Creality Ender-3... it's time to move on.

The ender 3 has been a go to recommendation for the "best budget 3D Printer" for the past 5 years, but it's time to move on. If you're new to 3D Printing, consider making your experience a better one by going with a machine that has the following features:

- Automatic bed levelling
- Filament run-out detection
- Filament clog detection
- Wifi connectivity
- Spagetti detection

[original_zurn]

One thing that still keeps Ender 3 variants sometimes more competitive for some people are the coupons that Microcenter likes to do for “new customers”. An Ender 3 V2 at $99 is hard to beat, especially for someone that isn’t sure they will stick with the hobby.

[YeaahRight]

Cant beat the ender3… when it’s f*ck*ng working

[orbatos]

The community losing Naomi Wu is a bigger blow than many realise, she was the only person local to the actual production companies and could give real feedback in addition to her OSHW work.

[gingermany]

One benefit of getting an Ender 3 as your first printer is it come with about a month's worth of practice projects as you make all the parts needed to make it more user friendly. I think the first prints for mine were different guides, brackets, fan shrouds, etc. 🤣

[Shrubtastic]

I just bought my first 3D printer - an Ender 3 V1 (but upgraded with auto leveling). I’ve been blown away so far with how good it is, but I get the impression that the original owner upgraded a lot of pieces and tweaked it to be awesome).

[Bleats_Sinodai]

The Ender 3 is the only 3D printer here in Brazil that you can reasonably afford even if you're on minimum wage, and since it's popular, you can easily find info on how to make it perform better or fix issues that arise, as well as find parts for it.

[WillThat]

Ender 3 is like the Small Block Chevy of the 3D printing world. There's way better options but the Ender 3 is good enough, has tons of support, and a huge community.

[fletcherchambers]

When reccomending a printer, I've always told folks that they'll have a much better time if they think of Creality as a parts reseller, and go into it knowing that they are 100% community supported. That said, the a $99 Ender 3 Pro is a heck of a learning platform - out of necessity. Great video, spot-on.

[d.jensen]

I appreciate this video. Until today I couldn't understand why certain people were so critical of the Ender 3. Mine has been a sheer joy from day one. It is still the printer I use the most.

[heyspookyboogie]

8:00 I’ve actually been really surprised for how much Naomi contributed to the tech/open source/3d printing community, that there’s been so little reaction to her getting shut down.

[hsoj]

I fully agree, I love my Ender 3 it is my first and only printer, I have thousands of hours in it, built SO many cool things with it BUT I would never recommend it to someone just now getting into 3d printing. The only thing original left on it it is the frame, the power supply and some of the stepper motors, I have either upgraded or replaced everything else. For me that has been part of the fun, troubleshooting, repairing, testing but there were many times where I just wanted to give up, Im sure someone new to the hobby facing the same challenges probably did.

[dhootparm]

The ender 3 is an absolutely fantastic printer, I run a small company and we prototype parts on it all the time, we bought a K1 Max and two bamboo lab P1S's and I love them as well especially the bamboo labs but at the end of the day you can get a Ender3 for like $150 any day of the week, and it teaches you a lot about the concepts of printing when you're tinkering with it. But because all the parts are pretty robust you're not going to really break anything. I own 6 Enders and just love them especially when you have a glass bed. Ender3 + FreeCAD = Fun

[UncleJessy]

“Hey Mom, I made it into a Makersmuse video!” 🤣😂🤣

[volttherobot]

Hope Naomi is ok. She not only had been a legit Maker for ages, she has been fiercely protective of "Young Makers". Thanks for mentioning her situation.

[tonycosta]

My Ender 3 Pro is awesome. I can turn it on after months of not using it and get a perfect print first time. It’s not very fast compared to newer printers, but it is reliable and asks for nothing in return. It was a great first printer. Agree that there are newer models that might be better, and Creality needs to get the Ender 3 variants under control.

[anneragg]

I love my ender 3 neo. I am using the creality slicer software and have printed a number of your challenging prints including the easter egg torture test and all have worked perfectly. I am new to 3d printing and am 73 year old female. It's great fun. I have not needed to make any modifications to the printer or the settings to achieve the results

[iSupermanCKi]

I started with an Ender 3 V2 about 4 years ago. It's been a great little machine and helped me learn the hobby. I actually bought a second one in "as is" condition from eBay for $80 2 years ago and had it up and running for about $30. Last week I ordered a Bambu Labs P1S Combo and I can't wait for it to come in. I'm gonna sell off my second 3 V2 to a coworker who wants to learn about the hobby.

[ytmusik]

Sticking with my Ender 3 too. Its familiar, and Ive learned to fine-tune it over time. Budget constraints can make trying new models a bit tricky.

[VideoOfMike]

I absolutely agree, Ender 3 / Pro/V2, should be discountined from manufacturing. But Ender 3 V3 SE is actually a huge step forward.

[stevecade]

Got to say you're spot on in your analysis of the 3D printer market.
(My personal experience)
My son got an Ender 3 as a hobby printer as it was cheap and great to learn with and pretty much got me into the whole 3D printer world. I loved the whole design and print side of 3D printing and wanted to get my own printer but could see so many things wrong with the Ender 3 I didn't want one myself. The Ender 6 came out and I talked myself into how it would make a great hobby printer and to learn on and even make some mods to take care of its shortcomings. The Ender 6 has been a great tool but the constant need of fettling to get great prints was getting tiresome when what I wanted was my printed design to come out without any drama. Enter the Bambu A1 combo. The thought of easy colour prints was tempting but the ease of use and self calibrating element of Bambu printers in general had me reaching for the credit card. My, so far, short experience of the A1 has me blown away. Just this morning I sent a print from the web to the printer from my phone and it just works with nothing more than turning the printer on. Bambu have moved things on considerably with their ease of use it's night and day.
Was the Ender 6 a bad printer? No. It taught me so much but now it's time to move on to what I really want to do, design and print, without the fettling.