TLDR: The Pro is slightly better than the regular, but both are very good with a few little downsides.
The Creality Ender 3 is super popular in the FDM printing world, especially for miniature-makers who don’t want or can’t get a resin 3D printer. Everywhere I went online someone gushed about this printer. A work friend of mine sent me to a friend’s blog reviewing cheap 3D printers and, big surprise, the Ender 3 was their enthusiastic top choice.
So, I figured I’d get one.
Thing you need to know: I’ve got terrible luck. In life, if anything can go wrong, I expect it will and it usually does and I’m not surprised. (It makes people think I never get upset about anything, but it’s more like “I saw this coming and mentally prepped for it at 3am last night.” I’m like Batman, I guess.) Anyway, because I have bad luck, it manifested right after I bought my first Ender 3.
The Ender 3 comes as a kit, so you have put the frame together, screw in all the bits, and plug in all the wiring. The instruction booklet the kit comes with is miserable, so find a video tutorial online. Constructing this kit can be a little stressful if you’ve never put a computer together before, and I used the help of the Tomb of 3D Printed Horrors, who gives great advice on what to tighten and measure.
So, I got everything put together and up and running, only for the mainboard to short the second I turned it off after canceling a print. A nice pop and… nothing. I turned it on only to find a blank screen. Looked it up online, found that this was a very rare problem and likely the mainboard needed to be replaced. I e-mailed the California company that worked as an american resale for Creality and they had to talk to technicians in China which took forever.
I got impatient, as I do, and after a month of no mainboard replacement, I went ahead and bought the Ender 3 Pro from Comgrow on Amazon, who had better reviews for customer service. I put that one together and it ran like a charm. Shortly after, I received the mainboard replacement and got my original Ender 3 running as well. Both have been running good since then.
So, Pros?
- Ender 3 is hella cheap (at about ~$200-$250)
- Heated bed
- Nice size build plate (220x220x250)
- Helpful and large online community who can provide great feedback and support
- Good quality prints
- Replacement parts are easy to acquire and cheap
Cons?
- It’s a kit, so you have to put it together yourself
- Older Ender 3’s have an issue with the mainboard and runaway thermal protection that you have to flash onto the board. Newer versions supposedly fixed this.
- Lots of cheap parts (that can be replaced)
- You’ll need to 3D print a lot of additions to the printer real early on (filament guide, etc)
- Upgrade the MicroSD card reader to a regular SD card reader with an attachment you can buy on Amazon
- Ender 3 Pro’s magnetic bed is garbage, replace with glass when you can.
- Pro is better, but not that much. Is it worth the price difference? ehh
- My regular Ender 3 seems to have an issue with the extruder fan dying too quickly. Might be a power/wiring issue.
Ultimately, would I recommend the Ender 3? Oh hell yes. They’re wonderful, but they do require a bit more technical know-how than some of the other 3D printers I reviewed. I actually like that you put it together because it makes you familiar with how the machine works, so replacing parts aren’t too hard. (That said, replacing the damn extruder cooling fan on the regular Ender 3 was a pain because of how they taped the damn wires together in that tight spot next to the mainboard and I had to fight that shit for nearly an hour to push through the wires.)
I haven’t tried printing with any filament other than Wood and PLA on the Ender 3, but I’m curious to how well it can do PETG or ABS (not well is what I’m guessing).
So, if you’re up to the challenge of putting this boy together, then you can’t really beat the Ender 3 in terms of cheap price and good quality.
