Creality Ender 3 V3 SE 3D Printer, 250mm/s Printing Speed DIY 3D Printers with CR Touch Auto Leveling, Sprite Direct Extruder Auto-Load Filament Dual Z-axis Y-axis, Printing Size 8.66x8.66x9.84 inch

The Ender 3 marked my entry into the 3D-printing world, and I love it! The 3D printer has been a godsend! If you're also newbie and searching for advice, here's my brief take on the Ender 3. It's awesome! The Ender 3 arrives in pieces that you must assemble. Since it is essentially a robot, assembly can seem overwhelming at first, but if you take it one step at a time, you'll be printing in no time. I found the printed instructions accompanying the unit to be more sizzle than steak, but, fortunately there are several videos on YouTube that make assembly a breeze. Believe it or not, assembling the unit yourself is beneficial because it familiarizes you with the device. It will allow you to easily make the minor adjustments that 3D printers often require. My wife and I have found that 3D printing comes with somewhat of a steep learning curve, but it's fun. YouTube and websites such as "all3DP dot com" have proven themselves to be life savers. The most common adjustments you'll make while 3D printing is "bed leveling." In truth, though, you're not actually "leveling" the print bed, but rather you're ensuring that the print nozzle is uniformly distanced from the bed (the print surface) on all its 4 corners. The nozzle needs to be super close, too. ...not about an inch or two away from the print bed, but rather it needs to be no further than the thickness of a piece of paper. Crazy, huh? When my wife and I printed a test file provided by Creality (the manufacturer), we frankly sat mesmerized at the unit's precision. It was like staring into a campfire and getting lost in the flames. The nozzle just zipped back and forth across the print bed leaving tiny bits of corn-based "plastic" one layer at a time, and eventually (over time) created a cat/dog thingy. In search of more things to print, we settled on two websites with tons of 3D-printable files that are very often free to download. The websites are "thingiverse dot com" and "cults3d dot com". The latter site takes longer to load, but seems to have more options. Creality has one too, but I haven't really checked it out yet. It's important to note that the files you download from such websites are *.stl files, whereas the Ender 3 needs *.gcode files. To make the file conversion, we downloaded a piece of software called Cura. It appears to be the best (free) software on the market for "slicing" 3D files into *.gcode files. That too has a steep learning curve, complete with complicated settings. But fortunately there are lots of tutorials online along with settings you can copy from experts. I mostly rely on "all3DP dot com" for that. After a while, we decided to invent our own designs and then print them into existence. In my opinion, the cat's meow -- the best and easiest 3D design application -- is Fusion360. It has a limited free version for students and schools, but otherwise it's quite pricey. My wife then found free, open-sourced design software called FreeCAD. We love it, and haven't turned back since. The filament we prefer is PLA. In our experience, PLA produces little to no fumes and it's guilt-free because it's corn-based and biodegradable. It should be noted, though, that not all PLA is created equally. This is primarily because (according to what I've read) pigments affect the PLA in different ways. So, when I order PLA from Amazon, I always look for the PLA with the most and highest reviews. Then, I refer upon their temperature recommendations. Overall, we absolutely love the Ender 3. At under $200, it's extremely affordable, and the process of printing things into existence can be (in my experience) somehow transformative. And if you find yourself confused about something, take my advice by not wasting time by trying to figure it out for yourself. Just refer to the experts on any of the websites I mentioned so, later on, you can focus on things that really matter...like design. Note: the bearing on a little fan went out. So, I reached out to Comgrow, they got back to me immediately, and now a new fan is on the way. No fuss no muss. Finally, at the risk of getting to personal, I'm a disabled veteran who benefits from focusing on tangible things. The process of 3D printing has proven itself to be such a godsend in that regard, that I think the VA should seriously explore ways of getting more vets 3D printing. I hope this helped newbies like me. Happy printing!

I am very happy with my Ender 3 V3 SE. It is my first 3D printer, having some experience with them in the past. This printer performed to an excellent standard and required very little setup out of the box. Unfortunately, the SE does not talk to the Creality Print software, and does not have WiFi or Ethernet network connectivity. Basic functionality is through physically moving an SD-card from your computer to the SD slot on the printer. It has a USB-C outlet that can be connected with a data cable to a computer and communicated serially with COM ports and the CH340 communications driver, it’s not complicated, but it’s not a straightforward process. After about 50 prints or so, the bearings on the Y axis optical rails came loose and resulted in a bed wobble that could register on the Richter scale. I upgraded the Y axis and X axis to linear guide rails, I do believe these upgrades are wholly necessary if you wish to print at the printers upper accelerations for any extended period of use. Changing filaments is a breeze with the direct drive extruder, I have printed in PLA, TPU, and PETG all with very good quality, adjusting settings along the way. If you enjoy tinkering, and learning how FDM printers work, how slicers and gcode work, and want a less expensive start to the hobby I would highly recommend the SE printer. I have also heard good things about its sister the KE.

The first few weeks with this printer were actually pretty rocky. I was having lots of printing failures and quirky problems. Many were due to user error and lack of experience, a few were made worse by poor usability design. Whoever designed this printer didn't really think through some things. This takes tweaking out of the box. With that said, I highly recommend this printer to someone who is looking for an amazing printer at a lower price, is good at troubleshooting prints, and is capable of problem solving and addressing some out of the box product issues. The cons list, while long, is all easily fixable. For the price you pay, these types of adjustments are completely worth it. Cons: -You must assemble yourself. This majorly increases the risk of breaking something or installing something wrong resulting in crazy printing problems. This also raises the risk of voiding your warranty. So, be really good at building things and able to fix your way out of mistakes - The out of the box filament holder/location is just flat out ridiculous. You'll need to print several additional parts if you want filament that doesn't interfere with your z-axis lead rod. -The frame is very prone to vibrations that affect the print. You'll need to print out feet to absorb the vibrations -The fan on the computer unit is in about the worst place imaginable. you'll need to print out a shield that redirects the airflow to avoid filament falling into the unit and the front left corner of the bed cooling off. -The wires were seemingly designed to get hung on the frame. you'll need to print several parts to slope the edges of the frame and do some cable management to avoid them getting hung on other parts. - The LCD screen has no backplate so you have a bare circuitboard exposed to whatever decides to bump into it. You'll need to print a backplate if you want to keep it protected. -The bed is so dad-gum hard to get level and keep that way. One tiny little nudge can throw the whole thing off. The springs are very weak and don't really hold in place for the first few weeks of use. You'll probably want to buy replacement springs or be VERY CAREFUL when interacting with the bed or anything remotely near the bed. -The x-axis belt is slightly too big, meaning that you're going to get ovals instead of circles out of the box. I used one of the included zip-ties to tighten the belt where it fits into the printhead notch and now it works fine. -the z-axis lead rod is crooked. IDK how to explain this or why it is this way, or how I fixed it but it is legit out of the box crooked. I think I blacked out while fixing it because I can't figure out how I straightened it out. Mine still has a slight slope when the arm is towards the bottom of the bed. IDK. Maybe I'll never understand. There are some parts you can print that are spacers for the unit, but keep in mind the frame acts as a heat sink so you'll need to add some raspberry pi heat sinks to the z motor to keep it from overheating. -this thing grounds by plugging in to the wall. That is fine and normal, but KEEP THIS IN MIND and make sure whatever you plug it into has a verified working ground. My surge protector was broken and the ground wasn't working. So I kept having massive crashes with the machine. Turns out static was building up during long prints and shorting out the machine. Yikes. Again though, this isn't the machine's fault. Just adding this in because it's pretty important to understand. -Cura doesn't have this printer listed in presets. You have to take the cura 10 settings and tweak them. There are lots of tutorials on youtube on how to get the best out of this printer so prepare to watch a lot of videos and have a lot of filament sacrificed to the test print gods. Pros: -price is like...wow. Amazing -the bed size is huge and really gives you room to create some awesome stuff -you can get some incredible quality prints off this puppy. Once I got mine in a good state I was astonished with the quality -can print at pretty high speeds and retain quality -it has print recovery that works surprisingly well in the case of a power interruption. -Is at it's core a very good little printer that is highly capable and reliable ONCE YOU ADDRESS THE ABOVE CONCERNS. If you're a beginner and you're looking for something easy to get started with, skip this and go with something like the monoprice mini v2. If you've been working with a beginner printer for a while and are starting to feel limited, and you're good at troubleshooting - I highly recommend this printer. It's worth it.

I have been thinking about buying a 3d printer for a little over a year. They have been pricy so I've not stepped into this arena, especially with so much information to wade through. So I bought this printer on a whim with a "lighting deal." First, I read other reviews and found YouTube for assembling the printer. The instructions help a little with the videos, but this is really the only negative. It's well made and simple to assemble so it made for a fun afternoon. Next thing to know is that I didn't know nearly enough. Once it's assembled, you have to level it. Luckily there's a ton of videos on this, and the assembly videos will go through that as well. It's not hard, but something I never thought of. I also got the auto leveler and installed it a few days later. That's a whole different thing that is amazing once you figure it out. Another thing i didn't realize is the print bed. This printer comes with one, obviously, and it does a good job. Keeping the bed level is hugely important for your prints. Also keeping it clean. It's never really clean though. I watched a ton of videos about using alcohol to clean it but that can actually be too harsh. Soap and water seems to be the go to across forums. Using some other adhesive is fair game as well. I didn't realize how much damage I did and bought a glass bed for my prints. Glass was amazing! It actually struggled to get prints to release. But the alcohol was too much and had already started to ruin my new bed. So, just soap and water should get you through most issues (and don't be afraid of the glass bed, it is pretty nice) Now, your filament absorbs water. I also didn't realize this and thought the various filament storage and dryer were just frivolous. They are, and they aren't. I have silica beads, and a vacuum sealer, so I don't strictly speaking need one of those. Also, my oven has a dehydration setting. However, it's nice to just have one on hand and not take up the kitchen or extra electricity from having the oven on. So, need one, no, but I'm not mad that my bundle came with one. Most of the rest of your questions can be Googled. But also, read forums, not just the popular videos and articles (it's how I've ruined two print bed). Everyone loves discussing the slicer (print configuration software basically) settings ands getting the most out of each print. I'm personally looking forward to learning to build my own designs, but don't feel like you have to. My kids love me printing endless frogs and cats for them to display and show off. My nephew likes the toys I've managed so far. Above I've mentioned things I've learned and wish I knew more about ahead of time. However I haven't really talked about the printer itself. It's been great. There's no real instructions because each print is a little different. You need to experiment to see what works best with everything. That may not be for everyone. But you can create surprisingly large prints with great detail with this printer. It's been smooth! It's worth noting that 3d printers can be loud, but it's not very. If say it's more quiet then most dot matrix printers. I can sit by it printing and work on other projects, or leave the room and I can't really hear it. So if you're wanting to break into this as a hobby, this is an excellent printer to start with. It's a little older so there's tons of help out there for it and it's been reliable. Replacement parts are not expensive, nor are upgrades. TLDR: This is a good printer and I'm happy with my purchase.

TL;DR: If you want to print, avoid it. If you want to spend endless nights tweaking, welcome aboard. After a year: constant stringing, clogs, ugly seams, random failures after 8-12 hours of printing. The "first print" is fine. Everything after that is a circus. By the way, Creality ships this "starter printer" with a cheap plastic sticker bed held on with binder clips. You end up scraping parts off like it’s 2016. A proper $10 PEI flex plate would solve adhesion and removal, but apparently that was too much to include. So you WILL start upgrading from day one. And calling it a "suitable gift for kids"? That’s marketing comedy. This is a machine where you need to clean a 240 °C hotend, calibrate extrusion steps with 100 mm tests, and constantly tweak retraction/temperature. That’s not a toy - that’s a frustration kit. What I Printed Utility stuff: organizers, boxes, lids, rings, toys etc. PLA, PETG, TPU, CF - sometimes a 0.8 nozzle for bigger parts. Cura (latest versions). Out of the Box The first couple of simple models were tolerable. As soon as you go beyond the default settings, chaos begins. Seams turn into ugly zits. Too many retractions = clog city. You leave it overnight, burn 12 hours of power and filament, and wake up to a printer happily "printing in the air" because the hotend is jammed with a solid plug of plastic. Look at the photos: spiderwebs, blobs at seams, tears at layer changes, chunks of plastic from supports. That’s normal for this machine, not an exception. Upgrades I Tried: - Metal extruder arm instead of plastic - Capricorn PTFE tube - Bi-metallic heatbreak - Stronger bed springs - PEI build plate (this one is actually good) - Different nozzles (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8) - Tons of Cura profiles I did the full calibration dance: e-steps, flow 85-105%, temp towers (PLA 195-215, PETG 225-250), retractions from 0.8 to 7mm (Bowden life), speed 30-70mm/s, z-hop on/off, coasting/wipe/pressure advance where possible. Cooling fan anywhere from 0-100%. Always the same outcome: either strings and blobs, or under-extrusion, or a clog after a long run. Zero consistency. Why This Happens (Technical Reality) - Bowden with PTFE insert in the hotend. Frequent retractions pull the melt zone upwards - plastic plug forms - extrusion stops. Classic. - Rollers and V-slot mechanics. After a couple weeks, you’re back to chasing loose or overtightened wheels. The bed drifts, no auto-leveling, constant manual fixing. - Weak hotend and cooling. PETG in particular is a balancing act: no cooling = melted mess, too much cooling = layer adhesion dies and strings everywhere. - Software band-aids can’t fix hardware lottery. You can tweak overlap/coast/comb/linear advance forever, but if the core thermal/mechanical design is inconsistent, no profile saves you. "It’s Your Fault"? No I did the standard rookie-to-veteran upgrade path: extruder, tube, heatbreak, springs, plate, endless tuning. The result? Yes, the clogs went down, but the print quality problems went up. Same model, same filament - each print is a new lottery ticket. Side-by-Side Reality After a year of fighting, my wife got sick of watching me suffer and just bought me a $1000 printer. With the same filament and same models, I print instead of troubleshoot. That’s the whole difference. Pros - Cheap entry ticket - Huge community (good if you enjoy endless tinkering) - PEI plate really is great Cons - Totally inconsistent print quality - Thermal clogs on long jobs (especially with retractions) - Stringing, blobs, ugly seams, messy supports - V-rollers need constant adjustment - "Upgrades will fix it" is a myth: they only delay the pain Verdict Ender-3 is not "affordable printing," it’s "affordable endless tweaking." If your hobby is upgrading printers for the sake of it - fine. If you need a tool that consistently makes parts - don’t waste your time. I wasted mine. Never again.

I've only printed a few things so far but it's enough to give some good feedback. At this price point don't expect any frills. That said this bare bones printer performs great. First off from my pictures you'll notice I upgraded the print bed to glass. It's only an extra $12 at the time I purchased. I read some other info online that lead me to believe this would be more likely to be level and perform better. i don't regret it. It works great. My advice would be to take your time assembling this printer. Expect it to take about 4 hours, perhaps more. Make sure everything is tight and aligned properly in terms of the rollers, belts etc. Do not rely on the quick start guide or included instructions. Go out to Youtube and follow the assembly video. Pause it for each step. When you are done stay on Youtube. There is a "Complete beginner's guide" on there from an Australian creator that demonstrates using this exact model. I noticed his menus are a little different due to software changes but his leveling guide and calibration files work great. For being one of the cheapest printers you can get the performance is surprising. I'm very happy with the print quality. I love that I can use tools on Linux or Windows. You don't need to be plugged in as you can simply print from G code on the included micro SD card. The videos online can get you up and running quickly. Every tool needed to build and run the printer are in the box. Nice touch. There is a small amount of PLA material but you will want to order more right away. The included spool is small and really only enough for a couple test prints. If you are a beginner why spend more? This is the perfect first printer. Update: I thought I would add to my review now that I have had some time working with this printer. I've made a lot of improvements to the device I first received. The nice thing is most of the improvements are cheap or you can print them. First thing to note: I was having a lot of problems with printing anything large that took a bit of time. After a lot of digging I found the hotend shipped with the printer was (in my opinion) put together wrong. They either built it cold or inserted the nozzle before the heat break. Either way there was a gap that could not be fixed in the hotend. I bought a Creality spider hotend which is all metal. Way better and it works great. Add to that a BL Touch sensor for autoleveling the bed. Best addition ever. You still need to start with a level bed but it fixes all the little problems with uneven bed surfaces and stopped my extruder problems. While on the extruder. Calibrate your machine! Take the time to measure the output from your extruder. They use a generic setting from the factory. You NEED to set up this machine. Calibrate the extruder, the retraction distance, the nozzle temp for the filiment etc. Pay attention to the details and you will get great results. Really happy with this printer. It takes work but it's a fun project that leads to other projects, and for a beginner it's hard to beat. Some say you should buy higher end and avoid all the minor issues. I disagree. I think this has been a learning experience that prompted me to understand the machine. I think that basic knowledge of the process is important. Your mileage may vary.

This is my first 3D printer. I've had it about 3 weeks, and I'm already getting comfortable with it. The machine has great stability, and as I imagine with all 3D printers, a learning curve, but once you get familiar with it, it will feel like an extension of your body. As I've stated, I'm new to this skillset, so I won't pretend to be able to compare it with others, but for all you people thinking about getting into 3D printing, I'll lay out what you're looking at getting into... Upon receiving it, you'll have to do a bit of assembly. Nothing too complicated, and there are many walk-throughs on YouTube, that can guide you through the entire process. Its not a must, but having some experience with tools and a bit of problem solving skills will help you out a lot. By the time you're done, you'll have a grasp on how your printer works, which is important when it comes to using and maintaining it. Once you've got it set up, the next thing you'll want to do is look up installing filament and leveling the bed. Again, search for YouTube videos, especially with leveling the bed, because you'll want to pick up a good strategy on this, as it's critical to having success with your prints. The best strategy that I've found is the one using the sheet of paper. At first, it might feel a bit overwhelming trying to get everything just right, but as you use this skill, and lay down some plastic on the bed, you'll get a feel for it, and within a couple weeks you'll be able to do it blindfolded, and you'll understand why it's so important, and what areas you need to pay the most attention with each print. I strongly recommend getting the yellow spring upgrades that you can find on Amazon. Honestly the difference is so drastic, and the cost so cheap, I dont understand why it doesn't come that way. Once you've gotten bed leveling down and the filament installed, you can print an example that's included on the SD card, and give your printer a test run. From here, there are 2 ways you can go about creating things. You can search the web for creations already set up for you to print, or you can create your own. Im not a very creative person, but it made no sense to me to limit myself with other people's creations. So I'll just briefly get you pointed in that direction. To create designs you're going to need CAD software. I found Fusion 360, it's free for hobbyist, and I think it's amazing. Its got a bit of a learning curve, but once you get comfortable with it, you feel the world is yours to create. Using geometry, planes, and extrude tools, you'll be able to model anything you want in real life, or anything you could possibly think of... I have no affiliation with this person, but their tutorials have helped me so much with the software, that in about 10 days I am now designing my own creations like an experienced user. Seriously, search for Product Design Online on youtube...you'll know it's him because he mentions his name in the videos and it's Kevin. He teaches so many helpful techniques. Just be aware that his tutorials span 2 different versions of fusion 360, so the interface looks a little different in some, but you'll get the hang of it easily. One if the best teachers I've found on the internet, period. The next thing you'll need is a splicer software. This software takes your design and slices it into layers. This is where you'll set up the parameters for how your printer will behave during the print too. Such as temperatures, speed, layer thickness, etc...the amount of terms you'll have to learn seems overwhelming, but at first you can just use presets, and learn them as you go. As I've said, I've been doing this for 3 weeks, and I'd say I understand about 80% of this terminology simply by trying to solve errors in my print, and reading the tool tips. By far, the best free slicer I've found is cura. I've tried a few others, but nothing comes close to it. However, I've been told Simify3D makes cura looks like a junky slicer, comparatively. The issue for me is that it costs $150, and I dont have that cash flow. If I did,bid definitely want to try it out, and apparently you can purchase it and get a full refund after 1 or 2 weeks if you preferred cura. So, it's a lot if stuff to learn and get used to...You'll be best served if you have a mechanical & technical know-how, but if you dont, you'll definitely acquire those skills using your printer. There are upgrades for these printers. Not just creality, but all the hobby 3d printers, and you'll learn them over time, but as I stated earlier, the bed springs are a must have, and they're cheap. I wish you the best of luck on your journey, and if you're like me, this will probably become your most favorite that you've ever owned. Happy printing & #PrintOn

First thing first the instructions sent with the printer are very lacking to say the least. The instructions reference parts by name yet there is no list of the parts so you can identify what part they are referring to. After assembly was finished next came fine tuning the bed level and making sure all of the parts were snug and not shaky. Well the bed would come unlevel midprint if I printed anything that took more than 30 minutes. At this point I would like to mention that I installed a cr-touch and downloaded the appropriate firmware. Bed leveling issues continue as well as I notice a z-axis stepper motor issue at this point. Basically at some random time during a print the z-axis would clunk and then ruin the print. All the while the fan is screaming with a loud piercing sound. So I do some online research and replaced the springs with some aftermarket springs. Bed leveling is now functioning much better and I can now print things for several hours. However I still have the z-axis issue. Not to mention my Bowden tube keeps lopping out. So I contact customer service about the issues I have been having. They ask me to send them video evidence of all of the issues. So I send them a short video of the fan problem and explain that the z-axis issues is random and I am unable to record more than 15 seconds (it's a bug in the custom rom on my phone) so catching the z issue is not going to be feasible. So they ignore all the issues except the fan. They send me the fan and a g-code for a test print and tell me to replace the fan and then do the test print. I goto put the test print gcode on the SD card when I notice it isn't showing up on my PC. So I reach down to unplug it and plug it back in so my computer can read it and to my surprise it burned me. I pulled it out and it is melted. Luckily I got the SD card out but I am not sure if it functions anymore. Well I decided I will go ahead and swap the fan and hook the printer up to my PC (didn't know about this feature until yesterday) and do the test print. I load up the test print in cura and I is a 29 hour test print. Now I have to buy a roll of filament just to do the ridiculous test print. All the while their customer support team only responds between 11pm and 6 am so I only get one email a day and I have to change my sleeping schedule just to do that. This was not the experience I was expecting with my first 3d printer and I am deeply saddened at they way Comgrow has handled this. Edit June 12,2022: the test print took about 2 hours the gcode made the time prediction way off. After doing the test print and a few more back and forths I now have a replacement motherboard and z-stepper motor on the way. I will update the review when I get everything replaced and reassembled. Edit July 3,2022: Replaced the parts with the ones I initially received and everything seems to be working well. I can do much longer prints without worrying. Overall it's a decent machine and prints fairly well. The customer service is lacking a bit but they still solved my problems, eventually.