Ender 3 v2 - Still The Best Budget 3d Printer in 2023? The Truth After 6 Months

Should you buy the Ender 3v2 or is there a better option out there for you?

In this video, i'm going to try my best to answer these questions and share my experience of owning and using this 3d printer.

Videos referenced

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Ender 3v2

Copper Silk PLA

Capricorn Tubing

Dual Lead Screw Conversion

BL Touch

CR Touch

Magnetic/Steel PEI Bed

Direct Drive Conversion

[redmach]

6 months ago, I had never messed with a 3D printer. My young grandson bought this one, thinking it was plug and play. Wrong! After his parents helped him mess with it for a few months, they gave up. They asked me if I had the time to get it fixed, because nothing was working. Even the Creality tech support was stumped after they had them replace the 4.2.2 control board. Since I am retired with 50 years of IT experience, they thought I could help.

The first thing I noticed was that the movements of the stepper motors were not what they were supposed to be. After digging in some of the Reddit groups and Googling, I found out that a batch of these printers left the factory with mislabeled stepper wires. When plugged into the control board according to the labels, it would not work. I reversed the two incorrect wires at the control board and it worked! They never had considered this. Funny the Crality tech support didn't know this. It is a common issue with a bunch of these that came out.

After fixing that, my biggest challenge was leveling (tramming) the bed. Tinker, tinker, tinker. Very frustrating. I tried a CR-Touch and couldn't get anything consistent. Different mesh results every time I tried to create a new mesh.

I finally decided it was a mechanical issue with the way it was assembled because some things were out of alignment by just a few degrees.

Tore the whole printer down and reassembled it from almost scratch, using a good square. I found that it pays to get the alignment of everything just right. Found a wobble in the print bed assembly. Fixed that. Loaded the Jyers firmware with 3x3 mesh for the BL-Touch. Carefully trammed the bed manually, created a new mesh and fine tuned the mesh. Set the Z-offset carefully. Cleaned the bed with Isopropyl alcohol before each print.

Finally, after months of frustration and tinkering, I am getting good consistent results. Too many tweeks to Cura slicer to list here.

There are lots of people that have produced some very good videos on YT and lots of people on Reddit who have had the same problems and share their solutions.

This is a hobbyist printer, for sure. I meet up today with my grandson to give it back to him with all the upgrades and repairs I have done. I wrote up tutorials for him for the key steps to make successful prints. He is only 11 years old, so we will see how he does with it. He lives 300 miles away from me, so I can't be at his side to help if he runs into trouble.

Overall, I would buy this printer for myself, if I wanted a new hobby, which I don't. I have learned a lot about 3D printing, in general, and this printer, specifically. My wife will be happy to have me refocused on my neglected "Honey Do" list. Ha, ha.

[aqhan]

I've had the Ender 3 V2 for a good while. Upgraded to capricorn tubing, changed couple of fans to quiter ones, added BL Touch, and changed the hot end to the all metal Phaetus Dragonfly. Also, ditched the rubbish creality firmware to an up-tp-date Marlin one. Also, chhange the springs under the bed to a yellow springs. Printing on the smooth side of the glass bed, with a little adheseve on it, this printer have become an absolute carbon fiber nylon printing monster. And the quality of prints I haven't been able to replicate on any other printer so far. I can totally attest that, when you say this printer is built for upgrades, it truly is!

[AsylumFpv]

Never had any issues with my V2. Once it's dialed in, prints all materials without any issues. Did get ready for spring and filament tensioner to bust, but hasn't yet! Do think it's on point still as one of the best and affordable printers on the market, without all the head scratching! Thanks again for the vids👊

[schmuhf]

This video made me pull the trigger on a used v2 to finally get started with 3D printing. Love the calmness and production and have to say that I cannot wait to jump into it. I'm sure your video series will be worthwile and provide me with much needed guidance.

[ThatHippyDuck]

wait, why is the video called "don't buy it in 2022" when it's just a review of the printer and basically you say it's great?

[abbasTD]

I've had around 7-8 different printers circa. 2016, and my last one was the Monoprice Maker Select Plus (Wanhao copy), which has plagued me the past 6 years but I managed to fix it for a while before it went back to being stubborn again; I bought the E3V2 last year thinking it would be a breeze compared to the others, only to find that nothing I did worked and when I fixed one issue, 3 others arose! After being done with 3D printing's relentless mocking for a year, I finally picked up the scraper again a few weeks ago and managed to fix my E3V2 thanks to your setup videos, which might seem simple enough but no one else bothered to publish guides about at the time and I just wanted to say thank you for the great quality content 🙏🏻

[dotintegral]

Got my E3v2 last week. Happy to say that it comes with updated firmware that is capable of displaying more than 16 characters. In fact, when the filename is too long to fit the screen, it will be moving slowly upon selection to reveal the full name. Nice.

[ashokmoghe]

I got my E3V2 for Christmas. I cannot thank you enough for your videos - they have been a great help.
In particular my V2 came with same bed issue as yours being too tight from factory and having developed flat spots on the rollers. Your tips on that issue in your assembly video turned out very helpful.
Then comes the bed leveling (I have also interacted with you on bed leveling video before). Your video showing bed leveling using a feeler gauge is the best. That is my preferred method as well.
Being an engineer myself and with some OCD, I was very systematic and precise during my assembly. Result -> The printer has been delivering outstanding results right from print #1 !!
Thank you for everything and looking forward to more videos from you. (I am glad I have same model as yours 😀😀)

[HuckleBerry]

Most valuable lesson I’ve learned since starting to 3-D print. Like many other things in life sometime cheap and being more expensive there’s money or time you’re gonna invest one of the other.

[leeoneill]

Hey mate, thank you so much for this review. I've never used a 3D printer before but decided I wanted one and after looking around, it seems this one is just what I want. You didn't carry on with any bull or anything and I appreciate that. Take care mate and all the very best.

[the-matrix-has-you]

I bought Ender 3 v2 Neo and upgraded the heatbreak. I am very happy with it. You can't go wrong it's the third edition's v2 and Neo update. Full Metal Bowden Extruder + CRTouch with metal tip! And I printed lots of upgrade parts. Its such a good 3D printer. You really can't go wrong. It may not have lineer guides but hey it's $300 printer... Not a 1500 one... And it can print as good as those 1500, 2000 price tag printers... Especially Prussa... Don't buy Prussa Ender Prints with much better quality!

[filipzawadzki]

Great review! I would say it was very informative and honest. Thanks!

[orlandothx]

in 5 years I had many issues with my ender 3 (great printer anyways) but when i bought a v2, men, the quality is amazing... best printer i ever printed

[parkflyer]

Great videos Ricky, to the point and no BS!

[vaughnwilliams]

It took me 5 hours to assemble it. It was my first ever 3D printer and I knew nothing about them. I found the build manual to be confusing, I never knew which was "left side" and "right side ", the drawings always showed from different sides. It could have easily showed the different drilled holes indicating left or right. All the wires didn't make sense if you build it back to front.
Eventually I relied more on common sense and made more progress. I also couldn't work out where the software went, I thought it was on the printer itself. I seemed to have problems with filament not getting to the nozzle too and the blue wheel didn't really push the filament down. But I learned a lot from all my mistakes, bed levelling only caused minor problems, not printing on one side . I soon learned that you can adjust the settings mid print . For my first thingiverse print, it said 26 hours to print, I'm not sure why so long. Oh I'm learning a lot 🥴

[dericklong]

I just ordered v2. Can't wait to get it. I'm new to it to..

[MustafaSahinz]

I love my BIQU B1 and I've feared troubleshooting would be hard because of less number of users but thanks to the community I've had a great journey

[TechU]

After 1 year my Ender 3 V2 is still awesome, I have done many upgrades to it, I advice a bed leveler like BLtouch or CR, and a nut addition for the bed/spring leveling, the screws tend to spin while trying to level the bed, besides that a capricorn tube for the bowden tube is also good, there is a video on cutting a small piece and placing it inside the hot end which is also great, but these items are cheap and all you really need, anything else will not improve prints but help with the life span of your printer. Love your videos btw

[Pugwash.]

Technically this is my 3rd 3D printer, but it's the first one I've had that worked straight away and has given me very few problems. The sheer number of videos on YT about this model were enough to make it easy to modify.

[jasonpirok]

I had a bad Z-Axis limit switch. It took FOREVER to figure that out!. If your Z axis home position is or becomes inconsistent, what to see when the limit switch actually engages. If the switch arm doesn't go down all the way every time, it is bad. If you want, you can confirm this with a multimeter and watch it behave more like a potentiometer than a switch! True story.