the top cover when printing PLA?

No. PLA softens at a low temperature, and trapped heat can cause clogging and heat creep. The Plus 4 prompts you to leave the machine vented for PLA, TPU and other low-temperature filaments.

Does the QIDI Plus 4 need manual bed levelling?

No. It probes an 81-point mesh with an inductive sensor and sets the Z-offset by touching the nozzle to the bed. Manual platform calibration exists in the menu but is only needed if the bed was knocked out of alignment in transit.

What nozzle temperature does PPS-CF need on the Plus 4?

350 °C or above gave the best layer adhesion in reviewer Loyal Moses's temperature ladder, with noticeably weaker bonding at 330 °C. The hotend tops out at 370 °C, which covers the material's full working range.

How loud is the QIDI Plus 4?

Mid to high 40s dB fully enclosed, rising to the mid to high 50s dB with the door open and top cover removed. Fully enclosed, it is quiet enough for a home office.

Is the QIDI Plus 4 good for a print farm?

It suits small farms and prototyping benches. Automatic Z-offset, 81-point meshing, runout and tangle sensors, 32 GB of onboard storage and Ethernet connectivity all support unattended repeat jobs. Its size and 35 kg weight mean each unit needs a dedicated bench position.