<h1>At that rate one vat is enough</h1>
<p>With 3 or less prints, you have enough time to drain the resin back into the bottle and <a href="https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/a/14500/8884">prevent it from aging.</a> Multiple Vats only become relevant if you need speed to swap between materials - which for a hobbyist generally is not an issue.</p>
<h1>For swapping often, you need maybe two identical vats fitting your machine</h1>
<p>Even if you increase your work rate, you only need at worst two vats that belong to your machine type: remove one, put it out to drain, insert the other one, fill it. That reduces the gap between material swaps to minutes instead of hours.</p>
<h1>Only rarely you benefit from more...</h1>
<p>You don't generally get too much more benefit from having more vats. The only upside you get from more vats is, if you have a small range of colors and swap often. But then you <em>also</em> need vats that have a lid, because you need to seal your vats for storage.</p>
<h1>Material of the vat doesn't matter usually</h1>
<p>The vat can be from whatever material it wants, it needs to <strong>belong to the machine.</strong> You can't use an Elego Mars vat in a Prusa machine, and neither in a Stratasys SLA. You are locked into the ecosystem of replacement parts from your printer supplier, so you have to use the parts for your printer anyway.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-20T12:56:16.700Z
2022-08-20T12:56:16.700Z
Trish
<p>I'm looking at getting several resin vats. So that I can use different colors of resin without having to worry about cleaning them out between prints.</p>
<p>Are plastic vats inherently inferior to metal ones, and if so what issues might I run into. I'm a hobbyist, I'm not running a farm. So 3 or fewer prints a week.</p>

<resin><hardware>
Are plastic resin vats inherently inferior to metal ones?
Aaargh Zombies
# Are plastic resin vats inherently inferior to metal ones?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-08-20)

I'm looking at getting several resin vats. So that I can use different colors of resin without having to worry about cleaning them out between prints.

Are plastic vats inherently inferior to metal ones, and if so what issues might I run into. I'm a hobbyist, I'm not running a farm. So 3 or fewer prints a week.

**Tags:** resin, hardware


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-08-20. Score: 1

# At that rate one vat is enough

With 3 or less prints, you have enough time to drain the resin back into the bottle and [prevent it from aging.](https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/a/14500/8884) Multiple Vats only become relevant if you need speed to swap between materials - which for a hobbyist generally is not an issue.

# For swapping often, you need maybe two identical vats fitting your machine

Even if you increase your work rate, you only need at worst two vats that belong to your machine type: remove one, put it out to drain, insert the other one, fill it. That reduces the gap between material swaps to minutes instead of hours.

# Only rarely you benefit from more...

You don't generally get too much more benefit from having more vats. The only upside you get from more vats is, if you have a small range of colors and swap often. But then you *also* need vats that have a lid, because you need to seal your vats for storage.

# Material of the vat doesn't matter usually

The vat can be from whatever material it wants, it needs to **belong to the machine.** You can't use an Elego Mars vat in a Prusa machine, and neither in a Stratasys SLA. You are locked into the ecosystem of replacement parts from your printer supplier, so you have to use the parts for your printer anyway.


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