The Ender 3 V2 is often recommended as the first printer for a good reason: it features great print quality, a good number of usability features, easy setup, one of the biggest communities and a price point that won’t break the bank. While it might not have all the bells and whistles of class leaders like the Prusa MK3S, it can easily hang with them in terms of print quality, all while being a fraction of the cost. We were let down on the cheap and noisy fans of the V2, which detracts from its otherwise silent performance. However, at its price point, it is hard to hold this against it. The Ender 3 V2 is one of our top choices for a budget-friendly beginner 3D printer.
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When making a larger tech purchase, often, the cost trade-off of saving money upfront with a cheaper model can end up costing you more in the long run with constant maintenance or the dreadful outcome of it completely failing to work. However, there are some exceptions where you can save a considerable amount without sacrificing quality. In this review, we’ve identified one of those rare products that does just that: The Creality Ender 3 V2 printer.
Prior to its release, the Creality Ender 3 V2 3D printer was one of the most anticipated printers since the release of its previous version, which was a huge success in terms of a number of sales and community responses. Released in 2020, the Ender 3 V2 made a name for itself as one of the best budget-friendly 3D printers on the market. It has everything people liked about the original Ender 3 and includes updates that create a smoother printing experience. We will be taking a deep dive into the Creality Ender 3 V2 review.
If you’re looking at the Creality Ender 3 V2, there’s no doubt you care about print quality which is the number one thing people look for in a printer, and rightfully so. When we tested this printer, it produced high-quality prints without needing to change the default settings. The printer moved accurately and avoided the appearance of layered lines. The output was smooth without noticeable bumps! The only downside is the print bed is levelled manually, so if you mess this up, you might notice a decrease in quality.
Once you know the print quality is fantastic, you want to move on to evaluating maintenance and repair. One of the great things about the Creality Ender 3 V2 is that the extruder and motors are mounted on the outside, making them accessible and easy to swap out for servicing or upgrades. It’s also effortless to find replacement parts or upgrades due to the popularity of the Creality Ender 3 V2. The downside to the Creality Ender 3 V2, though is that the hotend showed potential for clogging. As the PTFE tube rotates, tiny cavities are generated, and the filament can accumulate and obstruct the nozzle. You’ll need to clean the hotend every few months to avoid it!
Lastly, you want to ensure your printer has many forums and communities to rely on so you don’t embark on your 3D printing journey alone. That said, the Creality Ender 3 series is among the most popular 3D printers and thus, has lots of community support from places such as Facebook, Reddit, and more.
Overall Score
Ranked #17 of 37 Printers
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The Creality Ender 3 V2 belongs to the medium format cartesian family of 3d printers, which is an all-around machine capable of handling 90% of objects users would like to print. These printers are well known for their low cost, ease of use, great community support and good print quality.
With that said, we decided to stress test the Ender 3 V2 by printing a large variety of different prints, crawling through a large number of groups and support forums to ask questions and more. To see how well it stacks up against the competition, we pitted it against the Prusa MK3S, Sovol SV01 and the Anycubic Mega.
As one of the most popular 3d printers on the market, this is a read that you would not want to miss. Your hard-earned dollars should be spent on the right medium format 3d printer. Choosing the wrong one could lead to lots of headaches, from technical problems and setup issues to poor print quality and an eye-watering electricity and repair bill! We made sure to do our research, so you are armed with all the information you need to make the right 3D printer choice.
Creality Ender 3 V2 printer is also featured in:
Minimal Assembly Required
The Ender 3 V2 3D printer arrives in a box with pre-assembled parts, taking only 1 to 1.5 hours to set up. The setup mainly involves putting together the core components of the printer. Unfortunately, we did find some quality assurance issues: the z-axis assembly that comes pre-assembled was bent and not lined up properly. If left unnoticed, the Ender 3 V2 3D printer would become misaligned. Should this issue occur, you would have to take it apart and reassemble the smaller parts yourself.
Setting Up the Heated Bed
Another thing to note is that the heated bed must be manually levelled, so users should pay close attention to this procedure when calibrating the machine. There are more expensive 3D printers with the option to automatically level the bed if you do not wish to go through this step. In most cases, manually adjusting the bed will not cause any problems; however, it is something to look out for during the setup process.
Overall, the Creality Ender 3 V2 3D printer produces high-quality prints without needing to change its settings. The extruder was able to push out the appropriate amount of molten filament, and there was no excess plastic on the surface of the print. The Ender 3 V2 3D printer also moved accurately, avoiding the appearance of layered lines and making the print surface smooth, without noticeable bumps or lines. However, as the print bed is levelled manually, print quality may vary depending on how accurately this is done.
Settings and Procedure
In the Creality Ender 3 V2 standard print quality tests, we have kept the stock settings as they were out of the box (except for fixing the bent z-axis as mentioned in the setup section). For the print test, the calibration cube was used to observe the dimensional accuracy of the printer. We also printed several character models to examine the printer’s level of detail. To examine layer alignment, we printed a large vase to test how well it handles continuous extrusion. Overall, from the tests, we found that the Creality Ender 3 V2 could fulfill all of the printing requirements.
Noise Level
The first thing we noticed when turning on the Creality Ender 3 V2 3D printer was that the fans could not be switched off even if the printer was on but not printing. We recorded sound levels between 48-50dB. For reference, 40dB can be compared to the sound of light snoring, whereas 50dB is equivalent to the sound of a conversation. We don’t think the noise level would become a concern as it is not loud enough to travel through walls, but it may cause some annoyance to be in the same room as the 3D printer while it is on.
Another component that would create noise is the motor during operation. As mentioned before, the Ender 3 V2 now has silent TMC2208 silent stepper motor drivers, which makes its movements much quieter than before. So if the noise level is something of concern, the main part to keep in mind would be the fans, since they are always on and can be heard easily.
The Creality Ender 3 V2 is a medium-sized 3D printer of standard size and weight compared to other 3D printers in its class. Its outer dimensions sit around 470mm (l) x 470mm (w) x 620mm (h), with a weight of 7.8kg. The print volume is 220 (l) x 220 (w) x 250mm (h), which is on par with any average-sized print model. A great feature of the hardware is a built-in storage toolbox to put away small tools like tweezers and snips.
Thermal Runaway Protection
One of the largest concerns about 3D printers is the risk of them overheating and catching fire. Although uncommon, this can occur if the proper safety measures aren’t built into the machine. If the thermometer breaks, it can cause the 3D printer to burn (referred to as thermal runaway) and cause a potentially hazardous situation. Luckily, the Ender 3 V2 has thermal runaway protection as a built-in safety feature to put your mind at ease.
The protection is a firmware feature that detects issues with the thermometer and heater. When it detects an issue, it will perform a hard restart to avoid any further damage. This may confuse some users if they are unaware of why the 3D printer is restarting on its own. We found that this feature really set the Ender 3 V2 apart from its competition, as most printers at this price point do not have this software feature available.
Cable Relief
While the 3D printer operates, the heated bed will move around to adjust its positioning. What also happens is that the cable gets dragged along with the bed, causing strain and possible damage. However, with Ender 3 V2’s cable relief attached to cables running along the heated bed, the cords are supported to avoid potential damage and minimize risk.
Power Supply
Another bonus about the Ender 3 V2 is that the heated bed is not powered directly by the main voltage. Instead, it is powered by the 3D printer itself at 24V, which is a lot weaker compared to wall outlets of 110V or 240V (depending on location). If the cable of the heated bed breaks due to cable strain issues mentioned above, there is a risk of being electrocuted, so having a lower voltage heated bed is much safer than a high voltage one. The downside to having lower voltage means the bed heats up slower. All in all, we believe safety measures are more important than printing speed.
Finding Replacement Parts
One of the most important things about 3D printers is how easy it is to maintain over time. Maintenance will be needed at some point, so a good 3D printer should allow users to do so easily. In the Ender 3 V2, the extruder and motors are mounted on the outside, making it very easy to swap out for servicing or upgrades should you choose to do so. It’s also extremely easy and relatively cheap to find replacement parts for the Ender 3 V2 due to the general popularity of the Ender 3 series. Parts can easily be found at common retailers like Amazon or other online sources such as Matterhackers, Digitmakers, and 3D Printing Canada.
Access to Control Board
The control board of the Ender 3 V2 is easy to access, but its connectors are hot glued to the board, making it troublesome to service. This will only cause an issue if the part should break and requires a complete replacement. If you are interested in tweaking the control board, you must melt off the hot glue to replace cables or the board.
Potential Hotend Issue
Something that we did not like about the Creality Ender 3 V2 was that the hotend showed potential for clogging. As the PTFE tube moves around, small cavities are created in the hotend where filament can accumulate and obstruct the nozzle. Fixing this issue would require disassembling the hotend to melt off the plastic so it can be removed. Issues to print quality would not occur as long as the hotend is cleaned every few months to avoid filament accumulating over time.
During the print test with the calibration cube, we tried to print with both PLA, PETG, and TPU. With PLA and PETG, the 3D printer had consistent extrusion and mostly consistent layer alignment. In some cases, uneven layering may be triggered if the axis placement is inaccurate due to loose parts, which was not an issue with this 3D printer.
The Ender 3 V2 3D printer is also capable of printing with TPU, but it must be done extremely slowly to ensure reliability. This is due to the flexible nature of TPU, which may tangle if the extruder is pushing filament too quickly.
Though the print quality is great, we found that it prints relatively slowly at 50mm per second for PLA and PETG, and around 15mm per second for TPU.
Bed Adhesion
The coated glass plate surface shows good adhesion during the PLA, PETG, and TPU prints. This upgraded glass surface is a great addition to the 3D printer since it expands slightly upon coming in contact with heated filament, letting the material seep into the tiny bumps on the bed to increase the surface of contact.
However, with such good adhesion, removing the print was somewhat difficult. Other 3D printers of the same class often feature a removable build plate for the ease of removing prints from the bed, but this feature is not included in the Ender 3 V2.
Cooling System
We found the cooling system during operation to be adequate, with only fans on one side of the 3D printer. The airflow was enough to cool the print so that the surface details are well-maintained. Most 3D printers operate with 1 or 2 fans, so this should not cause much of a concern.
The Creality Ender 3 series is amongst the most popular 3D printers and benefits from having excellent community support. If you run into issues or are uncertain about anything, there are multiple large-scale community groups for advice, such as Facebook, Reddit, and other platforms listed below:
The Ender 3 also has some of the largest mod support for upgrades if you’re looking into more advanced components of 3D printing. As mentioned before, replacement parts are easy to obtain from common retailers like Amazon.
We were let down on the cheap and noisy fans of the V2, which detracts from its otherwise silent performance; however, at its price point, it is hard to hold this against it. The Ender 3 V2 is one of our top choices for a budget-friendly beginner 3D printer.
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