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- 1/25/2022: Separated Voxelab from Flashforge. Added Flashforge, Ender 5, and BIQU B1SE+
- 3/8/2022: Added Ender 2 Pro
- 3/17/2022: Added CR-10 Smart, XYZ Printing, Sunlu
- 3/28/2022: Added CR-6 SE
- 4/21/2022: Added all of Creality
Current Entries:
- Creality (all)
- Creality Ender 2 Pro
- Creality Ender 3/Pro/V2/Max
- Creality CR-10/S
- Sunlu (all)
- Anet A8
- Flashforge (all)
- XYZ Printing (all)
- Creality Ender 5/Pro
- BIQU B1 SE Plus
- Creality CR-10 Smart
- "Toy" 3D printers
Future Entries:
- ?
Not all printers are created equal. Some printers are more known for being faulty or poor value and should be avoided.
There may still be legitimate reasons for picking a printer on this list, but if you are looking for a first 3D printer and/or have no knowledge of them, these specific models you should be avoiding.
Creality is probably the most well-known 3D printer manufacturer as of 2023. They have introduced multiple models, such as the Ender 3 and CR-10, that have become widely popular among the community. Unfortunately, the company has decided to ride off the success from that alone and depend on the increasing hivemind generated around Creality products.
The quality control and innovation of Creality has fallen drastically, with many printers shipped with defective components, or those that fail at a much higher rate than those of other brands, even cheap ones. Multiple new designs and releases of printers are disasters with many of them having design flaws or using outdated parts, such as the Ender 7 being mostly a total failure, and the Ender 2 Pro using cheap, ancient parts despite not even being a year old yet.
The practices of Creality have also taken a downward spiral, with them attempting to pay for good reviews and requiring scripts to be approved before a review video is released by a content creator . There has also been a recent controversy with their Creality Cloud service, where they host tons of stolen models from many different creators without giving credit, while straight up denying and blocking those who call them out on it.
Due to their consistently terrible practices, I will no longer recommend any product from Creality under almost all circumstances. I also rescind and apologize for any recommendations of Creality products I have made in the past to the community. Previous entries on this page about certain Creality printers will remain to give a more detailed explanation for specific models.
As of 2023, avoid Creality whenever convenient.
If buying something other than Creality is not possible, then check for the Ender 3 S1 series and the CR-10 Smart PRO.
The Ender 2 Pro is a modern refit of the original Ender 2, now having some QOL features such as belt tensioners, better screen, and being quite portable. Despite this, it is woefully inadequate, especially given the relatively expensive price of $170. The printer has a small size, is cantilevered, and still uses poor-quality Ender 3 parts. Given the competition (mainly the Kingroon KP3S 3.0), the Ender 2 Pro was obsolete the moment it was conceived. Even then, an Ender 3 would still beat this significantly as it would be better value for the price than the Ender 2 Pro.
Pros:
- Portable
- QOL features, such as belt tensioners, tools drawer, removable bed
Cons:
- Tiny size (165 mm cubed)
- Cantilevered
- Low quality parts, like plastic mk8 extruder
- Poor value for price. A more ideal price would be ~$100-120
Check out my wall of text on why this printer is not recommended here. Note that this applies to the newer Ender 3 models as well (V2, Neo, etc, although the S1 series gets away with most of the issues).
TLDR: This printer suffers from poor quality control and being rendered obsolete due to poor value for what the parts are. The Ender 3 suffers from many failures of parts such as bed springs, extruders and PTFE couplings that are mainly not an issue with other printers.
The primary advantage of this printer is the large community, which does make upgrades and mods plentiful. Otherwise, check the link.
Pros:
- Large community support
- Very good for tinkering
Cons:
- Poor value for $$
- Poor quality control
- Bad stock parts, such as extruder and PTFE couplers
- I can literally expand the cons list a lot more, but that would be unfair.
The issue with the older CR-10 models is generally similar to the Ender 3. The CR-10 is another printer that was popularized back then but has since significantly fallen out of date. The CR-10 still runs on 12 volts, which is very underpowered for its large bed (and some larger models physically cannot heat the bed beyond a certain temperature because it is so weak). These printers have very outdated parts and are even missing critical safeties like thermal runaway protection and are not recommended.
Pros:
- Large printing volume
- Large community
Cons:
- Ancient design and parts
- Missing important safeties (older models)
- Underpowered 12 volt PSU
This is more of a warning against all SUNLU products, but the printer in note is their Sunlu S8, which is included in the flowchart that was previously linked in the original recommendation post and has since been removed.
SUNLU's quality control and customer service are especially poor. They also bribe users to leave them high reviews, straight up fabricate comments from community members, use a lot of Kickstarter, and don't honor customers' orders (check r/3dprintingdeals for some horror stories). etc. Avoid SUNLU and JAYO products at all cost.
This printer is good if you want to practice becoming a firefighter. There have been multiple instances where the Anet A8 has burnt down peoples homes.
Pros:
- Direct extruder
- Low cost
Cons:
- Huge safety/fire hazard, missing important safeties
- Requires complete assembly
- Old
Printers from Flashforge are not recommended due to their extensive use of proprietary parts and hardware that makes replacement and upgrades difficult.
For example, if the extruder or hotend of an Ender 3 breaks down, you can easily replace them with third-party parts such as a BMG extruder from Trianglelabs and Dragonfly hotend from Phaetus. Flashforge printers are designed in such a way that they are not accepting to third-party parts and therefore, you must buy replacement parts directly from them, which are marked up and more expensive than they should be.
The issue with XYZ printing is their use of proprietary filament. They put chips on their filament spools for many of their printer models to make sure you use their filament and no one else's.
As of Jan 2023, I have not checked if any of their newer models no longer have this feature, but the damage is already done.
The Ender 5 is essentially the Ender 3 in a cube frame. This cube frame does allow for a better, more rigid frame and is useful for fast printing because the heavy bed is not slung around with lots of inertia. However, it inherits many of the poor quality parts of the Ender 3, but the most glaring issue is the fact that the bed is cantilevered and therefore, prone to sagging.
The Ender 5 is NOT CoreXY. It is a cubed cartesian/flying cartesian because each axis is independent of each other, controlled with a single motor.
Pros:
- Cube frame
- Compatibility with Ender 3 mods and support (extruder, printhead)
Cons:
- Cantilevered bed
- Poor value for $$
- Uses poor-quality Ender 3 parts
- Stuck with bad 8 bit motherboards
I have personal experience with this printer so I will include it here.
This printer is similar in concept to the Ender 3 Max: take a smaller printer and upscale it, and that includes not considering the consequences of a larger scale. The BIQU B1 SE Plus still runs on only a single Z axis. The poor quality control of the printer will also lead to jams (mine jammed without even finishing the second layer of the first print). I don't know how, but they also managed to use crappy screws that managed to strip insanely easily. The printer does use an auto-levelling system which appeared to work, but this is done via the use of a strain sensor and therefore, most of the printhead system is proprietary and difficult to mod, except for the heaterblock, heatbreak and nozzle. The fan shroud is also especially bad, as it does not provide sufficient openings to exhaust air, increasing the chances of heat creep and jams.
Glad I got mine for free...
Pros:
- Large build volume
- Good motherboard (SKR-2)
Cons:
- Poor QC, terrible support
- Proprietary heatsink, not compatible with third party parts, no replacements possible
- Only one Z axis
- Weak mk8 extruder
- Removing the fan shroud requires taking the printhead off the X-carriage, which means you'll have to sacrifice a zip tie every time you want to modify the hotend, clear a jam, etc.
- The nozzle and heatbreak appeared to literally be glued onto the heatblock on my unit, meaning nozzle changing and upgrading to an all-metal heatbreak is impossible unless you get a new heaterblock.
This printer is essentially an upgraded Ender 3. The build volume is slightly larger and has some upgrades such as a filament sensor and auto-bed levelling, but the levelling is done through the use of an unreliable and proprietary strain sensor. On top of that it still uses a plastic mk8 extruder (with a different housing but still fragile), and even comes with safety hazards with earlier units.
Even then, the printer is rendered obsolete directly by the Anycubic Vyper and the Ender 3 S1.
Pros:
- Dual Z axes
Cons:
- Plastic mk8 extruder
- Poor value for $$
- Has a chance of catching on fire, or blowing out magic smoke
Teaching Tech has a good video on this printer here.
Creality's attempt at modernizing a CR-10, but unfortunately they went for marketing and visual appeals rather than making a decent printer. For $500, they still give you a crappy plastic mk8 extruder, serious QC issues, and untested components. The auto-levelling is very unreliable and the built-in wifi is not great either.
The newer CR-10 Smart PRO should actually be decent.
Pros:
- Large build volume
- Gantry support struts
Cons:
- Significant quality control issues
- Fragile MK8 plastic bowden extruder
- Very loud fans
- Unreliable auto-levelling
- Creality Cloud WiFi is full of stolen models
These are generally the cheapest printers you can find. As a consequence these printers are not very good at all. They suffer from many mechanical issues and print quality will be noticeably worse than that of a proper printer. They lack many features such as heated beds and part-cooling fans, as well as limited interfaces. This means they are especially bad value for their price, and spending about $50-$100 more for a proper printer will go a very long way.
Pros:
- Low upfront cost
- Direct extruder for some models
Cons:
- Non-sturdy construction
- Limited interface
- No part cooling fans
- No heated bed
- Small size
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I have issue with the inclusion of the Voxelab Aquila printers, they are actually quite cheap, take off the shelf parts on Amazon, tons of community support for custom printed adapter plates for different hotends/kits, general ease of use, silent 2208 drivers for all 4 motors, the fans are garbage from stock but what cheap printer fans aren't, and the fact that as of writing this (January 23rd, 2022) both the Aquila and Aquila X2 are on a massive sale almost everywhere for under $200.
Not to mention that just about any aftermarket kit meant for the Ender 3 series will fit these two printers, including Ender Extender kits, Dual Z axis kits, the MicroSwiss all-in-one direct drive and extruder kit can be easily adapted to work with a simple printed adapter plate.