Review: Brother Airthreading Machine Airflow 3000

So you're thinking of buying the Brother Airflow 3000!

Let us delve into what's inside the box and the machines performance.

Of course, you can watch my review video on YouTube, I compare this machine to Brother's non airthreading models and to the only other available airthreading overlocker under £1000, the baby lock enspire.

Off the bat, I found the machine ugly. Blocky and square. It's obtrusive and heavy. It has no grace nor eloquence and sits on my desk like a pile of rock.

Next to the other Brother overlocker I have, the performance of the aitthreader much worse than the regular brother overlocker. That's so disappointing. I really hoped that the almost year long delay for the release of this machine meant that Brother were really stepping up the game. Not only that, they have had a chance to rebrand themselves as they've known for a while their machines are no where near as good as their competitors.

When I opened the box and sewed, I discovered the sample attached to the machine was not actually the sample from the machine. Now you might argue that they don't want to sample every machine, well why not? They took the time to make these little samples and attach them to my machine for me to think that the machine I paid £900 for is ready to give me a perfect stitched. Dare I say it - I've been stitched up!

The sample was sitting on the needle plate, hiding a poorly put together machine. The needle plate was not in place correctly and it took time to fiddle around, trying to remove the needle plat, because of it's design, this is actually a fiddly job. In hindsight, I now understand why so many people break needle plates.

The foot was tricky to remove because the presser foot lift is only 4mm. I can't a quilt under that!

For £900 I would like a powerful overlocker that can sew edges of quilts and jackets and coats. An industrial overlocker costs less than this machine.

Now Brother are stingy with gifts and accessories. I was told by the sales manager to stop being so generous with the pens I gave out. 🤪

I suggested as a marketing incentive, give a box of Brother thread to customers buying a machine over £2000. They refused even when I asked for a lady spending £5000. Goodness me. Where am I going with this, I haven't lost the thread, the accessories supplied with this machine are minimal. There was no thread on the machine apart from the few threaded in, so nothing to engage you in the first exciting sew.

My £120 Amazon Beother overlocker had all this without the wire. Seriously!

In fact, I didn't even get a screwdriver to undo the need plate screw, it's a good job I'm a mechanic and have my own toolkit.

No oil either! So this bodes the question, are they still expecting us ladies, [let's face it, in the west and particularly the uk not many men sew (still not sure why). ] not to maintain our own machine.

We drive cars! Haha! We are the only ones who knows how to unblock the vacuum cleaner when the Lego gets stuck in there.

WHY DID I SPEND SO MUCH MONEY ON THIS MACHINE? NEW Juki MO-2500 Sumato

We are capable of undoing a screw and brushing a bit of metal clean.

Let's talk about the cleaning brush - or let's not.

When I finally put the machine back together I was able to stitch the first row of stitches with the manufacturer setting in place for medium weight fabric.

It was bad.

The machine skipped stitches, the tension was wrong. I fiddled and messed about. I tried different settings and I tried different needles. I decided the timing is slightly off and if brother's staff had cared to properly test the machine, they would have seen that.

The machine has a mechanical needle threader but that was temperamental. It worked. Then it didn't. I've never had such a fussy machine. I found it easier to just thread by eye. Less frustrating.

Because of the timing, I emailed Brother and of course there response was I need to get some tips on how to use the machine and to give them a ring.

In fact, another Brother fact, they told me that 90% of customer complaints are user error. How rude! I can categorically confirm that this is not the case with brother machines.

The interesting thing is, I got into understanding overlockers because of them. Working with the staff on my team including the manager, none of them used brother overlockers because they could never get them to work.

They had baby lock machines. Now I could not afford a baby lock machine back then so I had to learn how to use the brother machine well.

I am sorry to say, I got so good at using the brother machines, one morning I sold 8 in the first 10 minutes of me starting a shift. I am sorry to those ladies because those machines have probably driven those ladies to despair since.

No, I don't recommend this Airflow machine. The quality of stitch is poor, the maintenance is hard to reach, and the after sales will be poor as it is with their other sewing machines.

Many of you may be hardcore brother fans, or have machines that have never given you trouble. Thats fair. I would never recommend a brother overlocker to anyone and neither would any half decent sales / mechanic.

It weighs too much for what it is. It's 9 ½ kg of plastic and low grade metal.

{the tension dials are still the plastic dials that fail easily}

For the same amount of money, you get a much better quality of machine. The baby lock Enspire. The machine is built to sew. It's threading system is a pump but otherwise the machine is a dream to work with. I have never believed I would love a machine as much but I will say Juki and baby lock are the grand masters of overlockers.

The Enspire was just under £900 too. It's worth considering.