I have both in white. My Ruby does not like the cardboard sided ones, but loves the plastic ones. The latter are more expensive, but I fill the empties with black (on a different machine) so they come to good use.

Alma I use cardboard sided in my Janome 11000SE for embroideries and satin stitch ,and non sided in my Janome MC6500 when doing satin stitch applique. Each machine has a mind of its own and prefers these. Each accepts Janome plastic spool bobbinfil but this becomes quite expensive when using lots of them- the machines do not like bobbinfil which I wind myself! Hope this is not too confusing. LOL Barb

I use nothing but plastic and like them very much. I refill them with colors for FSL, etc. to have matching bobbins when needed.

I only use the plastic ones, I tried the cardboard sided ones and did not like them. I refill my with my colors for FSL.

I use prewound, but I think your machines opinion is the most important one. I have had a few machines and they all liked different bobbin thread. I am just thankful that both of my pr machines like the prewound because I don't have the patients to wind it myself.

I only use the plastic side bobbins. The cardboard causes a lot of link in the bobbin area.

Marcelle

Plastic only for me. The sensor can't read thru the cardboard.

Have three Pfaff machines and use Metro cardboard sided bobbins in all. However, I remove the cardboard before putting them in the machine or the bobbin sensor won't be able to read when it is empty.

My little old machine just loves the cardboard ones. I also have no trouble with the 'sensor' reading when the bobbin is nearly empty. I must just look into the bobbin casing to see if there is a lint build up. Thank you for question.

Thank you so much to all of you people who sent me some feedback to my question. Very interesting answers... :}

My mind raced wildly ahead of my senses this morning and I wondered if there was a build up of cardboard lint, if during a busy stitching session it could get very hot and cause a fire......

AlmaG.

I've never used a pre-wound. Do you have to change the bobbin case for that? I have the one in my machine now (a Brother) and one with a green dot on it that sits in my case. I just fill bobbin after bobbin after bobbin, etc.

Alma, I understood when I purchased my Brother machine many years ago that many home embroidery machines could not use the cardboard sided prewound bobbins because of the sensor, so I had great luck using the NEBS clear sided plastic ones. I, occasionally, rewind the empties, but rarely, because a gross lasts quite a long time.
Now, I have a commercial machine, and I use the cardboard sided bobbins with it, which is the kind the original owner used. I have been amazed at how much thread is on them. They last through several truly dense designs. I clean the lint regularly, but do not find a lot even after many designs. I need to find out if the plastic sided will work on this machine, too. I absolutely love the convenience of the prewound bobbins.
Angel