So I am new to 3d printing and am having a hard time deciding which printer to go with. All of the Lulzbot current models all have pros and cons. I know its hard to recommend one or the other seeing as there are so many variables. This is for a hobby, but yet if I’m going to put money into it, it needs to be something that I’m going to be happy with. I like the price of the kit and mini…but not sure I want to deal with having to put the kit together and I’m not sure about the printing size of the mini. So the Taz 4 looks really nice, not sure if I really want to commit over $2100 for a hobby item. So with that said any recommendations or personal experiences are appreciated. Thanks for the help and info.
Go for the cheapest. Then you will learn what qualities to consider for the next printer. My advice would be some printer you can mount with your hands, and not necesarily the Lulzbot brand, because these are expensive. I would go for a Mendel/Prusa kit. You can buy one of these kits for less than half the price of Kittaz.
Inaki.
Get a Mini. 
Someone should make a NanoTaz! just because that would be an awesome printer name.
Well due to print size and possible dual extruders, I want to go with a Taz 4 or a Kittaz. There is no performance difference between the 2 correct?
Once has an LCD, one doesn’t. Aside from that they are the same at the moment. I’d suspect you will see a TAZ with a different hotend soon though.
What kind of different hotend?
Does the Mini have the TAZ-4 nozzle ? I dont think so.
Hexagon Hotend likely.
There are few other differences as well.
What are you printing?
Do you enjoy tinkering?
Do you need to print flexibile filament?
Well I am into robotics and other then that mainly just hobby type items. I do enjoy putting things together. Just with the kit I’m more worried about how to calibrate it and such. Not sure what all that entails.
Well first of all let me just say people on the forums are very helpful. (Though I don’t have Taz or Mini… yet)
The Mini will be more plug and play and is much more integrated. (It is pretty cool system - I saw it this weekend) There are some pretty good articles and XRobots on Youtube has an unboxing video. You will have a smaller build volume than the other two and as it is currently you can’t print flexible filaments with it.
The Taz 4 will give you a large print volume and it seem that you will have more customization options. You can also print flexible filaments with some addon (or printable addons). You will have to level the bed yourself and possibly play with some more settings.
The Kittaz, will give you everything that that the Taz 4 has but will be more work to setup and doesn’t come with an LCD screen (available separately).
They seem all like great printers and if you enjoy tinkering I wouldn’t worry to much about the calibration. I would watch some unboxing videos and reviews on Youtube and see what sounds the best for you.
I don’t work for Lulzbot so if I am wrong about anything above my apologies. I just have the AO-101.
I definitely appreciate the help and info. I think the Kittaz might be the best way for me to go. I don’t mind building it and it will help me preserve some of my hobby budget. Thanks again everyone.
I just purchased a TAZ4 for Christmas. It’s my first exposure to 3D printing. The TAZ4 is a great printer and there is a lot of info about it and 3D printing in general here on this forum and elsewhere. Replacement parts are readily available at Lulzbot and you can print your own stuff too. Everything is open source, so the BOM’s are available which list vendors for all the non-printed parts, and drawings are available for most of the machined parts. All the firmware and software is open source too. IMHO this gives you a huge advantage over a non-open source printer. The TAZ4 is very high quality throughout, I was impressed. Like you I compared the TAZ4 and KITTAZ but adding all the additional things the TAZ4 has to the KITTAZ plus the time and work to assemble it I felt the TAZ4 was worth the extra cash although I admit it is pricey. However, I wanted to spend my time learning and printing not assembling the kit, but if you like that sort of challenge then go with the kit be sure to read the OHAI kit docs for the KITTAZ if you do. Whichever way you go Lulzbot or not expect a fair learning curve for several months to learn your machine and how to use the software/firmware; and there is always a fair bit of tweaking involved when changing filament or trying to get better print quality. Also expect some ongoing expenses for filament, upgrades like dual extruders, hex extruder (coming out soon), PEI bed plate, Lulzjuice bottles, printer enclosure (for ABS printing), other CAD software, etc. It’s like any hobby and expect it to take some time and money to get up to speed. I love designing and printing my own stuff, and it’s super fun to play around with, but lots of trial and error. Hope this helps with your decision.
John