The Creality K1C: A Better Pick Than The Bambu Lab P1S?!

You've probably heard about the Creality K1C. Creality touts it as the K1 for people who want to print carbon-filled filaments. But I think there's something else going on. That this printer is something else entirely.

Personally, I think that this printer is Creality's "do-over." And in this video, we're going to see how they did.

🎥 IN THIS VIDEO: 🎥
00:00 Introduction
00:38 Background
02:15 Extruder Woes
04:47 Bed Leveling & Adhesion
08:25 Firmware & Slicing Experience
13:10 Camera
16:39 Hot End Woes
19:18 Vertical Fine Artifacts
19:48 Loosey-Goosey Door
21:28 Warped Bed
21:50 Spool Placement
22:27 Nozzle Swapping & Proprietary Nozzles
24:16 The Final Verdict

🔗 LINKS MENTIONED IN THE VIDEO: 🔗

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[thenextlayer]

Thanks for watching! If you enjoyed, please leave a like so my algorithmic overlord doesn’t frown upon me.

[newCrysis]

Bambu had issues with A1 and recalled/fixed and moved forward. Qidi (my pick) had issues with 3dplus and max and recalled and fixed and moved forward. I hope this trend of customer care continues with Creality also.

[clutchboi]

Ah bro that's so badass. You went to directly talk to the software team in China and it seems you directly were able to bring change to this product for the better in giving users access to full blown klipper. Cool af. Thanks for the hard work!

[mm_]

Customers want a working product, who would have guessed.

[kurtbilinski]

I built my own 3D printer from scratch. I learned a lot, and once it was working pretty well, I turned to using it as an actual tool - you know, actually making stuff instead of messing with it. After dealing with failures on parts I actually wanted to, you know, Use, I had enough and bought a Bambu X1. No regrets.

[jefffarmer]

I've had open source printers and spent 80% of my time tweaking/fixing. It was miserable. I tried Bambu Labs and it just works. It's been the most fun I could have had 3d printing. I don't care a bit if it's open source or not, I care it if will print consistently. 2 weeks after getting the Bambu Labs printer I hauled my Creality out the the trash. Best use for it.

[DandTeePrinting]

Agreed. It's not the K1 we wanted but its the K1 we deserved (in the first place).

I got 2 versions of the K1.

1st Version (do not own): Launch Version; The BAD K1 that everyone hears about. Bad aluminum internals extruder, bad hotend, bad alignment and leveling, easily hit by the cable chain WEAK filament engagement switch,

2nd Version (Purchased Aug 2023) had a STEEL (POLISHED SWITCH) Extruder and stronger filament gear switch . It had BLACK silcone covered hotend that had bad thermistor connection that would fail and throw a Error 004 (went throw 3 of them in 2 months before they sent CURRENT Hotend available for K1 and K1 Max.

3rd Version (Purchased Nov 2023) had New Redesigned extruder with better filament path through the extruder (UNPOLISHED SWITCH and NON Unicorn Nozzle) and tighter switch (Now used in the V3 Core XZ). It also now comes with the redesigned RED Silcone covered Hotend with better thermistor connection (These are current Replacements being sold everywhere for K1 and K1 Max).

4th Version (do not own (yet)) SEEMS to be the K1C. I am not seeing any of the K1C upgrades on the newest one I have (3rd Gen).

[wesleyfish]

Got my K1 mid Jan, no problems extruding, running a lot of ABS, a few mods, top riser, filament runout relocation, and i feed out of a drybox beside the printer. Door is still loose!!! But i haven’t had a problems with that. Swapped the nozzle for a hardened unit and am printing ABS CF with no problems. Oh and i am using double sided pei build plate..

[sierraecho]

This is a very important video for every potential K1 buyer. Because of all those issues and the price I got the Flashforge Adventurer 5M instead which also was cheaper.
Don´t forget the K1C has still a smaller print surface. 220x220 vs 256x256

[TimothyStovall]

I've had my K1 Max now for about a month, and it has been amazing! I rooted it within the first week, and it is so versatile. Love the AI detection, as it has saved me wasted filament on a couple of prints due to adhesion issues due to wrong settings. Having it be open source, and not a closed system, was a big selling point for me over getting an X1C, as well as the larger build volume. I've done a lot of upgrades to it, and have made it my own, with the smaller pulleys sitting on my desk for my next mod. It came with the updated extruder, and hardened steel nozzle, which I quickly swapped out for a .6mm nozzle. I've printed PA-6 Carbon no problems, as well ABS and ASA with relatively little issues. Can't wait to get another! lol

[mike]

I have been a Creatily customer for 5 years and while it is nice to be able to customize everything, sometimes a simple solution is the best. I recently bought a bambu x1 carbon and have to say, it feels like a different thing. I have had so many creatily printers and bambu really did something special. It feels like Microsoft vs Apple again. Windows tries really hard but fails and stumbles so many times to get there, while Apple just puts stuff out there that works.

[aangler]

Great review. Only printer that I’ve had was an Anycubic mega x. It works flawlessly. It’s just slow. I wanted to print carbon fiber so I went with K1C. About 100 hrs so far. Zero problems. Extremely fine detailed flawless 3d prints. I was worried after I decided to buy after reviewing some reviews or Creality. Turns out I made a lucky choice and it’s extremely fast.

Would you please do reviews of 3 d scanners?

Thanks

[ndprotocol]

Just how close a look did you take at this printer? They withdrew the marketing about all metal extruder some time back, as it isn't. I also thought the pulleys on the K1C are smaller, not larger and that bed cant really be called flat can it? Have you tried it at different temps to see just how much it distorts with temp?

[TheOfficialDarkICE]

Please stop calling the k1c open source. They still aren't comliant with the GPL. Various klipper modules are shipped in cpython in binary form.

[amessersmith]

The K1 Max doesn't use its lidar for bed leveling, it uses it for pressure advance and flow calibration... relatively poorly I might add. I believe the biggest issue with the k1 series on first layer issues is doing a bed mesh too early while the bed is still heating up and warping as a result. The thin aluminum plate on the k1 and k1max tends to change quite a bit as it heats up, and even at temp needs a few minutes to finish soaking.

[timothyscherer]

Just bought a K1, it was a learning experience. I had to replace the hot end, the extruder, and the pcmb in order to get it to work properly. I printed the first test print and failed every print after until I replaced essentially the entire print head. For what I paid to fix it I could have bought a K1C and a few spools. The part that really gets me is to hold me over until everything was fixed I bought a Bambu A1 mini with the AMS. That has been an absolute rockstar.

[capthowdy]

ive just recently got a p1s from bambu lab with the ams an its completely changed my expectation from my printers, the p1s was the 13th printer to my collection but everything about it was better than my older machines an its made me realize how much 3d printing has advanced in the past 5 yrs, i knew they had gotten faster but the ease of use of the machines has gotten alot better from what im used to using so im looking at selling off some of my older machines an replacing them with some new machines, ive never been someone who picked a brand an stuck with it but i do have 3 creality machines ender 3 3 max and ender 5 an i ended up with 2 flsun qq-s pro but the rest was gotten because of the differences from what i already had but at this point delta and corexy is going to be my picks, an the new creality ender 3 v3 corexy bed slinger is one id like to try an i had considered the k1 but went with bambu lab p1s instead and im so glad i did but at the same time that k1 max is really tempting an does deal with my biggest complaint about the p1s and thats build volume, thats become something i have to have for alot of the stuff i make so at least a 300x300 build plate for a bambu lab printer would def be my next buy if they release something like that b4 i buy another machine. i never was a big prusa guy either but that new prusa xl looks really nice but i dont know if multiple tool heads would be worth the money for me when something like the ams is available, i dont know how well the mmu work from prusa now but i know when it first came out i read alot of ppl having issues, but if they've worked out all of the bugs for it i wouldn't mind trying one of there multicolor setups with a mk4 or xl with a single tool head cause i cant really see any good reason to spend 500 bux for a 2nd tool head but im def going to check out some of these newer printers.

[nerferx]

This is not a true Carbon Fiber Printer, still doesnt have a heated chamber, increasing your chance of massive failures on long prints...
This printer is still trying to catch up to the massive disruption BAMBU LABS created with the X1C!
Also.... you stopped doing Bambu Labs printers... have you been black listed?

[jackgamble]

I just ordered my K1C along with the Creality Space Pi Filament Dryer that you have displayed in your video. I signed up for their "Upgrade Event" and received a coupon code for 15% off the $559 K1C price and 15% off the $69 filament dryer price. Paid for it thru PayPal and got an extra 2% off the order for a total of 17% off. Thanks for your review...I look forward to receiving mine too.

[metrogp]

Creality... Not once again...
My 1st 3d printer, ender 3 v2, came warped... fixed it
Needed a 2nd printer.... Buy a 2nd ender 3 v2 ...
Modified both
But always Warped frame
Warped Bed
Random clogs and string
Even bought a creality spider v3 and make it DD, and it really make it better...
Tried to print a the100 printer, frame came warped because of ender 3 tolerances...
Bought a bambu P1s... Oh man, i really never want to see creality ever again...

Nice review btw! Hugs from portugal! <3