Prusa XL+ Upgrade Brings Cleaner Starts, Faster Setup

A Prusa XL+ upgrade is not a new printer category — it is a summer hardware refresh aimed at blobs, wait time, and faint belt texture on big, smooth walls. On August 12, 2026, Prusa Research said the XL+, CORE One+ (Gen 2), and CORE One L+ keep the same list prices as the machines they replace, auto-upgrade unshipped orders, and will sell kits so current owners can catch up. For hobbyists, the useful question is which of those small changes actually show up on the bench.

What's Happening

In its August 12 product-upgrade post on the XL+, CORE One L+, and CORE One+ (Gen 2), Prusa described a lineup-wide quality-of-life pass rather than a headline spec jump. All three machines get a standard, widely available nozzle wiper — a frequent community request — plus GT1.5 belts that Prusa says make repeating surface patterns less obvious. Assembled CORE One+ (Gen 2) and CORE One L+ units started shipping immediately; assembled XL+ printers follow later in August. Kits and individual parts roll out through the end of August and early September.

The XL still uses a 360 × 360 × 360 mm toolchanging bed that Prusa says is three times the CORE One+ volume and 1.5 times the CORE One L+. The plus version adds MK4S-style 360-degree cooling for overhangs, bridges, and small details; a permanently mounted eddy-current Tool Offset Sensor Prusa claims is about 20 times faster than the old removable-pin calibration; and high-flow nozzles as standard. The optional enclosure is better sealed and can reach about 50 °C from waste heat, with a forthcoming heater targeting 60 °C for large PC Blend, PCCF, and boxy PETG parts. CORE One L+ (300 × 300 × 330 mm, actively controlled chamber) mainly picks up the shared belts and wiper. CORE One+ (Gen 2) also gets a snap-on top panel and redesigned heatbed mounts that drop the Absorbing heat step at 85 °C and below.

Why a Prusa XL+ Upgrade Matters for Everyday Makers

Most home printers fail in boring ways: a string of filament on the first layer, a five-minute heat soak you forgot about, or a faint ripple across a helmet visor. This refresh targets those annoyances. Faster tool alignment matters if you actually use multiple XL toolheads for color or mixed nozzles. Skipping the heat-soak on PLA and PETG matters if you start a print, then leave for work. GT1.5 belts will not turn a Cosplay prop into a structural bracket, but they can make large flat faces look less “printed.”

What this is not: a reason to throw out a working CORE One or XL. Prusa’s pitch is the opposite — firmware, slicer profiles, and now hardware kits so the same chassis keeps improving. That is a different buying logic than chasing every new enclosed CoreXY launch. It also does not change the strength ceiling of FFF nylon or PETG. When a mount, jig, or drone arm needs directional fiber, you are in a different machine class than a hobby toolchanger, no matter how clean the first layer is.

How a Prusa XL+ Upgrade Changes Pre-Print Time

1. Wipe before you commit. A nozzle wiper is meant to knock off the blob that otherwise lands on the skirt or the part. Treat the silicone as a consumable; Prusa chose a common size so replacements are easy to find.
2. Skip the PLA heat soak on Gen 2. If the bed is 85 °C or lower, CORE One+ (Gen 2) is supposed to go straight to printing. Use that extra minute to watch the first layer instead of walking away during Absorbing heat.
3. Recalibrate tools once, faster. XL users who change toolheads or run multi-color jobs spend less time on pin-tap alignment. The eddy-current sensor stays on the machine and is listed as compatible with the upcoming silicone toolhead.
4. Check belt texture on large faces. Print a smooth panel you already know. If GT1.5 belts reduce the old repeating pattern, keep the tension in the range your printer’s docs recommend rather than cranking “tighter is better.”
5. Match cooling to geometry. XL+ 360-degree cooling helps overhangs and tiny features. It will not fix a model that needed supports or a slower outer wall.
6. Plan the kit window. If you already own a machine, wait for the official upgrade manual for your exact combo. Unshipped factory orders should already be moving to plus hardware at the old price.

What the Research Says

Desktop FFF quality is still mostly a mechanical and thermal story. Zaborniak and colleagues measured dimensional and shape accuracy on fused-filament parts and found high repeatability, especially in Z, with most in-plane dimensions inside a 0.1 mm tolerance except at platform extremes where heat dissipation differed (Zaborniak et al., 2024). That result is a reminder that belts, frame stiffness, and bed temperature uniformity — the boring hardware Prusa just touched — show up in caliper readings, not only in marketing copy.

For XL owners who actually swap materials between toolheads, adhesion research is the other half. Seregi, Ficzere, and Zsoldos tested multimaterial FFF pairs (ABS, ASA, PETG, PAHT-CF, and several supports) and found interfacial strength depends heavily on compatibility: some dedicated supports bond too little and separate in the machine, while a few pairs bond more than expected (Seregi et al., 2026). Faster tool offset calibration does not pick the polymer pair for you. If you print PETG onto nylon-carbon, or supports you cannot remove, the interface still fails the same way it did on the previous XL.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Prusa XL+ upgrade?

The Prusa XL+ is a 2026 hardware refresh of the original XL toolchanger. It adds 360-degree part cooling, GT1.5 belts, a permanently mounted eddy-current Tool Offset Sensor Prusa says is about 20 times faster, high-flow nozzles as standard, and a nozzle wiper. New machines keep the same price; existing owners can buy kits as they roll out.

Does Core One Plus Gen 2 skip the absorbing heat wait?

Yes, for everyday bed temperatures. Prusa redesigned the CORE One+ (Gen 2) heatbed mounting so the Absorbing heat step is gone when the bed is 85 °C or lower — typical PLA and PETG jobs. Higher-temperature materials still heat the bed, but Prusa says that wait is shorter than before.

Can I upgrade an existing Prusa instead of buying a new printer?

Prusa says current XL, CORE One+, and CORE One L owners will get upgrade kits and à la carte parts. Assembled CORE One+ (Gen 2) and CORE One L+ units started shipping with the announcement; assembled XL+ follows later in August, with kits through early September. Unshipped orders are automatically moved to the plus versions at no extra charge.

Fibricate's Place in This Story

Prusa’s refresh is about making FFF nicer to live with. Fibricate’s catalog sits one job over: desktop continuous-fiber parts when a printed mount has to carry load, not just look clean. Companies like Fibricate, whose FibreSeeker 3 continuous carbon fiber 3D printer co-extrudes thermoplastic with continuous carbon or glass using feedstock such as the continuous carbon fiber spool, are a poor substitute for an XL toolchanger and a poor reason to skip a nozzle wiper. Use the hobby machine for props, enclosures, and iteration; reach for directional fiber when the failure mode is bending or tension, not a first-layer blob.

What to Watch Next

Watch the kit manuals and INDX timing. Prusa says CORE One+ INDX conversion kits are about to ship and are compatible with Gen 2 — and told people who already ordered INDX not to buy the Gen 2 kit yet. An HT hotend rated for higher-temperature engineering filaments is promised for CORE One machines in September. Firmware-side automatic pressure-advance measurement before each print, PrusaSlicer 3.0 alphas, and a local-network Prusa Connect Local replacement for PrusaLink are also on the public roadmap. Over the next year, expect more of this pattern: small hardware that removes waiting, plus software that treats every spool as slightly different. That is how desktop FFF stays useful without asking you to buy a new chassis every summer.

References & Further Reading

1. Zaborniak, M., Bremek, M., Budzik, G., & Kluczyński, J. (2024). Analysis of the Dimensional and Shape Accuracy and Repeatability of Models Produced in the Process of Additive Extrusion of Thermoplastic Polymers Using Fused Filament Fabrication Technology. Applied Sciences.
2. Seregi, B.L., Ficzere, P., & Zsoldos, G. (2026). Investigation of Polymer Adhesion of Materials in Multimaterial FFF Process. Polymers.
3. Better Prints, Easier Use: Prusa XL+, CORE One L+ and CORE One+ (Gen 2), Our Big Product Upgrade. Prusa Research. Retrieved August 14, 2026.