The Anycubic Wash & Cure Plus – let’s give it a review.
Hey guys, Cleaning prints can be a pain. Cleaning big
prints is an even bigger pain. But good news… Anycubic have strived to remedy this with
their newly released Wash & Cure Plus, a resin wash and cure system for extra-large prints.
Anycubic were kind enough to send me their original Wash & Cure machine to review and
they’ve done it again with the Wash & Cure Plus.
And Plus it is as it’s a real big boy, designed to work alongside their much loved Mono X,
a printer capable of almost 10 inch tall prints. But if you don’t own an Anycubic printer,
don’t despair… just keep watching. To cope with extra-large prints, the wash
tank is a monster, able to hold 8.5 litres of cleaning fluid. And look at the impeller.
That will certainly churn the cleaning fluid. As before, the bottom of the tank is completely
watertight and the internal impeller is driven by magnets.
The Original had quite cumbersome brackets to contend with that also made things a bit
more brand specific. The Plus comes with two metal frames. The
first being this sturdy basket and the second being this smaller affair.
The tank has a small ridge near the top and the shoulders of this catch this frame. From
it you can suspend the printing plate, along with the print. The beauty of this frame is
that it’s capable of working not only with the Mono X, but also the Elegoo Saturn and
the Phrozen Mighty 4K. Others plates may fit, but these are all I had to hand.
The base is typical Anycubic quality, being metallic, attractive and well-engineered.
The power point and switch are located at the back.
The controls are obvious. This button chooses between Wash or Cure functions and this dial
allows you to select the number of minutes up to a maximum of 60.
When you’re ready to go, simply push the dial to start or stop.
Fitting the turntable is much easier than with the original Wash & Cure.
The light array is certainly tall enough to do the job, and to help create a truer 360
degree coverage, the top section can angle downwards. Additionally, Anycubic has included
this clever sticker. It has a reflective mirror coating to redirect UV rays and catch the
underside of the print. But talk is cheap, so let’s give it a go.
This is a thirsty machine. Obviously you don’t have to fill it. Just add as much as you need
to cover your prints. Halfway there now. Let’s just give it a
quick spin. That’s all the IPA I have and this tank
is now pretty heavy, probably not suitable for youngsters to handle I think.
Now this print is a fail but hey, we all have them. It is however roughly 8 inches tall
and a nice test subject. Er, quick word of warning this frame can fall
down so carefully does it. I’ll place the lid on as a splash cover
rather than the UV lid, though the light array stops me closing all four clip edges.
Well, you can’t see much, but there’s a frenzy of activity going on in there.
Depending on how long you choose to run the wash cycle, the impeller can and does automatically
reverse direction which is a great feature. Well that, I think you’ll agree, looks very
clean. Failed print or not, I’ll just clip away
these supports. I’ll give the print another quick spin to
wash away any residue left by the supports and it gives me the opportunity to try the
basket. There’s nothing flimsy about this frame.
Yep! Beautifully clean. So let’s cure it. I wanted to avoid sticking this reflective
sticker in place as I felt frequent adding and removing the tank would damage it. But
with the static electricity from the plastic turntable, it seems it doesn’t want to lie
flat unless it’s stuck down. Well it works. It’s not my best print and
I won’t bother cleaning and priming this one, but you guys have seen me do that before.
The important thing here is the Wash & Cure. The question is, does it work? Is it better
than trying the wash prints manually? Well yes, obviously.
Washing prints manually is a messy and cumbersome affair. Using this Wash & Cure is delightfully
simple. The wash is VERY thorough and the power of
that impeller really circulates the cleaning solution, washing the print free of uncured
resin. I’m a little fearful that very fine and delicate prints may get buffered around
a little too much, but for 99% of your printing needs, you can expect a thorough wash cycle,
as long as the cleaning solution remains clean enough to do the job.
At some point of course you’ll need to empty the tank and 8.5 litres is no lightweight.
Fortunately, I’m pleased to see the corners of the tank are a little squarer than those
on the Original, so hopefully there will be less spills.
If you use IPA like me, I’d advise recycling it. It will extend the life of your IPA and
to keep the tank topped with clean fluids. The curing cycle works as well as you’d
expect. Nice and even coverage at multiple angles thanks to the tilting top and the reflective
base. The turntable copes with the weight of larger
prints with ease and the reflective sticker does seem to cure the underside well. I’m
impressed to see these dimples on the surface, presumably there to stop anything sticking
to it. So what do I think of the Anycubic Wash & Cure
Plus. I think it does an excellent job of cleaning
and makes an otherwise messy job much easier and more effective. You’ve got to have a
curing station, so including a cleaner in that same space just makes things more practical.
But the Plus is big. And when full, it’s heavy. It’s certainly a lot of highly flammable
IPA to have knocking around in any one location, and yes that could be a disaster waiting to
happen – so maybe an alternative to IPA might be a better idea.
But then, what do you expect from something large enough to cope with the cleaning needs
of extra large 3D prints. As long as you’re sensible in your location, have good ventilation,
and are careful in use, this Plus sized curing cleaner will greatly simplify your cleaning
and curing experiences and you’ll quickly come to love it. Personally I’m convinced
these machines clean much more thoroughly than can be done with a brush or spray bottle
and have to admit that I always use my Original Wash & Cure.
But I won’t be doing that any more. The Plus can cope with big or small prints, so
it’s my new machine I choice – and I love it. I can even use it to clean the parts of
my other printers. So there you go guys, the Anycubic Wash & Cure
Plus. It does exactly what you need it to. I hope you enjoyed this video guys. Take care
and thanks for watching.