Brother PE800 Embroidery Machine, 138 Built-in Designs, 5" x 7" Hoop Area, Large 3.2" LCD Touchscreen, USB Port, 11 Font Styles

Purchased this a number of years ago on a black friday sale. I had a pe770 and this has so many upgraded features. The screen is so much easier to read. Best feature is it remembers your stitch location if the power is shut off. Worst feature is it has trouble reading thread level on bobbins. It very rarely gives me a low bobbin warning. I've tried cleaning the sensor and using different brands of bobbins. I just have to pay attention and change it out when low.If you are just getting into embroidery I would highly suggest this machine. It's extremely user friendly and you can do so much with it. As a personal use machine (and light use small business machine) you can't beat the features or the price.

I absolutely love this machine! So many of my creative ideas have came to life

Love my pe800 it’s been a workhorse

EDIT; 05/11/19I HAVE LEARNED!So, reading the manual will help greatly in improving the nit picks I had in my review below. You CAN change bobbins in between colors (you have to detach your hoop, and not restart anything, just hit the arrow button then the 'needle' button to move the needle to a safe position before changing things). This is also the standby phase that I was looking for.Bonuses I have found- if a miss-threading occurs (a knot, or the fabric slips while embroidering- happened more than once) you do NOT need to start over, there is a series of buttons- that you wouldn't know actually do this- that rewind or fast forward the stick numbers (in increments of 1, 10, and 100 at a time). Luckily, you don't need to be exact, the machine's cross hairs backtrack with the buttons, so you'll know when you're back where the incident happened.Would still like to mention two nit picks;1) wish I could get a bigger touch screen, or a means to attach one without loosing the SINGLE usb port, the internal memory of the machine is only 6 to 12 patterns at a time.2) Even changing the design's multi-colors to a single color won't change timings- if you just want one color on all the phases you still have to progress the machine as if you has multiple colors (even changing them in the machine doesn't change this fact).ALSO, don't use metal bobbins, the machine will tell you when your bobbin needs changing during a pattern, but only on a plastic bobbin. A metal bobbin (I assume) cannot be properly scanned by the machine, so it will continue to embroider without thread in the bobbin, and will eventually stop in a knot.I'm leaving my older review bellow, unaltered.Pe800 owner; bought to assist in embroidery for a baby quilt I'm doing for a best friend. Did my research, with my lifestyle, and the amount of embroidery I plan on doing, this machine was best for my needs. I did buy the extra stabilizers and hoops, which have come in handy (also embroidery scissors have been a GodSend!; would also recommend buying extra bobbins).As someone who has only done this by hand before, some of the manual how-to settings are confusing at first (my first Brother machine), and playing around with the settings takes some getting used to. Nit-pic 1) Didn't know the bobbin couldn't be changed while the pattern was being preformed (try to replace it = starting over), nit pic 2) can't figure out how to move the hoop-bar without telling the machine I'm trying to disconnect the arm, this has lead to me almost bending my needle twice while attempting to tighten the hoop/ re-thread the needle (needs a 'resting/standby space' not directly under the needle).Five Star bonus- it threads the needle itself! Not sure how it does it, but you loop the thread through other parts of the machine and pull a leaver- instant threading! You can still do it yourself, but why would you? (nit Pic 3- the needle must be in a specific spot to work, the leaver will not fully depress if the needle is not where it needs to be).Still a five star machine- it just have to figure it all out I'm sure. PEBKC probably (or PEBEMC).

Very pleased with my machine. It arrived earlier than expected. I've completed a couple of projects and am looking forward to many more.

I am working on my 6th simple embroidery and so far I intensely dislike using this overly fussy machine. The needle threader doesn't want to work consistently, the threading through the bobbin tension discs was unclear. It takes a long time to get the fabric and the stabilizer into the hoops. Snapping the hoop on to the machine and removing it is awkward. Getting the spools of thread arranged into the machine is difficult because the slick thread wants to go everywhere.I'm going to practice some more, but there's a good chance I'm going to return this machine. So far I love the results, but I despise the machine. It's not fun to use. Very frustrating! I think these problems may be inherent in embroidery machines and I'm not going to do this hobby.This machine should have come with an instructional DVD and it does not. I bought a serger from Brother years ago and I loved it, but it came with a basic instructional DVD which was excellent.I'm not a professional, but I have a lot of experience sewing.I'll update this review, but at this time I regret this purchase and plan to return the machine if things don't get better in a hurry. I didn't expect to be somebody who would dislike this machine. Brother is shooting themselves in the foot by not including instructional dvds.Update, 6 weeks later:I have figured out the automatic needle threader finally and I can get it first try about 80 to 90% of the time.I really like the machine now.I can't imagine why they didn't include an instructional DVD. I had to go through several YouTube videos to find anything decent.I raised the review to four stars. I'm quite mechanically inclined and I had some trouble learning this machine at first. I have a feeling that a lot of complaints people have about the machine or products they use with it are really because they're messing up some fussy little details (which should have been covered in a professional instructional DVD!)