Creality Ender-3 3D Printer Review

In 2018, Creality released the Ender-3 3D printer, which was made to be affordable for beginners, and effective for enthusiasts. It’s safe to say that they’ve reached their goal after thousands of sales and positive reviews.

Creality is a well-known Chinese company in the 3D printing world, focused on bringing affordable 3D printing technology to people all around the globe. They’ve been at the top of the charts, with critically acclaimed reviews for some of their products such as the Creality CR-10.

Creality Ender-3 Features

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Specs

• Resolution: 100 Microns
• Modeling Technology: FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling）
• Printing Size: 220*220*250mm
• Max Traveling Speed: 180mm/s
• Filament: 1.75mm ABS/PLA, WOOD, FLEXIBLE, Carbon fiber
• Layer Thickness: 0.1-0.4mm
• Precision: ±0.1mm
• File Format: STL, OBJ, G-Code
• Working Mode: USB or SD offline
• Max Nozzle Temperature: 255℃
• Max Hotbed Temperature: 110℃

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Features

• Decent heating bed
• Small and sturdy frame
• High print volume for the size
• Resumes 3D printing after a power outage
• LCD display
• Open-source

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Creality Ender-3 First Impressions

When I first heard about the Creality Ender 3, and how it was an improvement compared to the Ender 2 while being cheaper at the same time, I was very optimistic (and rightly so).

Creality has a reputation for making good quality 3D printers for their cost, and I consider them to be reliable. Yes, even with their (sometimes humourous) translation errors all over their website packaging, etc.

The Creality Ender-3 Must Be Assembled

When you order the Creality Ender 3, it comes as a kit that you must assemble yourself, which is no problem for those of us who like to tinker!

It will take a couple of hours to put together and you might run into issues here and there. The instructions don’t help that much, in fact, they’re pretty terrible. Thankfully, (especially for those who do not enjoy tinkering), there are plenty of brilliant people on the internet who have made assembly guides.

Unfortunately, it does need to be calibrated, and, occasionally, the bed needs to be leveled manually.

Offline File Transfer

Once you’ve got the 3D printer set up and operating, there is a small screen on the 3D printer that you can use to adjust all of your settings.

To transfer files from your computer, you can use an SD card or a USB cable. Although it doesn’t come with wifi support, it can be upgraded (if you’re willing) with extra parts to use wifi.

Quality vs Price

Normally we expect cheaper 3D printers to produce low-quality results, whether it’s low-resolution printing or filament getting stuck. But the Creality Ender 3 exceeds expectations, and in fact, blows them out of the water.

The 3D printer comes with a tiny amount of sample filament; barely enough to make the test file that comes with the SD card, so make sure you order some filament to work with.

Prepare for Constant Tweaking

The biggest problem users find is that they are constantly adjusting and calibrating, due to the prints sticking to the bed. You’ll have to adjust a bunch of screws and do bed leveling pretty frequently, which really sucks for beginners.

It’s a shame that they got so many things right, yet this could be the deal-breaker for potential buyers.

To make matters worse, the Ender-3 is known to have some issues with stability, resulting in a wobbly base, which can cause your files to print incorrectly.

On the other hand, beginners could use these issues as an opportunity to hone their 3D printing skills and learn a lot since the Ender-3 is easy to modify.

There’s Hope for Beginners

If you’re willing to learn, research, and put in the time, there are plenty of ways to upgrade the Ender-3 to make your experience smoother. Fortunately, there’s a large community out there sharing ways to upgrade the 3D printer.

Replacing the heating bed, and systems for calibration will go a long way in making the Ender-3 easier to use.

Plus, the fact that this 3D printer is so cheap means that it makes a good beginner 3D printer as a low-cost learning process, before upgrading to a new one. You could also use it as a secondary 3D printer if you already have a 3D printer that’s never available.

The Most Popular 3D Printer

Thanks to the Creality Ender-3’s great value, it’s become one of the world’s most popular 3D printers. Because of this, you’ll find a great following for this specific 3D printer.

This alone makes the 3D printer more valuable, because of all the support you can find online. Communities like r/3Dprinting on Reddit will have tonnes of information to help with any issues you may encounter.

Conclusion

The Creality Ender-3 3D printer isn’t perfect, but for the price, it’s just too good to pass on. If you’ve just been dipping your feet into the 3D printing world, this is the 3D printer you want to take a plunge for. For all the benefits it offers along with its affordable price, I’d easily forget about the few limitations it has and swim away with this 3D printer. Let us know what you think of the Creality Ender-3 3D printer in the comments below!