I’m building up a Graber i3 for myself. It will be way cheaper than the Ultimaker. Hope it will work also as good…
Another vote for an Ultimaker here. I bought one for work and so far I’ve trained about 80 people to use it. Reliability is pretty good once it is dialed in and doesn’t lose calibration like my home RepRaps (i2 and i3). Just print and go. The original is limited to PLA unless you adapt it and add a heated bed.
I’ve not had any experience of the Ultimaker2 yet.
Ultimaker is a great bot and run by great people. But I’ll throw my hat in the ring to recommend our new Plus 2.2 about to go on sale at an introductory price of $1299 assembled. It would afford the flexibility of 2 colors/materials at a cost savings of half the price. Cheaper shipping too. Education is a passion of ours and we stand behind our products. Being in the US is always a plus too.
-brook
@Brook_Drumm , wtb auto-leveling probe addon…
If you want something that just works, that has automatic bed levelling, automatic height setting, easy click to print software, easy break away support. Take a look at the New UP Plus 2
Is the UP Open Source?
No, it’s tunned to print. It won best overall 3d printer in make magazine last Nov.
We shall see what this year’s Issue says 
What @Bruce_Jackson doesn’tdisclose here (and he should) is that he sells the Up! range for a living. Please do so in future Bruce.