Dual extrusion with a water-soluble support material is the reason this machine exists, and it is the reason its economics look nothing like a consumer printer's. Soluble support is expensive filament that becomes nothing. Any cost estimate that leaves it out understates a real job by a large margin, and most do.
What a supported part actually costs
A 120 g model in engineering filament at $45/kg, printed over 10 hours, with 45 g of soluble support at $90/kg charged as a per-print consumable, machine time at $1.20 an hour and a 5% failure allowance:
| Term | Amount |
|---|---|
| Model filament | $5.40 |
| Soluble support, dissolved away | $4.05 |
| Electricity, 1.2 kWh | $0.21 |
| Machine time | $12.00 |
| Failure allowance | $1.14 |
| Total | $22.80 |
The support costs three-quarters of what the part costs. That is normal for geometry that needs it, and it is the number people leave out when they quote a print from the model's mass alone. Put your own support mass and price into the cost calculator as a consumable, exactly as above — it keeps the two materials visible instead of blending them into an average that describes neither.
Machine time dominates, as it does on every professional-class printer, because the purchase price is what you are amortising. Electricity is 21 cents and its underlying wattage is a class estimate rather than a metered figure, which the specification card states plainly.
What soluble support buys, and when it is worth it
Breakaway support leaves marks. On an internal channel, an enclosed cavity or a fine lattice, it can leave marks you cannot reach to clean up. Soluble support dissolves, so the surface underneath it is as good as any other surface on the part.
That matters for exactly three kinds of work: parts with internal geometry, parts where the underside is a visible or functional surface, and parts too fine to clean mechanically without breaking them. For everything else, breakaway support and ten minutes with pliers is far cheaper — the supports guide covers when each is appropriate.
The 140 °C plate
This is the hottest bed on this site by a wide margin, and it is not there for ABS. It exists for engineering materials that will not adhere reliably below about 110 °C, and for a professional workflow where a first-layer failure at hour nine is unacceptable rather than annoying.
Combined with the enclosure, it makes the machine's material list unusually broad for a bowden printer. Which brings us to the compromise.
Bowden, on a machine at this price
The extruders are frame-mounted and push filament down tubes. That is a deliberate choice — it keeps the toolhead light, which matters when the toolhead carries two hotends — and it has consequences you cannot tune away.
TPU and soft flexibles are awkward here in a way they are not on a much cheaper direct-drive machine. Retraction distances are long, and stringing is managed rather than eliminated. If flexible materials are central to your work, this specification is the wrong shape regardless of price, and a $300 direct-drive printer will do that particular job better.
The professional context, which is the real product
The hardware is only part of what is being bought. Material profiles are validated rather than crowd-sourced, spools carry identification the printer reads, and the software chain is maintained as a product. In a business setting, where an operator's hour costs more than the filament, "it printed correctly the first time" is worth more than any specification.
That is also why comparing this machine to a consumer printer on price per millimetre of build volume misses the point entirely, and why it is a bad purchase for a hobbyist with time and curiosity.
Where a supported print goes wrong
Wet support material. PVA is the most hygroscopic filament in common use, and wet PVA prints badly and dissolves unevenly. It needs a dryer, not a shelf — see brittle filament for what old, damp support looks like when it snaps in the tube.
Support fused to the part. Soluble support that has not fully dissolved, or that was printed too close, produces exactly the same symptom as breakaway support done badly. The supports fused to part page covers the separation settings involved.
Oozing from the idle nozzle. Two hotends means one of them is always hot and not printing. The prime tower exists to manage that, and it is filament you paid for.
When this is the wrong professional machine
Most parts do not need soluble support, and without that requirement the whole argument collapses. Flexibles rule it out on the extruder arrangement alone. And buying with your own money rather than a business's — the S5 is the larger version of the same argument, and both are priced for a context where reliability is worth more than the machine.