Hi there. My name is Nils with The 3D Printing Zone,
and today I'm going to be telling you why I think the Ender 3 V2 might
be the best option as your first 3D printer.
[Inaudible].
Now to give you a bit of context here, I've had 14 different 3D printers,
so I've seen all different kinds, different styles, different price ranges,
different things like that.
This is definitely what I would consider an entry-level 3D printer. That said,
it's got a lot of features that a lot of my more expensive printers do not have.
Let's jump right into some things that I love about this printer,
and then we'll follow that up with some things that I would love to see changed
perhaps in a future version. Now,
the first thing I really love about this is these nice larger knobs for bed
leveling. A lot of the printers I have, in fact,
the older ones in particular started with these really tiny little knobs for
adjusting and they are stiff and difficult to use. These ones are much wider,
and so you can do some kind of micro adjustments as you go,
which is really handy. Now on the topic of these dials and knobs back here,
we have a feed control knob, which is really nice.
You can see it working right now, and this thing just moves back and forth.
You can watch it retract when it's retracting the filament and then push it back
out when it's ready to print again.
So it's kind of a nice visual indicator of what's going on,
but more importantly,
this gives you the ability to easily feed in new filament or retract new
filament out when you need to pull it out of the Bowden tube right here.
Believe it or not, of all the printers I've had,
this is the only printer I have that has an app like this.
And I think it should be kind of a standard thing.
They're just really convenient to have. Next up,
you'll notice that I'm recording this whole video within literally inches of the
Ender 3 V2. It's on it's printing. The fans are running,
it's doing its whole thing and it is awfully quiet.
You're not going to be hearing much if any movement of the X, Y,
and Z axis, these things are really quiet.
And that's one of the biggest enhancements that they made with the V2 was
putting silent stepper motors on all of this.
What I do hear is the fans from the power supply,
as well as the fans from the hot end.
I would even dare to say that this might be one of the first 3D printers that
I've owned,
that I can actually put in a bedroom or in a place where I'm sleeping without it
really disturbing you, it kind of creates white noise, basically.
So if you're okay with some white noise of the fans running,
then that's about all you're going to hear.
You're not hearing a lot of movement.
Sometimes there's even a musical tune to what this thing does as the X and Y
axis move back and forth. You don't really hear that with the Ender 3.
Another great feature on this printer are the belt tensioners.
A lot of times with the belt tension, you have to adjust two screws on one side,
two screws on the other, pull it back, hold it in place,
and then adjust those screws to tighten them back into place. With this,
you've got these simple belt tensioner knobs here on the X axis,
and here on the Y axis,
all you have to do is just twist that a little bit.
And it's basically got a threaded bolt in here that's pulling the whole axis or
the whole roller toward the knob here.
So that makes it really easy to tighten or loosen that as you need to.
Another thing that I love about this printer is the switch to micro USB.
So this has micro USB,
which is the very common type of USB that we use on a lot of phones, devices,
little things for charging, things like that.
I probably have two or three dozen micro USB cables kicking around the house and
you probably do too. Next is the form factor for the Ender 3 V2.
This is a very similar form factor to the prior versions of the Ender 3.
And it's just become kind of a standard where you have your power supply and
everything built in.
You've got some sort of a touch screen or an interface or a knob control,
something like that over on one side. And then it's a tower up.
You've got the extruded, aluminum holding everything together.
This one does have the tower arms here that are kind of a thicker,
a double height.
And then it's got the single thickness going across on the x-axis and across the
top pane here of the gantry. So it's a decent,
solid metal build quality here, and it really works pretty well.
I'm not experiencing any issues with it moving around.
You can see as it's going here,
I'm not seeing movement up here even with the weight of the spool sitting up on
top. So a decent build quality, a good form factor,
and one that's really being copied by, you know,
different manufacturers all over the place right now,
because this one just works. Now, speaking of a good form factor,
another thing they've added here is these really nice rubber feet.
If I had to guess, I'd say those are about 5/8 of an inch thick,
maybe about 18 millimeters thick. And they are good and solid.
They're soft enough that they're going to give a little bit,
but they make it so that this thing, when it's sitting on any surface,
it feels really steady. And it's absorbing a lot of that vibration.
That's happening up top here, and it doesn't translate into the print so easily,
like it would otherwise. So a nice little feature that they've added on here.
Good solid, thick, rubber feet.
Now with the introduction of the Ender 3 V2 came a large color interface with
a whole new UI, a whole new user interface to work with here.
This is really convenient.
It just gives you the information that you need and not what you don't.
I always check that on 3d printers.
I want to make sure that while it's printing, like right now, for example,
I can see how much time has elapsed in the print so far, how much is remaining.
And then I want to see both my target temperature as well as the current
temperature for both the bed and the hot end.
And then another one that I really like to be able to see is the Z.
So right now it's a 0.00 on this,
and I think there's something wrong with it right now.
I do have the latest firmware on here,
but for some reason it's not showing the actual Z height.
And I love to see that Z height in case something goes wrong, or I'm not sure.
And I can just pick that up where I left off.
So typically that's going to be there and I've seen it on other prints.
I'm not sure what's going on on this one. So not perfect,
but definitely a pretty decent interface here.
I can also hop in during the print and I can tune things.
I can turn my fan speed up or down. I can adjust my printer, speed,
different things like that.
I can hop in and pause this and then resume it or I can stop it altogether.
So all the things you would expect and a nice color,
decent little UI here on the V2. Another thing I enjoy about this one,
and this is pretty common nowadays, I think,
but you can switch between 120 volt and 220 volts.
So this printer can really be used anywhere in the world.
Now this next one may sound a little silly,
but it's one of my very favorite features about this printer.
And that is the drawer.
There's a built-in drawer here where I can keep the snips.
I can keep some wrenches. I can keep screwdrivers, a nozzle cleaner de-clogger,
some extra screws, things like that.
All of that can sit right here in the drawer. And then when I'm not using it, it
tucks away right in there. And I'm good to go.
I don't have to keep those on the side of the printer. So, like I say,
I've had all these printers and usually I've got this little box of them.
I've had to 3D print something that mounts on there, somewhere,
something like that, where I have to put it somewhere else on the side,
I have to find a way to take care of that. It's just a thoughtful thing to say,
you know, we've got some room in here,
let's just give you a little drawer and you're good to go.
I've got my Snapmaker right behind me, for example, here,
it's a wonderful printer. And it does a lot of really cool things.
And it's a three in one,
but I had to print my own drawer to be able to capture all the things and hold
all the things that I want in there. So just a nice thought,
really glad that they added that. Now,
the next thing I think you're really going to enjoy about this printer is that
the print bed is a really decent volume.
So this is a 220 by 220 by 250 print volume. Now,
if you translate that into inches, that's roughly 8.6 inches in both directions,
8.66 to about 9.2 inches tall.
So you're not going to be able to print huge things.
One of the questions I often get is can you print a Mandalorian helmet on a
printer this size? And the answer is no,
you're not going to be able to do it in one piece.
You could split it up and do multiple pieces,
or you could print one for someone with a teeny tiny head, I suppose.
So that's a decent print volume though, honestly, for this,
because I've seen a lot of printers that are coming out that have these little,
you know, 150 by 150 millimeter print volume. And that's just,
it's five inches. There's just not much you can do with that,
except for a little small teeny knickknacks.
So this one's big enough that you can get away with quite a bit.
I would love for it to be a little bit bigger, but in this price range,
that's a pretty great volume. Now,
the second to last item I want to bring up that I really like about this printer
is the fact that it prints well. I mean,
that's hopefully a given with most printers these days,
but in a lot of printers, you're still running into issues.
You're still having lots of troubles,
especially for someone who's new and has to figure out how to troubleshoot all
this stuff.
There is a lot less troubleshooting that you're going to have to deal with with
a printer like the Ender 3 V2.
So that's another reason I can really recommend this one as a first time printer
and it just works well. What it's printing right now, for example,
you can see I've printed a handful of things over here.
I've done a couple more things that are off camera here,
but I've never had an issue with it. It's just worked.
And I'll tell you a little bit more in my number one as to why I think that is,
or a big factor in that. But generally speaking, it's solidly built.
The software works really well. It runs off the Marlin system,
which is very common and upgradable too,
if you're interested and then it's just, it just goes, it just works.
It's not something where you're going to struggle a lot to get your first print.
It will just print out pretty successfully for you.
I'd say 99 times out of a hundred.
Now that leads me to my number one favorite thing about this printer. And again,
this is something that's totally new for me,
even with all those other printers I've had is that I've never had a printer bed
as nice as this one, but it's a carborundum glass bed.
And basically that just means that the material it's made out of glass,
they've got a finished material on here and this,
this must be the carborundum aspect of it,
but basically that makes it so that it heats up fast.
It adheres really well. So I'm not ever using any glue. I'm not using hairspray.
I'm not using tape. I'm not using anything like that.
Just put it right onto the bed.
But my very favorite part about this thing is when I go to check on my prints
after they finished a lot of times, I'll print it at night,
wake up in the morning and there'll be done and I go to check on them and
they're literally sitting loose on the bed. So they're perfect.
They've printed just the way I want. But as the bed cools down,
they literally pop off and they're ready to go. You pick it up.
I don't have to use one of my putty knives to kind of wedge it in there.
I don't have to get something ultra sharp to try to sneak it into a corner.
And then pry. I don't have to worry about breaking things.
There's no scratches on this thing because it's never really been touched by a
putty knife. It just, everything has popped off. I'll stop talking about it now,
but man, that is a really cool feature.
And it will spoil you if you switch from this to something that doesn't have a
carborundum glass bed. All right. So it's not all roses with the Ender 3 V2.
It's not the perfect printer.
There are several things that I'd like to see changed about it,
but I have to lead off the cons section with a caveat.
And that is for the $260 to $290 price range that you're paying for this,
I wouldn't change a thing. I mean,
that's an amazing value that you're getting for that price.
Now that might be too steep for some of you,
as far as considering a first 3d printer,
there are less expensive printers that you can get.
And so this is not like no big deal to drop 260 bucks on something,
but you know what, you're really getting more than what you're paying for.
I think in this case, because it's such a solid experience. So that said,
here are a few things that I would love to see changed if I could on this.
If you've watched my other videos,
you know I'm a big fan of doing large 3D prints.
I would love to see a bigger print volume on here, again,
not expecting that in that price range, but that would make it even better,
if you could have maybe an upgrade to that or a plus size of this,
that would be pretty fantastic. I've already mentioned,
the switch to USB-C over here would be a great thing.
I'd love to see that- not going to lose any sleep over that one, not a big deal.
And I'm glad that it's micro USB instead of USBA,
but that would be a wonderful upgrade that I think really all printers should
have going in the future.
Another one that I've noticed is that it's got the worm drive back here for the
Z axis, but it's only got the one.
I have a lot of printers that have two worm drives for the dual Z axis worm
drive.
And what that does is it makes sure that everything is perfectly aligned as it
moves up and you don't get any, any kind of tilt basically going on here,
which could affect the quality of the print and of the layers adhering to one
another. I haven't had any issues with this on the prints that I've done so far,
but I also haven't printed anything that really maxes out the height of it.
And from what I've seen in the reviews and from the prints that other people
have done with this, it works really well, not a big deal,
but that would be a nice feature just to make it a little bit more solid,
a little higher quality. Now,
the second to last thing I want to mention for cons is that this does not have
what's called the direct drive system.
And all that means is right here is where the extruder motor is.
So the filament comes in, it's going through this,
and this is what's pushing it through this tube called the Bowden tube down to
the actual hot end where it melts and goes down onto the print bed.
This works for most things.
It's going to be okay if you try to get into some of the more flexible filaments
like TPU, for example, or Ninja flex,
then what I've seen happen is it bunches up in here,
right around this section here where the gears are,
or even right where the tubes meet, anything like that, it can do that.
And then what happens is that just starts to push out this way instead of going
down here. So it can cause some issues,
the best method is what's called direct drive,
where you have the extruder motor mounted onto the moving unit over here on the
X axis, and then everything moves together. So it's just pulling the filament,
a tube is okay, there's no problem with that.
But ideally you want the extruder on the other side of the tube.
So it's just going to pull it and push it right down through the hot end and
give you perfect run every single time with that direct drive system.
So that's one thing I'd love to see on there, but again, not a huge deal. Now,
the last thing this one has caught me multiple times,
this is the last thing I would love to see changed about this.
And that is a touch screen.
I do not know what the manufacturing costs are to add a touch screen to a system
like this. But my goodness,
I think I've probably tapped and touched on this thing,
like a hundred times in the last several days,
just trying to get familiar with it and to move around. And then I realized,
Oh yeah, you've gotta use the knob tap on the knob, that kind of thing.
I've got a lot of printers,
especially some of my earlier printers that use the same setup and whether it's
with a two color screen or a full color screen, but let's go with touch screens.
They're so much easier. We're used to them.
This looks and feels like a little phone, but you can't touch it.
So that would be another thing I would love to see changed at some point.
But again,
I know that all of these things that I'm listing as cons increase the cost of
the printer. So it was just some feedback for Creality.
Some things I'd love to see changed at some point. But as you heard,
the list of pros that I have for this thing is huge.
I think I counted 15 of them that were just things that I think are really well
done on this printer.
And that's pretty impressive for a printer coming in at such a low price point.
So hopefully you found this review helpful,
and you can see why I would recommend this as somebody's first 3D printer.
And honestly, for someone who's owned a lot of printers like myself,
it's still a great printer to have, and it's just going to be reliable.
It's well-tested and it's well thought out.
So whether this is your first or your second, third,
or fourth or 14th or 15th printer,
this is going to be a good one that you'll be able to rely on for years to come.
Now, if you check the links in the description below,
you will find a link to where you can purchase this printer for yourself.
And if there's any sales going on at Gearbest, for example,
which they often have,
I'll make sure to update that description with those sales so that you can take
advantage of that. They often do things around the holidays,
the Chinese new year or different things like that.
So feel free to take a look there,
see if you can get a great deal on this awesome little printer.
If you have comments or feedback, did I miss anything?
Are there things that I should have mentioned, but didn't,
feel free to leave those in the description below.
And if you disagree with any of the things I mentioned,
I'd love to hear about it. Thanks for joining me at The 3D Printing Zone.
My name is Nils and we'll see you next time.