Throughput. With a combined machine you wash a plate, then swap the bucket for the turntable and cure it — the two stages queue behind each other. With separate stations, the first plate cures while the second is already washing. If you print one plate at a time it makes little difference; if you run repeat batches it roughly halves your post-processing bottleneck.

It works, but not with the plate attached. The XS is rated for printers up to 9.1 inches, so on a Saturn 4 or Jupiter you must remove parts from the build platform first and wash them loose in the basket. That is an extra handling step on every plate. If you want to drop the whole plate straight in, the Mercury Plus V3.0 takes up to 10 inches directly.

Curing what the turntable cannot reach — the inside of a hollowed model, deep recesses, undercuts, and assembled or glued parts that no longer fit the chamber. It is also useful for spot-curing a repair. Hold it 20–60 mm from the surface and work in bursts of no more than 15 minutes, wearing the supplied goggles; never look directly at the emitter.

Not down the drain. Leave the saturated IPA in sunlight or under a UV lamp so the dissolved resin cures out and settles as solid sludge, then filter or decant it — the cured solid goes out as hazardous waste, and the remaining liquid should go to a chemical waste facility. The sealed tank helps here: it limits evaporation between uses so the IPA lasts longer before it needs replacing.

Yes. The seal limits evaporation while the lid is closed, but IPA still off-gasses during washing and whenever the tank is open, and it carries dissolved uncured resin with it. Run both stations in the same ventilated space as the printer, keep the lid on when not in use, and avoid washing in a small sealed room.