Creality Upgrade Spider Ceramic Hotend Kit, High Flow Speedy Ender 3 Hotend Up to 300℃ for Ender 3,Ender 3 V2,Ender 3Pro,Ender 5/5 Pro/Plus 3D Printer (Ender 3 S1 Pro)

I upgraded to this printer from a Wanhao D6 clone, wanting something a bit more up-to-date. The printer arrived on time and was well-secured inside its box. The instructions for putting it together were mostly clear (albeit terse), but were occasionally baffling. For example, the printer ships with a "Z-axis limit kit" which is clearly marked in the installation guide inventory, but there is no other reference to it in the installation guide. This was somewhat alarming, but after much searching online, I determined that it was just a spare part for something already installed. Another mystery: there are turnable knobs on both the front of the bed slider and the right of the gantry slider, and I *still* haven't figured out what those are for. Other than that, putting it together was reasonably easy, though I strongly recommend (a) putting it together on a large table with a blanket placed on the table (b) getting the help of a second person to stabilize it while putting it together and (c) using a long, thin magnetic screwdriver with changeable bits for screwing things in because the supplied drivers are not very useful for reaching into hard-to-reach screw sockets.Another key problem was the initial auto-leveling, which hit an error about halfway through with an extremely unhelpful error message despite my worktable being absolutely level. There is no "troubleshooting guide" in the installation guide, and I was in a bit of despair. Again, searching online, it appears that auto-leveling will fail if there is more than a 3mm difference in level between the starting point and another other point, so the fix is to manually level the bed using the knobs under the bed while a small construction level is placed on it -- then autoleveling will work and you can follow the rest of the instructions for it normally.The bed wobbles slightly from left to right, and this is apparently by design. I'm used to a printer where the bed moves up and down, not forward and back, so this was slightly startling to me. I'm also used to a printer where there is a specific command to insert material, but on this printer and I got stuck trying to find a similar command on the S1 Pro, but in fact you just pull back the feeder clip and push it in without any command. This is way more efficient, but the manual assumes that you know how to insert material already and doesn't tell you how to do it. (Related to that, I really like the high degree-of-freedom material guide on the gantry, as it helps keep the filament from getting into trouble without impeding the nozzle feed as the head moves around.)Another installation omission, though this one's mostly my fault -- the guide tells you to install the wire clip, but forgets to tell you to feed the ribbon cable through it. If you are rushing things, you might forget to do it on your own. Failing to do this can cause the ribbon cable to interfere with the filament near where it enters the heater, though I actually managed two perfectly fine prints before I realized what was happening.OK, that's it for the weird and annoying stuff. The good news is that, once you have it set up and leveled, it's amazingly good. The touch screen is almost perfect (you have to hunt around a bit for the manual controls to heat the nozzle if you want to melt out some older filament, but that's my only complaint). Auto-leveling after the first time is so easy and fast that I always do it before every print, even when I'm printing objects one after the other. I first built the included "money cat" STL using the included PLA, and it was absolutely perfect on the first try. I use Simplify 3D for slicing, so I searched around online for an S1-specific FFF format file for it to generate my own gcodes. I could only find a format file for PLA, but happily this worked and, using Overture PLA+, I printed a half-dozen successful builds with no failures at all -- no stringing, no warping. Adhesion was perfect during the build, and the builds just popped off of the plate once it had cooled -- literally, I could just pick them up with my hand as if they were just sitting there unattached. I only needed minimal support for bridging, and I was able to print at pretty extreme angles without needed support.I tried Overture PETG the next week, researching the heat and speed values, and got it right the first time. Again, no problems with the prints at all.Today, I tried Overture ABS, again making guesses at the values based on some (often conflicting) online information. This would be the trickiest print, since ABS is notoriously bad at adhering and generally you also need an enclosure for it to work well. However, once again, everything went perfectly. I didn't have to coat the build plate with anything, I didn't get any curling at the edges, and the part just popped off once the build plate had cooled.Overall, I've done over a dozen prints in the last couple of weeks using three different kinds of plastic (a couple of them being quite complex), and every single one has turned out to be a high-quality piece. I can't say enough good things about this printer -- it's a great buy for the money. I almost went for the much more expensive Prusa, but I'm happy that I saved myself a bunch of cash and went with the Creality instead.

First, the only problem I've had is that I thought the light bar didn't work. It's supposed to plug right in with no need for wiring. You also have to turn on the light switch! Beyond that, this has substantially better features than the model just below this in price. Well worth the additional cost. Great quality. Heavy durable frame. Fantastic leveling abilities. It's much quieter than the lower cost model as well. Great quality.

[Edit] Bed leveling is process can be quite the headache, despite the CR-touch. I’ve used two of these machines in combination with the Creality Sonicpad. Mainly knocking this down from 5-star to 4-star because of the Creality technical/warranty support. If you’re looking to make a claim on your warranty, good luck.This is my second Creality printer (first was Ender 3 Pro). The print quality is noticeably better, and the ease of use is awesome. Very impressed.The features/hardware that this come stocked with are impressive. You could buy practically every component separately and upgrade your Ender 3 or other Creality model, but you’ll find that buying this printer is easier (and less expensive).If you’re looking for your 1st or 2nd printer, I’d certainly suggest this one. The price may be higher than those others that you’re considering, but the time saved with maintenance, failed prints, etc. is going to make the price well worth it!

Worked great for 6 months, then after slicing a new print and putting in the SD card, the touch screen locked up. Restart the printer and everything works... till I put in an SD card where it locks up all settings.Flashed firmware. Was able to do the touchpad and motherboard but suspect it's because interaction isn't required with the sd card since the firmware upgrade just launches itself.Still same issue. Works fine till you insert an SD card. SD card insert makes the touchpad freezeThis printer didn't like silk, but printed pla and petg fine. Unfortunately it's now been sitting unusable for 2 months because contacting their email trying to get warranty help is like a revolving door telling me to reflash the firmware and send them videos...Seeing that this printer is now selling for almost $100 less than when we purchased seems to reflect the value of this product to the company and supporting their product.In hindsight I should have waited for the bambu p1p or gotten 2 more of my sovol sv02 printers that print dual colors and have only had minor issues but absolutely great customer service.Disappointed in this $500 paper weight